Belgium can probably be summed up in two words: beer and chocolate.
But I'll go into more detail since I've been gone for such a long time and I'm sure you've missed me.
We left on the flying nun bus at 7am. It was early. We were tired. We drove to somewhere (there were signs that said FRANCE -->..) and waited in a station for an hourish. Then, we all piled back into the bus. Which then drove onto a train. That's right, ON TO A TRAIN. I mean. For someone who is just mildly claustrophobic, that was a little terrifying. Then we were told we weren't allowed off the bus. THEN we were told if we take any flash photography the whole train would blow up or something. Good!
As if being on a bus on a train wasn't bad enough, we then went 250 feet below the ocean in a tunnel.
Anyways, I don't want to relive that moment in my life. Onto the beer and the chocolate! Our hostel was really cool, we had a sort of loft bedroom with a little lounge downstairs and some questionable grafitti art on the walls. We set off to explore Grand Place, a giant square with all these beautiful buildings surrounding it. The streets were all cobblestone. If you haven't gathered by the amount of times I talk about it, I love cobblestone. I didn't, however, love cobblestone that first night in Bruseels since I was wearing wedge heels. Good choice, Sara.
Our class went to La Maison des Crepes for dinner; we had a tiny room upstairs that had big windows looking out onto the streets and the walls were covered in encyclopedia pages. All the tableclothes were mismatched flower prints. My kind of place! I got some wine and after a bit of a mix up and a two hour wait we all had our food. Which was delicious, but at this point I was a little drunk. You could have given me a peanut butter sandwich and I would have been happy.
Afterwards, we went to Delirium, just a little bar that happens to have over two thousand kinds of beer. I made an effort to try every kind but sadly had to quit at three. Good effort though, I think. Next time!
Our second day in Belgium involved a talk at the European Union, a carrot-apple-ginger juice at Pulp and a visit to the Magritte museum. The exhibit was really cool, albeit slightly freaky and weird. I really liked the names of this guy's paintings, like "Companions of Fear" and "The Unexpected Answer".
That night, Patti, Katie and I got dinner at a little Italian place in the pouring rain and then went to see Les Miserables. In French. The theater was beautiful, with mint green walls and ceilings and deep red velvet seats and gold ropes. The play was.. interesting, as my mom would say. When the Black Eyed Peas started playing during the wedding scene while everyone was in these old fashioned dresses they kind of lost me. But, you know, an experience.
Our final day in Brussels we started the day off right with a tour of a chocolate factory. It smelled heavenly. A little old lady gave us a chocolate demonstration on how they make the different chocolates and then, naturally, we had some samples. There were just little bowls of different chocolates all over the place, what was I supposed to do? Best breakfast ever.
A few of us then set off to find Mannequin Pis, Belgium's weird national mascot guy. When we finally found him (after several wrong turns on the cobblestone streets) our reaction was basically "oh." He was TINY. Like, really tiny. I don't know why they all make such a fuss over this little guy peeing in a fountain but they dress him up for special occasions and everything. Weird.
To sooth our disappointment in Mannequin Pis we all got Belgian waffles. There were actually chunks of sugar in the waffles. The Belgians are after my heart. And my pant size.
After sufficiently stuffing myself with sugar I set off for the train station for the next journey on my midterm break: Paris!
But I'll go into more detail since I've been gone for such a long time and I'm sure you've missed me.
We left on the flying nun bus at 7am. It was early. We were tired. We drove to somewhere (there were signs that said FRANCE -->..) and waited in a station for an hourish. Then, we all piled back into the bus. Which then drove onto a train. That's right, ON TO A TRAIN. I mean. For someone who is just mildly claustrophobic, that was a little terrifying. Then we were told we weren't allowed off the bus. THEN we were told if we take any flash photography the whole train would blow up or something. Good!
As if being on a bus on a train wasn't bad enough, we then went 250 feet below the ocean in a tunnel.
Anyways, I don't want to relive that moment in my life. Onto the beer and the chocolate! Our hostel was really cool, we had a sort of loft bedroom with a little lounge downstairs and some questionable grafitti art on the walls. We set off to explore Grand Place, a giant square with all these beautiful buildings surrounding it. The streets were all cobblestone. If you haven't gathered by the amount of times I talk about it, I love cobblestone. I didn't, however, love cobblestone that first night in Bruseels since I was wearing wedge heels. Good choice, Sara.
Our class went to La Maison des Crepes for dinner; we had a tiny room upstairs that had big windows looking out onto the streets and the walls were covered in encyclopedia pages. All the tableclothes were mismatched flower prints. My kind of place! I got some wine and after a bit of a mix up and a two hour wait we all had our food. Which was delicious, but at this point I was a little drunk. You could have given me a peanut butter sandwich and I would have been happy.
Afterwards, we went to Delirium, just a little bar that happens to have over two thousand kinds of beer. I made an effort to try every kind but sadly had to quit at three. Good effort though, I think. Next time!
Our second day in Belgium involved a talk at the European Union, a carrot-apple-ginger juice at Pulp and a visit to the Magritte museum. The exhibit was really cool, albeit slightly freaky and weird. I really liked the names of this guy's paintings, like "Companions of Fear" and "The Unexpected Answer".
That night, Patti, Katie and I got dinner at a little Italian place in the pouring rain and then went to see Les Miserables. In French. The theater was beautiful, with mint green walls and ceilings and deep red velvet seats and gold ropes. The play was.. interesting, as my mom would say. When the Black Eyed Peas started playing during the wedding scene while everyone was in these old fashioned dresses they kind of lost me. But, you know, an experience.
Our final day in Brussels we started the day off right with a tour of a chocolate factory. It smelled heavenly. A little old lady gave us a chocolate demonstration on how they make the different chocolates and then, naturally, we had some samples. There were just little bowls of different chocolates all over the place, what was I supposed to do? Best breakfast ever.
A few of us then set off to find Mannequin Pis, Belgium's weird national mascot guy. When we finally found him (after several wrong turns on the cobblestone streets) our reaction was basically "oh." He was TINY. Like, really tiny. I don't know why they all make such a fuss over this little guy peeing in a fountain but they dress him up for special occasions and everything. Weird.
To sooth our disappointment in Mannequin Pis we all got Belgian waffles. There were actually chunks of sugar in the waffles. The Belgians are after my heart. And my pant size.
After sufficiently stuffing myself with sugar I set off for the train station for the next journey on my midterm break: Paris!
