My break technically started on March 25th but as I had no real travel plans, I just stuck around the 'Bao going to the beach and out to little cities around Northern Spain until my family arrived on the 1st. It was so relaxing to just take my time doing what I wanted for a few days without classes and with plenty of sunshine, I hope all of you get the opportunity to travel to Spain even for a few days of tapas, siestas, and sunshine! When my fam did arrive, we immediately got all checked in and then hit up the Gugg and Casco Viejo for dinner, so I could show them the top spots of the city and then a little more on the walks to each place. I think they had a pretty good time, I'm sure we could have spent a week doing EVERYTHING here, but they got to see the major highlights, including the Funicular ride up one of the mountains surrounding downtown for a full view (just like the one in the 'Burgh!)
On Friday we left for Brussels where my pops and a rental car were waiting for us. Unfortunately, the weather was not as lovely in Belgium as most of the days we were there it was raining, cold, and wiiiiiiindy (cue wind sounds), but we made the best of it and saw everything major in the city like the medieval government buildings and churches. The best part, though, was getting to see my parents' wedding church and first few houses as a couple/newlywed in Europe. According to the rents, most of them seemed pretty unchanged, with the exception of the surrounding neighborhoods being much more populated or urbanized due to 23 years of change. I think my older bro got the biggest kick out of it as we got to see where he was born, his first house, and some of his old romping grounds (aka very small playgrounds or other people's houses). It definitely made my parents' dreams come true to have a family reunion back where it all started, the only problem is now all future family vacations will probably blow. (How can you top visiting the church where your parents got married over 25 years ago?? And the birth place of the eldest?)
During the Brussels spell we made a day trip to Bruges and Holland (so cool! clogs!) to see some more of the old hangouts of my parents and the famous sites of more medieval churches and government buildings. (*Warning, from here on out almost everything I talk about will not be mentioned specifically because it is either a) a medieval church, or b) super old government buildings in the medieval town square.) However, we did get to see the North Sea, some working windmills, and the beautiful streets/canals/buildings that apparently make it "Venice of the North". For such a small city (compared to my other SB trips), it was packed with tourists, probably out enjoying the small patches of sunshine we were lucky to get. For me, this city was also one of my favs because I got to drive there! That's right, I got to spend some quality time behind a manual minivan, driving my fam across borders at speeds up to 140km! (Only around 88mph, but Doc Brown and Marty McFly would have been proud.) Luckily I didn't have to drive on the left side of the road or anything, but it was nice to drive a car again since it's been almost 4 months and I feel like forgetting how to drive when I work at the Transportation Department might not look so great. It was a pretty easy trip, too, considering we made about 4 turns the entire trip since apparently all the roads in Belgium are stick straight and go on for literally MILES in a line (look it up on Google maps, you will fall asleep it is such a boring route). Can't complain though, the driving control-freak in me was satisfied for the whole semester. :)
After Brussels, Dad had to get back to work (someone has to pay for our trip), so he left Belgium while we went off to one of my favorite cities in the world, Paris!! I had already gone there on a school trip after graduating high school, but it was nice to go back and see some of the sights again and have some of my French come flying back to me just in time to order "Croque Madames et un coca, s'il vous plait". Ahh it was so wonderful! We were staying in the Latin Quarter which was only about a 5 minutes walk away from Notre Dame and the heart of the city (literally from where all the roads begin), so at night we were able to take walks to the Ile de la Cite and around some of the more eccentric parts of Paris.
We of course did some of the obvious touristy stuff, like a bus tour around the major sites and going up the Eiffel Tower, and it was so nice to do them with my family (Dad was there in spirit, of course). Some of the best parts of the trip were waiting in line for the more touristy attractions because I got to hang out with my bros and do crossword puzzles or chat with the Mom. It's those little things about traveling in Europe I think I like the best, when you are waiting around for something or even just taking a walk through the city and you suddenly remember where you are, like standing next to a church that's been around since 1160. It's surreal to think people were doing almost exactly that in the same spot so long ago and that everything is still there as a functioning civilization! Ah my history nerdiness is making me emotional, let's move on.
My family eventually had to leave me in Paris on Wednesday but luckily Linden met us on Tuesday night and the next day the two of us headed off to London for a 5-day UK extravaganza! We were mostly excited just to be speaking English again, even with the funny accents and lingo (e.g. crisps = chips and chips = fries, wtf??). For this entry, I should almost list the things we DIDN'T see because we traveled ALL OVER that city and even out to Windsor Castle where we got to be within the same walls as the Queen!
(We got to see Buckingham Palace [pic] but she was actually inside the Castle with us, somewhere!) We didn't see the London Eye, as in see it from inside (you could see it from all over the city, why spend 30 pounds going inside?), nor did we get to see Parliament or Westminster because we couldn't take pictures anywhere! For some odd reason those Brits liked to charged us for everything but then not allow any photography almost everywhere. They do like having video cameras, though, as nearly every square inch of the city is covered by CCTV, the Big Brother of the UK that has cameras EVERYWHERE. According to our tour guide, just during our little 2.5 hour tour we were probably filmed by over 300 cameras. Whaaaaaa??? I personally think it's uber creepy- why do they need that much coverage? Do crime rates actually go down because they have some Joe Schmo watching the whole world all the time? Weird. Ah well regardless of not seeing some sights and being filmed against my will and knowledge, I feel in love with London. I could really see myself living there if necessary, the public transportation system is practically perfect and the whole city just has a very welcoming feeling. Bilbao is just as nice of a city and sometimes has many more welcoming people, but at least in London it's not a daily struggle to understand them. Paris is still in the top three for Europe favs, but as of now London is a very close contender; they of course all fall under Bilbao first, just because it is my first overseas home and I feel like I have a real family here, who actually celebrated my return from SB with hugs and shouts (not really that special though, if you remember the Spaniards' volume issues).
Oh and I must mention that somehow along the way I found myself back on the Camino de Santiago not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES! In three separate cities! I knew it was a European phenomenon but couldn't believe that it still stretched all the way across Europe to Bruges, Brussels, and Paris! So cRaZy! (Also, sorry Thomas looks like a psycho here.)
All in all it was a pretty successful trip, and although it made me love traveling again (no more airport panic attacks as of yet!), it also made me ready to stop traveling for the rest of my semester until I make my final BIG trip back to the states- I do love Europe and especially Spain, but at this point I am about ready to go back to working, living, and playing in NYC with my friends and fam. Only 32 days left on my Spanish adventure, and with no real plans things could get interesting!
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