Class here ended Wednesday, but my first exam isn’t until May 7th. My former co-editor Joanna Shapes is coming to visit on the May third, then my fellow blogger Nat comes to Dublin on the ninth, but until then I’ll have nothing to do. So, my roommates and I decided to book a last-minute trip to Amsterdam and Brussels. Because, well, why not?

I’m excited for both cities. While I don’t plan on doing any illicit substances or taking advantage of the Red Light District, I do think it will be a lot of fun to spend a few days in a place where people around me do these things without having to hide them from the police/rest of society. Of course, the Anne Frank House will be an interesting experience and the city’s canals will be fun too, but the atmosphere is what is most attractive to me. I expect to like it a lot, but be glad I’m only spending a few days there–I don’t know how well I would do living in a city with such constant debauchery. I’ll let you all know how it goes.

As far as Brussels is concerned, it’s always been a place I’ve wanted to visit, despite not knowing much about it besides that it is the de facto capital of the European Union (which is pretty cool I think). I do know that I am very, very excited to have Belgian waffles, chocolate and beer. We may try to take a train to Bruges for a day, but we only have a few days, so we might end up just exploring Brussels as much as I can. Whereas my trips to Paris, Berlin, Budapest and Vienna were made with history and culture in mind, this trip will be more culturally based. Hopefully that means no art museums (which have never been my favorite).

We leave tomorrow (Sunday) morning and get back late Friday night.

P.S. The weather here is finally starting to get “nice”. That means sunny and highs of around 65, which is perfectly fine by me. I’ve started making daily trips to a coffee shop that makes iced coffee like the Kogan Coffee Cart, which if you haven’t tried you should. My brother Marc, who is studying abroad in Cape Town, is starting to whine because in the southern hemisphere it’s becoming fall then winter. This after bragging relentlessly for two months about how it was 80 degrees and sunny in February. So that makes me happy.