Four months of busy

Since my last post nearly 4 months ago I have been pretty busy with travel and pretty lazy with keeping up the blog. So I will do my best to sum up the last several months.

I went home for Christmas, which was great. I really needed the recharge and seeing family and friends. It's nice to be around people you know without having to make the get-to-know-you chit chat. Though 10 days was a very quick trip and not near long enough. At the time I had been asked to stay in the Netherlands a few more months until August 2012. Four months longer than originally planned. After returning to the Netherlands my family here asked if I would consider staying until August 2013. That would mean my year 'off' would quickly turn into 2 1/2 years 'off.' After a lot of thought and prayer it looks like I am going to be staying here another year and a bit. Eeek! Still loose ends to tie at home, but I am looking forward to more travel time here.

Which brings me to my many trips so far this year. Back in January there was a sale with easyjet and I booked three weekend trips. First Berlin, then Prague and finally Madrid. There were a few other closer weekends in there too. I'm such a jet setter.

Berlin was beautiful. Cold but beautiful. It hovered around -10 most of the time and snowed some, but still a good time. I met a couple of guys from Greece at the hostel and we toured the city. We did a walking tour, which is always a great way to see a lot of a city in a short time. After the tour we checked out a pub where there were individual beer taps on all the tables. So fun, but dangerous.

So far I have seen a lot of history on my travels, but Berlin has so much history from within my lifetime. Pretty remarkable to see the Berlin wall, or what's left of it. Some sections have been preserved as a bit of an art galery. Beautiful.

Aside from the cold, I loved Berlin. But a few weeks later, I was really looking forward to my weekend in Prague. It was still cold, but sunny and beautiful. I stayed at a funky hippy type hostel. But it was a fun place, and again met some travel buddies :) There was so much to see, so again I did a free walking tour to see what's what. After that, I went on another tour of the castle grounds. So huge and so much to take in. This picture is on the bridge over the river. The castle grounds are up the hill behind me.

The city of Prague was incredible and I loved it. But I also heard about the Terezin concentration camps outside of the city and felt I should get there to check it out. So I spent a day there. Wasn't what I expected, but very eye opening and a powerful experience.

It was an emotional day, so I was glad to have more time the next day back in Prague before heading home. I took a trip up the clock tower and saw some incredible views of an incredible place. Hope to get back there some time. 

But alas my time in Prague was done. I had a weekend in Madrid planned for a few weeks later but first went on a very last minute trip to Bruges, Belguim. So much fun. I went with Jess and Adam some friends from here in Hilversum. We just went for one night, but that was a good amount of time for us. I had been trying to get to Bruges ever since I saw the movie 'In Brugge." Loved the movie and then kept hearing about peoples trips there. So I was looking forward to it.

We had a bit of a rough start with some mixups with our train tickets, but we made it there, just a little later than planned. Our hostel was attached to a bar/resturaunt so after we walked aorund a bit and settles in, we took advantage of some good deals for a nice dinner and drinks. Free beer samples too.

Then we joined another free walking tour for a couple of hours that evening. The guy doing the tour was pretty entertaining in the obnoxious showy kind of way. But he knew a lot about the city and he had some good recomendations, one being a great pub famous for it's own brew.

 The beer proved it's fame and was quite potent. We dubbed it the magic beer. And it came with cheese :)

Overall, it was another great weekend, with great friends. Lots of sun and a pretty city.

Which brings me to last weekend and my weekender in Madrid. This was my first time in Spain and the weather was gorgeous. Though getting to and from brought some interesting challenges. On the way there, there were issues with the trains going to the Amsterdam airport. I took a round about way of getting there, but made it with minutes to spare. I arrived at my hostel after 1am and ready to crash. Little did I know, Madrid doesn't crash until 5am. Luckily I was tired enough to deal with it.

I got up ready to see the city and joined yet another free walking tour. If the city has one, I like to start my trip with it. Helps me learn about the city and then figure out what I want to do next. I walked all day and saw a lot of the city which is at the exact centre of the country.

I took in a yummy treat of churros and chocolate. The portion was huge, but very good. Of course, as an avid traveller now, I always have zip lock baggies with me. I tried to take left overs, but it didn't take. Better the first time around.

 I was able to go to the top of the Cathedral dome and get some beautiful views of the city. This is from the balcony before the dome. That HUGE building behind me is the royal palace. Interesting fact: if you were to sleep one night in each room of the palace it would take 8 years to sleep in every room. Thousands of rooms in there.

 This picture is from the dome. You can over look the whole city. Not a lot of skyrises around here.

 Madrid was great and even got up to 28 degrees at one point. A nice change from the cold I went back too. From what I hear Madrid is a more authentic Spain than Barcelona. I will be testing that theory next month. I had a Monday evening flight back to Amsterdam. But of course, the strikes in France had other plans. Due to the strikes, crews couldn't get there and after many delays, my flight was eventually cancelled. Hundreds of people waited in line at the easyjet counter to find out what was happening.

After 6 hours in the line up I arrived at the front of the line around 3:30 am on no sleep. I was told I wouldn't get out of the city before Thursday. That meant 3 more nights in Madrid. Normally not the worst problem, but I was ready to get back, and I had to work. I was lucky and able to get a very last minute flight that morning. Though it was delayed a couple of hours I made it home. No easy feet, I tell you.

It was a fitting way to end a whirl wind few months of travel. I had fun seeing so much, but now I am looking forward to more new adventures. In just a few weeks my sister will be here for a visit and to travel with me to Paris, Barcelona, Rome, Vienna, and Salzburg. I am really excited about it. The week I get back from that trip my lovely friends Paul, Amy and her growing baby bump will be in Amsterdam. So excited to see them and show them around my neck of the woods.

Though, this month also means saying goodbye to friends who are are moving back to their homes. Sad :(

Lots going on, and an added bonus, this week I officially start the process to becoming a dutch citizen. Could be a pure dutchy in a matter of weeks. More on that soon.

Hopefully it won't be so long till my next post, in which case it won't be such a ridiculously long post.

Till next time, happy travels