La segunda semana en Salamanca | España 2019

Week twee alweer! Het gaat zo snel. Net zoals vorige week had ik elke dag school, behalve de maandag ivm een feestdag. Vanaf deze week ben ik ook elke dag Spaans gaan leren met Marie bij Salamanca Coffee (waar we echt elke dag kwamen, ik hoefde het niet meer te zeggen tegen de koffieman want hij wist het al, dat is wel erg haha maar goed).

Verder was het op donderdag pre-Nochevieja, oftewel, Spaans oud en nieuw voor alle Erasmus studenten die er de 31e niet bij zijn omdat ze naar huis gaan. Heel grappig om mee te maken, heel Plaza Mayor staat vol met mensen en er wordt opgetreden door bands en zangers. Om 12 uur is het dan de bedoeling dat je bij elke klokslag een gummybear eet ipv de gewoonlijke druiven. Daarna gaat iedereen de clubs in, waar het dus echt heel druk was, maar wel heel leuk!

Ook waren de kerstlampjes aan gegaan afgelopen week wat de stad nog gezellig maakt! En natuurlijk heb ik nog veel lekkere tapas gegeten en zonsondergangen bekeken aangezien dat heel goed kan in Salamanca 🙂

(ps. de foto van het bruine gebouw is de zijkant van een kerk, deze is heel gedetailleerd en ergens is een kikkertje te zien, als je deze vindt krijg je volgens de legende ‘buen suerte’, veel geluk dus)

 

Segovia y Avila | España 2019

Oeps het bijhouden van mijn blog was toch iets lastiger dan ik had verwacht, dus hier nog even een berichtje over twee weekenden (het weekend van 7 december) geleden toen ik naar Segovia en Avila ging!

Segovia

Op zaterdag ging ik met een excursie van school mee naar Segovia en Avila. Onze eerste stop was het stadje Segovia, ten oosten van Salamanca. Segovia staat voornamelijk bekend om het ‘Disney’ kasteel en het Romeinse aquaduct. Deze hebben we dan ook beide bezocht en beide waren prachtig om te zien. De gebouwen waren net als in Salamanca ook met een bepaald soort steen gemaakt wat extra mooi is als de zon er op schijnt.

Avila

Na Segovia gingen we door naar Avila, een ander stadje. (Alles is trouwens nog best wel ver rijden, rond 1,5 uur tot 2 uur)

Avila was een klein schattig stadje met een omringde muur, vanaf waar we de zonsondergang hebben bekeken. Toen de zon eenmaal onder was heeft de chauffeur ons nog meegenomen naar een uitzicht punt waar je de stad prachtig verlicht kon zien.

Een mooie maar vermoeiende dag dus! Gelukkig hadden we dat weekend een lang weekend vrij, vrijdag was namelijk een feestdag voor de grondwet en zondag was de dag van de onbevlekte ontvangenis van Maria waardoor we maandag ook vrij hadden.

La primera semana en Salamanca

Ik ben nu al een aantal dagen in Salamanca en het bevalt eigenlijk heel goed. Het is een mooie stad met heel veel mooie oude universiteitsgebouwen en kerken.

Het begon allemaal zondag. De heenreis was wel een beetje chaotisch. De trein reed niet, het vliegtuig had vertraging en ze hebben alle passagiers drie keer naar een andere gate laten lopen. Vervolgens verwelkomde Spanje mij met regen en was het verkooppunt voor de bus naar Salamanca gesloten. Uiteindelijk is het allemaal goed gekomen en heb ik na 13 uur reizen mijn tijdelijke plekje gevonden.

Maandag begon mijn eerste dag op school gelijk om 9 uur ‘s ochtends. Het was wel eventjes wennen, ik krijg namelijk Spaans les op A2 niveau (iets hoger dan dat ik gewend ben van de lessen in Nederland). Maar alle docenten van de school zijn heel lief en willen allemaal heel graag helpen met het Spaans.

Op mijn school zitten ook twee leuke Nederlandse meiden die mij gelijk een rondleiding door Salamanca hebben gegeven. Er zijn een hele hoop mooie hoge plekken van waar je de zonsondergang kunt zien en ‘s avonds zijn alle gebouwen heel mooi verlicht.

Dinsdag ben ik met wat mensen van mijn klas naar het stadhuis van Salamanca geweest. Dit is op de Plaza Mayor (het plein van Salamanca). Normaal gesproken is het stadhuis niet open voor toeristen dus het was heel bijzonder dat wij dit mochten bezoeken. Het ziet er prachtig uit van binnen en we werden heel enthousiast welkom geheten door de mensen. Vanaf het balkon heb je een prachtig uitzicht over het plein.

‘s Avonds ging ik mee op excursie naar ‘Torres de la Catedral’. De kathedraal is heel bijzonder, het zijn namelijk een twee kerken aan elkaar. Een oude kerk en een nieuwe kerk die langs elkaar zijn gebouwd. Bij de tour zie je beide kerken van bovenaf vanbinnen, dus dan kan je de verschillen goed zien. Boven heb je ook een prachtig uitzicht over de stad en kijk je op het bovenste gedeelte van de kathedraal. Als je nog hoger gaat, de toren in, heb je een nog mooier uitzicht en zie je de bellen. Ze hadden de tour zo gepland dat we de zonsondergang konden zien vanaf de toren. Dit was opnieuw prachtig.

Woensdag heb ik weer les gehad, net als alle andere doordeweekse dagen. Ik begrijp al steeds meer, maar de grammatica is echt wel lastig. Ik heb wel al wat gesprekken gevoerd in het Spaans met Spanjaarden. In het begin was het echt wel even spannend maar ze zijn allemaal bereidt om je te helpen met de taal wat heel prettig is.

In de middag heb ik heerlijke tapas gegeten en daarna hebben we om te oefenen Shrek in het Spaans gekeken haha.

Donderdag was onze laatste les van deze week. Vandaag werd ook de kerstverlichting aangedaan in de stad, waarmee ook nu alle kerst evenementen beginnen in de stad. Mega leuk dus! Vrijdag en maandag zijn er twee feestdagen in Salamanca, dus zijn we vrij (dus extra lang weekend!). Vrijdag is het Día de la Constitución, dit heeft te maken met de grondwet (maar wordt volgens mijn docent niet echt gevierd hier) en maandag is het la Inmaculada Concepción, een religieuze feestdag.

Nou dat waren zo ongeveer mijn eerste dagen hier. Dit weekend ga ik naar Segovia op zaterdag en zondag naar Madrid (want daar hebben ze heeeeel veel kerstverlichting), dus dat is allemaal heel leuk!

Hasta luego!

Kinderdijk, The Netherlands | Travel

Yes, that were a lot of windmills! In the end of the summer, I visited Kinderdijk as a surprise for my mothers birthday. Kinderdijk is a small village in the Netherlands, near Rotterdam. 19 windmills were built there in 1740 to drain the polder, and they are the largest group of old windmills in the Netherlands. They also are on the UNESCO world heritage list and a well-known Dutch attraction.

I do live in the Netherlands, but I’ve never visited it before. It was really nice! It was a beautiful warm sunny day, and the area is perfect for hikes and bike rides. The area is free to visit, but for a small price, it is possible to see the mills from the inside. We bought tickets and it is fascinating to see how the people lived back in the days there! From the outside, the mills don’t look that big, but it is actually quite big! Sometimes they even lived there with 10 people!

We also learned some more about how The Netherlands maintains all the water now, and back in the days. It’s an amazing system and I am just so proud of my country. It’s fascinating to hear about and to realize how good we are with water. Although I’m still quite happy I don’t live in the part where the land is lower than the land, because it would just frighten me as I’m so bad at swimming haha. But still really proud!

Hope you enjoyed it, and maybe even want to visit Kinderdijk yourself. If you want to, you can look all the information on how to get there here xxx

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The Czech Republic | Travel Diary

This summer, I’ve visited the Czech Republic. Two weeks long, we’ve explored this beautiful country. Prague is, of course, the capital, but there is much more to do and see besides that! Especially if you love nature, it is perfect to take long walks through the woods and visit lots of castle ruins.

Bohemian Paradise

Our accomodation was really close to the bohemian paradise, so we’ve spended a few days hiking there. It is really big, and there is lots so see. The landscape is mostly hills, sometimes harder to walk, but most of the times it’s more flat and easy to walk. Besides these extraordinary looking rocks, there are also loads of beautiful castle ruins!

Castle on the hill

The Czech Republic is rich of castle ruins. And they are all so worth visiting. Most of them are on top of a hill, so you have to climb, but the castle itself and the view is so beautiful. We visited two. The first one one the photo was quite big and you could visit all the towers. It reminded me of Rapunzel! The other castle on the picture was really a ruin, the two towers were the only thing left! For both castles we had to pay entrance, but it was around 2 or 3 euro, really cheap!

Prague

The capital Prague is of course worth the visit. I’ve visited it last year with friends, and it was so fun to explore the city again! It is by far one of my favorite European cities. There is so much to do and to see and the ambiance is so relaxed.  I actually didn’t take much photos, so if you want to see more you can check out my blogpost about Prague from last year!

Highest mountain of the Czech Republic 

The highest mountain of the Czech Republic is in the north of the country. It is 1603 meters high (and yes we’ve walked all of it, it was hard but I was really proud we made it) and on top of it there is the border with Poland. So on the one side you see Poland and on the other you see the Czech Republic!

These were defintely the highlights of this trip. But we also just relaxed at the pool, eat delicous food and our car decided to stop working. Gladly they managed to repair it, what was really hard because they barely speak English haha. But I had a great time there.

Thank you for visiting xxx

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Foodstock Festival 2017| FOOD

Near the end of May (I know it’s really long ago), there was this foodtruck festival in my city, named Foodstock Festival. My friends and I went there, had lots of tasty food and chill in the sun. It was a really sunny day, and we had a great time! I filmed some and made a little “vlog” out of it to show the ambiance.

And a few photo’s of the food of course! You had to pay everything with special coins, those were quite expensive for what you get eventually. But oh well. I know of myself that I’m easily hungry again, so I had already a bit at home haha. I ended up eating mostly sweet desserts and coconut water. The ones in Asia are way better, but at least it was a coconut. I don’t know actually what was going on in my mind, but I decided to buy a glitter unicorn tattoo (that doesn’t even look like a unicorn) with my last coin…

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Drink met je billen bloot melk uit een kokosnooooot❤🌞 @gabyoosterhuis @eviedefouw

A post shared by Daisy van der Plas (@daisyvdplas) on May 27, 2017 at 11:06am PDT

It was a fun day. I had a great time with my friends and lots of delicious food to choose from. I would recommend everyone going to a food festival if there is one near you! Especially if you love food as much as me, it’s a dream come true!

Have a nice day everyone, thank you for visiting! xxx

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SRPRS ME: Budapest | Travel Diary

It’s been a while but here it is, the SRPRS.ME TRAVEL DIARY. A while ago my best friend Gaby and I decided to do a srprsme trip again. SRPRS.ME is a Dutch travel agency where you can book surprise trips. We chose for the four day broke trip. We also did one last year, read that here.

So last week it was finally time to reveal our destination. We had to be at the airport at 6.30 AM on Sunday. It was so early, but totally worth it. I already had the feeling we would go to Budapest, and I was really happy that I was right haha

It was only a one and a half hour flight, so we had a full first day in Budapest. After finding our hostel we went for a late lunch. We both a club sandwich and it was so good. After lunch we just wandered around a bit through the Pest side of the city. We saw already lots of beautiful buildings. What a beautiful city! We ended up having dinner close to the big basilica, where we also had some tasty cocktails.

It was a beautiful sunny day again and we decided to go to the famous thermal bath house.  It was a really big yellow building, with lots of warm and cold thermal baths and also some saunas. It was fun to see and a great experience, but it wasn’t really my thing. After the baths, we visited the Heroes Square and a market. We did some shopping and in the evening we went to the biggest ruin club/pub in Budapest.

Our last full day in Budapest we went to the Buda side. It has hills, with a lot of beautiful building on top of the hills, and you have an amazing view on the Parlement and over the rest of the city. We wandered around there, it was amazing.

For dinner we ate at a fancy Italian restaurant. Really nice.

That was already our last day, the next day we flew back home. I had a great time in Budapest. It is a fun city and there is a lot to explore. I am really happy that srprs.me sent us there! The flight and accommodation were also really good, we had a great hostel and it was in the middle of the city.

Thank you so much for visiting, and I wish you all a lovely day xx

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Citytrip: Berlin, Germany | Travel Diary

About a week ago I visited the beautiful capital of Germany with my family.

We arrived Saturday evening in Berlin after a long car ride. After checking in at our hotel we wandered a bit around looking for a place to eat. We saw a little piece of the wall. Eventually we ended up in an Italian restaurant.

While walking back to our hotel we saw this beautiful and impressive sunset over the railway.

Sunday morning we walked besides the wall. There were a lot impressive and political graffitis on the wall. Very interesting. I uploaded some to give you guys an impression.

We walked a lot and saw Checkpoint Charlie, an old watchtower, an expediton about the history of Berlin before the wall and also the Holocaust Monument. It was very impressive. We also went downstairs were you could read about what happened and families that didn’t survive it. It’s eye opening, especially because in school I mostly learned about what happened in my country and now I also read about how horrible it was in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.

We also visited the Brandenburger Tor, walked over Unter den Linden, the Reichstag and a big church. The highlights.

In the evening we ate a big schnitzel. You kind of have to….

On Monday we did a shopping day. Yesterday we walked the whole day, and we visited quit heavy and emotional monuments, we decided that today would be a metro and shoppingday.

We went to the big shopping street Kurfurstendamm. It reminded me a bit of the Champs Elysees, what my father later told me, was the intention. The street was full with expensive shop as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci etc. I just love it, eventhough I can’t afford it. Doens’t matter where I am, but I almost always find the desinger shops.

There was also this big warehouse called Kaufhaus des Westens. I may have bought something at Tiffanys and Co there…. Audrey Hepburn was there too so…..

When I had spend all my money we walked to the Siegessäule. It was possible to get inside and walk all the stairs up to, where you had an amazing view.

In the evening we had dinner at an Italian restaurant again.

On Tuesday we went to the Hackesche Höfe, a cute little place with small shops inside. After some walking around we had lunch at an Asian restaurant where they had delicious Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese food.

We also went to the Museum Island and to some churches. Being cultural.

In the afternoon we visited Alexander Platz, where we shopped a little and had curry wurst with fries as dinner.

Wedneday it was time to go back home. We quickly visited Potsdam, where we had a delicious lunch and walked around a bit. After that it was time for the very long car ride again.

Berlin was very lovely. It was very educational, interesting and impressive. There is a lot to see and to learn. It impressed me a lot.

Hope you have a lovely day!

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TIME TO GO HOME | Travel Diary

After almost two months of travelling in South East Asia it was time to go back home. Wednesday April 19th 2017 was the day I left Cambodia. I flew early in the morning from Siem Reap to Bangkok. There I had to wait for 8 hours for my flight to Singapore from where I eventually would fly to Amsterdam.

It was a long day and flight. The only thing that made me really happy was that I got two times dinner. The love for food is huge. And I had an amazing seat in the airplane with loads of space for my legs.

At 7 in the morning I arrived at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. My mom and dad were waiting there for me, I was really happy to see them! 🙂 I’m really happy to be back home safe and see my family again. It’s also so weird to be back, it seemed like everything was changed. Probably just because you haven’t seen it in so long.

While I’m writing this, I’m already home for longer than a week. It’s cold in the Netherlands and I miss the warmth of Asia, but I’m happy that I can see my family and friends again when I want to. I love travelling, and it is one of the best experiences in life, but (really cheesy) home is where the heart is.

As a nice ending of my trip I would like to share my favorite photos I posted on Instagram. I don’t know why, but I just like scrolling back in my Instagram and see all the great things I experienced and seen there.

THAILAND

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Showering this cute little baby 🐘

A post shared by Daisy van der Plas (@daisyvdplas) on Mar 10, 2017 at 3:59am PST

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Just chillin'

A post shared by Daisy van der Plas (@daisyvdplas) on Mar 12, 2017 at 4:04am PDT

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Had to fall in the sea first to make this perfect photo 😅🌴🌴🌴

A post shared by Daisy van der Plas (@daisyvdplas) on Mar 15, 2017 at 3:49am PDT

VIETNAM

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Halong Bay with my bae 💕

A post shared by Daisy van der Plas (@daisyvdplas) on Mar 21, 2017 at 7:22am PDT

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Casually posing with pretty lampions🏮🏮🏮

A post shared by Daisy van der Plas (@daisyvdplas) on Apr 2, 2017 at 8:22am PDT

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Me and my coconut on the beach☉☉☉☉☉

A post shared by Daisy van der Plas (@daisyvdplas) on Apr 4, 2017 at 12:20am PDT

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About last night 💃🍸🍸🍸gonna miss these girlies❤❤❤❤ @paaulien97 @josie11_

A post shared by Daisy van der Plas (@daisyvdplas) on Apr 8, 2017 at 11:51pm PDT

CAMBODIA

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Happy Khmer New Year!! 🎉 They throw water and babypowder everywhere, and look how happy they are ❤☉

A post shared by Daisy van der Plas (@daisyvdplas) on Apr 15, 2017 at 8:03am PDT

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I tried, and failed. Oh well…

A post shared by Daisy van der Plas (@daisyvdplas) on Apr 18, 2017 at 5:12am PDT

Travelling through SE Asia was amazing, I had the best time there. It felt like home, the people were so kind and I met the most amazing people there from all over the world. I learned a lot, I got a lot of new and great experiences and I made lots of new friends. I’m definetly going to miss it, in fact I miss it already. But it’s good to be home.

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Impressive Angkor Wat | Travel Diary

My last three days in Siem Reap I went to visit the Angkor Wat temples.

SUNDAY – DAY 1

First day of Angkor Wat! The evening before I met a girl in my hostel with whom I’m going to Angkor Wat for three days. In the morning we rented some bikes and bumped into this guy from our hostel. Eventually we ended up going with the three of us, that was great! 

We first had to go to the ticket center, where we had to take a picture and got our own personal ticket for Angkor Wat. It was still the Khmer New Year and all the Cambodians went to the temples. The roads were crowded, full with trucks with people in the back who were shooting at everyone with their water guns. Very refreshing as it was 35 degrees again. There were also lots of parties and festivals going on around the temples. 

All the temples were so impressive and beautiful. The most famous one is Angkor Wat, and ofcourse that one was really crowded. The funny thing was that the whole temple complex was mostly full with Cambodians. We were mostly the only western people there. I loved it! We already saw so much and had so many impressions and this was only the first day!

MONDAY – DAY 2

We had to wake up really early in the morning because our tuktuk driver came pick us up at 4.30 in the morning. Crazy early, but the sunrise was is worth it. I’ve never seen a sunrise in my life (as in waking up early for it and sitting down to see it in peace), it was one of the best experiences in my life. It was wonderfull how you slowly saw the sun coming and how you felt the temperature rising. I don’t understand why I’ve never done it before because it is so magical, beautiful and amazing. (Ps, probably because I love sleeping too much) 

After the sunrise we went back to our tuktuk driver. We couldn’t find him at first, but after a while we found the guys sleeping in this hammock. I need one too, it looked really comfortable.

We visited loads of temples, honestly I can’t really remember which because I only had like 4 hours of sleep and was so tired. But they were all really beautiful and I loved it. We did the big tour, with a few temples from the small tour so we had seen all the highlights from Angkor Wat. We’ve all so visited some temples that weren’t so touristic (also maybe because it was 7 in the morning ). It is all just so impressive, but I hope that pictures say more than words. I especially loved the jungle Indiana Jones temple, but sadly everyone loved that one so it was really crowded. Still definitely one of my favorites.

We came back in the afternoon and after some naps we had some street food at my favorite street food lady. She is an amazing cook. 

I also got this beautiful henna tattoo, I love it. In the evening we did some cocktails and went out with two guys that we met in the hostel and went to Angkor Wat with on the first day. It was so funny, we ended up in the club with only Cambodians. Really blending in here.

TUESDAY – DAY 3

My last day in Cambodia! In the morning/noon we went to the market for some shopping. We had some great bargain deals. 

In the afternoon we went to Angkor Wat again to see the sunset at the Phnom Bakheng temple. Loads of people wanted to there, and they only allow 300 people to go up. So we had to wait for a long time, kind of already gave up that we would see it. Luckily a few people came down and we could get up! It was quite cloudy, but still really beautiful. I love sunsets, but the sunrise was still the best thing ever. 

In the evening I had dinner for the last time at my favorite street food place.  Loved how she keeps recognising me, going to miss my food women. She was amazing.

After that we went to the night market, you can say I’m quite addicted to markets. I like it, but my bank account doesn’t haha. 

Well that was my Asian adventure.  Wednesday morning I’m flying back home. 

I will write a diary about my journey home, and also about my favorite moments and experiences. I’m really happy that I did it, and so greatfull that I had the possibility to experience something so amazing like this. It’s been a week or so since I’m home, yes I am really lazy with writing, but I’m missing it already. 

I hope you enjoyed all my travel diary posts about my journey. I definitely did and I’m happy that I have lots posts to read back to. 

Thank you for visiting! Hope you have an amazing day 🙂 xxxxxx

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