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Europe 2022
  • Martine Nyhof

Europe 2022

A 63-day adventure by Martine Read more
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  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler

    Goodmorning Solo Traveller Hostel

    August 12, 2022 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    OFF TO BARCELONA TO MEET UP WITH MY BUDDY BEN!!! WOOHOO! This hostel experience was grand. Yet again I met SO many people. This hostel was super social because they served a banger of a deal of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and unlimited beer and sangria from 7-11 for only 12 euros a day!!! WHAT A DEAL! So obviously everyone's doing all-inclusive so we are all eating together at the same time and then shared some drinks and played many games in the evening. So fun! It was my kind of scene I loved it. The hostel was also VERY new and I really liked having the curtains across the bed to provide some sort of privacy!

    Alright. Train time. I've got a very very tight schedule and I can't miss any of the trains otherwise I will not make it to Barcelona before the train stations close. My first train is at 0841 out of lisbon and I arrive at 2358 tonight in Barcelona. Wish me luck!    Read more

  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler

    Stuck in Madrid

    August 13, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    So I think I'm onto Plan C😂😭going from Lisbon to Barcelona has been adventure. I had 6 train transfers all with about 15 min between and if I missed only one train, I wasn't going to make it on the last train from Madrid out to Barcelona at 8:30pm. From the start, one of my trains was 15 min delayed so I was RUNNING. Luckily the next train waited for us but then we were running to the next one and the next one. What a whirlwind. ALSO. Some trains require you to make reservations prior to getting on the train but in Spain, you cannot book online and it has to be done at a train station WITHIN Spain. I know, you guys already know where this is going. So I said yolo and just kept going and paying on the train (usually that doesn't work but we didn't have time during train transfers and they not so willingly allowed it). Absolutely flying by the seat of my pants. Luckily, I met Esta who was 17 and backpacking from Germany and we were both headed for the same last train. So we were in it together. Along the way we also started travelling with Yennick who was 20 and from Germany as well. #squad okay so we were SHOOK that we had made it on all the trains to Madrid. At one point I was looking up hostels in the local towns because I thought there was no way. So when we caught the second last train to Madrid, we were celebrating because there was an hour transfer between trains from Madrid to Barcelona. When we got to Madrid and arrived at the ticket office to reserve the train, THEY WERE FULLY BOOKED UNTIL THE MORNING!😭 Esta was able to get on because she was only on the train for a short period of time so they had space. So here's Yennick and I stuck in Madrid until the next train out at 8:30 Saturday morning. At this point we met a guy named Max from California who was 22 and in the same boat as us. So here were, booking a hostel together in Madrid!Read more

  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler

    Suprise Madrid

    August 13, 2022 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    Our unexpected visit to Madrid worked out and we made it a blast. The three of us were a trio and we walked around Madrid and grabbed a couple drinks (gotta say we did not make it to the drag queen show). What an adventure. We now have a group chat going after we just spent the past 12 hours together. #friendsRead more

  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler

    Barcelona Day 1

    August 13, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    MADE IT TO BARCELONA AND FOUND BEN!!! WHOOHOO!!!! So this a good friend of mine from Dal Varsity, Ben! He's awesome and his family is from Spain and they have welcomed me to stay with them. So Ben has been my personal tour guide and we hit the ground running (day one we hit the ground running. Arrived at 11:30 and by the end of the day we walked 26km!) Wow. Barcelona has so much to see. We started with some classic Spanish food that Ben ordered - I will add the names of these later. Absolutely DELISH. Yum. My favourites were the octopus deep fried something and the chicken "balls" - honestly offensive to them to call them that but for now it will have to do. We went into the Picasso museum which I learned quite a bit from! He had very diverse art skills. We then walked all around the city, under the arch, through the park, along the water front. Then we went into a market area that was probably 1km long! So packed with people selling goods at stands and traditional treats and so on. We also pulled off into these squares which had additional stands and people dancing with music. We also walked through the gothic quadrants which was one of my favourite parts of the walk. This is the oldest area of Barcelona with streets 6ft wide and TALL buildings. Some may find this quite claustrophobic! Amazing to see the only wall that has remained over many many years. Finally, we went into a Barcelona market where everything is fresh. Fruit, fish, meat, everything! What a great day :) to cap it off we chilled out and played a game of chess. I lost not surprisingly. So great to see Ben and catch up after a long summer!Read more

  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler

    Casa Batllo - Goudi Part 1

    August 14, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Today we started the morning at the Casa Batllo. AMAZING. This structure was built and designed by Goudi. The premise of Goudi's work revolved around nature and everything flowing. So nothing was really symmetrical and everything flowed. The outside and inside of the building was lined with glass that was recycled from other purposes (zoom into the picture from the outside...you'll be surprised! Goudi was also the first of his time to reuse material). This building had two stairwells in the inside which made me think of the sea because of how blue they were and the flow upwards. All of the windows allowed for natural lighting and airflow. To add, even the doors shape was asymmetrical around the edges and the stairwell railing was like a spine of a creature. Finally, the ceilings were never just ceilings they would have some sort of design and much were decorated with gold leaflets. So many fine details and truly spectacular!Read more

  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler

    More walking!

    August 14, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    After going to the Casa Batllo, we grabbed some food, walked around the waterfront in Barcelona, saw the beach, and grabbed some drinks. Omg, the pastries were to die for. It was this pastry that was coated with sugar (all over Ben's face 😂) and the inside had a DELICIOUS pudding. YUM. Also, I've noticed the drinks in Europe are like 65% alcohol and 35% mix (random guess - just trying to get across they are much stronger and Canada is ripping us off! 😂)Read more

  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler

    La Sagrada Familia - Goudi pt 2

    August 14, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Okay, if there's one thing I would tell you to google, it's this one! I think I was dragging my jaw on the ground walking through this mass because of how fascinating, beautiful, and technical the design of this structure is. Pictures do not do justice! So this is Goudi's main piece that he started in 1873 but never finished because he was struck by a tram in 1923 🙄 good thing he left behind many designs and models so as of today, the building is still in construction. Once the building is done, the tallest tower will be 1 meter shorter than the tallest mountain in Barcelona because Goudi believed that a man's creation could never be greater than God. The inside of this building was fascinating. Again, his work revolved around nature so the pillars were all like trees branching out. The stained glass was also truly amazing in the colours used and just beautiful. Also, all the pillars revolve around a factor of 7.5 meters. Whether that is they are each 7.5m away from each other, height, etc. Cool!!!! Finally, when Goudi was planning how to build these structures, he would build them upside down with setting and sandbags to determine areas of greater forces requiring more support.

    Alrighty!! Thank you Barcelona :)) now off the Callela which is a hour and a half drive to Ben's aunt and uncle's BEACH HOUSE WOOHOO!!    Read more

  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler

    Callela beachhouse :))

    August 17, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    From the night of the 14th to the morning of the 17th I stayed with Ben's family in Callela :)) him, his mom, uncle, aunt, and 4 younger cousins! They welcomed me with open arms and were lovely to stay with. Their beach house was quite literally ON the beach that people travel to get to for a day. The house had a balcony that had stairs which spat you out onto the sand. What a place. There were many small beaches adjacent to each other, one after the other lining the coast and the water was SO blue! We walked to a neighbouring beach called Lefrank and got a Catalina flavoured ice cream. Yum. We also went snorkelling - I held a RED star fish and a sea urchin while seeing SO many fish. We also went cliff jumping (higher than ragged rock!) along with some kayaking, paddle boarding, night swimming, and beach volleyball!!! (My team won💪💪). The family also cooked some traditional Spanish dishes that were delish and we played Catan with tequila shots on the side (peak the mounds of limes loool. I woke up feeling surprisingly well the next am). We also went to the local market which was massive! Everything was so fresh with meats, cheeses, fish, produce, you name it at this point! I also LOVED that when I ordered an iced latte, I was given a latte with a glass of ice. It makes a huge difference and is way better! Finally, they had sailboats that were PICOS!!! So great! Some other things worth mentioning was I braided the girls hair and they absolutely loved it and I came out for the most part sunburn free (my nose might be a little Rosey - Geegay kept asking me if my face was normally that red and continually offering me sunscreen 😂).

    Thank you thank you to Ben and his family. This will be a highlight of my trip and was special to be apart of❤️    Read more

  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler

    Paris Bound!

    August 17, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Alrighty!! That's a wrap for Spain! What a time. I enjoyed every minute of it. Good luck to Ben who is headed to Ghana in a week for 9 months of school abroad! (How cool)

    Peep my new glasses because wait for it...I bet you'll be surprised when I say...I broke yet another pair of glasses!!! 🙄🙄 I told my mom I'm never buying Ray-Ban glasses because I'll be broke after a year lol.

    On a side note, the Paris Train was fully booked for about a week so I decided to book a flight to Paris. Travel really do be crazy right now! Currently sitting on the plane at 2200 which is currently delayed and hour and a half and not sure if we will be able to take off because it is POURING! The captain is debating flying to a different city in Paris but we need the go-ahead from aircraft control to take off. What. A. Travel. Time.    Read more

  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler

    A day in Paris

    August 18, 2022 in France ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Paris in 30 hours!!! Alex is another swimmer from dal that has also been travelling so we spent the day together! We walked to the Eiffel tower, the arch, the louver (it is MASSIVE - Ben said you could spend a week there and I believe it), the Montmartre, and walked down 44th Ave! Also had a DELISH pizza. YUM. I also continued to meet more people at the hostel. This hostel was super social starting the night with free wine and cheese and happy hour :) I met some Aussie's, Germans, Canadians?!, and a guy from Ukraine. It seems everyone is going from Paris to Amsterdam so maybe we'll meet up again along the way :)) some side things, we saw a full band just playing in the train station - very cool! and this guy FULLY scamming travellers near the Eiffel tower with finding a ball under the correct cup. Costs 100 euros to play 😱 We watched and honestly he's smart in that he changes the cups when people look down in their wallet to grab their money. And guess what...it worked! Silly people 🙄 anyways overall great day seeing some of the world's most popular destination!

    Next stop: Brussels to spend a night with my dad's cousin Lieke!🤗🥰    Read more

  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler

    Visit with Lieke!

    August 20, 2022 in Belgium ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Everyone meet Lieke! Lieke is my dad's cousin who lives in Brussels :) I made a quick stop to visit and boy was it fun! We started by walking around Brussels, saw the main square, ate muscles, and saw the arch at night (it was raining lol). Lieke is also a big salsa dancer and recommended seeing the street salsa dancing under the arch. So cool! Then the highlight. Saturday morning Lieke took me to meet her horse, Mourenna, who is lovely. She is currently training her so we practiced in the ring. It is amazing that all of the commands are done by expression. Just inhaling tells the horse to start to trot and exhaling tells the horse to slow to a walk. Amazing! We also went for a quick little bareback which was great :) we ended off with a walk in the park and had some YUMMY pastries and Belgian chocolate 🥰 love family❤️

    Now off to Amsterdam! 🇳🇱    Read more

  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler
    1

    Haarlem

    August 21, 2022 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    I was recommended by some Dutch girls I met at the hostel I stayed at in Ireland to visit Haarlem! It was a 20 min train ride outside Amsterdam and it was fantastic! I can see why Grandpa loved his boats because there are canals everywhere with old wooden boats and sail boats! I also got to see a classic old Dutch windmill. I think one of these pictures captures a very authentic Dutch image of a windmill next to the canal and a boat WITH bikes on it!!! So fitting! Great way to start off the morning :)Read more

  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler

    Amsterdam!

    August 21, 2022 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    This afternoon I met up with some fellow hostel mates, Jenny and MV, who are from the States and they let me tag along for the afternoon!! Had a blast and they have done way more planning and organizing than I have so super informative and awesome to spend time with! We had some yummy authentic Dutch stroopwaffles (yum) that were made in front of us and still warm (it will be difficult to go back to our Canadian store bought ones!!) We toured around amsterdam and boy was it beautiful! Some fun facts: a lot of the buildings are slanted because they were built on wooden posts that have been deformed/rotted and so the structure is shifting! Also a lot of the houses are really tall and skinny because their rent was based on the square footage the building took up so most of the houses are very tall and skinny. Soooo....they had hooks to pull couches in through upper floor windows!! (This hits close to home because this is identical to what Grandpa would do in his work shop in Hamilton) I am also constantly blown away by the number of bikes! They had a 3 floor "parking garage" strictly for bikes that were packed with more filling in the main area as well! To cap off, we walked by the red light district which we are going to see tonight. Truly a culture I have never witnessed to this extent!! Wild!Read more

  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler

    More besties!

    August 22, 2022 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    What a surprise...I've met more people haha. Super fun time with these peeps from the US, Chilli, Spain, and some locals! #squad #theflyingpighostel

  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler

    Bike tour!

    August 22, 2022 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    This morning had a strong start to the day with an Amsterdam Bike tour! Honestly the best part was biking with a bunch of really cool travellers and sharing experiences and recommendations :)) The bike tour itself was a lot of history...but it was really fun to bike around a city with more bikes than people! Didn't get hit by any other bikers and didn't get hit by a car so we'll call it a win! Super cool seeing all the house boats and tiny tiny narrow and tall buildings that are not level or straight whatsoever 😂 I am in love with this city, amazing people and great places to go. All the travellers are saying they would move here.

    Something interesting is that house rentals are really hard to come by. To rent a place, you have to have lived in the house for 4 years and you can only rent for 30 days in the year on air BNB. This is because the city believes houses are meant for living, not making money.    Read more

  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler

    Red light district

    August 22, 2022 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Tonight we walked through the red light district and it is truly something else! It was a Monday night and it was bumping! Interesting experience to see this industry and came out with many many questions that have yet to be answered.Read more

  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler
    1

    Aalsmeer Flower Auction

    August 23, 2022 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    This am we started out bright and early with the Aalsmeer Flower Auction! It is the biggest flower auction in the world for people to bid and buy more than 20,000 types of flowers, roses being the most popular. None of these pictures do justice to the magnitude of this building. Overall, the size compares to 200 football fields! Crazy! The smells were amazing and the colours were popping!Read more

  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler

    Ferry Boat🛥️

    August 23, 2022 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    I made it on a ferry! Gorgeous day to hop on the boat and go across the harbour. (Very Derek Shepard vibes for those who understand the reference!) In one of the ports, all the buildings were made from old cargo containers! How fun :) amazing that Amsterdam has these ferries free of charge running every 10 min!Read more

  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler

    Sunset Ferry

    August 23, 2022 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Sooo...hopped back on the ferry with these gals from my hostel. I. Love. Them. I'm going to visit them whenever I get the chance to go to Austria because they are so cool! We took the ferry at sundown and hung out on a pier by the water and chatted all evening. Super fun! I also need to do a cycling trip. Too many trips to do with not enough time and money!!! Ahhhh. Finally we saw this yellow submarine and it was just iconic because....we all live in a yellow submarine 🎶Read more

  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler
    1

    Bug face

    August 24, 2022 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    I'm just going to leave this here for people to have some laughs and giggles because I find this hilarious.
    #technotuesday

  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler

    Copenhagen Bound!

    August 24, 2022 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    So I didn't really have a picture to add with this so here is my partially eaten chocolate croissants and me eating a whole bell pepper like an apple (unpopular opinion they are the best snacks)

    Okayyyy so Amsterdam is done! Amazing time, will 100% be coming back, I met some really awesome people that are more my travelling type because Amsterdam is not like all flashing lights with bells and whistles. Super great time and lovely city. I kinda missed my scheduled train this morning...so I'm taking a later route which just gets in a little later. Totally fine but a very busy travel day on the trains. For a little bit I was sitting on the floor #coolbeans    Read more

  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler

    Nyhavn

    August 25, 2022 in Denmark ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Today's bike day! The hostel I'm staying at rents bikes for the day so the first stop was Nyhaven! This is a super popular area in Copenhagen as it is lined with colourful buildings and sailboats :)) so pretty and so cute!!! 10/10 townRead more

  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler

    Reffen Hidden Gem!

    August 25, 2022 in Denmark ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    So I biked to this little community outside of the city and it is amazing!! I would recommend it to anyone. There are so many vendors in old cargo containers, it is so cute, and everything is SO good! It is right on the water, picnic tables everywhere, string lights through the walkways, and a skate park! So cool to explore and so colourful!!Read more

  • Martine NyhofEurope 2022Traveler

    Christiania

    August 25, 2022 in Denmark ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Okay...so this town is called Christiania...but also Freetown - basically because weed is illegal in Denmark...except in this tiny pocket of town 👀 I will leave it there. In that particular area we are not allowed to take pictures for legality reasons but the rest of the town is COVERED in graffiti!!! Super cool area and great spot to check out :)Read more

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