Jacob Snider
I am studying abroad in The Netherlands through the Emerson College Kasteel Well program.Castle Dweller
Travel Blog Posts
March 15th 2009
Wow. Dutch people are wild. This weekend I had been invited to go to Switzerland to ski with a group of people, something I really wanted to do. For a few days I was locked in to go, but as always, I made the last minute decision not to go, a decision that was aided by the fact that I had booked my hostel for the wrong weekend. Carnaval, we had been told, was something worth sticking around for. Ben had read that Thursday night of Carnaval in Cologne, Germany was one of the craziest parties in Europe, so I tagged along for the start, which would be at 11:11. We rode the same train to Cologne as the group going to Switzerland, which was fun and gave us a good final goodbye. When the train ... read more
February 26th 2009
The first trip I had actually planned was Ireland. There were a few groups going at different times, I went with five friends who also don't have class on Thursday. We left early Thursday morning and I got bad sleep through the various modes of transportation to downtown Dublin. We were staying at Brown's Hostel, a place that seemed ideal because it was cheap (13 Euro for the night) and somewhat close to the center of town. Looking back on the experience, I'm glad I didn't stay in a nicer, more expensive place, because I'm still alive, got great sleep, and had the opportunity to see this interesting place. On the other hand, I can't say I'd recommend it to many people. The check-in process was complicated enough without the fact that we were planning on ... read more
The Epic Dusseldorf Bike Journey
Published: February 17th 2009Europe » Germany » North Rhine-Westphalia » Düsseldorf
February 9th 2009
The week leading up to our first travel weekend was mostly spent on recovery. I was still a little sick from Amsterdam, and I hadn't yet realized how short four days can be between trips. Classes were entering their second week, the syllabi were handed out, and real work was setting in. The idea of a new country every weekend still seemed like distant dream, and it wasn't until Thursday night, after a long game of Monopoly, that the next day's trip really sank in. A week earlier one of my roommates, Ben, had suggested a bike trip to Dusseldorf, a place I only knew as international vampire headquarters in the animated Cuban feature "Vampiros en Habana," but I liked the idea of a bike trip and told him I was interested. Meanwhile other kids started ... read more
February 5th 2009
Every Dutch person I've talked to insists that there's another side to Amsterdam; somewhere behind the red light windows, coffee shops, and drunken tourists, there's a city they love and are proud to call their own. If that's the case, it's pretty well hidden. As a tourist in town for the weekend, there's pretty much no avoiding the things that have made modern Amsterdam such a destination, and there's nothing wrong with that. The liberties give the city a feeling of togetherness comparable to what one might find after a few beers at a frat house. You look around the streets and hear the many languages being spoken, and you realize most people are just here to have a good time. The city becomes really surreal only when you look down at your Emerson-provided lunch bag ... read more
January 28th 2009
With the first week of classes coming to an end, my roommate Ben and I decided to do a little exploring. The first trip came Wednesday, when a trip to the supermarket turned into a short ride around some paths in the nearby woods, which then turned into a 2 hour trip to another country. Europe's pretty cool. Unfortunately we didn't think to bring a camera to the supermarket, so we were without documentation of this extremely scenic trip. It started out with a ride around the sand dunes, which I already have a picture of below. Having seen how close Germany was on a map, I became determined to ride further east to reach the border. So we blindly rode on, pedaling down unfamiliar paths away from the setting sun. At one fork in the ... read more
January 27th 2009
My first time in Europe, and the stories are true. After a sleepless plane ride made worse by a Nyquil-induced mini-trip and the painful experience of watching the first 20 min of "Miracle at St. Anna," we landed at Schipol airport, all 80 of us, and stumbled through customs into a rainy Amsterdam. My half hour stay in there was a blur of American fast food signs, Mercedes taxis, and street signs that seemed to be written in baby talk. I walked up the stairs of the bus, flopped into the front row of seats, and fell asleep. "Oh look" "Wow" Those who were awake had recognized the little town of Well, and I knew we were close. The bus dropped us off in front of a little brick bridge, and down the foggy path I ... read more
Tot: 0.339s; Tpl: 0.002s; cc: 10; qc: 61; dbt: 0.3164s; 1; s:notus w:www (50.28.61.183); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.6mb
