The long awaited update....

So it seems I am finally out of my granny slump and staying up past 9 pm and now it is just past 11 pm and I don't feel tired!  My mom has been bugging me that I never finished updating my blog since Lisbon and Madrid.  I just got so far behind that there seemed to be a huge chunk left out that it was overwhelming and never at the top of my list of things to do since I am now back home.

Before I get to the most recent goings on in my life...I will backtrack to where I left off.  It's been over 2 months now so the details may start to become a bit fuzzy; either because of time or maybe the alcohol had an effect :-p

I love this picture of us!!

I guess I left off with Tara coming to Amsterdam...she wasn't at my place for very long.  That part of her trip was all sort of last minute and not very well planned since she had a change in her plans.  We were in Rotterdam for probably 2 days and I got to show her around.  Caroline joined us one day because my family told me I could leave early but then she seemed kind of bummed when we were going and we invited her to tag along.  It was a lot of fun; we went for a bike ride around Delfshaven which is the older part of Rotterdam.  Caroline loves to take pictures and so she was enjoying playing photographer and it was nice to have pictures of Tara and I both. 

After showing Tara around Rotterdam, we went to Amsterdam for a night/day.  It was a super fast and rushed visit.  We ended up not having a whole bunch of time to be actually see much of Amsterdam (that's a story not meant for this blog hahaha) but she was able to see a bit.  Just means that she will have to go back for longer!!

Tara left and then I had about a week left of working before my family left for their 3 week holiday.  It was a really laid back week since the kids weren't in school anymore and I spent some time trying to pack since Trevor was coming to visit me the week that my family left and I needed to pack for our trip to Italy and pack to go home!

Trevor showed up at my door bright and early on July 24th soaking wet from the rain.  He was tired and I'm pretty sure it was 7 am so he just came in and slept for a few hours.  Honestly don't recall much of what we did that day...I don't think we did a whole lot.  We spent the week in Rotterdam and Amsterdam.  One day we went to Kinderdijk which is a little town in the Netherlands FULL of windmills.  I can't believe I hadn't been there before Trevor's visit or with anyone else.  It is such a typical Dutch place and perfect sight seeing for tourists.

We also spent a day in Delft and in Den Haag. We went out in Amsterdam on two different nights and then spent a day walking around the city.




After the week in the Netherlands we were headed to Italy!!! And sorry, but I am going to end here because I think it's time I try to sleep.  So the next update will be about my week in Italy and life since then...I promise I will write that update soon.  I have to or else I won't remember anything and I'll just have pictures to look at.

Lisbon...

Train Station Rossio

Wednesday, July 6th was my birthday!!! We also had a flight to Lisbon bright and early.  Our original plan was to stay in on Tuesday night because we had been out every night prior but of course we ended up going out with new friends.  I had to celebrate my birthday obviously!  Our day ended and started essentially at the same time...we got our bags together and rushed out the door to the metro which started running at 6 am.  We needed to catch the first train to make sure we got to the airport on time.  We looked like crazy people running through the metro, I fell up the stairs and was just all around loud and a bit drunk...meanwhile people were headed to work since it was a Wednesday.  We got to the airport and there was a huge line for check-in so I just cut everyone and asked the guy if it was too late to check in and luckily he was like well you are here right now I'll just check you in and so thankfully we were able to run to security and get on our flight just in the nick of time!

On our tour we met 2 Australian guys we ended up seeing out later that night also.  After the tour we went to get something to eat quickly and then headed to the hostel to finally check into our room.  We promptly passed out and probably looked crazy to all the people that came in and out of the hostel during the afternoon.  Later we talked to one of the guys by our beds and he said he figured we probably had some crazy night and were just going to sleep then haha...he was right at least.  

We were at our hostel by 9:30 I think and couldn't check into our room until 2 pm.  Sitting there I thought we both might pass out and never wake up again but then someone came in offering a free walking tour at 10:30 so we figured that was our best bet seeing as how we didn't know our way around at all.  It ended up being the best idea we had to go on the tour because we met our tour guide Inez who we ended up spending a lot of time the rest of the week with.  We walked around a lot of the main sights and got a lot of the history as well.  At one point we walked up one of the 5 hills in Lisbon which when they say they have big hills..they are NOT joking.  It slowly got steeper and just kept going and going until finally you got to the top and had an amazing view of the whole city.

Our hostel was really cool.  The lounge room was all covered in crazy decor and then in the computer room the entire walls were covered in graffiti and drawn on by past guests.

This one on the right was one of my favorites.

We walked down towards the water and then eventually started to make our way up...literally UP all of the hills to a big castle.  It took us forever to find the entrance to the castle.  We kept following signs and just ended up being in the general area but we just keep seeing the castle from different sides.  Eventually we found the entrance but turns out it was not the public entrance and some security guard said he would call his friend and let him know to let us pass through.  Once we got to the right side for some reason we still could not find the entrance!  But finally we did and we spent awhile walking around.  It was another really pretty view of the water and of the city.

Aussie friends!

That night we headed out with 3 guys we met in our hostel; an American, a German and an Australian.  The German was the most bizarre guy we had ever met.  He was also incredibly annoying but was traveling alone and was with the other guys.  We all eventually made it up the hill and ended up in the area called Bairro Alto which means High District.  It's where there are a bunch of restaurant/bars that people usually start the night out at.  Since it is warm and they are all pretty small I guess the thing is to buy a drink and then head out into the street so it basically ends up being a big street party since you don't have to worry about taking your drink elsewhere.  The first bar we walked into ended up being the start of the pub crawl and we saw our Aussie friends again.  Since it was my birthday and our first night out we decided to stick around and go on the pub crawl.  The guide was a friend of our tour guide earlier and she was equally as awesome.  It was a really great birthday...lots of extra drinks from the guides and a really fun crowd of people.

Tower of Belem

The next day after a late start we made our way to Belem.  Belem is about a 15 minute tram ride from Lisbon and on the water.  It had a really pretty big church, the Belem tower and the momument of discoveries.  Sadly, we got to the tower 15 minutes after the last people were allowed in so we just saw from the outside.  At this point, Tara's feet were badly blistered and mine were starting to hurt as well.  I don't know how we managed to walk so long!

That night we decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner.  The rest of the week we hardly ate anything...with all the walking and such we just either forgot or never felt too hungry.  This night we went to a Portuguese restaurant that was suggested in my travel book.  We got my favorite Portuguese meal!! Arroz de Marisco.  It was for two people and there was plenty more for probably another two people!  I wish I could have kept eating but we were both stuffed.  Tara also decided to order wine and then we ended up with the entire bottle.  After the meal the waiter also gave us 2 free glasses (little) of some Port!  It was like drinking really strong red wine with a shot of vodka added in.  But at least we got to taste some Port wine which Portugal is known for.

The best tour guides!! Inez and Maria

Our plans to stay in were yet again foiled by the fact that we drank a bottle of wine.  We headed back to the hostel and we were just going to have a glass and have a relaxing night but it was waay way cheaper to just buy a bottle of wine at the hostel bar so of course that's what I did.  Then we ended up going out and running into the pub crawl again.  Our great friends Inez and Maria were both there and they loved us so much they let us go on the pub crawl for free!

The next day we went to Sintra, a small town about 20 minutes outside of Lisbon.  The hills here were even bigger!  We took the tour bus around to all the main sights; absolutely no way we could have walked the whole thing.  The streets were really narrow and all of the houses looked old.  We spent most of our afternoon there before heading back to our hostel to get ready for dinner.

The best dessert ever!

The two tour guides definitely helped to make our trip so much better.  Without them we wouldn't have learned as much or had such a fun time.  They both work at a different hostel then we were staying at and Inez invited us to join their dinner the next night.  They were cooking a big homemade Portuguese dinner for guests of their hostel but said that it would be fine if we came since they liked us so much! :)  So after getting lost and going the complete wrong direction we finally ended up at the hostel where we hung out with Maria for a bit while Inez cooked.  She cooked a typical Portuguese dish that was rice with chicken and beans.  It was delicious!! I am not a big fan of beans but these weren't so bad and the chicken was soo good.  For dessert we had salame for dessert which was like brownies except instead of baking it was put in the fridge and cold.  It was seriously fantastic!

Palace

The next morning I had to leave to go back to Madrid where my flight to Amsterdam was from.  Tara had the day alone in Lisbon and I spent the day in Madrid.  It was the first time I have traveled alone and at times it was lonely but it was kind of nice.  I didn't have to make plans with anyone else or consider anyone else but myself.  The only downside was when I didn't know what to do or when weird Spanish men followed me.  Tara and I had missed a lot of sights the first time around so I walked A LOT.  I saw the big Palace, gardens, Cathedral, managed to walk into a Spanish wedding and a whole bunch more!  It was a nice day and then I went to a hostel I had read about that had a cool bar where everyone hung out at night.  There I met a bunch of people...an American, Australian and a Scottish guy.  We ended up with 2 other Australian girls and we played a bunch of games before finally heading out to a bar.  At some point people started to leave the group and it ended up being me and the Scottish guy when I ran into the pub crawl I had gone on a few nights earlier and saw a group of Dutch guys.  I ended up following the Dutch guys to the next bar and club and spent the night with them.  It was nice to be around Dutch people again..they are so different then the other people I have met traveling.  After being here for a year, I felt more comfortable around the Dutch guys then other people.  Plus it doesn't hurt that they are cute! :)

That night I stayed out pretty late and then got on the metro at 6 am when it started running...slept for a few hours at the airport before hopping on my flight back here.  Tara had got to Amsterdam early before me and came to my house and spent the day napping and hanging out until I got back.  We were both absolutely beat after the week away so we had a nice dinner with my family and Ineke's sister's family for Morten's birthday and then an early nights sleep before showing Tara around Rotterdam the next day!

Finally getting around to updating again..I have been meaning to for awhile but I think as I have slowed down and lacked updates, people have also stopped reading so I don't have a whole lot of motivation for it.  Although, I guess in the end this will be a nice way to look back over my year abroad (or first of many...).

The other performers

Flamenco dancer

So what is new...Tara came to visit me for about a week and a half.  I met her in Madrid on July 3rd where we stayed until July 6th/MY BIRTHDAY and then we flew to Lisbon for the rest of the week before coming back to my house.  Madrid was nice, I think there are nicer cities in Spain I would like to see but at least the weather was much nicer than here.  In fact, it was kind of unbearably hot most of the time we were walking around.  It was crazy to have a friend from home travel with me in Europe but really nice to show her what it has been like for me the past year when I would travel for a bit.  Our hostel we had our own room and bathroom which was AWESOME and way too nice for Tara's first hostel experience haha...The first night we were there was the same night as a cheap flamenco performance was going on.  A bunch of hostels have joint events they put on each night so we decided to go on that.  It was in the basement of this little hole in the wall restaurant and everyone was really close sitting on stools.  The performers had a question and answer session which was nice since I don't think any other flamenco show allows that.  Flamenco was a lot different then what I had expected but still really cool; the girls shoes were so LOUD every time she stomped the floor.

Christiano Ronaldo

After the flamenco show we headed out for dinner which was at a normal Spanish hour...11 or so I think.  We had our first meal of paella and got a pitcher of sangria!  Both were very delicious.  It was funny to be in a country where neither of us spoke much of the language...we both took French in high school so the extent of our Spanish is just what we have picked up from other friends or hearing it around.  For some reason people in Madrid seemed to rarely speak English unless they were younger and even then they didn't speak a lot of it.  We decided to wander and try to find somewhere to go out afterwards and we ended up having some Spanish guy who was promoting his bar/club bring us down some side street and in we went.  Since it was still somewhat early to be going out it was mostly just Spanish people and later on some tourists started to come in but still wasn't that great of a bar.  We started talking to a Christiano Ronaldo look alike who spoke NO english whatsoever and somehow got him to understand we wanted to go elsewhere and so he took us to another bar.  He was really nice and communicating with him was quite entertaining.  I knew more Spanish than Tara but it was still full of half sentences, stuttering and lots of hand signals from both sides.  We spent most of our night with him before meeting some other Spanish people who actually spoke English and took us to a cool club with them.

Tara in the Plaza Mayor

Us in front of the park

The next day we wandered around and walked A LOT.  We saw the Plaza Mayor, Plaza del Sol and one of the big parks and a bunch of other things along the way.  It didn't seem like Madrid had as many sights to see as other cities I have visited.  It was still a cool city and certainly Spain is much different from all the other countries I've been to.  Sometime during the day we met some other American guys in our hostel from New York and we all decided we were going to go on the pub crawl that night.  Later on we saw them again when everyone met up for the pub crawl which ended up being huge when the other hostels were added in.  Lots of hot Australian boys too of course :) Can't complain about that!  One of the guides was also American and he was cool.  We spent most of the night hanging out with the guys from our hostel who the next day we ended up going to the Prado museum and walking around with them again and then going out together also.  At midnight it was my birthday so we had birthday shots and I got to celebrate my birthday with a whole bunch of new friends in a new city!  I even somehow met a guy that went to UConn.  It was so random, he and his friends were all from Connecticut and he had on the Jim Calhoun student section shirt from the year before!  We had the brilliant idea as well to just stay out all night until our flight to Lisbon which was at 7:30 am.  The metros opened at 6 am and we just barely made it with no time to spare to our flight.  It was a stressful morning to say the least seeing as how I was a bit tipsy still and we had had no sleep whatsoever.  We both zonked out on the flight.

Still to come...Lisbon post, Tara in Rotterdam/Amsterdam and life in general.

PS TREVOR COMES IN 2 DAYS!!!!!

countdown!

11 days until Tara and I are in Madrid!
14 days until my birthday and we go to Lisbon!!
17 days until Tara is in Amsterdam with me :)
32 days until Trevor comes to Amsterdam
39 days until Trevor and I go to ITALY!
~45 days until I go homeeee

Well hallelujah I got into school and I have accepted a place at Birkbeck College (University of London) and start classes October 2nd!!! Ah I can't believe I am going to be a masters student and that I am spending another year living abroad.  I don't know when I will think to myself "hey, i miss home and i want to live in america" so until then I will keep just scooting around the world.  There are still so many places left to see and experience so we'll see where I end up.

I'm a bit nervous and unsure about moving somewhere new and starting all over yet again.  I mean it wasn't hard in the least bit for me to find good friends and adapt to living in a new culture...but it'd be nice if I had a built in network somehow like as an au pair.  I guess I will through my classmates and such but when I get there I won't have a family waiting for me to help navigate the city and culture in the beginning.  The upside is they speak english, plus they have sexy accents!

Time is FLYING by.  I can't believe how soon people are going to start going home.  My birthday is rapidly approaching too and I turn 23 aka the 2nd anniversary of my 21st birthday.  I'm going to be in Lisbon for my birthday with my best friend Tarrraaa.  Her visit is coming up soon!!! July 3rd we will be meeting each other in Madrid and then after a few days there we head to Lisbon.  Then she is coming to Amsterdam to stay for a few days before heading back.  Shortly after that my family will be leaving for their holiday and I am going to be all alone in the house.  The quiet will be nice but I'm going to need to find things to do to occupy my time.  I guess start squeezing in everything I haven't had a chance to do yet since I won't have any responsibilities aside from feeding the cats/watching the house and not dying. Then July 24th Trevor will get here!! I can't believe he actually ended up planning a trip; Im so glad he did!  It will be really fun to show one of my best guy friends around and show him what my life has been for the past year.  I miss having a big group of guys to hang out with and goof off with.  He will be here for about a week and then we will go to Italy for 6 days!  At that point, I'll have had to have packed up all of my stuff (NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT AT ALL!) and I need to figure out what I'm going to do with it all for the week I am gone and then the ~2 months I am at home for before moving to London.

So, good news everyone.  I'll be coming home sometime around August 6th or maybe a few days later depending on what my friends are doing and if I feel like jumping from couch to couch for a couple days before leaving.  Then I'll be home until middle/end of September when I will then move to London!  Everyone start saving your money and making plans to come visit me there next year!  Someone should join me for St. Patrick's Day in Dublin again :)

Procrastination...procrastination...procrastination...

Tomorrow is my interview for one of the universities in London that I applied to.  Thankfully, today is a holiday and I have the day off so I can spend all day preparing for it!  Although when it comes to procrastinating I am the queen.  I can find a million other things to do instead of what needs to be done.  None of them are worthwhile either or things that I would otherwise do if I didn't have some important thing to get done.  I know I do this and yet I still can't stop myself.  Writing this blog is just another thing on a long list of stuff to do to procrastinate.

The more I think about things for next year the more I really do realize that school is what I want to do.  I keep flip flopping partly because I want to go to school, study, learn and stimulate my brain again but I also love the idea of spending another year living somewhere and exploring, meeting new people like I have spent this last year.  Although, I think after a few months I would start to go stir crazy.  I need to do something productive and feel like I am getting somewhere so I really hope this whole school bit works out in the end.  If it does, then maybe after I get my Masters I can spend some time doing something different and living in another part of the world.  After all, I'm not even 23 yet (one month to go! eek) so I shouldn't stress too much about finding a job and figuring out my life in the next few months.

In other news, Trevor is coming to visit me the last week of July and 1st week of August!! I am so excited because the 2nd week he is here I'm planning a trip to Italy!  Everyone go ahead and google Cinque Terre because it is absolutely breathtaking and full of hiking with amazing cliffs, rocky edges and beautiful water!  Then we will probably see Pisa a bit and try to spend 2 days in Florence.  I'm stressing trying to plan this trip ASAP before flight prices go up anymore and I think we will have to couch surf to save money.  Seeing as how after being here for a year and only spending money I am going to be flat broke when I get home.  Another reason why I am stressing about next year!!! I won't work at summer camp this summer so my bank account will not get the nice little cushion it's used to. BAHHH So if anyone would like do donate money to the Danielle Fund feel free to do so...or for my birthday you could all give me money to fund my wonderful trips and allow me to afford to live at home for a few weeks in August.  I wouldn't hate it!

danielle gaat naar thuis!

Grandma....broke her fingers and has a sweet tie dyed cast 

Well well well.  I have Wednesdays off so when my family went away Wednesday-Sunday it gave me 5 days free!  I ended up going home, mostly so that I could go to the Portuguese Consulate and sign papers for my Portuguese nationality.  Being home was such a weird sensation.  The flight attendant sitting across from me on the Amsterdam-Philly flight told me the first thing I would notice was how different American airports are.  She couldn't have been more right.  I had never noticed it before but all the European airports I've been in are much quieter, slower, calmer and somehow way less crowded.  Philly was just a constant stream of voices and noise and people moving much faster.  It was nice to not be the only one speed walking to where I needed to go, even though I had 5 hours to kill.  Hearing English spoken all around me was also really weird.  I am so used to only hearing English with my friends and then all the conversations around me in Dutch. The first thing I did when I landed in Philly was go straight to the Dunkin Donuts for my favorite iced coffee.  Sadly, I am no longer capable of drinking sweet, but weak, American coffee.  It was good but after a few sips I thought I might throw up. Then when I was finally at Bradley I gave my mom the biggest hug ever.  She was laughing at me about acting like I have been living on another planet; even the license plates were funny to see again.

Meghan visiting from Jersey :) and Tara

From the airport I got to drive myself home!!!!  It felt so goooooood to drive in a car again!  I hadn't driven since before I left around August 16th or something.  I was really nervous that I wasn't going to remember how to drive or that at least my reactions would be slower but I didn't miss a beat.  First thing I did when I got home was hug my cat but she ran from me :(  I guess cats don't remember you when you've been gone for 9 months but eventually she warmed up to me.

Tara, Rob and Tan...lookin good 

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Trev and Tara: WE MADE IT

It was so nice to sleep in my big comfy bed again too.  I have really missed having a big bed with a bunch of pillows and blankets.  Pretty much as soon as I got home my friends started to come over.  First was Tara and then a bit later Jon came by.  We are some yummy stuffed peppers I had asked my mom to make for me.  Later Trev came to my house and we spent the night watching ICE HOCKEY (WOOOOO) and hanging out.  I was incredibly tired the entire time I was home since the time was 6 hours back.  So my body was used to it being midnight when it was only 6 pm.  And since I was only home for 5 days I needed to push through the tiredness so that I could actually do what I needed to do and see my friends.  I spent each night out with my friends, went hiking, shopping, saw my grandparents, out for sushi and out for mexican.  It was so nice to eat Mexican food that was actually spicy again!  Then of course hiking was great...I haven't seen a mountain since I left or really been on trails in the woods either.  I miss that part of nature from home.