Easter Break 2011: Part 2 {The Netherlands [aka the 'homeland']}

Let me start off by saying that I have been wanting to visit the Netherlands for as long as I can remember. Mainly because its my heritage and part of their culture has been mixed into mine growing up with grandparents who immigrated from there. I've always loved having that, all of those holiday traditions and even the everyday visits with coffee and feeding you whether you're hungry or not, all of my Opa's crazy stories from growing up and even from during the war (WWII). Every time I talk with him there is a completely new story that I haven't heard before, I love it. Anyway, we arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday night and spent the night in a city called Delft. I wrote a little bit about it before in another post, but its mainly famous for the porcelain that they make. My dad had been there before because he had spoken at the university there, but my mom hadn't and she really wanted to go, so, we went :) here are a few pics:
After that, we headed to Sneek, Friesland, which is where my dad's side of the family originally came from. It was beautiful weather and wonderful day of exploring and walking around the town! The bridge in the pic directly below is of a really cool bridge that my dad remembers his dad talking about when he was younger :)
Next we headed down to what is called the achterhoek, which is the very bottom of Holland next to the German border and is where my Opa grew up. We spent my 21st birthday and the rest of the week there exploring and visiting with family :) We even were able to go to the actual farm, called Meirika, that my Opa grew up on because it's still in the family. My Opa's brother and sister in law, Oma Gerhard and Tante Hannah, live a couple farms down from Meirika and have some geese and chickens of their own :) Anyway, apparently Meirika hasn't changed much over the years, so that was really awesome to see, to say the least. Meirika is so close to the German border that you literally walk down the street a little ways and you are in Germany. haha.

Meirika

Oma Gerhard, Tante Hannah, and their son and his family who now live in Meirika. Tante Hannah, Sophie and I on the Holland-Germany border. We also went to Paleis Het Loo (Loo is pronounced low) in Apeldoorn, which is a Palace in Holland that was the residence of the House of Orange - basically the residence of the Royal family. It was really cool :)

For the weekend we headed up to Amsterdam! We started off with a tour on the canals, oh yeah. :) We were then on a mission to find poffertjes for my mom. haha I think we had poffertjes about 3 times in the 2 days we were in Amsterdam, we needed our fill. Let me explain, poffertjes are little fluffy delicious pancakes you eat with a little butter and smothered in powdered sugar. delicious. We also had hollandse pannekoeke quite often. I will miss them both... haha we also went on a bike tour, which was SO FUN. Seriously, if there is a bike tour in any city you go to, you should go on it, they're awesome.
After this dad and Soph had to leave :( but mom got to stay another week! So, we went to Austria, which I will tell you all more about in my next post!! haha
love, emily

Easter Break 2011: Part 1 {Wales}

This is the first post in what will probably be a 6 post breakdown of my 5 weeks galavanting across Europe :) First, let me just say that it was a wonderfully intense and crazy trip and that I absolutely loved every minute of it [minus the whole being sick while we were in Wales, but I'll get to that later...]!

My parents and little sister came over here at the end of March and I met up with them in Bath! It was sooooo good to see them! I hadn't seen them in about 3 months at that point, which is a really long time when you usually see them at least once a month! They got there late afternoon, so we walked around for a bit and then grabbed some dinner :) here are some pics:


After this, we headed over to Cardiff and then made our way up the coast of Wales! Mid-way through the week, however, I ended up getting a really bad cold, but still kept going places and seeing things... yeah, I may have gotten better more quickly if I hadn't done all of those things, but I wouldn't have been able to see everything and spend time with my fam! Here are some pics from the places we went and the many castles we saw :)

That's just a taste of all that we saw! It was a really amazing week and I was soooo happy to be spending it with my fam :) next, we headed off to the Netherlands! Which i'll tell you about in the next post ;)
love, emily

Bath, the coast of Wales, the Netherlands (the achterhook and Amsterdam), and Vienna!

Well, I know I have been serously slacking on the blog updates, so I apologize! I am now in Vienna, and on the keyboard, the y and z have switched places along with a few other main keys so this post is going to be a little bit interesting to write, but hopefully I won't get too frustrated!! haha and, this post won't have any pictures with it :( I didn't bring my computer with me because I knew I'd be travelling for a whole month and didn't want to worry about it... Anyway, back to what's going on! First things first, my parents and little sister came over at the end of March, and I met up with them in Bath. We spent the night there and then toured the town as well as the Cotswolds (famous for pretty countryside and thatched roofs). After this we headed to Cardiff and spent a day there before heading up the coast! We visited Tenby, where I surprisingly ran into Carys and Aimee, two girls that live in my flat at UWIC, who were also spending the day there since Carys' home is nearby :) boy was that a surprise! but Tenby is a beautiful town on the coast and it was a lovely day there! After that we continued up the coast and visited many a castle, which I will try to explain with more detail when I have some pictures to go with it... After we finished our time in Wales, we flew from Liverpool to Amsterdam! We spent the night in Delft which is where the blue and white Delft ceramics were made famous for Holland. After this we headed over to Sneek in Friesland where my dad's family is originally from, which was really cool to see and experience! We then headed down to what's called the 'Achterhook' or the back corner of Holland, which is where my mom's parents are from and where my mom still has a lot of family :) We visited a lot of family, and they even threw a surprise party for me on my 21st birthday! Throughout the rest of the week we visited more family and the farm Meirika where my Opa (grandpa) grew up, which was so gorgeous! and its so close to Germany, you literally walk down to the end of the street and your in Germany! haha For the weekend, we headed up to Amsterdam to experience the big city with lots of pofertjes, patat met mayonaise, and krokets! soooo good :) I don'think I have ever consumed as much tea as I have the past week in Holland haha Today, my dad and sister hhad to head back home for work and school and my mom and I planned a mini trip to Vienna, Austria for the next few days! We've already had the best Schnitzel in town! and are about to go get some coffee and dessert :) I promise to have some pictures up soon! but it'll have to wait till I'm back in Cardiff in a couple weeks. I'll have another update soon!! love, emily xx

Our five day adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland!

Let me precede this entire post by saying that this was an incredible trip and loved every minute of being in this city and really didn't want to leave. So, we flew into Edinburgh early afternoon on Wednesday, headed into town and got set up in our hostel, and then headed out into the city to explore! Our first destination: the baked potato shop :) They have a huge list of toppings you can have (all vegetarian) and a "small potato" is really a pretty big potato and a half. So delicious.
It was amazing! After this we continued to walk around and start to take in the town. The next day we went on a free walking tour of the city which was amazing! There's so much history throughout the town. Here's some of what we saw and learned:
This had to do with a previous building that was in this spot that would hold prisoners, and this symbol was on the door, when it was removed, they put this in the ground, and you are supposed to spit in the middle circle of it. They said that you can sit nearby and watch people walk by this part of the pavement and you can tell who's a local and who isn't, because locals will walk around it because they know its covered in spit, but visitors will walk right over it. Also, apparently, a couple from California got engaged on this spot (because its a heart and all, he thought it was cute/romantic) without knowing what it stood for, and were told the story after the proposal. She still said yes.

St. Giles Cathedral :) [more pics following]This is the oldest building in the city, and you can't really see it, but on top of the 2 points on the top are a fleur de lis and a thistle. The symbol of France and of Scotland, to show the good relationship between the two countries.
Greyfriar's cemetary.
The Covenanter's Prison. Apparently, it's the most haunted place in the world.
Greyfirar's Bobby :)

Later on, we found this AMAZING tea boutique/cafe called eteaket! It seriously is my favorite thing ever. All of the teacups were mix-matched, and everything was delicious and there were soooo many choices for tea flavors, very bad for such an indecisive person such as myself. Scones with clotted cream and jam. SO GOOD.

The castle (up on volcanic rock) and the Prince's street gardens below.

The next day we visited St. Giles Cathedral and Edinburgh castle, here are some of my favorite shots of the day:

St. Giles

View from the castle.

Another amazing view, you can see the Scott Monument, Calton Hill, and the North Bridge.

The next day we had gotten tickets for a bus tour to take us into the Highlands of Scotland, it left at 8 am and we didn't get back to Edinburgh until 7pm that night. Definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip because I just love all of the openness and the amazing views. God did some good work in Scotland, that's for sure! Here is why I loved it so much:

Loch Ness!
You see that mountain there, covered in all of the clouds? yeah, that's Ben Nevis, the tallest peak in Britian.
The Commando Memorial, for the WWII soldiers that were specially trained in this area, and also died in this area.

That night we went on a walking ghost tour of the city, which, thankfully, was not too scary :) which was good haha. The next day was our last day :( but we climbed to the top of the Scott Monument (that's 287 steps in a series of 4, sometimes very tight, spiral staircases). Here's a few pics:
So, for the rest of the day we just did some shopping for gifts and such for family and had tea one last time before heading to the airport. This trip was well worth it!
Since being back, it's been pretty low-key, although most of our coursework is due in a couple weeks so we've got to get a move on! Cristina and I went to Bath yesterday, so a post will be up on that soon (hopefully)! That's all for now :)
love, emily