Les Pays-Bas (The Netherlands)

       Salut! Je suis allée aux Pays-Bas le weekend dernier avec mes amis d'ISA (Hello! I went to the Netherlands last weekend with my friends from ISA). This was our first and only over-night excursion as a group. 

       It was about a 2-hour train ride to Den Haag (The Hague, in Dutch). It was sunny and warm when we arrived, so we walked to our hotel, where we checked in and dropped off our luggage. The rooms were a lot nicer than I expected! 

Binnenhof

       Next, we walked to the Binnenhof, where the Dutch political system is situated, followed by the chambers of the Prime Minister. This was all on our way to the Mauritshuis--home to many old Dutch paintings and most notably, the "Girl with the Pearl Earring" (by Johannes Vermeer). The painting of the girl depicted her as sweet and innocent and I found it even more captivating in person than when I saw the painting in the Hollywood film. There wasn't too much to see in the museum and before we knew it, it was time for lunch. We sat down at an outdoor cafe and soaked up some sun before our walk to the Palace Lange Voorhout to visit the exhibition "Escher in het Paleis." Escher was a Dutch artist and is known for his symmetrical drawings and sketches of impossible situations (see picture to the left, below).  

International Court of Justice

Escher drawing

       After the Escher museum, we had an hour-and-a-half walking tour of The Hague. The highlight of the walk was seeing the International Court of Justice. It was established in 1946 by the Charter of the United Nations and it gives advisory opinions on legal questions posed by the UN or other specialized agencies. 

       Although the walking tour was supposed to go on for another hour, we decided to head back to the hotel a little early, which would give us more time at the beach! It was a bit chilly, since there was a slight breeze, but it was relaxing. There were some upscale outdoor bars and I really felt like I was in Miami. 
       After splurging on a nice dinner overlooking the seaside, we headed back towards the hotel. We stopped by an Irish pub for a couple of hours and took advantage of the city's nightlife. We didn't get back until late that night, but we got up early the next morning to make sure we had plenty of time to take advantage of Holland. After being treated to a full buffet breakfast (where I tried fruit quark--it's apparently a cheese that tastes like a creamy yogurt and it was Delicious! I'm considering starting a new trend when I get back to the US. We then checked out of the hotel, walked to the train station, and locked up our belongings in the Den Haag Centraal (the main train station). 

Mini-Church in Madoradam

       Next, we took a train to Madorodam--a miniature city showcasing all of the well-known buildings and scenes in the Netherlands. These replications looked impressively life-like (when you take a picture). It almost takes away from actually visiting all of these places. If you pay 10 cents, some of the scenes would play music, or the amusement park's roller-coasters and ferris wheel would work, and mini-mars candy came out of a mini-factory on a truck! 
       The next item on our long list of things to do was to take a train to Delft. Many see it as the prettiest town in Holland and it is the home town of Johannes Vermeer (who painted "Girl with the Pearl Earring). Since we got through the Madorodam fairly quickly, we had time to take an hour-long boat tour around the area. The sun came out, which was a nice surprise since the weather forecasts predicted rain all day. Once again, we had some free time for lunch. After meeting up in the afternoon in front of a large Church in Delft, we headed over to the Army Museum. This was one of the coolest museums I've ever seen. There was an interactive section with activities for kids, including an obstacle course. Quel surpris (What a surprise)...I went through it. I couldn't help but hang onto a chin-up bar in the kids section, which had a timer to see how long you can hang on before your body can't take it anymore. On our way back to the main train station, we passed by a synagogue! 
       This concluded our trip to Den Haag and Delft. The two-hour train ride home sped by on account of a lengthy card game. 
       Don't expect to hear from me for the next couple of weeks. As of today, I am officially on Spring Break! I will be traveling to Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Amalfi, and Florence within a short span of 2 weeks. 

ISA Group at Escher Museum (it's an illusion)

Bonnes vacances.
-Arielle 

L'Atomium, La Ville de Louvain, et Le Théâtre

       After an exciting trip in the Southern part of Belgium I could not help but continue to take advantage of the sites and attractions in Belgium, in the following days. Since the clocks changed back (we lost an hour), I did not want to waste any time. So, on Sunday morning four of my friends and I met downtown for a day of exploration. 

       The plan was to first visit a really cool outdoor market that I stumbled upon during my first week in Brussels, but I mixed it up with another market--which was all about the antiques--and was located between Grand and Petit Sablon (as opposed to right next to Gare Centrale where the more interesting market was!). So, we kept walking and found Parc du Petit Sablon (pictured left). Surrounding the parc are gothic columns, topped with bronze statues of men representing the "four crowned" professions (i.e. builders, stone-cutters, sculptors, and slate-quarry workers). 

Me, Willie

       We finally made it to the market by Gare Centrale, but we made a side-trip to the Cathedral of Saint Michael to pick up my friend Willie. We took some pictures in front of these wooden cows (pictured right) and headed off to the market. We bought a couple of trinkets and grabbed some lunch at a little cafe, away from the boisterous crowd. 

       Next stop was the Atomium. It's considered to be a symbol of Europe's Capital and was built in 1958 for the World's Fair. It was originally meant to be torn down after the fair, but it became such a huge attraction that the city decided to keep it. There are nine spheres in total, but only five are accessible to the public. All the way at the top, there's a restaurant and some beautiful views of mini-Europe and the former US Pavilion. The kids' sphere was really cool, but we couldn't go in--it's only open to school groups. You can actually spend the night in one of the Atomium's spheres if you were to go with an organized group and sleep in one of these beds (pictured above). If only I were a kid again! We took some pictures in front of the Atomium and then relaxed on a bench in the park, which is situated close by. 

Caroline, Willie, Me, & Zoe

View of Mini-Europe

      

       

Town Hall

       On Monday, Chris and I visited Louvain - a city in Belgium that's less than a half hour away. Sadly, that's a shorter commute than my commute from school to home. It was a nice college town with lots of little cafes and plenty of people sitting outside, eating and drinking traditional Belgian food and beer! Apparently, it's a lot of fun to go to Louvain (or Leuven, in Dutch) on Thursday nights, since that's when most of the students go out. But, I had a lot more fun walking around and exploring the area during the day than I would have if I went at night. One of the first buildings that we saw was The Library, which was built by American architects. The next two humongous buildings that we saw were the Town Hall and St. Peter's Church. These were very impressive and extremely difficult to capture in a single photograph, even when zooming out as far as one can (pictures below). The amount of detail, concerning the architecture of the building, is astounding. 

       We also went to a park (pictured right) and then found the Keizersberg Abbey, which dates back to the 19th century. It was originally intended to be a study house for a group of monks, but it looks more like a castle. There were sheep roaming the area and it was fairly deserted. However, we did take a peek inside (which I'm not sure if we were allowed to do...). After going an extra forty-five minutes out of the way just to see what was at the top of the hill, we consulted our map and then trekked to the botanical gardens. It was free and beautiful. At this point, we were exhausted from doing so much walking, so we took a time out and sat on one of the benches overlooking the scenery. Then, unfortunately, it was time to head back to the train station. We actually got on one of the coolest trains that I've ever been on. It was two floors and virtually empty. That concluded my trip to Louvain. 
       On Tuesday, I went on a class field trip to the European Parliament (EP). We had a tour of the building, which is located in a different area of Brussels than the European Commission and the EU's other 3 institutions. Our tour guide was extremely informative and thought-provoking. There's currently 732 MEPs - Members of Parliament - (since 4 had recently resigned) and, as of the most recent Lisbon Treaty, this number will be capped at 750. Once a month, nearly 3,000 workers travel to Strasbourg, Germany, where much of the decisions are carried out. This is very costly to the EU and many are currently debating whether it is still financially worth it to travel back and forth, especially with the newest members who live further away than the six original member states of the EU (France, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands). Also, we had a Q&A session with an Italian MEP's assistant, who will be coming to speak with my Intro to the EU class in a few weeks. Overall, this was a great experience and something that I've been looking forward to ever since I decided to go to Brussels.
       Last night was all about culture. With my French class, and a few ISA students, I went to the French theater to see "La Puce À L'Oreille" in the Galarie de la Reine. The play was written by Georges Feydeau in 1907 and was surprisingly hilarious. It was about a woman who thought her husband was cheating on her because a package was shipped to her house from a hotel with her husband's suspenders. In fact, it was the nephew that had left her husband's suspendors at the hotel and this led to many misunderstandings and a major scandal. It's very complicated and would take three hours to fully explain (for that's how long the play was). I enjoyed it just as much as all of the Broadway plays that I've seen and, best of all, I understood just about everything! The actors and actresses were fantastic and they truly went above and beyond my expectations. 


To the right is an extra pic of my friends and I in front of the Atomium, for your enjoyment. This weekend I'm off to The Hague in the Netherlands. I'll fill you in on the details when I get back.....

Bon weekend!
Arielle