i love antwerp! i even bought the [obnoxious touristy] bag to prove it!

ok, my next city was antwerp, belgium.  not gonna lie - i was really excited to get out of brussels.  it didn't hurt that the weather was beautiful!  i got to antwerp and when i got off the tram was all smiles.  for real.  lots of creepy smiles.

here are things about my stay:

hostel: i stayed at the antwerp city hostel (a member of hosteling international).  it was super clean but also the equivalent of sterile.  SO much concrete.  SO MUCH!  here, however, i made some bffs.  second day i met a girl from brazil staying with me and we ended up having a drink together that evening which turned into us befriending two other solo travelers, two guys from italy and [french] canada.  all of the other guests were strangely doing work on their computers and in meetings - we were like, F that.  other than these, the hostel was in an excellent location and very easy to get to and from and nearby everything!

transport: i took the train and then the tram to my hostel, but i really could have walked from the train station to the hostel.  the tram runs all about but was pretty unnecessary.  antwerp was very walkable.

food: less exciting, though my food was good.  i had some pizza, ice cream from a truck, waffle from same truck, and the usual - BEER.

communication: everyone spoke english.  every menu was available in english.  easy.

sights:  i pretty much saw it all, but mostly from the outside - the schelde river, the 't steen castley thing, the grote markt, and the cathedral of our lady (which i paid to go in - student price FTW!).  i appreciated the architecture here more than in brussels even though i'm not sure of any striking differences; i think perhaps i just liked the city and the atmosphere here more and therefore liked the sites more.  antwerp is a small city however; you can do the whole thing in a day.

nightlife: i was there on sunday and monday nights so not too much going on, but my new friends and i made it out to a karaoke bar on monday which was quite hilarious as they offered songs in nearly every language!  one rando was particularly awesome having an incredible voice and singing songs in 5 different languages!

pictures: 

the schelde

't steen

cathedral of our lady

brb.

brussels, belgium

ok, so i guess i should get on with the other cities of my benelux excursion before i need to blog about my spain trip so that's my new goal - write these and publish them before i leave on 26 july!

let's get going.  my next stop, after a 3 hour train ride from luxembourg city, was brussels, belgium.

hostel: i stayed at the brussels hello hostel.  it happened to be under construction on the ground floor while i was there, but this didn't impede my stay in any way as my room/showers/toilets were all on the first floor.  i didn't have great roommates - two girls from canada who seemed to be having a great time but were only interested in each other, one chinese girl who didn't speak, and a spanish girl who was constantly whistling like a bird to call to her male friend staying in another room.  whistling girl was the most obnoxious of them all.  the bartender and her friend were really nice though and i spent both evenings chatting to them.  annoying, though - my room was directly above the bar and the music was SO LOUD.  sleep?  i guess i'll try that some time.

transport: i had no issues using the metro - very easy to use and very easy to access the whole city.  i did a lot of walking too which maybe was not the best idea - some areas were what i would consider sketch and as i was travelling alone, i felt quite uncomfortable at times; it's hard to tell where to go and where not to go on a map.

food: dear god, BELGIAN WAFFLES.  i nommed the crap out of these guys - only 1 euro + extra for toppings everywhereeee!  also, fries.  FRIES.  MORE FRIES.  really tasty and cheap and thus easy access.  restaurants were another situation - most places only had one veg option, veg lasagne, and no chicken option.  also, one place i went in wasn't serving food... even though it was "dinner time" and they had their menu out on the side walk.  i felt like the most awkward of turtles so i just had a beer and got fries afterwards from a truck.

communication: everyone spoke english, but a lot of menus weren't available in english so i did occasionally have to ask what stuff was.

sights: lots of walking.  my favorite place, as touristy as it was, was the grand place/grote markt.  i felt comfortable there amongst my fellow selfie-snappers and waffle stand queuers.  it was also beautiful!  there weather was shite - i had to buy an extra hoodie because i thought i was going to die - which may have contributed to this being my least favorite city.  the architecture was cool, but nothing that caught my eye.  i also went to a gueuze brewery - the cantillon brewery.  while it was in a less than ideal neighborhood, it was pretty cool to learn about their special beer making magic that involves letting every spider live and never clearing cobwebs.  i even bought myself a tshirt and my bf a pint glass!

nightlife: didn't do anything here, but the canadian girls seemed to be enjoying themselves.

pictures: 

grand place

WAFFLESWAFFLESWAFFLES

obligatory peeing boy statue pic "manneken pis"

enjoying beer.  i look creepily happy.

brb.

¡solamente nueve días a españa!

yo sé, yo sé - necesito escribir como las otras ciudades que vi en europa - pero ahora, ¡solamente puedo creer de mi viaje a españa!  este viaje es diez años en el haciendo.  así, voy a decir vos.  (y mis apologías si mi español no es perfecto.  no he tenido un clase de español en ocho años pero he estudiado en el internet con "livemocha," mi sitio favorito para aprender lenguas.  es como paseando un bicicleta, ¿no? jajaja.)

la saga: en mi escuela secundario, en mi clase de español, se suponía que íbamos a viajar a españa en 2003.  hemos pagado y dos o tres meses antes del viaje, la escuela nos dijo que no podemos ir.  porque hemos pagado, decidimos que viajaríamos el próximo año.

en el próximo año, 2004, más estudiantes decidieron ir a españa con nuestra profesora.  entonces, la escuela - ¡la escuela! - nos dijo otra vez que no podemos ir.  una amiga de yo luchó la escuela y podía tener su moneda del viaje.  yo y los otros decidimos ir a españa con tres padres de los estudiantes.  ¡todo estuve bueno!  o nosotros pensamos que sí.  en madrid, fue bombardeos en los trenes una semana antes de nuestro viaje.  todos nuestros padres no estaban feliz.  también, la compañía de viajes no quería ir a españa durante ese tiempo.

decidimos ir a perú.  fue un viaje magnífico pero ahora, diez años en el futuro, todavía no he ido a españa.

ahora, mi amiga jenn está estudiando en alicante, españa.  en nueve días, iré a barcelona y en trece días, ¡iré a alicante!  ¡va a ser muy muy MUY bueno!  también, vamos a ir a granada, málaga, tangier (¡en morocco!), y madrid.  ¡estoy muy excitada!  el sol, las playas, las ciudades, y in viaje con una amiga - ¡excelente!

vale - necesito hacer trabajo del laboratorio.  ¡solamente siete días de ciencias más!

bueno.

brb.

grand duchy of luxembourg

so i've been promising to write about my not-so-recent-anymore trip to benelux.  now that i've got plenty of free time, i should probably get on with that since i also want to tell you all about my upcoming adventures as well as all the shit i've been doing since i last updated.

let's start with luxembourg.

hostel: i stayed at the youth hostel luxembourg city (a member of hosteling international).  it was super clean but the walls were comparable to paper (there was a large group of very young german students staying there and i could hear every word that i didn't understand).  my roommates were a 40-something mother and her 13 year old daughter the first night and then one girl whom i didn't really speak with and one whom i definitely didn't speak with (since she stayed out all night) the second.

transport: i flew to lux from london and had no issues.  i also took the bus to my hostel and then later from my hostel to the train station.  very easy to use.  for daily travel, i just walked everywhere.  the old city is very small and easy to navigate but if you wanted to go further, bus.

food: om nom nom.  i am very picky with food so lots of "traditional" foods easily slip by me, but what i did eat was tasty.  very expensive, though, and i had a hard time deciding where to eat.

communication: everyone spoke english.  nbd.  moving on.

sights: i went into the petrusse casemates on a tour - super cool - and also did the bock casemates (self-guided).  lots of stairs but really interesting to see all of the old stuff deep under the city!  in general though, i just did a lot of walking around and looking at stuff, like the grand ducal palace and the golden lady.

nightlife: didn't do anything here so not sure.  also, i was definitely not there during peak season - i felt like i hardly saw anyone plus the weather that week was awful - cold and rainy :(

pictures: 

like a boss.

grand ducal palace

brb.

cue cliché american cheer captain obnoxiousness

if you didn't think my blog was cheerleading-filled enough, just wait for next year.  last night, at our club's elections, i ran for and was elected as cheer captain 2013-2014!  i am SO excited to start planning the year and getting to work on this (in between, you know, trying to get a master's degree and does science and stuff).

ok, i know, i still owe all my avid readers some details of my european travels, but i really wanted to talk announce the awesomeness that has occurred as well as forewarn of all the future cheer-related posts.

brb.

boston strong

i really want to write all about my epic benelux adventure - and i will - but first i really need to address last week.  as i'm sure anyone who doesn't live under a rock heard, the week began with the boston marathon bombings leaving 3 dead and over 200 injured, as recent stats have given, and ended with a police officer dead, a suspect dead, and the other suspect in custody after the city locked down for an entire day.  this hits me close to home because it is my home - if you didn't know, while i just moved to england, i moved from boston, a city where i had been living the past 8 years of my life.  it holds my former university, my friends, and memories upon memories.

when i heard what happened (via facebook, one of the most reliable of news sources), i immediately went on twitter (another excellent source of news) to try to figure out what was happening.  boston.com refused to load. CNN merely had a "breaking news" banner on their homepage and nothing more.  one of my bff's, caroline, finally gchatted me.  she had been on the T [subway in boston] with her brother  underneath the bombings when they happened.  she told me the train stopped, which don't get me wrong is a normal occurrence as it is potentially one of the worst public transportation systems of all time, but that she knew something was wrong - a gut feeling.  when the train finally pulled into the station and she found out what happened, she went to her school and stayed inside where she was chatting me from.

i tried reaching out to my boyfriend, not thinking he would have been there, but still wanting to know he was safe.  more importantly, i knew another of my bff's, vanessa, was running the marathon as i had donated money to her for the MSPCA.  i began emailing her and fb messaging her boyfriend and her, checking her fb page, and even getting messages from mutual friends asking if i had heard anything.  about an hour or so later the MSPCA posted that she was safe so i shared the news immediately and was so happy.  social networking really worked at its finest last week.  i knew others running it as well and if it weren't for facebook, i wouldn't have known they were safe.  if it weren't for twitter, i wouldn't have been able to know what was going on.  i shared and retweeted the crap out of last week.  see, boston is MY city.  i will always call it home.  as you all saw and continue to see, boston is strong.  we don't take crap from anyone.

i can't wait to go back and kiss those streets [figuratively, let's not get any infectious diseases please] - and i will do so on june 6th!  one of my bff's and former college roomie, erica, is getting married on the 8th.

i cried a lot last week.  i may not have known any of the killed or injured personally, but it really felt like i did.  i know they have the same feelings in the heart for boston that i do, but luckily i also know that they have the same strength and power to move forward.

i will conclude this more solemn of my entries with a giant internet hug to everyone in boston.  for all of my regular readers (lolz, i think it's only vanessa), i will post subsequent entries for each city i visited on my benelux trip later so you can read about my awesome holiday that i had before all this sadness happened.

brb.

what i've been up to, or, heather's list of complaints

where have i been, you ask?  oh, the usual slacking off and not writing anything - but more importantly, italy!  i just got back from a cheerleading trip to rimini, italy.  to start off, the weather was horrific - freezing cold and rain every day.  also, sitting on a coach for 25 hours was unpleasant to say the least (that's right - we drove there from england).

brief summary: their was an evil biznatch nicknamed "quagmire" - think family guy - in charge of the cheerleading bits of our trip who didn't like doing her job/was lazy and so told us not to bother showing up to day 2.  we did show up however and even though it was brief, we did get to try some new things.   our group leaders (aka our social secs from the team) did an awesome job so the party times were lots of fun.

what's up next: i'm leaving for luxembourg tomorrow!  i will be visiting luxembourg, brussels, antwerp, rotterdam, and amsterdam.  i've got crazy touristy maps and my camera in hand ready to go and as always, a way over packed suitcase.

to keep you up to date: i still live with idiots.  this one girl has now walked out of the kitchen twice in front of me and left the hob on.  she is also the one i hate the most - she barely says hi to me, never smiles, and in addition to creating a fire hazard also left a sloppy nasty mess all over the stove - and to think i was blaming the boys!  rage.

right now i'm sitting in my flat alone while one of the idiots' alarms or something has been going off for the past 3 hours (they shut off the electric for some maintenance and when it came back on, this beeping began).  also, we haven't had overhead lighting in my flat (all rooms/bathrooms and corridor) since sunday night - just my flat.  i can see the others have their lights on.  it just randomly went off and has refused to come back on.  of course after submitting a report online sunday and nothing being done about it, i finally went to the security office (because normal offices are closed) and was like wtf, mate? bets on this not getting fixed before i leave tomorrow.

wow - my blog has really just turned into a "heather's list of complaints."  i will try to juice it up, hopefully with some great stories from my benelux excursion.  here: enjoy this pic of my friends and i as cave girls in italy.

brb.