Holidays In Europe – Journals from Abroad

Merry Chicken!

Ok, I know it’s actually merry Christmas, but after this trip, to my family, it will forever be merry chicken. There’s a lot to unpack from these last two weeks, both from my suitcase, and in this blog update, so get ready for a lot of randomness and cool photos that i stole from the two photographers of the family to use here. I’ll go in order and dedicate a section to each city we went to, so hopefully it shouldn’t be too hard to follow along.

Our journey starts on December 18th when my family got to England. I met them at the bus station, and within 5 minutes, my mom had already gotten lost trying to navigate us to our hotel in Nottingham. We had a great dinner at a small pub right across the street from our hotel that had a dog. After 3 months with no dog, I finally got some puppy snuggles! We only spent approximately a day and a half in Nottingham, but I took my family around my University campus, to the Christmas market in the city centre, and to an experimental cocktail bar for dinner. Then on the 20th, we got up early to take a coach to London. By this point, everyone was pretty jet lagged and just a little bit snappy, so we tried to keep it as lowkey as possible.

Clara sitting at a table in a cozy British pub facing diagonally away from the camera petting a small black dog — Clara and Sparkle

A sign that says “The Peacock” on a curvy white wall. Hanging in front of it are strings of Christmas lights, and off to the left is a decorated Christmas tree — The view from our table at the Peacock

The entryway to the alchemist. The door sits at the bottom of the frame with the sign hanging above it, and a statue above the sign — The Alchemist for drinks and dinner on our last night in Nottingham

On to London! We arrived in the afternoon on the 20th, so it was already getting pretty dark. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and took the tube into a more central spot in the city to walk around some Christmas markets and over a couple bridges. The next day was full of getting attacked by birds at Hyde Park and my mom, yet again, getting lost looking for landmarks. Then my sister and I split off from my parents because we went to two separate shows on the West End! My sister and I, like the true Americans we are, went to Hamilton, which was a truly amazing experience. The next day, my parents split off again to see all the tourist attractions they could while my sister and I took a more relaxed approach and went to Camden for the day to walk around the markets and have dinner. I found my London ring(s) at the Camden market, too. It is a really cool district within London and I’d highly recommend anyone who goes to London to stop over there for a little while. Our last day was basically spent waiting for our train to Paris. We stopped at a pub to have lunch. This is where merry chicken was born, but we were all so delirious that none of us can remember what the comment was for it. So, it will forever remain a mystery!

Photo from a vantage point along the river in London. In the distance, over the water, is a glowing bridge — Views from our walk on night 1 in London

The open doors of the London tube glow on the left, and a couple of people are walking along to get on on the right — Journey on the tube

View of the lake in Hyde Park with a swan swimming, leaving a trail in the water. The sun glows faintly from behind the clouds in the sky — Hyde Park

Laura, Clara’s mom walks in front of the camera, facing away. Mark, Clara’s dad, can be seen just ahead of her. They are walking in the theater district — Parents cruising through the streets of London

A photo collage. Top left is a plate of fish and chips, top right is the interior of a bar called the Shakespeare, bottom right is the interior of a pub in Camden, and the bottom right is two ciders cutting on a table in a dimly lit pub — Some of the places we went for food/drinks

Collage: top left is the stage before Hamilton started, top right is Clara and Emily smiling in their seats, and the bottom is the stage at intermission, now with a staircase in the middle — Hamilton Night

Two stalls at the Camden Market. The one taking up the majority of the photo has a variety of clothes handing at various heights on the walls of the stall — Camden Market

Collage of rings. Left is a silver leaf on Clara’s pinky finger, the middle is a black and solver striped ring, and the right is a silver ring with two rows of small diamonds glimmering — London rings

Next stop, Paris! We arrived in Paris really late on the 23rd after taking the Eurostar, so we crashed, but the next day was Christmas Eve! Christmas Eve was one of the coolest days of the trip. We walked up a street that had some amazing places to get pastries and cheeses, so we stopped there to pick up some food for Christmas morning, and then went on a Seine river cruise at sunset. Some of the most beautiful pictures from the trip came from my sister and dad on this boat, and that was one of the prettiest sunsets I’ve ever seen.. Before we knew it, we were clinking glasses and saying Merry Chicken the next day! We had a very chill day on Christmas because few places in Paris are open on Christmas, so we opted for a breakfast in our hotel room with the food we picked up the day before, a walk to the Eiffel Tower, and a relaxed dinner. It was definitely a different Christmas than what I’m used to, but one of the best I’ve ever had. The day after Christmas was one of my favorite days of the trip, because my sister and I took a class on creating our own perfumes at a perfumerie in Paris! The atmosphere of the room felt very regal and we had a full immersive lesson on different smells and how to mix and match ones to create a scent we really liked to take home with us. Definitely a great last full day in Paris.

The Eiffel Tower sits in front of a glowing pink/purple sunset — The view of the Eiffel Tower from our sunset cruise on the Seine

The windows of a cruise boat on the left, reflecting a pink sunset that is shown on the right — Our cruise boat reflecting the beautiful sunset.

Collage: top is Clara and her sister in the foreground and their parents in the background all sitting at a small table for Christmas in their hotel room, bottom left is Laura holding up a piece of chicken, and bottom right is the Christmas Day spread, complete with chocolate brioche, apples, cheese, chicken, oranges, grapes, and wine

The view of the arc from underneath — Christmas Day walk to the arc

Collage of the perfume making class: top is a plate with a bunch of perfume testers around it, a bottle of a singular scent sits next to the plate on the left. Bottom left is Emily and Clara holding their perfumes, and the bottom right is a photo of Emily’s perfume bottle — Perfume making class

Brussels was next on our trip, and this was definitely an experience. We stayed in an area off the center of the city, so we were all definitely a bit more cautious as we were walking around that area, but when we arrived in the city, we were able to visit some really fun areas.

Our first full day was full of chocolate. We attended a Belgian chocolate making class where we made a chocolate bar, some traditional Belgian chocolate circles, and truffles. As a baker, this was like a dream to me, and I had so much fun learning how to work with chocolate in a commercial space. My mom, however, was a little newer to the experience of working with chocolate and may have “killed” a few of her truffles.

Once we were done with that, we walked around one of the Christmas markets in the city center and I found two Brussels rings as well as a beautiful treble clef necklace. We also caught a light display of native art projected on buildings in the city center which was incredibly beautiful, especially as the sun began to set more. Our final day in Brussels, we went to the Atomium and had a bird’s eye view of Brussels along with another display of lights inside the museum. As a blind girl, colored light displays are one of my favorite things ever, because they’re like glowing, moving art that I can experience as much as a sighted person could experience a normal art museum. That was a great way to end our visit to Brussels.

Collage: some of the coole light displays on the streets of Brussels. Top left is diagonal strings of lighted ornaments, top right is a pair of angel wings, bottom left is a cross between a wave and a flag, and bottom right is a set of three fireworks — Some of the cool light displays in Brussels

One of the buildings in the city centre that has lights projected on it, so it is displaying walls and windows of color — Lighted building in the city centre

The view of the center square. A Christmas tree sits directly in the middle of the square with a couple lighted buildings loosely surrounding it — Brussels city centre square decorated for christmas

Our chocolate making class, featuring my chocolate bar and Laura’s “killed” truffles

Collage of Clara’s Brussels rings: the left is a sterling silver ring made of intricately woven thin silver strands, and the right is a silver ring that looks a bit like and infinity symbol with diamonds throughout it — Brussels rings

Our final stop was Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a really cool city and our hotel was right on one of the canals. This hotel was also the most livable space for 4 people of all the places we stayed on our trip. Our first day in Amsterdam, we went to the Van Gogh museum. I know, I know, I just got done saying how I like light shows more than traditional art museums, but this was a great museum, and even though I couldn’t see as much detail as a fully sighted person would, I could still see the paintings and have a member of my family read the description/backstory of the art to me. It was like my own personal audio tour!
My sister, who is a very gifted artist herself, was really in her element at this museum and it was fun to watch her just wandering around taking it all in.

Then, before we knew it, it was New Year’s Eve! My mom and sister went to the Heineken experience while my dad and I explored The 9 Streets, which are a collection of streets that have a lot of local Dutch shops showcasing the culture of Amsterdam. We went into a couple of stores including one vintage store where I got my Amsterdam ring! My mom and sister met back up with us and we went to get some dinner before going back to our hotel to play cards and “enjoy” some fireworks for the rest of the night. Why air quotes you ask? Because they were being lit off right next to our window and scared my mom half to death. And they lasted a full 2 and a half hours until about at least 1:30 in the morning. New Year’s Day felt a little like Christmas in that a decent amount of places were closed and we ended up just wandering a bit and looking at the Amsterdam light festival before going to get some dinner. Our last day was more of the same except this time it was pouring down rain, so by the time we went to collect our suitcases and go to the airport to fly back to London, we were absolutely soaked. But we made it back to London and my parents flew out to go home the next morning.

Photo of a painting of Van Gogh’s, a vase of flowers in a wooden frame — Painting hung in the Van Gogh museum

A digitally projected image of flowers covering two walls in the main hall of the Van Gogh museum — Digital projection at the Van Gogh museum

A canal in Amsterdam at sunset with bikes lining each fence along either side. Buildings line either side of the canal — Amsterdam canal

An art installation of a man with a VR headset suspended in the air above a platform or portal that sits on the water of one of the canals — An art installation at the Amsterdam festival of lights

Window with a table full of cookies — Cookie store in Amsterdam’s 9 Streets

A silver ring made of woven strips that make the ring look like a chain on Clara’s pinky finger — Amsterdam ring

I feel incredibly blessed that I was able to go on this trip and my family was able to come over and spend the holidays with me in so many wonderful places. I was a bit nervous that we would be at each other’s throats or absolutely exhausted at about the halfway point, but we wasted a full 18 days without any major arguments, and had a good amount of downtime and a LOT of laughs. Now, I have about 3 and a half weeks until I go home, which feels both like a really long time and not much time at all. I have a couple essays to write but for the most part I just get to exist in the culture for a little while until I go home.

Yes, this was long, but, it was also a long trip, and I didn’t include half the experiences we had as a family for the sake of your time. For those who made it to the end, though, I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into how my family travels, and to my mom, dad, and sister, who I know are reading this, thank you for making my holidays amazing and I love you.

That’s it for now! I’m finished with my class essays, and now I just have a bit of my own work to do before one of my friends arrives and we spend my last week traveling one last time before I go home. I hope everyone had a very merry chicken and happy new year!

Cheers!
-Clara