Category Archives: travel

My first trip in the Dominican Republic! It was a short 18 hour one to La Romana since I had to work at the hostel, but I managed to go in-between a morning an evening shift the next day. La Romana is only about a 2 hour drive from Santo Domingo, so it is easy to reach. From there you can take a boat to Isla Catalina, a small island just off the coast, and ideal for doing some swimming in the ocean. This trip was my first time getting around the DR by bus and it definitely an experience haha. You arrive at the bus terminal, say which place you want to go to and are then put on a bus. Usually you have no idea what is going on and just got to hope that you’re going to end up at the right place. Up until now, that has always worked out for me :). When visiting La Romana, we pretty much were the only tourists and as always the walking attraction around town. Especially as two women you can expect to be called and looked at, however it is something you simply have to get used to. To sum up this short trip, it was the ideal mix of enjoying food and cold beers at the beach and taking a short little boat ride to a new island.

The capital of the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo, is what I’ve been able to call my home for the past two months. I spent 7 weeks working at a hostel there whilst taking the days off to explore the island. However, Santo Domingo in itself has a lot to explore and I really did enjoy living in the big city. I spent most of my time in Zona Colonial, the first settlement in the Americas actually. It reminded me a lot of Spain (of course haha) and was by far the prettiest and cleanest part of town. Lots of fun cafes and bars around and always music to be heard at every corner. From day to night you will always find drinking and dancing in the park. The capital also has a business district, one filled with tall buildings and malls. This part of the city feels more like Miami. I also love this area, with all its restaurants bars and rooftops. It makes you forget that you are in a Latin American city, so it is the ideal place to spend time if you miss your European home haha. Of course it’s important to remember that my photos don’t portray the reality of the DR. The country, as well as the city, is haunted by corruption, poor living conditions and lots of trash. As a visitor you do get to experience this while traveling around the city and island. It does really remind you of the fact that everything has two sides to it.

Overall, I can only recommend to visit Santo Domingo. Take about two days and you’ll have enough time to explore the historical and culture area, and go for an evening dinner and drink downtown!

Nothing beats these views. The Dolomites is probably one of the prettiest mountain range with abundant ski areas. The week we spent up on the mountain, we were really lucky with the weather and had blue skies and sun every day. It was not too cold either, which made it perfect conditions for a good week. Even the snow was still good, although it was March! Our village allowed us to walk down to the gondola which directly got us up to the slopes. The walk might not have been the easiest ahah (going up and down the hill) but finally making it up with the gondola made it all worth it. In three days I am off to the Dominican Republic for a new adventure and a complete change of scenery, however I hope to be back in the Dolomites soon again for some hiking or skiing.

The Netherlands being a small country and easy to get through, makes Belgium perfect for a weekend trip! Surprised by our friends Lisa and Noor, they took our friend group on a trip to Brugge, a gorgeous little town about a two hour drive from The Hague. When in Belgium beer, fries and Belgian waffles are a must, and I can proudly say we checked all the boxes. We made sure to stop by ‘Brouwerij de Maan’ and enjoy some delicious beers, had some waffles with (too much) of whipped cream and made the mandatory visit to the fries museum. I can tell you, we have learnt a lot about different potatoes and their history of the fries snackbar. We finished of our short visit with a lunch at Bistro de la Pompe and I highly recommend this place! Brugge is definitely worth the visit and makes for an ideal place to learn more about the Belgian culture.

Unfortunately, due to corona a lot of the Christmas markets across Germany have been cancelled. However, we were lucky and still had the opportunity to attend the one in Cologne. So, we made a weekend trip out of it and spent two days drinking lots of glühwein and eating German food!

Once again, I am a month late with uploading this blog post…But somehow it is one of those things you never really get round to until eventually you do. In August I took a 3 day trip to Dublin, but also traveled around Ireland (to Galway and Howth). I must be honest that Ireland has not been my favorite destination. The weather is quite grey and rainy, the city’s have their pretty spots, but also the ugly ones….Regardless, the food and pubs are truly amazing. They have a great vibe and pretty much every meal we ate was delicious. The landscape as well is very worth seeing, with its rocky shores and military green grass. I guess you can say the dark and rainy sky fits this landscape very well haha. What could be fun is to do a road trip around the island and get to see a bit more of the country besides the bigger cities. Potentially this might be an idea for the future.

Our board holidays basically always have to do with food, wine and doing nothing. We take our nourishment very seriously and tend to plan our days around when/what to eat. Right next door to our airbnb we had a lovely little classic Spanish restaurant which we headed to for dinner twice. The view and food were really nice. One afternoon we visited the main city on Mallorca, Palma and spent half of the visit restaurant hopping and eating (too many) tapas. Two wine tastings were essential to the program where first we visited Maciā Battle (highly recommend), a Bodega that not only makes wine but also spray salt. The second was Bodega Riberas, the oldest winery on the island. My favorite wine here was their rose. With a day of a lot of tasting and a bit of learning, I am successfully continuing my journey to become a sommelier haha.

Mallorca might be known for its partying, however our week there became quite the opposite. Instead of being amongst large groups of people where we might get infected with a virus we don’t want, we explored the island. You have the classic overfilled beaches, but also the quiet hidden ones. Unfortunately we only found those on the last day. The color of the water is by far my favorite part. It is such a perfect blue, something we don’t really get to see here in holland haha.

French girl is finally in France. Two years later, we happily reunited in my favorite country to spend a week together with the Schmitt family in the French countryside. Our Airbnb was two hours north of Toulouse and close to the famous city built into the rocks, Rocamadour. We were a bit active during the day, but of course had to make use of the pool with the super pretty view. Since Léa was doing an internship half of the day, I turned the swan into my best mate and we spent many afternoons together at the pool haha. My visit was short, but sweet and although it was France, it was quite enjoyable 🙂