Hey guys!
So I've been pretty absent again. Mind the again. But I'm back for now. It's just that I really love having a space to write down all my thoughts and adventures but the space I created is not how I want or like it anymore. For now it'll have to do but I'm thinking of redesigning my blog, the idea of my blog and what I want to do with it. So keep an eye out for that in the future.
*snaps fingers* Back to the present.
As the title subtly gives away I have been in South-Africa for a month now. Renée why are you in South-Africa?! Well let me explain, for the entirety of my last school year I have been busy getting into and preparing myself for an internship abroad. This has always been a dream of mine and the opportunity to go on one was actually one of the reasons for me to choose the university I'm currently in. So when the chances finally presented themselves I jumped upon them. It took a lot of sweat and tears to get in but look where I am!
Right now I am living and doing my internship in Pretoria, and I am in love with this city. It's definitely on the list of favourite cities I've visited so far! The internship I'm on is with TLF (Tshwane Leadership Foundation), TLF has different projects and the ones I'm working on are Inkululeko and Potter's House. Inkululeko being a preschool where I support the teachers and give my own lessons. Potter's House being a shelter for vulnerable women who left their home situations for different reasons. Both really interesting and challenging as a nurse as the things I can do there as a nurse are much less obvious than my fellow students having their internship with disabled people or in hospitals. But I love the challenges I'm faced with and the creative thinking that I have to do to succeed here. It's absolutely brilliant!
Than there is the city itself. Even though I have been here for a month already I've not seen too much of Pretoria yet, and still I'm already in love with the city. There's so much to do and explore in Pretoria but also Johannesburg and the surroundings. What I have been doing is a safari, visiting South-Africa's biggest theme park, and hanging out at a local foodmarket 20 minutes from my accommodation. The easy going South-African atmosphere has got me hooked, and an unsafe feeling isn't something I've come to experience here yet, thankfully. The accommodation I'm staying at is called F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Yes it is written like the TV show, but the name honours itself. It's an accommodation aimed at foreign students and it has a lot of options to hang out by yourself or together. As we also have a social manager here who organises hikes or dinners you get to know your housemates quite easily and during this month I have grown rather fond of them. I love this accommodation and the people I'm staying here with. I have definitely made friends here already.
One month down, 2.5 more to go and I can not wait to see what they will bring! If you have the option to go abroad on an internship or travel abroad for a long time I can't do anything else than recommend it to you! It has been a great experience so far and it will only get better! Besides just going abroad I would also like to recommend South-Africa and especially Pretoria to you. Some might say Cape Town is the place to be here but I disagree, Pretoria has so much to offer and there are so many incredible things to do and see nearby. Swaziland and Kruger are only a three hour drive, the nature here is amazing, a lot of national park and safari options are nearby, plus it's South-Africa's political centre and it holds a lot of history. What more to say than visit Pretoria if you get the chance!
For my time here I decided to vlog so I will put the links to my vlogs down here for you to watch: (mind you, the spoken ones are in Dutch but please feel welcome to add subtitles to them to make them more accessible for non-Dutch speakers as well)
Catch up with you soon!
Lots of love,
ThatDutchGirl96
Hello fellow internet surfers,'
Recently I booked something, one of those things that will definitely add to the list of "exciting things I did in my life". Believe it or not, this unofficial, not published list has gotten quite long over the relatively short time I've been alive. Also I can now officially put an X by another item on my bucketlist. I really want to go on a rant on how scared my bucketlist makes me sometimes, but hey that's a story for another time! For now let me focus on this super exciting thing I booked recently...
So a friend of mine and I were looking to go city tripping during our school holiday in February. However, we couldn't really agree on a city to go to, so we started surfing the interwebs for some crazy city trip ideas. We came across quite a few, but the one that stood out the most was a city trip arranged by Srprs.me.
Srprs is an agency where you can book a lot of different vacations. They range from (broke) city trips (ideal for poor students), multi city (where you go to different cities), or solo together (a trip where a group of people that don't know each other go on a holiday together). But even though they all sound like completely different holidays, which they are, they have one thing in common. No matter what trip you book at Srprs, you never know where you're going.
Amazing right?!?!?!?! Yes, my friend and I thought so too. That definitely qualifies as an exciting thing.
Anyway, so my friend and I have booked a city trip with an unknown destination. This both excites and frightens me as I'm normally the person to arrange everything and figure it all out before we even leave. But I can not wait to find out where we're going. In a little over a month we find out what our destination is, and a week before that I'll get a weather forecast in my mailbox. That way you're at least somewhat able to prepare yourself.
Lots of love,
ThatDutchGirl96
ps. if you want to find out more about my Srprs trip you can enter your mailadress in the following link. That way you'll find out where we're going as soon as we find out ourselves! So click HERE if you want to know where I end up on my city trip!
Hey there!
As you all may know, I love travelling. Whether I'm going on a long vacation far away or a short citytrip to a city not too far away, I love travelling. The feeling of being in a new place, discovering new things, seeing and doing things you've never seen and done before, meeting new people and maybe even making some new friends. I love everything about it but most of all the feeling of being free. When I travel I forget all about the worries I had at home, the things I forgot to do or still have to do. When I travel I don't worry about any of those things, the only thing I might worry about is missing my flight. Being in a new place, for me, is like a chance to start again, to discover new things about yourself and to become completely at peace again.
Now in this blog I would like to give you some tips on travelling. More specifically I would like to share some of the things I've learned whilst planning and going on a citytrip.
A citytrip is mostly a short vacation to a specific city. Preferably a city you've never been to before and you have yet to discover all of it's wonders. A citytrip lasts mostly 3 to 4 days.
So now you know some things about a citytrip let me share some of the tips and tricks I've learned over the last few years.
Deciding on the destination.
Before you go on a citytrip you have to know which city you're going to. This kind of depends on who you are and who you are going with. When you have bought tickets to let's say a convention in a city abroad, the destination is kind of decided already. Sometimes you and your friends know exactly where you want to go because you've always wanted to go there or because one of your friends has been there before and tickled your curiosity so you decide to go there. But there are also times where both you and your friends are absolutely clueless about where to go or maybe you just don't care. When that happens I can absolutely recommend the travel agency 'surprise me'. They are a travel agency where you can book all kinds of trips including citytrips but the whole thing is that you won't know your destination up until you are at the airport a couple of hours before your flight departs. I have never been on a surprise trip before but a lot of my friends have and they all recommend I go on one in the near future. Click HERE to go to their website. If a surprise me trip sounds a bit too much for you you can also decide to print a map from let's say Europe, close your eyes, drop your finger somewhere and go to the city it has landed the closest to.
When you go all by yourself the choice is all yours which might make the deciding bit a little easier.
How to get there.
When you have decided where you are going you start finding out how to get there. Maybe you can get there by train, by bus, by boat or by plane. Decide which way of transport suits you, your budget and your time schedule best. I personally prefer travelling by plane but mostly because I enjoy flying and because travelling by plane has been the best option for the cities I've been to so far. Look up the different options for, for example, travelling by bus. Which agencies offer to take you there, how much do they cost, how long does it take to get there and what are the references. I personally always check the different kinds of references on a transport agency as I think quality is very important. When travelling by plane it is important to know how much luggage you're going to take with you. Do you need nothing more than a small suitcase then you don't need to take anything more than cabin luggage. If you are going to need a big suitcase then it's important to check the prices for that as well. This might make your flight more expensive so it's important to check the offers of different flight agencies and whether or not extra luggage is included in the price. Prices of flights change over time so when you want to book a flight you might want to look up when the price of your flight will be the cheapest. However this is no guarantee that at that specific time the price will be the cheapest. It is up to you to figure that out and to know what you want to spend on your flight ticket.
activities.
On a citytrip you are going to explore the city of course. It might be handy to make a list of things you really want to do or places you really want to eat before you leave on your citytrip. Thankfully Dr. Google knows all about the great spots in every city. Besides you can always ask friends and family members who have been to that city before if they know any amazing spots or things to go and do and or see. I always make a list if places I want to see, things I want to do and stuff I must definitely eat or at least try. This just makes my trip a little more organised and I love an organised citytrip although I'm all for the chaos as well as it adds a little more excitement
to your trip, I think.
Hotel / hostel.
Of course you will need a place to stay the night. And by this I don't mean a bench in the park, no I mean a place with a roof and heating and beds and stuff. Whether you stay in a hotel or a hostel is completely up to you. I personally prefer hostels as I just love the atmosphere most of them have and you are more likely to meet other travellers of your age and start a conversation with them. This is because hostels tend to have one central living room and kitchen which means you're going to bump into fellow travellers one way or another. You are also very likely to sleep in bunk beds in a bigger room with strangers but hey it's fun, you can talk to others, ask them if they know some things you haven't seen or done yet. Of course hostels have their less great things too because you don't really have a place for your own but hey they are mostly more fun and cheaper than a hotel. Obviously there is nothing wrong with booking a hotel. If you want a room of yourself, breakfast included, an en suite bathroom and just a little more luxury I definitely recommend a hotel. If you want to know about the hotels and hostels and their availability you can always check the website booking.com as that website holds a lot of hotels and hostels and is perfect for getting some ideas for possible places to sleep.
What to bring?
This all depends on the length of your citytrip and the city you go to. Things you will always need are a toothbrush, toothpaste, socks, shoes, pyjamas, clothes, a coat, your phone, the charger for your phone, a travel lock, a suitcase or backpack and possibly a scarf or sunglasses. Just the basics. How many of these you'll take with you depends on the length of your citytrip and who you are as a person. We are all different so we'll all pack our suitcases and backpacks in a different way.
Of course there are more things to think of when you go on a citytrip but I feel like these are the most important things to keep in mind when going on a citytrip. If you have some additions to this list please add them in the comments below. Together we can become the best prepared bunch of travellers the world has ever seen!
I hope this list has been somewhat useful to you! If it was please press the like button and share it with your friends.
Lots of love,
ThatDutchGirl96
As the title subtly gives away I have been in South-Africa for a month now. Renée why are you in South-Africa?! Well let me explain, for the entirety of my last school year I have been busy getting into and preparing myself for an internship abroad. This has always been a dream of mine and the opportunity to go on one was actually one of the reasons for me to choose the university I'm currently in. So when the chances finally presented themselves I jumped upon them. It took a lot of sweat and tears to get in but look where I am! 
Right now I am living and doing my internship in Pretoria, and I am in love with this city. It's definitely on the list of favourite cities I've visited so far! The internship I'm on is with TLF (Tshwane Leadership Foundation), TLF has different projects and the ones I'm working on are Inkululeko and Potter's House. Inkululeko being a preschool where I support the teachers and give my own lessons. Potter's House being a shelter for vulnerable women who left their home situations for different reasons. Both really interesting and challenging as a nurse as the things I can do there as a nurse are much less obvious than my fellow students having their internship with disabled people or in hospitals. But I love the challenges I'm faced with and the creative thinking that I have to do to succeed here. It's absolutely brilliant! 
For my time here I decided to vlog so I will put the links to my vlogs down here for you to watch: (mind you, the spoken ones are in Dutch but please feel welcome to add subtitles to them to make them more accessible for non-Dutch speakers as well)
