I was trying to come up with something really clever and witty for the name of this blog post but I failed miserably. If anyone has ideas after reading I will surely take them into consideration! Once I finished my post up on Friday morning I packed up quickly for the weekend and then headed off to theater and phonetics. Both classes were good except the unexpected information that we would be having a phonetics test next wee due to some people not taking the class seriously...all I have to say is that when you put me and Caroline and in the back of a room with computers in it, what do you expect? After class I headed to Gare du Nord, train station, and waiting a few hours before hopping on my train to Belgium. It was a very short 1 hour and a half ride and before I could even try to take a nap I was there. Jori had gotten there around the same time as me so we met each other at the train station. After she told me her horreus adventure of actually getting to Brussels (refer to her blog) we were both very happy to see each other. We found out our hotel, "Hotel de France" was a five minute walk from the station. This was very conviently located for both of us. Unfortunaetly we think we were located in a very sketchy area of Brussels, sorry Jackie and Debbie didn't want to tell you that while were there. Maybe it was the people laying in piles of dirt outside the hotel, or the ambulance that gave us that opinion. The hotel actually wasn't that bad when we went inside. We checked in, through our stuff down then went to go explore the city. We walked for about 10 minutes (through a city of what seemed to be all men, let's just say we were holding each other in fear the entire time) and then made it to the Grand Place. This is a big square that has lots of bars, resturants, and stands all around it. The buildings that make up the square are The Brussels Town Hall, The Maison du Roi, and the Guildhalls (i'm not sure what that is).
Nevertheless it was very beautifully lit up at night but my camera was dead, bummer. We walked around, both starving, and found a Thai/Chineese resturant for dinner. We both had chicken fried rice. Afterwards we scoped the town and found an open waffle stand and both had our first Belgium waffles. They were waffles with bananas, whipped cream, and chocolate. They were impossible to eat while walking around but so delicious! Exhausted and full we hopped in a cab back to the hotel, and both passed out watching Rat Race at around 12am.
We woke up early Saturday morning to start our day and head out to Brugge. Brugge is a city around 35-40min away from Brussels via train. We were hesitant about what it was at first, but we were so happy we went. It is a mideval city, very small and very cute. We walked into town from the station and saw beautiful old churches, buildings, and even a canal system that runs through the town.
The church we went into first was a Notre Dame and it was called our Lady of the Blind. There are also Chocolate shops everywhere. On our walk we couldn't help ourselves and went to get some Pralines. Then we looked around the canal areas a bit and made our way over to the frite museum...French Fries! Who knew that Belgium was famous for french fries? Now I know way more I ever want to know about potatoes, ketchup, and oily fats, but the museum was interesting and the best part was the end where we ordered a nutrtious meal of French fries for lunch.
After the museum we were so full we couldnt even think about going to the chocolate museum so we passed on that. The road signs are almost as confusing as Paris so we get lost for a while but it was a beautiful day so we didn't mind just walking around and talking. We then walked by another chocolate shop that had chocolate covered fuit. We couldn't resist chocolate covered bananas on a stick...it was so worth it. At least we were eating fruit right? After that we walked towards the train station and went to a monestary. It was free to get in so why not? It was very beautiful as well and has been around since the 1600's at least. We had to be very quiet while walking through, not one of my strong points. After that we exhausted our options in Bruge and took the train back to Brussels.
In Brussles we went straight to the Grand Place again. We were on a mission to see a specific fountain. It is this little boy peeing into a fountain and it is a huge deal there! They have everything from chocolate, to wine openers, to toys of this little boy peeing.
Very interesting. Once we got their it was very anticlimatic. Except something must've been going on that day because everyone we saw was dressed in scary Halloween costumes. I mean white faces, blood every where, fake teeth, capes, the whole deal. Even the statue was dressed up.
Jori wouldn't let me ask someone what was going on, and I was a little afraid my self. Once we left the statue we went to a bar reccomended by Jori's guidebook and tried some Belgium beer. It was very fruity, but still not great. We caught up some more and an hour later lef the bar. We then were trying to find a museum but we realized it was already 6pm so it would probably be closed. We went to an arcade of stores and walked around for a while, and then wandered into a vintage shop/mall/huge place. Jori helped me pick out a pair of cheap sunglasses, it was a success, all besides her trying to bargain for cheaper scarves. After shopping we ended up at the road called Rue de Bouchers. It is a road that is full of resturants with fixed menu prices. When you walk down it the workers try and get you to eat dinner at their resturant. It is very overwhelming. We walked into the first resturant that didn't attack us and had a 4 course meal for 12 euros. It wasn't the best but I was still full from eating so much during the day it was fine. There was also a fight that we heard happening in the kitchen and the power went out at one point, quite the romantic dinner. After dinner we went to find a cinema to go see a movie. Once we finally found one that played English movies we bought tickets and sat down in the comfiest theater chairs ever. We saw the movie Mr. Nobody. It was so strange, I still have no idea what it was about, if anyone out there who reads this blog knows what it was about please let me know! After the movie we hopped in a cab and headed home for the night.
On Sunday the plan was to get up and out by 10. Unfortunaetly that was easier said than done. We were both really tired so we kept pressing snooze and ended up getting out around 10:30 am, not bad. We checked out and left our stuff at the hotel and went back to the Grand Place for the last time. We went to a resturant for breakfast that served bagels. We were both thrilled but feeling like we needed to have one last waffel we split a banana, strawberry, whipped cream waffel.
Afterwards we walked around a little more and headed back towards our hotel. There was a giant flee market going on outside so we checked that out. That took around 15 minutes and we still had a ton of time to kill before my train and Jori's flight. We grabbed our stuff and sat around the train station for a while. Once Jori left, to go on another horrendous plane ride home (refer back to her blog), I got some noodles for dinner and chilled until my train came. I hopped on the train at around 5:30 and was in by 7:00. I took a quick nap. I made it home around 7:30 talked with the host parents and Maya for a little and then tried to start doing my homework. Then I found myself writing this blog. This weekend was great and I'm so happy I got to spend sometime one on one with Jori. She's doing so great! I will see here again two weeks from today when I head to Rome. I also didn't realize how French Brussels was, so it was fun going out fo the country but still being able to understand things and communicate with French. Four days till spring break, unfortunately that's also three tests and two papers away. Wish me luck and hopefully the next time you read this it will be about the warm beeches of Mykonos and the gelato of Italy!
We walked around the inside and outside exhibits. It was a beautiful day, which I am totally getting used to.
It's a whole different type of Paris when it's nice outside. After the museum I met up with Julie and heard all about her and Amanda's crazy fun nights. Very tired I took a nap till around five. I then met up with Maya and Sean for some food, pizza (preperation for Italy). Then we walked up and down St. Michele till we were all just tired. I came home and then went to bed.
A few hours later of very confusing directions, and lots of getting lost we figured our way out of the cemetary and hopped on the metro to the Jardin de Tuleries. We met up with Sean because they were going to see the Musee de L'Orangerie. Since I had already been I stayed and sunbathed in the Jardin de Tulieres. Maya called me when she was done with the museum and her and Sean came to find me. I learned that Sean didn't even go in the museum, he just did the same thing as me. Brian ended up showing up at the museum as well so we waited for him to finish looking at the exhibits. Then I grabbed some ice cream and we walked over the Latin Quarter. I went to the internet cafe to print out all my flight information for tomorw. Then Mari came and found us. We walked down St. Michele looking for food. Sean got pizza, a few stops later Mari and Maya got Lebanese food, and a few stops later me and Brian got noodles (more preperation for Italy). After that we were all completly satisfied and hopped on the metro over to see a mini Statue of Liberty. On our way we saw the Vel D'Hiv memorial and so I brought everyone over to it. Two men were just sitting on it, just using it like a bench, so pathetic. We sat around the Statue of Liberty for a little and then headed our own ways.
