I am amazed at how much I’ve spent since I’ve been here… but actually I’m more so amazed by how detailed and organized I am with accounting for EVERYTHING: by cash/charge, by category of spend (food, transpo, party, food), and by weekend trip (flight, hostel, on trip expenditures)… seriously, call me a nerd but if you ever want to figure out how much you need to save and what to spend on when in Europe, just holla at my spreadsheet. this is probably why I’m pursuing finance for the rest of my life (or at least for the next five years). also, fortunately I only have 15 Euros unaccounted for. I’ll expense it as a drunken/cannot recall line item.
I feel like it’s good practice to explore the city solo, as long as you know where you’re headed. I usually study my city map and the metro map simultaneously to get a good understanding of where the metro will head towards and once above ground, which street/direction to head down. I’m extremely paranoid when travelling or exploring because I don’t want to stand out as a lost Asian tourist girl. thus, I’ve developed some guidelines or tips to appease my survival instincts/paranoia (whatever you call it). if you think someone is following/eyeing you (possible in a city like Barcelona where there are tons of muggers/pickpockets albeit mostly found only in heavily touristy areas)…
1. change your look. they might see you riding the metro and spot you for your hat and large hoop earrings. so when you lose them in the crowd, give yourself a new look by tucking your earrings and hat into your purse.
2. hide your purse. to avoid the stress of someone stealing your purse, hide it. you can do this simply by strapping on your purse (over the shoulder and around your back) and underneath your long coat so no one can snatch it off your shoulder. you can even button up your coat to further conceal your purse. without a purse to grab, you’re no longer a target. also, don’t carry a purse with thin/weak straps because they can easily pull out a knife and slice off the straps.
3. lost? use your map. there’s no harm in this. study your map before venturing off into public areas and the metro. develop a good sense of direction by memorizing the street name you should walk towards, as well as the street name to look out for to alert you if you’re headed the wrong way. also, if you get a little confused while trying to find your way, duck into a small shop to look over your map again. don’t pull it out in the middle of a busy corner unless you know you’re actually in a high-end/safe neighborhood. since last summer in new york relying on the subway and the metro north train, I’ve definitely trained myself to read and study maps prior to exploring. it makes so much sense to save yourself time, energy, paranoia, and frustration.
4. blend in, physically. I’ve started to wear a blank stare/mug face on the metro nowadays. no lie, this is the kind of look I see on the metro staring at me all the time so I put it on to blend in. also, if there’s no need to dress to impress, don’t wear tons of makeup or a cute outfit (especially if it’s covered up by your coat anyway given the chilly weather). au natural still looks good anyway. but the less you stand out, the less people will believe you’re a stranger to the city.
5. slow down. if you think someone is really creeping because he kept staring at you on the metro and got off the same stop as you, slow down and let him take the lead. likely, he will walk another direction or at least this way, you can try and figure out if he is slowing down his pace and still trying to look for you through the crowd. also, walk in between “safe people” like an elder couple or chatty old women carrying shopping bags as if you built a wall of innocent bystanders around you.
and above all, don’t let the paranoia ruin your day! be safe and aware of your belongings & surroundings (specifically sketchy personas or mismatched groups of people that might be working collectively). for the most part, not everyone out there in the real world or big city is evil, but it’s good to be prepared especially if you’re carrying around valuables such as your credit card or camera.
overall, I had a wonderful day exploring by myself despite still being protective of myself and my belongings. after finishing class for the day, I hit up four different sites I need to study and sketch for my art and architecture class, spending about an hour at each spot (thanks Paolo for the tip). I felt like such a psuedo artist. at each site, I would study the building first and jot down some observations based on guide questions from my teacher. then I would spend some time sketching out the building, adding detail and what not. people would pass by, smoke a cigarette outside their office, and just glance at me as if I knew what I was doing spending so much time sketching. then I finished off each site by taking pictures so I can go back and add details or observations to my project later on should I choose to. yup, definitely felt like an artist working the streets and studying the city’s modernisme architecture. I also feel pretty accomplished taking different metro lines than I’m not at all used to and exploring different areas I’ve never ventured off to in Barca. after some time sketching, I ended the day by finding a small Filipino restaurant called Fil Manila, near La Rambla (one of the few in the city from what I managed to find online). I chatted a bit with the Filipino waitress (yesss for authentic Filipino cuisine cooked and served by Filipinos!) and got a great menu del dia. I’ll definitely come back to that place in the next couple months to treat myself and satisfy my own need to speak and eat Filipino.
Photos of Fil Manila via Google Search - I do not take my camera out around La Rambla because it’s such a high traffic tourist zone.
What: Dutch Pancakes also known as pannekoeken! AMAZING. best meal of the trip by far and definitely a must do when in Amsterdam. meals can start at low as 4 Euros but for the real deal meals, you can expect to spend between 9-13 Euros. Hot chocolate is about 2.50, whipped cream is 1 Euro more. you can order set deluxe pancakes or create your own with toppings. this is a very small quaint place, reminded me of one of those good brunch finds in Manhattan. also a treat: they gave us free key chains at the end of our meal.
Where: Pancakes! at Berenstraat 38, Amsterdam or check them out online here!
favorite meal of the weekend which I trekked through the bitter cold for across the city! twas the coldest day of the weekend, but it was totally WORTH it.
What: Dutch sausage for breakfast. served with a small packet of ketchup, mayonaise, and curry sauce. also came with pickes and onions sliced.
Where: some small Dutch cafe around Rembrandt Plaza in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
my favorite dish has yet to be published! also, interesting to note is that most places do not serve tap water (although tap is clean in most Euro countries). they prefer to overcharge 3 Euros for a 60 cent bottle of water.
Thursday - travelling is really stressful and really puts people on edge. I know I should really chill out more, but it’s just honestly in my nature to try and plan as much as possible. I truly believe that the best way not to waste money and time is by planning out what you want to do, how you’re going to do it, and how much it will cost… especially when you’re travelling on a budget. at least the big things anyway, like how to get where and what big sites to see, etc. anyway due to bad timing on our part, we didn’t make the train to the airport so we had to cab it for about 11 Euros each instead of taking a 2 Euro train ride to the airport. memo to self: leave the apartment 2.5 hours prior to departure to make it in time 1 hour before the flight (when check in ends). finally flew into Amsterdam with Anh, chatted with a fellow who actually used to work for IBM in NY on the plane and he gave us some tips as to what to check out in the city(get it IBM fambam.. it was fun trading positions, departments, and executive names). we ventured off from the airport to Central Station via the train (3-4 Euros each) about 20-25 minutes away. once at Central Station, it was easy to venture off to grab Vietnamese food since Anh was craving it. Anh said Amsterdam is one of the most diverse cities in Europe, which I can vouch for given the diversity of good ethnic dishes (Indian to Thai to Italian) and people (tons of non-Anglo looking Europeans made me feel less like an alien than in Spain!). then we found our way to the hotel, learned how to use the map a bit, and hit up the coffee shop right beside our hotel. 3 Euros for a joint which we split and was more than enough for us. ended the night well.
Friday - started the day with a trip to the coffee shop, another one on our street, then grabbed some breakfast with everyone (roommates + girls from the other apartment in our program), had a Dutch sausage which will be shown in my food blog momentarily. then we ventured off to the Heineken Experience which is a self-guided tour of the Heineken Factory to show off the process which ended with the free beers at their bar. also took home a Heineken cap, bracelet, and bottle opener fo freee! then walked around towards downtown a bit passing through some sites and snapping quick photos. ended up at another coffee shop called paradox. we then walked through the Red Light District to see what the fuss is with the legal prostitutes in glass doors. crazy. then at the end of the main RLD street we found a ton of swans swimming around in the canal! we ended the night with a pub crawl which I wish we didn’t do but decided on because we didn’t want to split the group up… vodka poured down our throats several times to chase a buzz (albeit not enough) and stealing jaegger (albeit not enough still) were a couple highlights. also watching our drunken roommate sing karaoke while giving a shout out to the west coast… I managed once again to add to my Euro bar glass collection (one plain glass and a jaegger branded test tube shot glass) though to make the price of paying for the pub crawl worth it. touche.
Saturday - me and Anh walked through town a bit, ate a a mom and pop type Dutch breakfast place for some traditional Dutch food. it was alright. see food blog soon. we also cruised down the floating flower market - LOVELY! the Dutch definitely take their flowers seriously, all gorgreous. wish we could bring them home but unfortunately not. also stumbled upon a cheese store where they had tons of huge blocks of cheese on sale ($$$) with lots of free cheese samples! apparently the Dutch enjoy their cheese with mustard on it, go figure. then met up the boys downtown to hit up a canal ride around the city for an hour. then after we grabbed some frites (french fries pretty much) with mayonaise (a bit sweeter than normal mayo actually) to enjoy frites the way the Dutch do. then we headed to the anne frank house to get my history onnn - makes me want to reread the book. met the rest of the girls up for dinner near the RLD, Thai food this time. lots of good Asian food on Zeedijk, a street over from the RLD and Amsterdam’s own Chinatown.
Sunday - FREEZING. expected it to snow but it didn’t but it was windy as fuck. could barely make it out that morning. we went to the IAMSTERDAM sign for pictures, though there were tons of other tourists with the same idea. then rested up in the hotel, layered up, hit up another coffee shop, then made a trek across the city with two of the boys to get some authentic Dutch pancakes from a well-known cozy mom and pop type shop. SOOO GOOD, look out food blog! Dutch pancakes are actually crepes, so I had a delish savory one with goat cheese! ahhh I wish I could’ve finished it up or taken it to go. I don’t want to be American and ask for a doggie bag after meals. this guy chatted us up and said he was a writer for High Times doing some correspondence in Amsterdam on foreign drug policy. not sure if he was bullshitting or not, but I kept my chatty self to a minimum in case he was actually a creeper guy telling these silly Americans a believable story before he TAKES them. yup, I’m so paranoid in Europe or when travelling around in unfamiliar territory. never know what people’s motives could be. to be honest, he could’ve just been another high guy bullshitting. ended the day with a short nap then had dinner with the group (less the two who got food poisoning from the thai place the night before). we found a sweet place with Italian food for 5 Euros! lots of affordable, delicious, and well-portioned food options in Amsterdam relative to Spain. could be because they have bigger appetites, the diverse population, or could be because of all the tourists hitting up the coffee shops. who knows, but I definitely felt full at the end of each day here.
Monday - got up extremely early to head home. surprised to see it actually snowed over night a little bit. the first snow fall of the winter, our car driver claimed. got home safely to Barca by 9am, took the train back from the airport to our apartment in Barcelona and made it in time for class at 11am (only to find out I had a quiz at 3pm…ugh)! safe to say I think I have a good grip on my management class, much thanks to all the facilitation skills, respect for multiple perspectives, and such learned over the years at Cal. thank goodness since this is the only class that will show a letter grade on my transcripts. on the other hand, think I did poorly on my Art quiz today. woops. it’s definitely my most challenging class this semester. at least I get to do my Art presentation on origins and evolution of Graphic Design in relation to Art Nouveau. cool.
Overall - great first trip of the semester! good crowd, fun times. lots of good food choices, some good sites taken in. Amsterdam is a very quaint city with the brick roads and canals, felt like I was straight of the a movie (perhaps the Bourne Identity). the city is small enough to walk all over (despite the cold weather) and definitely reminded me of Manhattan, yet another big city with different neighborhoods and such (Jordan being the best neighborhood for Pancakes oe pannenkoken!). coffee shops and RLD aside, I would still definitely come back to revisit this place maybe in the summer time where I don’t have to bundle up in 4-5 layers of clothing. still, I am glad we were able to visit before they eventually pass a law prohibiting tourists from entering coffee shops. overall, solid weekend. unfortunately, all great trips have their downsides… Round trip flight: 100 Euro. Hotel for 4 nights: 72 Euro. Personal expenses: 150+ Euro. memo to self: need to budget more wisely for the next trip. Or need to stop eating to spend sufficiently for the weekends.
first day sketching today for my art & architecture class! I actually had a fun say solo exploring the city. walked down paseo de gracia which is the Barcelona equivalent of 5th Avenue. Lots of bougie stores like Miu Miu and Burberry. then I took the metro down to Plaza Catalunya and checked out the mall, which is actually a former bull fighting arena called La Arena de Barcelona. it had a lot of cool stores like a Tin Tin store that even sold the old books, and some familiar ones like Mango, Benetton, Sephora, and Claire’s. I went to the top of the dome and looked down at the plaza, I spent less than an hour sketching the two towers in the center of the Plaza from a really good view. this was pretty much the view I had and the picture I tried to sketch out to prep for my class:
note to self: bring camera when going on sketching field trips, take more pictures, and come back to the plaza to enjoy the view again! anyway, I met up with the class and sketched the German Pavillion, a modernist piece, and the Casamorena, a modernista piece. I really love this class - I get to check out more sites in the city and sketch them to really appreciate the work.
Spaniards smoke like chimneys. I see people smoking on the streets, in their cars, even on their bikes - they smoke a LOT. it makes me feel like I should always carry around a pack of stoges. you could even walk past a middle school/high school and kids outside chain smoking like it’s the norm to do at that age. actually, since drinking and smoking are so prevalent at such a young age, they tend to smoke regularly when they’re old and get over the binge drinking face when they’re younger. you rarely see the college-aged drunken belligerence expected of Americans with Spaniards.
They don’t just take the metro, they bike. A lot of people on motorcycles and bikes around. You can a reliable bike (with lights and all) for as cheap as 100 Euro (my friend bought one for the semester recently) or you can rent a bike. They have this Zipcar-like program going on with bikes called Bicing but I think the rental limit is only 30 minutes… have not tried it out and don’t really plan to but it seems like a dope idea. I’m fairly certain you can bike from the middle of the city to the beach in less than 30 minutes.
They eat… moderately. Maybe this is why Americans are obese and Spaniards are skinny. Breakfast is normally coffee and a pastry. Lunch is the heaviest meal of the day, and a well priced meal (9-12 Euros) would be from the Menu Del Dia where you pick specific items offered for the day for a 3-course dish (appetizer, main dish, and a desert) with a drink (coffee/beer/wine/water). But portions are smaller and it’s not really okay to ask to take the rest of your food to go. Either finish what you order or leave it. I have yet to try really awesome Catalan food (this region is part of Catalan, hence many people native to Barcelona don’t speak Spanish but rather Catalan a related but different dialect). But to eat well in Barcelona, typically you need to spend a bit more (20-60 Euros). Places I still need to try though are more Tapas Bars in the Gracia neighborhood, this Mexican place I heard about called La Cantina run by a native of Los Angeles in Las Ramblas, one of the cheap buffets in the area, and finally get my churros con chocolate on!!! Barcelona food is expensive and I’m currently curbing my spending to save up for my plane tickets. The sacrifices of a study abroad student.
already feels like a month. travelling starts this week, tickets are being booked and hostels researched. but let’s be real, this shit is getting expensive. time to slow my roll on the drank if I wanna do a LOT of travelling in the next 3.5 months. also, let’s be real I miss home. just like NYC: new place, new fun, new experiences but I’ll always be a California girl. just getting this travel bug outta my system before I settle down into the real world!
