Belgium or Bust

Leaving Amsterdam was a bit of a stressful situation to say the least, although I did finally have a great night’s sleep which I think helped me stay a little less on edge. Driving around that city is a bit of a nightmare because of the bikes and pedestrians but walking to the train station would’ve been annoying with my luggage. The hotel concierge told me that Uber drivers often don’t accept the rides there because it is a short trip and I was canceled on three times before one accepted and picked me up. We took a super roundabout way of getting to the train station, but I had given myself plenty of time, naturally. I had thought my ticket was for the Eurostar and online it had suggested getting there 60-90 minutes early for security and customs so I was planning on 90 in case I had some direction issues in the station finding the correct gate. Luckily, because I had scoped it out yesterday, I knew where to go. Once on the platform, I asked the guys working (who were SUPER nice) where to go because it was just a regular platform and I assumed since going to another county, I had to do customs and security like I did when I took the train from Paris to London last year. I told them I had a Eurostar ticket and they pointed me in that direction, but when I got there, it was closed. I was about to freak TF out and then walked back to the guys who had helped me first and showed them my ticket and it turns out, I am an idiot and I assumed it was Eurostar, but it was just Rail Europe and the platform I was on was correct. I definitely didn’t have to be there that early and my 9:28 train was still over an hour away. However, there was an 8:28 train that they said I could hop on with my ticket. I was a little confused by that, but got on anyway hoping for the best and hoping it stopped at the station I needed. If not, I could just hop on a train to the other or uber to my hotel. I had initially picked this station in Brussels because it was only a five minute walk from my hotel.

AmsterDAMMMMMMM

This year for my Spring Break I decided I wanted to go Amsterdam and Brussels. When I was in Paris and London last spring, I was disappointed I didn’t have more time to keep traveling (isn’t that always the case) and move around Europe a bit more. I had been to Paris and London on my first ever trip to Europe in 2013, and had been back to London in 2016, and then again last year (2022); it is one of my favorite cities ever. I had the same curiosity about going back to Amsterdam that I had with Paris, except Paris had piqued my interest more because of my binge watching of Emily in Paris while I had COVID over winter break ‘21-22 so that city won out. 

This time around, it was time for Amsterdam and I decided that I would also head to a new country that was close…Belgium. Add one to the list baby! Flight prices were skyrocketing, but I really wanted to go and since hotels were reasonably priced (more or less), I decided to bite the bullet and go for it. I had saved a bunch of money all winter not going out at all so that is how I rationalized paying for it. Once booked, minus the hotels and a day trip into the countryside, I really didn’t sit down to plan stuff out for a couple of weeks. I did some research and made a list for Amsterdam, but didn’t solidify anything; very unlike my super type-A self. I also remembered when I went there ten years ago, that I was able to get tickets for the Anne Frank House the day of and figured the same this time around for the museums in general. 

Sydney is the NYC on the Other Side of the World

Our third and final stop on this absolutely amazing trip was Sydney. When I think of Sydney, I think of the Sydney Opera House. To be honest, I didn’t really know much else about it. Someone had mentioned that it was more of a hustle and bustle city than Melbourne and much more fast paced so that was my kind of energy and I was excited to see what this city had to offer. Plus we had some really cool stuff planned as well. We were definitely going to make the best out of last destination. 

Day 13 Sydney: Our flight out to Sydney this morning wasn’t until noon so we had a 9:15 pick-up from the hotel to the airport. Since I am incapable of sleeping in, I got up around 6:30 and after laying in bed for a bit, I decided that I needed to get down to the beach. I had to try again after getting “lost” last time. I got dressed and went to the front desk to get directions again and when the guy gave me directions, he told me to turn left at the end of the street. Last time, I went right which is why I had issues finding it. I asked him if I had to trek through the jungle to reach it and he said definitely not so I was relieved. I got there easily this time and was blown away by how pretty the beach was. I had read about Four Mile Beach in my research for this trip and now I was on it. It was gorgeous. So many people running and walking and a beautiful sunrise. 

The Most Beautiful Thing I've Ever Seen

 Okay, location two in Australia is ON. We lost a night and a morning here in Port Douglas due to our cancellation from Melbourne, but made due anyway. This isn’t a big city with a ton to do on our own, so it wasn’t a huge deal losing that time, but the whole travel experience of coming here SUCCCKKKEEEDDD. More on that right here… 

Day 10 Port Douglas: This morning started as a travel day with a very early flight from Melbourne to Cairns. We were flying the same airline we took to get to Australia (Jetstar) so wanted to get there with plenty of time in case any issues arose. Since our original flight had already been canceled, we definitely didn’t want to miss this one. Check-in and security were pretty seamless, but the baggage drop-off had some issues and the belt kept breaking down. The woman working there was trying to help me and kept walking away to fix it, then would come back to help us. This must’ve happened five times. J had her baggage go through and the belt kept stopping with mine because people were sticking their hands in it a couple belts away. After happening multiple times, she finally manually entered my info and then got the bag to go through. Success…or so I thought…

From Canceled Flights to Football Games

We are now in a new country and ready for a new adventure. From Indonesia to Australia, it's our second and our last country of this trip with three stops down under. We have a lot planned in all three places and are excited to explore new cities and see even more gorgeous scenery along the way. So without further ado...

(Day 6: Travel Day)The flight from Bali to Melbourne was uh, interesting. It was bizarre for a lot of reasons and I don’t know what the reasoning is for a lot of the things that happened, but they were weird. After having to redistribute the stuff in my suitcase to my carry-ons (again), J and I got through security pretty quickly. As I said in my previous post, we had a lot of time to kill so we found a seat in their dining area and did some research on more things to do in Melbourne and sat around. We then decided we would go and find the gate which was easy enough, but after sitting there for like a half hour, security asked everyone to exit the area, only to invite everyone in after checking their bags again. Not only did all our belongings go through security when entering the airport, we also went through the usual security, so this third step seemed quite unnecessary. Not to mention they wouldn’t allow any liquids (including the water bottles we just bought) back into the gate waiting area. They had to be emptied, yet there was no water option in the gate area. I have zero clue why they wouldn’t allow it and I will get to why it was ruder and more weird in a minute.