Long weekend trips

During my placement in Paris, I had a chance to visit Brussels and Amsterdam for a long weekend trip. I was only going for 4 days so I decided to buy a big backpack (kind of the ones that 'backpackers' would use) so that it was easier for me to carry. I went by Flixbus coach from Paris to Brussels which took around 4 hours. Brussels wasn't as big as I thought, so 2 days were definitely enough to explore the city. Or maybe a lot of the tourist destinations were outside the city centre so I didn't have a chance to explore. These are the places I went to:
1. Grand Place, a square surrounded by beautiful buildings
2. Royal Gallery of Saint Hubert, a stretch of indoor luxury shops (mainly chocolates)
3. Parc du Cinquantenaire
4. Botanical Garden of Brussels
5. Brussels Park
6. Manneken Pis and Jeanneke Pis, statues of a boy and a girl taking a wee
7. Mont des Arts, a museum and a small park but I didn't go into the museum
8. Herge Museum and I also saw the Tintin mural, as I am a Tintin fan :)

If you Google 'visit Brussels', there seems to be much more places to visit but I think because I decided to go on foot, I didn't visit as many places. But to be fair I only had 2 days and I spent most of my second day in Herge Museum. Food wise, I tried a waffle, chips with samourai sauce, and mussels with chips. The yummiest one has got to be the waffle, I only had strawberries as the topping but the waffle itself was already so nice.

This may look like it was taken in a tropical island, but in fact it was taken in Botanical Garden of Brussels!

With a view at the window sill like this, how could you resist to buy one?

One of the shopping street in Brussels

Galerie de La Reine, close to Royal Gallery of Saint Hubert

Chips with samourai sauce

On the third day, I went to Amsterdam by Flixbus coach again. It took just under 3 hours and I arrived just before 10. I arrived at Amsterdam Sloterdijk and I bought an Amsterdam & Region travel ticket from the station. Bear in mind that you have to buy it from the ticket office and not from the ticket machine. Well, when I was there I couldn't buy it from the machine, so I had to go to the office. This cost €19.50 for one day. There are other options and you can also find more information on the iamsterdam website. I was able to go to Marken, Volendam and Zaanse Schans by using this ticket. The bus was pretty empty, I'm not sure weather tourists don't know about the bus or it just wasn't holiday season.

Marken and Volendam are both fishing town, and Marken is sort of its own island so it's a bit smaller than Volendam. Marken had many cute green wooden houses, and a lot of old bridges and each bridge seemed to be named. I loved the town and its tranquility. Volendam was as lovely as Marken, although it was busier and more touristy. There were many souvenir shops by the water, and I have to say the souvenirs there were all very well designed. I ate kibbeling in Volendam, which was sort of like fish nuggets dipped in sour cream, it was nice. There was also a photo studio where you can take a picture with traditional Dutch outfit and background; the funny thing was they put a bunch of pictures of Indonesia famous people (presidents, celebrities, etc) who have taken a picture there on the window front.

After Volendam I went to Zaanse Schans. This was another touristy destination, because there were a few big traditional wind mills there. There were also traditional wooden houses, and also craft markets. There are a couple of workshops such as cheese making but I didn't go in as there was a queue. Unfortunately I didn't have much time here as I had to head back to Amsterdam. But overall I was very satisfied with my first day as I was able to visit 3 different places in one day. I ended the day with strolling around Amsterdam and eating gado-gado in an Indonesian restaurant. Amsterdam is such a great city in itself; the roads, canals, houses, and bridges are so easy on the eye, that you might forget to go to shops or museums.

The next (and last) day of my trip I decided to have a boat tour through the canals in Amsterdam. I think it is one of the must do activity when you are in Amsterdam. The boat company I was with was new, and the tour guides were so good; they had plenty to say about the city and were funny also. It was a small boat that didn't have a roof, and unfortunately it rained but they provided umbrella. At the end of the tour they gave free tickets for another boat ride because of the rain (bless them!), and when I told them I was going home, they were going to refund me (bless them again!) but of course I refused as I was very happy with the tour anyway. My train back to Paris was in the afternoon and I was gutted that I didn't have much time to explore Amsterdam -it might just be my favourite capital city so far- but I guess that gives me a reason to come back!