travel blog + trip review (feb 2026)
I was on a trip for my fateful reading week, and it has been so lovely. As per the requests of many, I was to create a travel vlog, like I had for my Frankfurt trip (send me a message for the link!), but tbh it didn't turn out in the way I would have liked (as in I have taken very few videos). So I will take an alternate route and write about it (novel idea). I will also figure out how to add photos.
Currently sitting in the Brussels airport – note to future self, bring a plastic see-through bag next time you fly through here – by the smoking area because it's the only place with tables, and I like having a table to use as a workspace.
This review will go as follows: I will review the five countries I visited + I will review the museums and touristy things I went to + I will review the food I ate (that wasn't homemade). Just as an explanation to the people, I was sick for a few days in there so I did not eat too much.
review: the Netherlands
I was in the Netherlands from the 12 February until the 15 February, and my honest opinion? I didn't even see ONE Dutch person, huge let down, ass country.
Just kidding. While it is true that I saw zero Dutch people (by "Dutch person," I mean anyone over 200cm / 6 foot 6 inches tall), I did meet many people who called the Netherlands their home. It was a fun place with lots to do, plus I got to experience a taste of Canada by staying at the official residence of the ambassador to the Netherlands (aka Sarah's dad, aka Sarah's house – Sarah is my friend from childhood). We did tons and tons of adventures and her parents were awesome and I felt like I was at home for real. The Netherlands was warm (4ºC, on average) and green (as in grass) so the bar for what I considered good weather was already very low.
I only pooped one time which was not ideal, but I did it! My Europoo-an poop map is popping! (see photo included). I met the American cat, Walter, and caught a glimpse of the Dutch cat, Jasper (pronounced: Yasper because Dutch). The country's transit system is sooooo excellent because it's one card that you scan and it takes you on local busses, trams and intercity trains. Which is like the GO system in the GTA, except on steroids and for an entire country.
Special shout-out to Beth, Sarah's mom, for getting me Saltene crackers and Ginger ale and covering me with a blanket when I fell asleep on the couch.
I had already been to the Netherlands, so I kind of knew what I was getting into in terms of the Dutch language and their weird obsession with Max Verstappen, but in hindsight, I realize my impression of the Netherlands is extremely warped by my weird experience when I was last there (2023): me and my cousin Emily went to a town called Roermond and we were at a music festival... we ate churros, sno cones and frites w mayo (duh!). There was the main stage where actual musicians were performing, then the hidden stage, where random civilians were allowed to sing on the karaoke stage (like... huh?). Then an old Dutch lady found out we were Canadian and gave us the driest molasses cookies known to man. Like I totally appreciated the sentiment because old lady awwwww but the cookie was literally inedible.
The Dutch language is English + French + German had a baby. I already speak all three, so I was blessed with the ability to read-ish (more like understand) street signs – but the language has so many extra letters and weird exceptions and specific pronunciations (example: G is pronounced like "coughing up phlegm sound") so I cannot read out loud very well / speak (mainly because I don't know any words). Still was a good time.
What did I do there (Netherlands)? well, here was the plan:
Day one: arrive at 10ish, drop stuff at Sarah's + Rotterdam (aka Rotter-day)
Day two: Amsterdam (aka Amster-day)
Day three: Utrecht / Doorn / Gouda + cheesy valentine's day movie
Day four: bye bye, NL (leave early)
It went more like this:
Day one: flight was delayed three hours, arrived at Schipol at 1pm, go direct to Rotterdam, home, dinner, watch Olympics
Day two: wake up, go to Amsterdam, do museum, go home because Veronica is sick and can barely stand, sleep for 4 hours, watch Olympics, fall asleep on the couch at 8pm
Day three: sleep until 12, drive to Doorn, Huis Doorn, bus home, eat cheese and crackers + watch Olympics, early bedtime
Day four: ride to Den Haag Centraal, get on bus.
What this makes apparent: maybe I am cursed, but I still managed to have fun everyday. I am happy with what I did, given my situation.
Review of the activities I did / facilities I used in NL
Day one: Rotterday
Overall Rotterdam was very cute. Easy to find things, very walkable, and easy to navigate (or maybe its because Sarah has been many times). I learned a few things about it – the entire city was flattened during WW2 so all the new buildings are more modern than people would expect when they think of the Netherlands. It is one of the biggest port cities in North-Western Europe and its main imports are juice, fruit and veggies. I also learned that it’s a major tennis city (I had a failed tennis arc last summer), as implied by the tennis monument? And the giant tennis ball at the central station. It rained while I was there must it was the misty rain so I liked it, and I totally expected that when coming to the Netherlands (I didn’t, however, pack an umbrella or proper raincoat).
Rotterdam Centraal station lockers: easy to find, easy to navigate, a little pricey, English options were readily available. Very happy with the facility.
Rotterdam boat tour: very fun, semi-educational, tour was in Dutch, German, English and French (in that order) so I would give the tour to Sarah after hearing the German explanation. There were some silent moments, so we used that time to catch up. We sat on the roof for a bit but it was cold so we went inside to the warmness and had hot chocolate. Good bathroom (reminds me of the uO bathroom in Jock Turquot second floor near the UOSU offices). Overall very fun and taught us a lot.
Cube Houses: pretty neat to look at. I don’t understand how they work on the inside (like this is totally a crazy kitchen ordeal). Also imagine living there and tourists show up regularly to take pictures of your house like ??????????
Erasmus statue: Sarah had to explain who he was because I didn’t know. She called him a humanist as in he promoted the humanities, not that he was human (I fear that was already implied). The statue was fun and cute and the monument to him + his legacy was very cubist but still looked nice. Both were outside the church he did something important in. But while Rotterdam has some Erasmus memorabilia, Gouda also claims him as theirs because having the cheese as their’s and someone else famous’ birthplace (I think Van Gogh) wasn’t enough.
Day two: Amsterday
Van Gogh Museum: Very nice. I am so sorry to Vincent that I was ill and had to sit down in your museum. From the famous paintings of his, I saw the bedroom painting (blue and the bed in the corner), the potato famine painting (or something idk), the sunflowers (part of a temporary exhibit on his favourite colour: yellow), and the cherry blossoms, which I am told was painted for his nephew(also named Vincent van Gogh)’s baby bedroom.
The yellow exhibit was really interesting because they borrowed other pieces from other museums that were yellow, and they worked with local and current artists to create a section of “how different kinds of yellows smell” (sunny yellow vs muted yellow, etc). It was very outside of the box, and there was a place at the end to vote for your favourite. There was also a yellow book collection and a yellow ball gown, in addition to your typical/ expected paintings and drawings, which I thought the use of multi-media was clever. There was three floors to this temporary exhibition which is honestly insane, the second floor played with yellow lighting to emphasize certain colours (and make the whole thing look like Breaking Bad when they go to Mexico). We looked like we were in black and white which was so cool. The third floor was semi-interactive; you put on a pair of noise cancelling headphones, and three musicians were giving a painting from the yellow display to capture in their song. So you wear the headphones and look at the painting associated with each song. It was a very well-thought out exhibition and I liked how they used different scents (smell, sight, hearing), because there is absolutely more than one way to experience colour and art.
The regular collection was four floors, which in my opinion was a little excessive. The main floor has a room dedicated to his self portraits (white ginger man, beard, straw hat sometimes, pipe sometimes, easy guy to paint it seems). But it also had a timeline of his life which is actually insane. He created art for 8 years, he was mainly self-taught. He checked himself into a mental institution and cut off his ear in the same year (5th or 6th year of painting, I don’t recall exactly). By the last year of his life, he was painting an average of 2 paintings per day, and then shot himself. Kind of a crazy story. The second floor was dedicated to the art of his friends, which I didn’t find necessary, but his friends’ art were also interspersed between all the levels. It was slightly upsetting that starry night wasn’t there. Overall, Vincent Van Gogh was a pretty cool guy, and talented artist. My favourite pieces were the sunflowers and his sketch of bugs (photos included later). I feel like I learned something (facts about the man’s life) there and also experienced something truly unique (pretty much all within the yellow exhibition), two cornerstones of a well-done museum.
Anne Frank House: we did not get tickets to get inside. I think I am okay with that arrangement because at that point I was very ill and struggling to walk very far and also freezing cold because I packed poorly (I saw that the weather was 4ºC, so I packed for spring, I did NOT consider things like wind, the days when it was 0ºC, and rain) and also she was not home? I think it would have not enjoyed myself had we done the museum there. We saw her statue, which was very well done, especially the facial details which were stellar. We did not see any stepping stones outside of her house, like I was hyped up to see, but alas (we saw other stepping stones in the street so I was happy with that). And like… oh no I guess I have to go back to Amsterdam now because I missed out.
Coffee place: solid cute little place. The lady who made it was probably the closest thing I saw to a Dutch person (tall) but like she was probably a student. We sat in the back corner and drank our drinky drinks because (1) it was cold outside, (2) Veronica was sleepy and/or about to fall over. I paid 4 euros for a tea which is not ideal – also it was a mint tea that was just boiling water + fresh mint leaves + a little bit of honey and was very fire and yummy (I can see the future when it’s warm and sunny at home and the mint plant is ready for harvesting) – very nice on the sick stomach. Sarah got a cappuccino probably because that’s kind of like her brand, and I am 90% sure we had croissants too.
Central Station: many weeks ago, Jaxon the Barista told me that the central station was the coolest most beautiful building he had ever seen. I was NOT let down. We took the tram down the main central street and I look at the office building next to the station and think “what the eff, Jaxon the barista. But also the castle next to the train station is so lovely.” I was totally looking at the wrong building. The “castle” next to the train station was the gorgeous train station. We got on a whatever train and went home.
Day three: Doorn
I went into this trip assuming that Doorn was my little light at the end of the tunnel, my piece de resistance, if you will. I was sure right. After sleeping for what I swear was 21 hours (4 hour nap after Amsterdam + 4 hour couch nap + 11 hours actual sleep… okay maybe not 21 hours oops), I was good to go, I was eating food again like a normal individual would do (peanut butter bagel!!!!), and Sarah’s parents decided to drive us to Doorn. It would have been a 2.5 hr train ride there, and considering we were not ready to leave until like 12:45, it was looking like we would just go into Den Haag, but Sarah’s parents literally saved the day by driving us (1 hour drive vs 2.5 hour train + bus). Doorn was surprisingly popping and lots of people were out and about or cycling that day, which really brought some character to the otherwise empty town. There was only one reason to go to Doorn, and I feel like I really checked everything off my Netherlands box by being there.
His life story goes like this: His grandpapa was Kaiser Wilhelm I, Emperor of Germany during the war with France in 1871. He lead the process through which Germany became a united country and not just a collection of nation-states. He let Otto von Bismarck (crazy guy who thought war and inter-European alliances was a huge game of chess) walk all over him and do whatever tf he wanted. One day Wilhelm I dies, his son (name unknown to me, also I don’t care) takes over for two months, and then dies. This leaves Wilhelm II (affectionately called “Kaiser Bill” by one of my history profs and I’m not sure if that’s a thing people do, or if Marcel was just truly unique in the way that he had nicknames for random historical figures… like good for him?). Anyways, Wilhelm II tells Bismarck to POAD because he doesn’t want some old guy running his country. Then he does a bunch of stuff (like live his life in his beautiful, luscious Potsdamian palace aka home), the war breaks out and much later on 9 November 1918, the Germans crowd outside his home and call for him to abdicate the throne. I know the date so well because (1) that’s my birthday, and (2) that’s really close to the day the Armistice was signed (11 November 1918) and [fun fact, not a reason] the Berlin Wall also fell on 9 November 1989 (so my birthday is a big day for German history #cool – growing up I never shared a birthday with anyone except my 4th grade teacher + supply teacher from 1st grade who was Italian and taught us (a bunch of 6 year olds) about landmines???? So having cool things happen on my birthday is really cool and possibly even novel to me).
So Wilhelm II leaves Germany because he is not emperor anymore, he is disgraced, and he had/ acquired property in the Netherlands. So off he goes to Doorn. When I say this guy is sassy, allow me to explain why. (1) his moustache is the moustache of a sassy man, (2) he refused to go back to Germany (in life and in death), unless they reinstate the monarchy (which at this rate is not happening): he really said “this is the hill I will die on” and then died on it, and (3) he regularly sent letters to H!tler filled with backhanded compliments. These pretty much said: “I love what you’re doing with my country. Why don’t you reinstate the monarchy?” (I am not sure how factually correct this is, but that’s how I remember the story). Anyways, Wilhelm died in 1941 and the N@zi’s had to make the funeral all about themselves. The death of Wilhelm II became a symbol that the monarchy is truly over, as the N@zi officers Brought his coffin, draped over with the N@zi flag into his crypt in Doorn (Wilhelm II did not want this for his funeral – obviously he had no say in the matter because (1) it happened anyway and (2) he was dead).
I will go through everything we saw while visiting the estate, and my reviews on the matter!
Huis Doorn grounds: very pretty grounds. Open to the public every day from 7-7. Some items of note are the following: statue of woman on a horse (supposed to be Wilhelmina of Prussia, his grandma(? Or other relative)), giant eagle statue (the germans are potentially more eagle pilled than the Americans – the Americans are bald eagle fans, important distinction to make here), five tiny random graves, which we later find out were for each of his 5 pet dogs (all were daschunds - I am not sure if he had them all at the same time or what), a giant poster of a pretty archway, which is technically still there, but its a modern-art installation recreation. It was well-done, but like not the same as the original, a ginormous rose garden (there was a poster with the varieties of roses and there were four rose species named for Kaiser Wilhelm II, Wilhelmina of Prussia, Wilhelm I and one more I forget who it was named for though) It was quite nice, except no where even remotely close to blooming or having leaves because its winter. My one constructive criticism is that there should be a map pamphlet of the grounds so we don’t get trapped again?? There may have been such a thing, but the lady spoke to us really quickly in Dutch when she was telling us the information. The paths on the grounds were winding, some lead to no where and there was a moat surrounding the house (like that’s so strange for a self-exiled guy to have built… like no one was after him?). If I were to do it again, I would spend more time on the grounds and go in the rose-blooming season to get a better look at the rose garden.
Huis Doorn crypt: this is where he is buried (or where his coffin lay because he is totally not burried). I watched a Youtube video about this place before going and learned that randos cannot enter the crypt. Only family members can (like okay whatever, but also challenge accepted?). But we could look in the windows. I watched with judging eyes as other people tried to open the doors. Inside the windows, which were barred, there was a room (the crypt) and the body (not covered with the N@zi flag, but rather the flag of his empire). That was it. It was totally awesome.
Huis Doorn museum: there was not a single anything in that house that was normal. They had very modern bathrooms and toilets, no photos were allowed. He was also a clutterer. There was random stuff all over the place. One fixture that stood out to me was a porcelain chandelier that was not a thing that normal people own or probably every see in their lives. It was gorgeous. Another thing that may explain why Wilhelm II is a freak is that he did not have a chair in his office, but rather a saddle? You could not enter the museum without joining a tour, and the two options for tour are Dutch or German (we did the tour in German and I translated for madame Sarah).
Utrecht central station: I don’t remember it. Thus, I will say this: completely unremarkable. We did, however spend a lot of time of the bus from Doorn to Utrecht. All I know about Utrecht is that there a treaty from there?
Did I have Dutch food? NO. I was sick and barely ate normal food (I say normal food because there is NOTHING normal about what Dutch people eat) so I didn’t try the local delicacies like stroop waffles (I had them last time I was in the Netherlands), gouda cheese, or pickled fish? Because no thank you. Like a classic Dutch breakfast is toast or bread and chocolate sprinkles (that is fricking weird as hell). Dutch people are not real (source: me, I didn’t see any), their language is totally made up (source not needed, look up anything in Dutch).
My opinion of Dutch TV and their presence at the Winter Olympics: I did not imagine that the Dutch people were so obsessed with speed skating (100% of their medals, the last time I checked were from speed skating). 50% of their TV ads have something to do with speed skating or the speed skating stars making appearances. They do not televise anything else on the main Dutch EuroSport channel. When there are no races going on, they show replays and mockumentaries on the history of speed skating (which I slept through). I got really into speed skating though. During the 10,000m race, the one Dutch guy, in his orange morph suit, and his dutch flag headband and his stupid mullet was awesome. I was so invested in his races (I mostly liked how everyone in the stands were Dutch and wearing a fake mullet and headband – including the Dutch on-site announcers). Additionally, when they (very rarely) showed hockey replays, they didn’t translate things like “player” or “goalie” or “offside,” which is goofy if you ask me.
Next stop: Belgium!
Day four involved me and Sarah take the flexy bus from Den Haag to Antwerp/ Antwerpen/ Anvers (which having multiple spellings and pronunciations for one city name [especially when they are all your national languages] is a little excessive if you ask me – two spellings maximum, please). Sarah came along to Antwerp with me, then we parted ways.
Also in Belgium, I went into the Brussels suburbs to study, and I went to Emily, my cousin’s house, located in a tiny village near the city of Leuven (also in Belgium).
Before I arrived, I had already done a lot of Belgium and seen a lot of the important things such as Brussels, Brugges, Ghent, Oostende, and Leuven (home of Stella bear). So all that was left was actually see the Manneken pis in Brussels and go to Antwerp, Liege and Waterloo. I only checked one of those things from my list… but like, I guess that means I have to go back??? Oh fart :(
What is Belgian food? They have invented things much more interested than the Dutch have. (1) Belgian waffles, (2) Belgian chocolate, (3) fries (like those things you call French Fries that are totally Belgian…) and famously (4), Brussel sprouts which are surprisingly from Brussels. What I found out this visit is that Belgian food is actually anything you want that is deep fried. I had Belgian food for dinner one night and it was a deep fried “cheese quesadilla,” but filled with liquid cheese, deep fried meatballs, but filled with liquid meat? I don’t know how this happens. Another night we had actual, non-fried Belgian food, and that’s the only acceptable food items that have come from that country and I think the only vegetable I ate all trip. I got the meatballs in tomato sauce. Very fine herb combination, very savoury tomato sauce, the meat that was in the balls was unknown. It can with a side of salad (the vegetables I mentioned) and also a side of fries. Apparently Belgians have a big restaurant culture because they eat out often. This point is emphasized by the crying baby at the table next to us being the same crying baby who say next to Emily every time she has gone for dinner in the last 6 months. Other honourable mentions of Belgian food = whatever I had last time (endives wrapped in ham in a cheesy soupy potatoey sauce, and then baked in the oven) and chicken pot pie with a phyllo dough crust that is called whatever the Quebecois word is for “takeaway.” A dishonourable mention is asparagus, which I don’t find yummy, and the Belgians (and Germans alike) have a big asparagus thing during the spring aka “Spargel season.”
How do I feel about Belgium? It’s definitely one of the cuter places I have been to. I don’t know what a Belgian is but I think it’s a Dutch person who cannot suppress their French alter ego who comes out some days and is named Francois. Belgium itself has been affectionately nicknamed “belgistan" by my cousin Emily so that’s also cute.
Belgium is also the country of balls – (exhibit A) the Atomium aka the big aluminum balls in the sky near Brussels, (exhibit B) Brussel sprouts, (exhibit C) their meals are liquid meat meat balls and solid meat meat balls.
What did we do in Antwerp? My reviews of places we saw, foods we ate, and facilities we used:
Antwerp central station + locker facilities: the central station was probably the most unnecessarily ornate and well-decorated building I have ever seen. Marble floors, gargoyles, marble columns and accents on the walls and like why? There is no reason for this. Lockers were easy to find, easy to use and cheaper than the ones in Rotterdam. But the large locker was not very large so I had to semi-unpack my backpack to fit everything in there. Another complaint I have is that there is no online anything talking about Antwerp main station lockers, so I wasn’t even sure they existed (which was its own headache), so if I were the people of the station, I would update my website and advertise the size of the lockers/ have a model of the sizes because I was for real confused when my large locker opened and was medium maximum (the darn Belgian locker didn’t have room for my big American suitcase and big American backpack… just kidding I am not American, nor did I pack a big American suitcase – carry on is for the win!).
Random art museum: As per sarah’s suggestion (studied visual arts in high school + a bit in uni), she wanted to see a painting of the Madonna (mother of Jesus aka Mary depicted in art holding or nursing the infant Jesus) surrounded by angels (seraphim and cherubs). It was lovely for reals. Much nicer in person. The second half of the painting is in Berlin so I guess we have to go there now… I am not a big enjoyer of the art museum, generally, so like I was there physically. Things I saw there that were special to me: painting by the “Master of Saint Veronica,” and a rendition of the biblical scene: Judith beheads Holofernes (I just wrote an essay on the subject so that was nice for me to see). My favourite painting was Dali’s [??????/ name]. I think the most fun I had in an art museum was the Museo del Prado in Madrid because it has Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly delights,” and an early draft of the Mona Lisa (honestly I think it was better done than the real thing).
Other art museums that haven’t let me down: the Städel (Frankfurt), The Van Gogh museum (Amsterdam), The Picasso Museum (Barcelona).
Frites at Frites Atelier: these were delicious. I cannot express this enough. Many sauce options (5) to chose from. The place was popping so we have to sit on a bench outside in the cold. We also had croquettes which were filled with liquid cheese. The basil mayo was good, but the truffle mayo and the regular mayo were top tier. I am very happy with the experience there and the napkins had cute pictures on them.
The castle place: cool to walk around and warm inside. We did not check how much to go into the castle castle, but we were able to walk around the outer walls and such, which was cool as hell. If I were to return, I would so do this.
Train station coffee (it was actually tea): pret a manger has never let me down until now… tell me why it was 11 Canadian dollars for two bagged teas? Anyways we sat and chilled and talked and then went our separate ways.
Weather review: excellent and horrible. A beautiful sunny morning, and then cloudy midday, windy and cloudy afternoon and then snow… apparently its Belgium’s fourth snowfall of the year and was all gone by morning. I took the train to meet Emily in Leuven and that started the second leg of my trip.
Days five and six: study days
Day five was dedicated to studying at home (Emily’s house) - her dog (Nera) is insane but also so awesome. Emily took the week off work but worked from home. I did quite a bit of school work (got through all my endo slides before the big midterm, sent some emails, you know how it goes). Day six was a off-campus study day aka I went to the suburbs near Emily’s work and coffee shopped – I had a Baka dessert marscapone raspberry croissant for breakfast which was delicious and also the only thing I ate until dinner time (Belgian meat balls). Much homework done and no getting lost like last time I was let loose in Brussels.Day seven: day trip to trier!
I have been to germany before, so I kinda knew what was going on when I got there. We ate lunch at an excellent potato restaurant. Emily had the meatballs with two different sauces and fries. I had the Swiss schnitzel which is regular schnitzel with cheese sauce and ham, and fries on the side because it’s a potato restaurant. Very yummy. I spoke with the waiter in German and ordered for myself and Emily and then when Emily talked to me in English mr waited switched to English. Huge let down for me.Next stop = Karl Marx house / museum. An epic place, really, and the lady who worked their humoured me in German. We saw the chair that Karl Marx died in (he was in London at the time, chair was shipped to museum house) and the house was previously occupied by the German socialist party (completely coincidental – they didn’t know that Karl Marx was born there). Now it’s a museum. There is an entire section on the guy’s legacy which is crazy to see the worldwide impact of Mr Marx (special shout-out to the USSR for getting that done). Also he has descendants who are living, none with the surname Marx however, since he had like 12 daughters.
Day eight: day trip to Dunkirk!
This was my first time going to France (outside of an airport) and let me just say… huge let down. All the Quebecois on the internet are like “France French people don’t understand my French.” well, yes, its maybe because the French you speak is 400 years old and hasn’t had much linguistic evolution since before the French Revolution? This may be true. It was actually a huge let down and catastrophic disappointment for me when the French lady at the museum we went to spoke back to me in French. The museum in question: operation Dynamo (ww2) themed. I thought operation Dynamo would be an epic battle during the liberation but it was not. In fact, it was an evacuation mission (big success). Things I learned there: there is a classic French movie about a solider who is put in a POW camp and escapes with a cow who he attempts to bring home with him. Something happens and the cow goes missing, and then he gets on a train that’s going to France (well that’s what he thinks)… it actually takes him back into Germany and I want to watch it for real (it was a French movie, but done by an Italian director so like represent).
This is the plot of Operation Dynamo: Allow me to set the opening scene – Germans have invaded a large portion of France and the allies continue to hold Dunkirk (a strategic port city). The germans airdrop propaganda posters that say “this is you” “you are surrounded” “surrender now.” So the allies plan a massive operation to get the hell out of there. They enlist the help of civilians and their ships (the largest number of civilian ships ever used for the same purpose) and they get almost everyone out of Dunkirk in like three ish days! some ships sank… some people were bombed between the safe house and the boat, the city was rubble-i-fied. But still a great success. Pretty cool and awesome stuff happening here.
The museum was in a former war bunker which had been converted into use for a museum. The last section talked about the role of the Canadians and Czechoslovakia in the liberation of France which is tbh super duper awesome #me #my family and ancestry. All my checkslovakian male blood relatives were babies or had left to come to Canada in 1938, so we did not recognize any names of the plaque of paid respects. Northern France (or at least the museum gift shop) is also pretty big on “je me souviens,” coquelicot souvenirs, bluet souvenirs (which are flowers and not blueberries) I thought that was cool to see because it seems like such an exclusively Canadian thing (especially when you look at how the Americans celebrate their Veterans Day in comparaison), but aparemtly the wearing of a poppy is uniquely canadian (source: Emily wore one last November and it didn’t go too well?).
Day nine: day trip to Luxembourg
Luxembourg was yet another country I got to visit that I hadn’t been to before. I was told by neighbour Michelle’s uncle (who lives there), and Jacob (coworker) that it’s an expensive place to go to. Did the country meet my expectations? Yes. I paid 20 dollars for a singular sandwich. It was huge and probably the best sandwich I have had in my life. But no sandwich should cost that much. EVER. The pret a manger there was very affordable. Ie: 11 CAD for a latte + two chocolate Nutella croissants. that is not very much considering a Canadian latte is at least $6.50. Luxembourg (the city) also just has an ancient castle in the middle of the town square (also the town square is its own castle).Where else have I been? Please watch my Spain travel vlog also!
Here are some photos!
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| a church in Rotterdam |
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| famous Amsterdam canal |
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| Huis Doorn |
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| Antwerp city center |
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| Snow at Emily's |
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| The chair that killed Karl Marx NOT CLICKBAIT |
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| random building in Dunkirk (I totally uploaded the wrong picture) |
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| Luxembourg, just existing, excites me |
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