Voyage du Rhéto : Croatia !

I began my trip to Croatia already quite tired from the Spain trip.  I had only gotten back from Spain on the afternoon of the 11th, and I left for Croatia less than 24 hours later.  On the bus that night (because it took about 20 hours to get there), I didn't manage to sleep any more than maybe 2 broken and light hours. About the same amount of sleep that I had on the bus ride back from Spain.  So out of three nights, I only had one decent night's sleep.  But I also realised that I was going through 8 countries in 72 hours.  That's just so unreal to me.  It started off April 10th in Spain, and finished the 13th in Croatia.  I was in Spain, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia.  Who says that the Belgian exchange students don't get a real "EuroTour" ? :P 

We stayed in a hotel in Rabac.  It was really nice and in a wonderful location.  We had a five minute walk to the beach and not far from a bunch of touristy shops and cafés.  The hotel had a gym, 2 pools (indoor and outdoor) and everything was clean and tidy.  There were also various sport terrains.  Tennis, soccer, etc.  We were three people to a room.  I shared my room with Pauline and Polina.  They are fantastic roommates.  When we first arrived, we spent the afternoon around the hotel.  Each evening we had a meeting at 20:30 to go over the day, our options for the night, curfews, and the next day's events.  The options for the night ended up always being the same. 1) go to your room or hang out quietly in the common areas they had on each floor (our group was on floors 6 and 7), 2) go downstairs where the hotel had a dance organized.  3) go out to a café or the beach.  But no matter what we did, we had to be back in our rooms by 23:30.  I usually went out to a café because the dance wasn't much fun for me.  Aside from our group, everyone else in the hotel (or at least who were at the dance) were old german people.  So it wasn't really a young ambiance and I knew none of the songs.  

The first full day we had in Croatia (Saturday, April 14th), we went to visit the city of Pula.  Pula has an amphitheatre which is one of the sixth largest surviving Roman amphitheatres in the world.  There are a few other well-preserved ancient Roman structures like the Arch of the Sergii, the Temple of Roma and Augustus, and the Gate of Hercules.  We saw those important sites and then in the afternoon we had a lot of free time.  It was actually more free time than originally planned because I guess we were supposed to have another guided visit of something that ended up getting cancelled.  I went with a small group of girls who were out to do a little shopping.  I didn't end up buying anything until a couple of us split off from the other girls and met up with a group of the guys and I got an ice cream cone.  We just hung out with ice cream in a square for a while, but then we decided to walk down another street to see what they had there, and we met up with some other people and stopped at a café where free wi-fi was advertised.  The wi-fi ended up not working, but we spent some time just chatting together and it was nice.  Eventually we slowly worked our way back to the bus to go back to Rabac.  On the way we stopped and had caricatures done.  I had mine done with Autumn and Polina.  For the most part, they weren't actually that well done.  There were some people you could tell the guy tried to draw, but for the most part it wasn't extremely accurate.  By the time everyone was finished with their caricatures, we were all basically together in the same place and we walked back to the bus together.  But in a small park near the bus we came across a large picture frame with a bench in the middle, so of course we stopped to take tons of pictures in it.  

The amphitheatre known as the "Arena"

Arch of the Sergii

The Temple of Roma and Augustus

Unfortunately, not all of us are in this picture, but I think it's a good one anyway :) <3

On Sunday we went to the city of Poreč.  The rain we had to endure all day cancelled the plans we had to do a little tour on bike, so we did everything on foot instead.  Once again, the afternoon was free time, and a big group of 13 or so of us went out to have lunch together.  Most people got a pizza or pasta, and I had four cheese gnocchi.  It was very good, but it made me miss my Nonna's gnocchi, which is so much better.  After lunch, we walked around a little more and ended up finding a café where they claimed to have Belgian beer.  We got all psyched and went in, only to find out that they were out of stock.  We settled for Croatian beer and milkshakes.  

On Monday, our last full day, we were lucky enough to have very nice weather.  We visited the islands of Cres and Krk.  We had to go by ferry.  It's always a bit more windy on the water, so we were all thankful for the sun.  That day we had and organized lunch all together at a restaurant.  The appetizer was tuna, the main plate was squid and spinach with potatoes, and the dessert was tiramisu.  

Voila the squid. It was actually surprisingly good for how it looks! 

The ferry 

That evening we got back to the hotel and ate dinner.  After dinner we had a little bit of time before the 20:30 meeting.  Some people stayed at the hotel and chilled out for a bit, while others, like myself, went out to play some soccer.  I ended up playing a great game of frisbee.  There was a group of 10 of us and it was awesome.  We just played for fun, but we played hard.  When we went back for the meeting we were all sweaty and out of breath.
That night, our curfew was extended from 23:30 until 02:00! It was a great night.  There was a lot of laughing and fun and games down at the café.  In fact, I learned a new game called ding-ding, bottle.  It's a counting game.  Naturally, the game starts with 1, and you go around in a circle counting, everyone saying one number at a time.  But in the place of 5 and every multiple of 5, you have to say ding-ding.  If you say 5, 10 or what have you, you lose and then you have to start all over again from the beginning.  And in place of every 7, multiple of 7, or number ending in 7, you have to say bottle.  And every time bottle is said, a change of direction takes place.  So if you were originally playing in a clockwise order, you then switch and it goes counter-clockwise.  So if you say the number or fail to change direction, you have to start over again at 1.  When playing with more than 3 people it's actually so hard to get to 20.  I managed to get up to 40 with two other people.  But for the longest time when we were playing just three of us, we were always saying the same numbers because it was the same guy messing up every time at 27!  But it was great fun.

The next day we had to be out of the rooms by 10am, and we had free time in Rabac until we left at 3pm.  I spent most of my time on the beach.  On the bus on the way back I actually managed to sleep at night!  But the only way that was even possible was because I slept on the floor.  I shared a pillow with a friend and I stretched out on the floor and actually got some sleep.

I had an amazing time, and I'm quite sad that this is the last and only trip I am taking with this group of awesome people <3 

España

            My ten day trip to Spain was so awesome.  It rained nearly every single day.  But it was the things we saw and the people I was with that made the trip for me.  We went to Salamanca, Avila, Segovia, Madrid, Toledo, Zaragoza, and Barcelona.

On the afternoon of Sunday April 1^st, we all boarded up the bus at Brussels and Liege, and then we headed off to Spain.  It took over 24 hours of straight driving to get to Salamanca.  But we also made very many stops along the way.  I found it very difficult to sleep in the bus.  The seats didn’t recline far back and weren’t very comfortable for sleeping.  Already on the bus ride there I met a few new people and I went up and down the isle of the bus and handed out my business cards to everyone.  I still have so many left even though I think I’ve given one to every exchange student I met, some Rotarians, my host families, and some of my Belgian friends.  I guess I’ll still be handing them out at Central States. 

The trip was fairly unorganized, and the Rotarians with us never seemed to know exactly where we were going or how to get there, none spoke Spanish, and I feel like we could have done so much more instead of having as much free time.  I love having free time, don’t get me wrong, but we just had so much of it.  I feel like we could have seen much more in Madrid and Barcelona.  In other places like Avila, Salamanca, and Toledo, we had really cool guided visits, but in the big cities we just seemed to have walked around not knowing what we were really looking at.  But it was the first time that they were organizing this particular trip, so I was never expecting it to be perfect.  Hopefully things can be better for the future exchange students in the following years.  The chaperones were all nice as well.  But it was kind of annoying and felt super patronizing when the one guy who spoke in English did so.  Even in French it was annoying when he explained things to us or gave us instruction because he would speak super slowly and just hold onto his words and never let them go.  We only had a few kids on the trip who didn’t understand French because they were living in the Dutch part.  And the rest of us who are fluent would have been happy to translate for them.  Oh well.  The little things like that are going to be the things I barely remember.  I’ll remember the friendships I made, the places I went, the things I saw, the jokes we made, and all the good times.  Even looking back on my life, I only remember all the silly high school drama when I really think hard about it.  It’s the good memories that come out first.  The bad ones weren’t important enough to leave much of an impression on me.

Overall, I really loved it, because how else would I be able to easily visit Spain?  I got to taste some wonderful new foods, like paella and tapas.  I met a couple exchange students with whom I became instant friends.  We created so many memories and inside jokes.  I also only came out with about 430 pictures because my memory card was full.  There were a few files that I had accidentally saved in there before, and couldn’t delete with my camera.  I didn’t have my computer with me either, so I couldn’t get rid of them.  I ended up going back and deleting a few pictures that were blurry or unnecessary.  I also ended up talking some pictures using someone else’s memory card.  He’ll be putting all his pictures on facebook, so I’ll be getting them off of there. 

In Salamanca, we saw most of the important things: the university, the new cathedral, la maison de coquilles, the roman bridge, and the main square.  The hotel was pretty close to everything, so we walked anywhere we needed to go.  To get to the main square from the hotel, we had to take a street with a ton of stores, so it was impossible not to shop.  This was the beginning of me spending all of the money I’d brought with me, and then the rest of what I got from the ATM visit.  It wasn’t extreme amounts of money (because I don’t have that) but it was definitely way more than I should have spent.

Toledo was a great place to visit.  We visited a nice cathedral and a little museum of Judaism.  In the souvenir shop there I bought a beautiful journal with a little clasp to close it.  But before we actually visited the town, we were brought up on a big hill where we got a nice big panoramic view of the town.  It’s beautiful.  We also saw the cathedral and the museum attached, a part of which is actually the sacristy.  There are a few works by El Greco, as well as some Italian painters.

In Segovia, there was a big roman bridge.  That’s the one big thing I remember about that city.  We had a tour in the morning, but it was unfortunate because it was raining pretty hard all day, and with the sound of the rain, and the fact that we needed to stand further apart with all our umbrella’s I wasn’t always able to hear the tour guide.  I was also very tired and not in much of a listening mood.  So I didn’t profit as much from that day’s tour.  Luckily I have brochures and such and the internet is available, so I can look things up later.  We tried to do some more shopping here, but we couldn’t do anything during our free time because the only things open were bars, cafés, restaurants, and taverns.  In Spain they do “siesta”!  Most places are closed from 13h – 16 or 17h.  We basically just walked around in the rain

Avila was one of the most fun places we stayed.  Once again we had a lot of free time, a lot of which occurred during “siesta”.  But the most interesting thing in Avila was the Holy Week (the week leading up to Easter) processions.  I’d never seen anything like it before.  Everyone was dressed up really weirdly.  There were women dressed up in all black with black lace veils; others that looked like members of the Klu Klux Klan, but with colours, were carrying awesome staffs and torch-like lights… it was so weird!  It was actually really creepy and I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.  All of the other exchange students were sort of creeped out by it too.  But it is really a must-see.

In Madrid, we stayed in a hotel right by a subway station and a little mall.  I bought myself a much needed new pair of shoes.  My converse that I had brought with me are disgusting.  The backs are sort of breaking, they let in water, and they smell awful. It’s actually repulsive.  One of the nights in Madrid we went on a “3 km” walk to the Hard Rock Café.  Normally, I walk 3 km in half an hour, but this little walk took a good hour and a half.  So we arrived there just to have a look around and then leave.  All our feet were pretty sore because this was also at the end of a long day.  We ended up convincing the Rotary guys to take the subway back, thank heavens. 

In Barcelona I set foot in the Mediterranean for the first time in my life, but my feet were all that went in – it was so cold!  Some people actually went in all the way and went swimming.  It was barely even sunny out and no more than 20 degrees Celsius! 

Barcelona is an amazing city.  There I wish I could have done much more, but I really did enjoy the things I did see.  Most of the things we saw there were related to Gaudi.  The first thing we saw was some of the Park Guell.  It was gorgeous.  In some parts of it you can get a nice glimpse over most of Barcelona towards the Mediterranean Sea.  We also visited The Sagrada Familia Cathedral and it was completely mind-blowing.  On the outside it looks so different than any other church I’d ever seen, and then the inside was even more unexpected! There are some people who don’t like it much, but I personally love it.  Just after that, we went to “La Pedrera”, which was also very unique.  I ended up buying a little book on Gaudi there because I find his works to be so interesting.  On our last day in Barcelona, we had a lot of free time.  There was a huge market that we walked around in.  There are so many fruit stands where they sell inexpensive delicious smoothies.  They also had a lot of butchers with some sort of thing I was told was intestines in the windows?  It looked more to me like huge amounts of spongecloth.  A small group of us went and got Asian food and then we did a little bit of shopping.  

Pictures from the Sagrada Familia Cathedral