Week 15 30th April -6th May (Personal)

This week was May break and what a brilliant week it was. This was the last public holiday in the Netherlands before we leave, so we thought we had better make the most of it. In the Netherlands Monday the 30^th of April is Queen’s day and every town in the Netherlands is packed with people partying on the streets, dressed in crazy orange themed costumes. At first, we were undecided of where we should celebrate queens day, but after talking to some of our Erasmus buddies we were advised that if you are only ever going to do Queens day once in your life, you should do in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam on Queens day

Queens’s day came and went and what a day it was. The atmosphere was indescribable. The whole city was packed with people. Queen’s day typically attracts 700 thousand visitors each year. There were numerous outdoor concerts organised at various locations, live DJs, bands, amusements parks and thousands of burger vans and merchandise stalls which lined the streets of Amsterdam. It could be described as one huge street party. The streets where so packed at times it was hard to even walk and the canals where lined with hundreds of boats that were packed with people dancing. The atmosphere was bustling as everyone celebrated with their friends and families across the city.

Lieze (Belgium flatmate) and I relaxing in Vondelpark on Queens day

Celebrating Queens day with a few of our Erasmus friends

From Amsterdam we caught a train to Brussels where we got our flight to Geneva. Unfortunately this trip involved an overnights stay in the airport-not comfy to say the least. However, it was all worth it when we reached Geneva. Geneva was beautiful, however extremely expensive.  I couldn’t believe it when we visited McDonalds and a Big Mac was 13 euro-crazy prices. It is no surprise that in 2011, Geneva was ranked as the fifth most expensive city in the world. Geneva is the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Geneva is a global city, a financial centre and it is the most important UN international co-operation centre along with New York.  In Geneva the hotels were also expensive so we opted for a hostel. Our hostel was basic but we couldn’t have wished for a better location. It was less than a 5 minute walk to the lake of Geneva. The view of Lake of Geneva with the Jet d'Eau (water fountain) and the lake side promenade was postcard perfect. The winding alleys of the Old Town were quaint and I especially enjoyed the boat across the lake. After two days in Geneva I was excited to begin our next part of our Journey to Barcelona- at least we’d be able to afford more things there.

The postcard perfect lake of Geneva

Luckily, we had beautiful weather in Barcelona and it was over 20 degrees with beaming sun every day. Rachel and I were not used to the heat and we both got slightly burnt the first day. We stayed in beautiful 4 star apartments with a swimming pool, this was luxury in comparison to our hostel in Geneva. Two of the Spanish boys that we live in Nijmegen are from Barcelona so they had already told us all the things that we must see on our visit.

Rachel and I visiting the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona

We decided to opt for the sightseeing tour as it would take us around all the key attractions. The highlights of the trip was the tour of Nou camp football stadium and visiting the Sagrada Familia. We took a boat tour around the harbour, visited the markets of la Ramblas and ate in beautiful restaurants.My favouraite was when we enjoyed cocktails in the ‘W hotel’ which is 26 floors high and overlooks the whole of Barcelona. The view over Barcelona at night was breath taking.

In Nou camp Stadium