Bianca Stoichita, an exchange student from Romania, is currently studying at Windesheim. She is following the courses Future Cities and Circular Housing. For WIN, she is reporting on her experiences in Zwolle.
If you are an architecture student like me, I am more than sure that you will have the opportunity to travel (at least once) on a field trip with your class. My first field trip while studying at Windesheim was to Antwerp and Rotterdam. The trip was three days long and very tiring, but I gained beautiful memories from it!
Super accessible
If you do worry about the transport, well, don’t! Because here trains are super accessible and really frequent. We travelled with the train from Zwolle and we had a few stops where we had to change the train, in Utrecht, Breda and then in Antwerp. It sounds a lot but, trust me, you don’t even feel it. Then in Antwerp we checked in at the The Ash hostel and we continued our visit. As for the way back, we had the same route with the trains.
Bonus points: in the second day in Antwerp, we did have rented bikes for a couple of hours but, to be honest, the infrastructure in Belgium is not so greatly developed (for bikes especially) as in The Netherlands, but it is still doable.
Chocolate and beer
If you ever visit Belgium, don’t forget about the chocolate and the beer! We went to a place called Leonidas and got ourselves a few bits of custom made chocolate bonbons which were absolutely delicious. And of course I’ve bought some as a little gift for friends and family. For the beer I can say that it is really tasty but to me it didn’t have a different taste from the ones in The Netherlands. So the conclusion is that beer is perfect everywhere if you enjoy it!
Historical areas
We had a couple of activities already scheduled by our professors, and in total we had planned two guided tours in Antwerp and one big tour in Rotterdam which we prepared ourselves. It was beautiful to learn about the culture and different historical areas of the city and how they preserved and innovated the space to be able to be used even today.
Party zone
Of course, we cannot forget about the night life! After tiring days you shouldn’t sleep, you should party instead! We went to a karaoke party which was extremely fun and I recommend it especially if you want to sing your favourite songs. And on the other day, we found a party zone and had fun for the whole night! These are the memories that last forever!
Don’t forget to enjoy every minute of your stay abroad because I can assure you that you will have the best memories that you’ve ever created!
