Bruxelles

Sorry for being so late with posting pictures from my trip to Bruxelles, but better late than never I suppose! A few friends and I made the trip to go see a band preform, but also to see a friend of ours that had been in Utrecht on exchange last semester. This city was a lot different from the other Belgian city I had already visited, Brugge. While Brugge was in the Dutch area of Belgium, Bruxelles is in the French area. So everyone, my friends included, were speaking French...with the exception of me and of the our Spanish friends haha. It's a fantastic place with a very big city feel. With the tall skyscrapers and the city streets filled with people, it was quite the exciting trip.

Here is a picture of the concert we went to. They put on a great show and it was really interesting to hear a group rap and sing in French.

 a church in Ixelles, a neighborhood of Bruxelles

 our friend promised us "the best hot chocolate in the world". I don't know how true that may be, but it was certainly the best hot chocolate I've ever had!

 the cafe where we had our chocolate. They even had an adorable dog that was walking around the room

 a great example of some of the daring and interesting architecture the city has to offer

 central station

I really enjoyed the trip we made to Bruxelles, but I'm not sure I could handle another trip there with the amount of fries, chocolate, and waffles my friends and I consumed there!
<3 Rachel

first snow

Last Monday we had our first snow of the year! It was so nice to open my curtains up early in the morning and see this. It's been pretty cold this past week, and it's supposed to get even colder! Today it's -9°C, and later this week it'll be getting down to -21°C, (ahem, that's -5°F!) so it should be snowing more soon. For now, I'm just enjoying the brilliant sunshine that comes after the snow :)

Much love from snowy Utrecht!
<3 Rachel

She was a daaaaay tripper...to Leiden!

Hello all! My friend and I took a day trip after class today to a town called Leiden. It was such a beautiful, sunny day, we really couldn't waste the opportunity. It was only about a 40 minute train ride, so it was ideal for a quick trip. We mostly just walked around the city and looked at all of the old buildings the town had to offer. A good majority of the buildings were destroyed during WWII, so the city if half old-style Dutch, and half modern buildings. It was a really interesting combination to see the old tied in with the new. Enjoy the pictures!

Hope everyone had a happy New Year! Miss you all!!
<3 Rachel