Amsterdam and Poland

5 days, 4 different beds, 3 cities, 2 girls, 1 awesome trip!!

I'm on spring break right now and the first 5 days were spent in Amsterdam, Poland, and Barcelona. It was craziness. But Kelsey and I had a blast!

This was a big trip. We went to the Anne Frank house and Stutthof concentration camp, so it was heavy stuff. I am going to put all of the concentration camp on another tab, just because it's pretty graphic and I think you should choose to view it. It was a powerful experience and I'm so amazed that I could do all of this!

We started by flying out of Malaga to Eindhoven, Holland. Then we took a bus to Amsterdam. Let's just say Amsterdam pretty much fulfilled every stereotype I've ever had. I loved the city by day!

We started at Central Station. This is where the flash mob to Do Re Mi took place, youtube it because it's pretty cool! I wish something like that would have happened to us! Every day about 300,000 travelers go through here. 

We had about 24 hours here so we started walking around the city. It's so beautiful!

I'm convinced the city is actually just floating. There was a canal on every street! There are more than 100 kilometers of canals, 90 islands, and 1,500 bridges. The city was originally built with serious city planning- there are 4 main canals which form half circles. The 3 closest to the city center were for residential development and the last one was for defense and water management.

These are the 4 main canals that form the system of the city.

Otherwise, the architecture in general is breathtaking. Amsterdam has buildings from the 1300s! The oldest building in Amsterdam is the Oude Kerk. It's a chapel built by fishermen when the canal in their area met the main body of water, in honor of St. Nicholas the patron saint of sailors. What started out as a simple building turned into an imposing monument and one of the most beautiful buildings in the city. It was named Oude Kerk (old church) because as the city grew another church was built and was named Nieuwe Kerk (new church) so this was named the Old Church. Another fun fact, Rembrandt registered his intention to marry there.

Oude Kerk

Some views of the canals-

There is a Heineken factory there too! The Amsterdamians (?) were very proud of that.

Check Holland off the list! We were really hoping to get to Haarlem to see the Corrie tenBoom house, but we didn't have time.

That afternoon we went to the Anne Frank house. Holy smokes.

We couldn't take pictures inside but I'll explain all I can from the booklet we got on our tour.

Brief recap of the Frank story- Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. When Hitler came to power, the Frank family moved to Amsterdam where Otto Frank started a business (Anne was about 4 at this time). 7 years later, the Nazi regime invades the Netherlands and the anti Jewish acts begin there- Jews can't go into public pools, they can't use public transportation, they can't own businesses, they can't use restaurants, and they attend different schools, ect. So the Frank family goes into hiding. Their hiding place is in the building where Otto's business was, and 3 of his employees/coworkers agree to help the family. They were there for 2 years until an anonymous tip comes in and they are taken. Anne dies in Bergen-Belsen one month before the liberation. Her father Otto is the only survivor of the 8 in hiding.

We saw pictures of all 8 people in hiding, the 3 helpers, and the fates of Anne's classmates- which was actually one of the more powerful parts of the tour. They took us on a tour of the house- we started in the warehouse, offices, and storeroom for the spices. Then we moved to the Hiding Place where we walked through the actual bookcase. It had all of the original books and everything! I had many life moments on this trip and this was one- I walked though the secret door that hid Anne Frank. I was literally walking in her footsteps. Then we moved to the bedrooms, where we saw the original wallpaper and all of the magazine cut outs that Anne had decorated her room with. We saw where Anne and her sister Margot were measured on the wall (I'm taller than both of them) and the same toilet and cooking stove that the families used. Then they had another part that was more museum which had Anne's diary and other papers from the families.

At the end of the museum is a room that has an interactive part. It gives a situation and asks you to give your opinion about it. One of the videos that stood out to me was about youtube videos saying that the Holocaust never happened. It brought up the right for freedom of speech vs how offensive this is to the people and families that experienced the effects of the Holocaust. I can't believe people actually think this didn't happen!

Now, here are some of my thoughts.
- I was claustrophobic just being there for a couple hours with all of the people in our tour group! All of the windows were blacked out, the stairs were so narrow my shoulders could pretty much touch both sides, but we could at least talk- the families in hiding couldn't make any noise! I don't know how they did it.
- Also, notice how all of my description is about Anne. Otto actually survived Auschwitz death camp. I'm sure there have been interviews with him, but I don't know anything about his experience. Otto's entire identity turned into his daughter's memory. I just wish we knew more about him, I mean he could give a first hand account of what it was like.
- These memorials will forever be in Europe. I don't understand how someone can think this didn't happen. It's a pretty hurtful thing to say.

That night we just walked around the city. It was so cold that we actually got on a couple random trams and saw the city that way. You can laugh, I know it's pitiful, but it was way faster and way warmer! We walked through the red light district too. I gotta say, Amsterdam by day is charming but Amsterdam by night is not my thing. It's like the sun goes down and everything just goes downhill. It's so contradicting that the Anne Frank house and the oldest chapel in town is down the street from the red light district. It doesn't make sense to me.

Actually, the city presents a pretty facade. They preach tolerance and acceptance and the city is 50% immigrants, which make it very diverse and should be a great environment for all that tolerance. However, the non-western cultures like islamic minorities, turkish, and arabic cultures are feeling the negative attitude changes toward them. Turkish and Moroccan channels have been dropped from the basic cable TV packages, and during the last election the mayor was criticized for distributing election leaflets to minorities.

Our CouchSurfing host was very offended that people call Amsterdam "Sin City" but what could we say? I mean, churches are just cool empty buildings to look at while prostitution houses are overflowing; this is the first county where gay marriage was legalized while guns and hunting are illegal and severely punished; and they preach tolerance but any non-western culture is shunned. You may label some of these good and others bad and this is just my opinion, but I just think there's a problem with priorities.

Then we went to Poland.

I think I'm in love. Poland was the most magical trip I think I've been on. We went to Gdansk, which is this super small city in northern Poland. Our hostel was fabulous and we walked through the city in pretty much one day. The buildings in the old city (which was pretty much the entire city) were from the 1300's! I still can't grasp how old that is!

Here are some of the buildings from the Royal Route-

This is where we started. Dluga and Dlugi Targ streets are known as the most beautiful streets in Gdansk, they are actually compared to the Old Town in Warsaw and the Market Square in Kraków, some would say they are more attractive and more important as historical monuments.

This is the Royal Chapel.  Created in 1678, it was made for Catholic worshipers that were unable to pray in their parish Basilica as it was at that time in Protestant hands. This was the most beautiful building in town (I thought)!

There are 4 lions outside the Royal Chapel in the courtyard.

The Artur Court was built in the middle ages XIV c for the brotherhood Artur. They actually got the idea for their brotherhood from King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, the name of their court (Artur) also comes from them. Our guidebook said this building is one of the most beautiful of its kind in Europe, and it used to be used by wealthy citizens for business meetings, festivities, and the exchange of news.

Just some of the buildings lining the streets. This is what the entire city looked like! The houses were all different colors so in the sun the pastels, gold, silver, and deep colors were amazing. I have never seen anything like it!

Our hostel was right next to the river so we walked along it into town. Gdansk used to be a huge port for shipping goods so there was a lot of history on this walk.

We found a little restaurant near our hostel and got Kielbasa! I'm just gonna throw this out there- everything I've ever known about polish sausage in the states is a lie! This was the best real Polish polish sausage ever. It was like buttery, salty, strong flavor... there is no description that will get it right, sorry. We got sauerkraut too, which I'm not usually a fan of, but this was sweet and sour and crunchy. Probably one of my favorite dishes in all of my travels.

The next day we went to Stutthof concentration camp. It's on another tab so you may look if you'd like. Here's the main parts- everything was left as it was, and very few parts of this camp were destroyed. Everything we saw was the actual place where people lived and worked and died. We walked through Death Gate to see the bunkers and work houses. We saw all the guard towers and the barbed wire that ran around the entire camp. We saw the pile of shoes that had been taken from prisoners, where they slept, ate, lived, and worked. We walked into the crematorium- that was the hardest part, we saw the real thing. It was pretty explicit as to what was done.
Another life moment: I was walking where thousands of Jews had walked and died. I walked into the building where they burned human bodies.

Then we went to Barcelona, but I've already been there and this is long enough so I won't post more pictures.

So, overall it was an amazing trip. Awesome and horrific at times, but it was a trip I wouldn't change for the world.
I have to say, this trip was the best one travel wise because we didn't have a single problem! I obsessed over every detail- distance from airport to city center, directions to hostel, best method of travel in the city- literally everything. We knew exactly what transportation would cost. It was a beautiful thing.

I have a few weekends at home now so I'll be posting about Semana Santa!

Africa

Holy Moly. I went to Africa. For the weekend. Like it was no big deal.
WHAT?!
I'm still not used to talking to classmates on a regular Thursday morning about weekend plans to visit Morocco.. or really anywhere in Europe. It still blows my mind. I'm so blessed to have this opportunity.

So Kelsey and I went with a program called Discover Sevilla to northern Morocco. Specifically the cities Chefchaouen, Assilah, and Tangiers. It was so awesome! This is going to be mostly pictures, but it was probably one of the coolest trips I've done so far.
Just so all of you worriers out there know, we had an escort and guides the whole time. We had armed guards bring us to the hotel and in and out of Tangiers too, so it was a very safe trip. There wasn't a single moment where I felt unsafe. I did feel a little uncomfortable with all of the "machismo" from the men- it's when they cat call or whistle or say creepy stuff as you walk by- but there was really nothing we could do about that. I ended up just walking away.

A little bit about Morocco (most of this came from our guide)-

As world politics grow even more strained, Morocco has been marginalized as yet another Islamic nation.  The truth is Morocco is a place with a rich culture thousands of years old, people famous for their hospitality, and natural landscapes ranging from beautiful Atlantic beaches to the Sahara desert.  The people of Morocco value their families above all else and as a community they take care of the elderly, the homeless, and the handicapped.  

Morocco is a large developing nation home to more than 29 million people.  More than half of the population currently lives in cities where western values coexist with an Islamic tradition and as much as 40% of the possible workforce is unemployed.  Poverty is a problem and street hustlers and beggars are realities here.  This contrast between modern difficulties and traditional values is commonplace in Morocco.  There are many different cultural norms, but Islam is the driving cultural force in Morocco and is not always separated completely from secular life.

We started on Friday afternoon from Sevilla and drove to Tarifa where we took a ferry across to Africa and then a bus again to Tangiers. The hotel had a small mountain of cous cous with vegetables and chicken waiting for us. It was a great way to start the trip!

Saturday was the big day- we got going early and headed to Chefchaouen (Shef-shou-wen). Our Moroccan guide was telling us all about the cultural norms. Women still don't have the same rights or social expectations as men, but Morocco is ahead of the norm in that women aren't circumcised anymore (I didn't realize they ever were or could be), however single mothers are below beggars on the social totem pole. Young women who get pregnant out of wedlock are sent away from home into exile while the baby daddy gets to brag to his friends. It was tough stuff to listen to. But there are many women's shelters that are being created, which has helped a lot!

We get to Chefchaouen and they take us on a tour of the city. It's known as the Blue City because all of the streets are blue! It was just beautiful! The houses were pretty simple, but decorated with bright white walls, while the doors are painted bright blue. The streets were actually really clean, but the rivers and ditches were full of garbage. The city of Chefchouen is set between two mountains, climbing up the valley between the two and only ending at the water source which provides some of the freshest water in the country.

Then they released us to do some shopping and bartering. I can only put so many pictures on, so notice how all of the walls are blue behind the stuff they're selling.
I bought some lipstick that adjusts to the pigment in your skin tone. It's sweet! I'll show it off when I get back.. I may have bought quite a few :)

Some of the leather bags and shoes for sale.

They just pile everything they have on a display. This is also the city known for its textiles and ceramics so all of the clothing and dishes that you see are hand made and decorated!

The fruit displays were awesome... and mouth watering!

Some of the jewelry- most of it is also hand made. Kelsey bought real silver earrings and an animal bone necklace. 

This is what some "stores" looked like- some had a building, some had awnings, other were just out in the open.

While we were there, I got a henna tattoo! The lady did it free hand and it's so pretty. I still have it actually, it's supposed to last for about a week.

Then we headed back to the hotel for the night. Our hotel was in Tangiers. We could see where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic Ocean, and Tangiers has crazy green land around it. It's called the crossroads of two civilizations, Tangiers (gateway to the African continent) looks across at Europe from the shores of Atlantic and Mediterranean. Tangiers has been marked throughout History - Phoenicians, Berbers, Portuguese and Spaniards had all left their mark on the city before it passed into Moroccan hands.

It was a long but fun day! We had dinner and then headed out to the patio to get to know the group. Amazingly enough, Sam Matheson, a guy I graduated with is studying in Alicante, Spain and came on this trip too! I haven't seen Sam since senior year when we were in Mr. Lange's Humanities English class.

I honestly never thought I'd be saying "See you later.. in Africa!" So crazy.

Sunday- we head to Assilah. On the way we took a camel ride! (I love how I can say "on the way to our next designation there were camels" WHAT?)

This has to be the coolest thing I've done. I know I keep saying that but it's all so cool!
I rode a camel in Africa. No big deal. Just a weekend trip to ride some camels.
I'm still processing this. So blessed.

I gotta say, my camel definitely needed an attitude adjustment. He was a little angry. Maybe because I kept screaming, but it was kinda scary at first!

I also celebrated St. Patrick's day with the camels! It was hilarious. My Aunt Kim has definitely made an impact on the way we celebrate this holiday.

Then we went to the Cave of Hercules. The rumor is Hercules slept here. I don't know enough about Greek mythology to follow all of this but the Greeks named Tangier for a Greek giant and so naturally Hercules HAS to come in somewhere!

The neat thing about the cave is that the rocks form the shape of Africa, kinda. We got to explore a little bit, and we found guys that had set up shops in the cave to sell post cards and trinkets to tourists!

We finished the afternoon in Assilah, which is a beach city. It was sunny and beautiful! Assilah is considered the jewel of the northern coastline of Africa. The Moroccan beach town has a Medina lined with galleries and white-washed houses, filled with vendors, spices, music, and artistic vibes. The shopping here was pretty extensive too. For me, the city seemed more contemporary than Chefchaouen.

I don't know what this says, I hope it's not something bad, but the graffiti and murals in this town were so awesome!

I tried to keep this short and sweet, but there was so much more to tell! It was a great trip. I assumed all of Africa was desert but the northern areas we were in were green! There was grass! I had a ball.

Back on the ferry headed home.

We learned some Arabic too! I didn't actually use it because the Moroccans can switch from Spanish to French to (poor) English without batting an eye so we used Spanish the whole time. I have never met a culture so rich in languages and the ability to learn them so quickly!

Na’am – yes   ●   La – no   ●   Waha – ok   ●   Afak – Please   ●   Yalah – Lets go

Salam – Hello    ●   Salam walaykoom – Hello (formal when addressing a group)            

Shukran (bezzef) – Thank you (very much)   ●   La shukran – No, thank you     Labas? – How are you   ●   M’a ssalama – Goodbye

Labas, hamdulah – Fine, praise God (This is the standard response to, “How are you?”)    

Stay tuned, because on Friday I head on a whirlwind tour of Amsterdam, Poland, and Barcelona (Kelsey hasn't been there and it's on the way!).
5 days, 4 nights, 2 more countries checked off the list!

Alpujarras

I know it's been a long time! Things have been picking up speed around here!

So last weekend ISA took us to Las Alpujarras (Al-Pu-Har-Ras) in the Sierra Nevada. It is home to the highest peak in Europe! While we didn't go up there, we walked around it. We couldn't even see the top because it was so cloudy! We hiked for the day, and then stayed in the small pueblo over night.

It was freezing. We were hiking though the clouds so it was rainy and cold. I had probably close to the 16 layers I had on when I went to Ireland. Seriously that cold.

Part of our hiking adventure.

It was soooooo windy! Also we hiked through clouds all day, which was why we couldn't see the beautiful scenery! There's a really pretty view behind that cloud.

Here's the closest we got to capturing the background.

Since it was so cold, they took us to the beach on Sunday! We went to Nerja (Ner-Ha), which is about an hour and a half away from Granada. It was just beautiful!

This is the coast. It was unbelievably beautiful! 

So Taylor and I went and found our own little piece of paradise on the beach. There was tons of places to explore!

The water was REALLY cold! Even paradise isn't perfect I guess.

This is Taylor. One of the girls in my program. She's from Mississippi and has an awesome accent!

We got home... and it was raining! It was so sad. But this is what greeted us-

I'm loving it here. March is flying by! Tomorrow I'm going to Morocco (Africa) and I'm so excited!!! Don't worry, I'm going with a program and will have guides and everything. It's totally legit and I won't go anywhere alone I promise! Kelsey is going with me, but she's not making any decisions or plans for us. This is gonna be awesome :)

Activities

I signed up to volunteer at a children's school. Today I was assigned the Under 1 year old group. LOVE IT. They are just adorable!

I got there just in time to play and then help with lunch. The ladies gave me the low down on who was a good eater and who I should avoid. So I started feeding the first kid... he ended up with food EVERYWHERE. I think he even had it in his hair. Oops.
The second girl did great, she ate the regular stuff out of the red bowl but then refused to eat the pureed fruit. When she saw me coming with the clear bowl with fruit stuff, she threw her head back and mashed her lips together. So I decided to be sneaky. I put the fruit back into the regular red bowl and she ate all of it!! What a little creep. The ladies were way impressed with me :)

I'm also taking Flamenco classes, I can't remember if I've posted about them yet. But they are so cool! I've got all the steps and now we're just working on the end. I have two more classes so hopefully I'll be able to show off my new 'skills' when I get home.

I signed up for the volleyball team in a moment of weakness. I was coerced into it. I haven't played volleyball since the next door fraternity's tournament last spring- which was not a stellar show on my part (we at least didn't get last- for the record!). I don't think I got any of the family athletic abilities.. my plan was to leave that to the boys. Oh well, wish me luck!

Canary Islands

Finally! A nice relaxing break with some sun and some ocean. This is my kind of trip.

Us girls decided to take 5 days to go to the Canary Islands! It was so great. Not exactly as sunny as I was hoping, but we definitely got some sun and did a ton of exploring. Getting there was a little rough, and I'm still apologizing to my parents for freaking them out, but we made it!

I've decided that I'm just going to start walking everywhere because traveling is soooooo not worth it.

The plan was to take a bus from Granada to Madrid for our flight. The 1:30 am bus would get us there in plenty of time. Since we were leaving on a Monday we didn't buy a bus ticket ahead of time because who travels on a Monday when there's still class for the rest of the week? Apparently everyone.

We got to the bus station around 11:30pm all ready to buy our tickets and there's literally one seat left. Well unless we can all sit on each other's laps, we have a problem. We have 10 hours to get to Madrid. Ok, what are our options?? Fly from Granada, won't work. Train from Granada, won't work. Bus from Granada, obviously won't work.

We ended up taking a taxi to Malaga and then a train to Madrid. I am still in disbelief. To put it in perspective, we took a taxi from Albert Lea to Worthington, and then a train from Worthington to Omaha. Seriously? We can laugh about it now, but there were definitely tears shed Monday night.
I sent my dad this dramatic email and didn't explain what was going on... sorry dad. Love you!

We got to the Canary Islands and headed straight for the beach. It was just beautiful! This trip is easier described in pictures.

This was the beach right outside our hostel.

First day on the beach and I already had Kelsey buried in the sand as a mermaid. Dad and I got really good at this after all the summer trips to the beach, looks like it came in handy!

There was this pier and a bunch of rocks a little ways down from our hostel so we went exploring. During low tide I could walk out on the rocks and see all the creatures that got caught between the rocks. Pretty much just little fish and some crazy huge crabs.

We spent a day in Maspalomas where it's supposedly always sunny- and it was! It was a beautiful day soaking up the sun.

Us girls. Kelsey is in the middle and Deanna on the right. We live together and they are so great!

So at our hostel, we met a girl (the blond) from Australia, a boy from Tennessee studying in France, and a boy from Taiwan also studying in France. They came to the beach with us and we had a great time together!

So in Maspalomas there are also sand dunes. It's a drastic difference from beach to dunes right next to each other. We  got to explore all around the island on the dunes.

Had to. Sorry.

Successfully climbed over all the dunes and headed back to the beach!

There was this huge dune, so we each got a photo op on top of it. What a view!

There you have it. I don't think I've had a stress-free trip yet. I guess I'll keep trying until I get it right...