What is Feldy Doing?

Hello blog world, it's been awhile!

I looked at my last blog post and realized it was about 2 weeks ago- but it has been an extremely busy 2 weeks! Lots of schoolwork, combined with mom and sis coming to Paris, and a trip to London!

That's right, Sara and Hannah Feldman crossed the Atlantic and came over to Paris for a week. Last time Mom and I were in Paris together, we were wanderers with only a small clue about how the city worked. This time, it was much smoother, and I took them around to see a lot more. It was Hannah's first time in Paris, and I think she enjoyed it! (Except all the walking- she was not a fan) I enjoyed playing tour guide for the week, as well as getting to do the touristy things I hadn't gotten to do yet- like go up in the Eiffel Tower!

On top of the Eiffel Tower: 2012

Throwback! In the Louvre: 2009 (note the extreme change in height differences)

It was also nice to have dinner at real French restaurants for the week- much better than my usual dinner of some sort of pasta concoction.

Hannah and I enjoyed making fun of our mom's obsessive picture taking (don't worry Mom, we love you for it) and did lots of frolicking throughout the museums and gardens together:

Together in the Centre Pompidou (courtesy to my mother for this picture) 

Since they came over Thanksgiving, we chose to celebrate it in a great Paris way- Climb to the top of the Arc de Triomphe to see the Champs Elysees at night, and then a delicious dinner on the Champs Elysees. No, we didn't have turkey, but the meal was so good I think it makes up for it. 

View from the Champs Elysees on Thanksgiving night

After a very fun filled week with lots of sightseeing, they went home to the US and I jumped on a plane to go to London for a few days. I absolutely loved it- London reminded me a lot of New York, but it definitely has its own personal flair. I also have a small obsession with the royal family, so I especially loved seeing Buckingham Palace. 

Future home one day

I also enjoyed taking the tube- Philadelphia subway system, step your game up! 

Underground entrance near Westminster Abbey! 

I had a small culture shock upon getting to London- it was actually strange for me to be back in a country where everyone spoke English. Even though in France all of us study abroad students speak English to each other, I am still used to hearing another language and using it in shops. I enjoyed being able to read and understand a newspaper again, but I realized I have gotten used to and like being around French all the time. 

I officially have one month left in France, so I am trying to do as much as I can within this last month! Hopefully that includes traveling to other parts of France, but with finals and wanting to hang out in Paris we will see where I get to go! 

Bonne Nuit! 

Feldy 

Feldy takes Amsterdam and All of Belgium

I said goodbye to Paris once again for my two-week break and headed off to Amsterdam with Jake, where he is studying. It’s hard for me to really fall in love with cities- I tend to be devoted to certain ones, such as Philadelphia and Paris. Barcelona was great for a vacation, but Amsterdam I fell in love with again. It claims to have more canals than Venice, and the main mode of transportation is by bike.

Evelyn and my sweet modes of transportation

It is also full of these “gingerbread houses” (my word for them), houses that were all brick with white lining. Some of them were leaning forward so much I though they would fall right in the canal. It turns out in the Netherlands and Belgium when you do construction, you cannot touch the original façade of the house.

Typical construction site 

I was also amazed to discover that the coffee was better in Amsterdam, and there were more options for getting it. In Paris, you usually have to go to a sit down brasserie to get a good cup of coffee, and you usually sit there for a long time. I missed my usual cafes where I could get a cup of coffee, sit for a bit, and then leave whenever I wanted to. Amsterdam had plenty of those, with delicious coffee as well. 

I can also now officially say that I had a nice walk through Haarlem, because the original Haarlem is right outside of Amsterdam (yes, New York is essentially New Amsterdam). And I must say, while I have never been to the New York Harlem, I think this one was much nicer. 

Haarlem looking good 

Evelyn came up to visit for two days, where we went to Anne Frank’s house and biked around the city for a bit. Amsterdam’s dinners are (shockingly) more expensive than Paris’s, so we found a random restaurant and ordered pasta (yes we know, not typical Dutch food. Sorry). Jake is a jazz musician, so at night we went to a jazz gig in a really cool bar overlooking the water. The last few days were spent primarily just biking around the city, going to a few more jazz gigs, and eating lots of cheese. I love French cheese, but the Dutch people have good cheese too. And they let you taste test it in the store.

I then headed down to Antwerp (or Antwerpen which is its proper Dutch name) by myself since Jake was back in school, and met up with Evelyn again since it is her home city. We went to this amazing gourmet burger place for lunch called “Mint”, where I also had fantastic speculouse coffee, as seen below:

Speculouse is a type of ginger snap cookie, which when in coffee is also amazing. 

We also walked around Antwerp along the riverside for a while, and also went up in a museum to get a panorama view of the city. Antwerp also has lots of old homes, and is just as pretty if not prettier than Amsterdam. We went to a chocolate bar, since Belgium is famous for its chocolate, that had some of the best chocolate fondue I have ever tasted.

Chocolate bar or heaven? 

After a super fun train ride to Brugge that was only supposed to take an hour and took two hours instead (no idea why), I got to Brugge late at night and saw from my bus window that it looked like a pretty city. I met some other girls in the hostel and we went around Brugge the next day where we visited the fries museum and the chocolate museum. Unfortunately, no free samples :( However we did get some delicious Belgian waffles after, and then I headed to Brussels.

Old houses in Brugge 

If Paris and Washington D.C got together and had a baby, it would be Brussels. Brussels was nice, but I found there wasn’t too much to do there, sorry to anyone who might love it! However, I did enjoy some nice Belgian beer with some girls I met in the hostel at a typical Brussels bar, and then had some more waffles and fries the next day for lunch before I left (now that I am back in Paris, I will eat healthy again). I then finally headed home to Paris, and it was soo nice finally returning “home” :) 

Bonne Soiree, and Happy Election Day USA! 

 Feldy