OK, so I know what you're thinking. Is this douche bag really going to describe in detail the amazing Fall break that he just had just to make me more jealous? And I think you know the answer.
The cruise was spectacular. It was the best way I can imagine to spend my Fall break in Europe! We started things off with a night at my friend Preethi's in Rome. She and her roommates basically run a Hostel over there (It's called Cot World...) so there are about four guests on any given night that somebody stays there. We had a great time just hanging out at her place and visiting a few of her favorite bars around Rome.
2 Lessons:
-Italian wine is awesome and super cheap
-You get free food if you go to bars with Preethi
The next morning we hopped on a train to the "Port of Rome" (conveniently located an hour and a half from Rome...) for the cruise. We accidentally got there an hour early (thank you Daylight Savings Time) but it was a beautiful day so we had no problems just walking around the small port town and sitting right on the beach. After some authentic Italian risotto for lunch we boarded the ship and were off!
The boat was amazing; you can take a virtual tour of our boat here http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/ships/class/ship/home.do?shipClassCode=VY&shipCode=NV&br=R but to sum up, there were several jacuzzis, 24 hour food access, a theater, a movie theater, an ice skating rink, a basketball court, a mini-golf course, and fabulous 3 course (which usually turned into 5 course) meals every night! It was pretty nice. So day one was spent boarding the ship and exploring all over. On the morning of day two, we docked in Messina, Sicily. This was definitely my least favorite port. It was described as the "shopping port" and was rainy all day. We also had to take an extra bus to the actual town from the port. There were still some cool things to see (an old Greek theater and a couple of cathedrals) but not too much going on. We did take a nice break in the middle of the day for some lasagna and wine though so it wasn't all bad.
Day 2 we were totally at sea on the way to Turkey. Spending a day on the boat wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I entered a dodgeball tournament with one of my friends and we got first place (and gold medals in the shape of the Royal Caribbean logo...) and we played a few round of mini-golf. It also gave me a chance to finish "A Dance with Dragons" which was totally epic! On day 3 we arrived in Ephesus Turkey. Well, actually we arrived in a port city which is just one extremely sketchy taxi ride away from Ephesus. Negotiating the taxi ride back and forth was an experience in and of itself but one better told in person if I get the chance to explain it to you. All that's really important is that we made it to Ephesus without (serious) incidents and had a great time exploring. The ruins are so well preserved, especially some of the Greek mosaics on the ground. There is really no other way to describe the ruins but don't worry I took lots of pictures (contrary to what's on my blog... I swear they exist though). We went back to the port city for lunch (after a forced detour by our lovely taxi driver) and some shopping around the bazaar there. Then back on the boat for another night of travel before Athens.
Athens was the port I was most looking forward to and it definitely did not disappoint. We walked and took the metro to get to the main part of the city and worked our way up to the Acropolis. We got in for free by claiming we were from Belgium and then started the climb. The view the whole way up was breathtaking. The Pantheon was amazing (although half covered in scaffolding) and we just had the most beautiful weather for walking around the top of the mountain. We went down and visited Zeus' Temple and the city gardens as well. We walked around the Plaka shopping district and got lunch (accompanied by the tradition Greek liquor, Uzo. Bleh...). I think we came close to seeing a protest. There were some angry looking people outside one government building and we saw a lot of police milling around the outside but nothing substantial actually happened. That was definitely our most full day and we didn't have quite enough time to do anything else before heading back to the boat.
The last port we hit was Chania, Crete. We only had a few hours there but it was plenty of time to walk around the small town. It was mostly little souvenir shops and restaurants but we went to a really cool Byzantine museum and walked along the shore for a while. If we had been there a few weeks earlier it would have been a great beach town but it was just a little too cold to really sit out. Still a really pretty town but anything was going to be a bit of a let down after Athens. The last day of the cruise we spent completely at sea so we had one last chance to take advantage of the boat before heading back to shore. Any weight gain that I had prevented thus far during Study Abroad was put on that day.
Early the next morning we left the ship and headed back for an extra day of vacation in Rome before getting back to Brussels. We walked everywhere in the City and saw as much as we could before just getting too tired. We started with the Colosseum and then a walk around the Roman Forum. After some more authentic pizza, we went to see the Pantheon and the Spanish steps. At night we went back to the area to see the Trevi Fountain and enjoyed some more fine (four whole euro!) bottles of Italian wine while making our wishes.
We had another comforting night at Cot World and then woke up early to catch our flights back to Brussels. Returning to Brussels was definitely a bit of a rude awakening in terms of both work and weather. I had the final touches (read: start from scratch) to put on a paper and outside it was totally gray and much colder than we’d left it. All in all it was a pretty quiet week coming back from break. Thursday I went to a conference at The College of Europe in Brugge and Friday, everyone had the day off for Armistice Day. We explored around Brussels a little more on Friday and even got to see an Occupy Brussels protest! Not too much was going on at the protest but it was still a really nice day to walk around the City. That weekend, I really just hung out in Brussels and relaxed. The greatest discovery we made was a bar called Le Corbeau (The Raven). In past times we had gone there but been unable to get in with a large (not French-speaking) group but this time we went a little earlier so it was easier to get in. The funny thing about this bar is that around 11:30 every night, some drunk girl decides to get up and start dancing on the table. Within about 5 minutes, the music changes, the older crowd clears up, and everyone hops on top of tables and chairs to get the party going. It was so much fun!
Last week was pretty busy although Friday we had another holiday to celebrate the founder of the free French and Dutch universities. The holiday is called St. Ve and is basically an excuse for students to parade down the main boulevards in downtown Brussels and hand out free beer. It’s pretty great. This past weekend was packed. Friday night I saw Wiz Khalifa at a nice venue in Brussels. The show was really great but a little short (he was only on for a little more than an hour) so we still went out afterwards and had a great night! Saturday, Skrillex (a great dubstep DJ) played at a venue that was right around the corner from my house. The music at the concert was amazing but the concert itself was only ok. Most of the people there were between 16 and 18 and they got pretty rowdy. There was a ton of pushing, pulling, and screaming followed up with a lot of cigarette smoke in my face. Luckily, the music was really good so I didn’t mind so much and it definitely added to the feel of a big concert. Although I really didn’t do a lot of the work I should have done, this weekend was definitely a blast!
This week I have class tomorrow but I am taking Thursday off at my internship so that I can spend the day baking for Thanksgiving. We have a large potluck dinner Thursday night and I am making pumpkin cake (from fresh pumpkins…) and an artichoke dip. And this week, my apartment will be taking on the title of hostel while I host four of my friends for some Brussels fun for Thanksgiving.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Brussels, Normandy, and Da Cruiiissseee
Wow, less than 3 weeks in between posts! Yes, that pinch did hurt because you are NOT dreaming! (Who knew Europe would make me cornier?)
But the real reason I am posting right now is because I am going on a dream-mediterranean cruise next week and am not sure when I will have time to post again. Talk about study abroad problems (like White people problems but soooo much better). So the past weeks in Brussels have been pretty great. I've gotten to relax a lot after mid-terms (even if I should have been writing papers) and gotten to do some really cool things. Last Wednesday, I went to the Magritte Museum in Brussels. Magritte was a Belgian surrealist painter who did some really cool and really famous artwork in his time. The artwork was beautiful but trying to understand surrealist works is definitely something that takes more than one museum in one morning.
Last week I also got to visit the International School of Brussels to give a presentation with Fulbright. The school is one of the best secondary schools in Brussels and Diplomats' children from all over the world go there (including several Americans).
Two of my friends from my Study Abroad program and I went to a networking event. We kind of registered for it on a whim and it ended up being a really cool experience. It was definitely not as formal as a networking event would be in the states (for starters, it was basically held in a night club) and it was very intimidating. Pretty much everyone there was either a grad student or worked for a European institution. It took a while for us to warm up to the idea of networking but by the end of the night we had talked to a bunch of people and had a really fun time.
Last weekend, we went to Normandy with the program. It was really beautiful and a great place to be a history buff! We went to several of the beaches, explored some of the German defensive strongholds, visited a few military cemeteries, and went to a couple museums and cathedrals as well. We stayed in this little town called Bayeux near Normandy. It was a cute little town with a really nice hostel and a few good restaurants but I am pretty sure that the most exciting thing that happens in Bayeux is that 40 American college students descend on it once a year for this trip.
The town is famous for housing this giant tapestry that illustrates the Norman invasion. It was really nice but not exactly the most stimulating activity in the world. There were two bars in the town and we went to both of them during our weekend. One bartender was so excited to have customers that he gave us some free shots of Calvados (sp?) this Cognac-like liquor that is ridiculously strong. Apples are a big deal in Normandy so a lot of the food and alcohol is apple based and really delicious. They serve hard apple cider everywhere and I got to try some apple beer as well. We had really good meals in Normandy too. The second night I had this beef stew that is supposed to be Julia Childs' favorite French dish and it was very tasty!
The worst part about the trip was just that it was about an 8 hour bus ride in both directions but it gave me a chance to do some reading. I am now almost finished with A Dance With Dragons and it is amazzziinnngggg. And I will have some time to finish it on the way to Italy. We leave tomorrow and have just a night in Rome before we hop on the cruise on Sunday. After that, I am off to Cicily, Athens, Chania, and Ephasus. I am so stoked it's hard to put it all into words. I am going to take a ton of pictures and it's gonna be great so stay tuned for a post in two weeks!
Happy Trails!
But the real reason I am posting right now is because I am going on a dream-mediterranean cruise next week and am not sure when I will have time to post again. Talk about study abroad problems (like White people problems but soooo much better). So the past weeks in Brussels have been pretty great. I've gotten to relax a lot after mid-terms (even if I should have been writing papers) and gotten to do some really cool things. Last Wednesday, I went to the Magritte Museum in Brussels. Magritte was a Belgian surrealist painter who did some really cool and really famous artwork in his time. The artwork was beautiful but trying to understand surrealist works is definitely something that takes more than one museum in one morning.
Last week I also got to visit the International School of Brussels to give a presentation with Fulbright. The school is one of the best secondary schools in Brussels and Diplomats' children from all over the world go there (including several Americans).
Two of my friends from my Study Abroad program and I went to a networking event. We kind of registered for it on a whim and it ended up being a really cool experience. It was definitely not as formal as a networking event would be in the states (for starters, it was basically held in a night club) and it was very intimidating. Pretty much everyone there was either a grad student or worked for a European institution. It took a while for us to warm up to the idea of networking but by the end of the night we had talked to a bunch of people and had a really fun time.
Last weekend, we went to Normandy with the program. It was really beautiful and a great place to be a history buff! We went to several of the beaches, explored some of the German defensive strongholds, visited a few military cemeteries, and went to a couple museums and cathedrals as well. We stayed in this little town called Bayeux near Normandy. It was a cute little town with a really nice hostel and a few good restaurants but I am pretty sure that the most exciting thing that happens in Bayeux is that 40 American college students descend on it once a year for this trip.
The town is famous for housing this giant tapestry that illustrates the Norman invasion. It was really nice but not exactly the most stimulating activity in the world. There were two bars in the town and we went to both of them during our weekend. One bartender was so excited to have customers that he gave us some free shots of Calvados (sp?) this Cognac-like liquor that is ridiculously strong. Apples are a big deal in Normandy so a lot of the food and alcohol is apple based and really delicious. They serve hard apple cider everywhere and I got to try some apple beer as well. We had really good meals in Normandy too. The second night I had this beef stew that is supposed to be Julia Childs' favorite French dish and it was very tasty!
The worst part about the trip was just that it was about an 8 hour bus ride in both directions but it gave me a chance to do some reading. I am now almost finished with A Dance With Dragons and it is amazzziinnngggg. And I will have some time to finish it on the way to Italy. We leave tomorrow and have just a night in Rome before we hop on the cruise on Sunday. After that, I am off to Cicily, Athens, Chania, and Ephasus. I am so stoked it's hard to put it all into words. I am going to take a ton of pictures and it's gonna be great so stay tuned for a post in two weeks!
Happy Trails!
Friday, October 14, 2011
Luxembourg, Oktoberfest, Spain, and Midterms!
OK so like I thought I would be, I was pretty busy the last couple weeks and haven't had time to post. But never fear, I can recap.
The week after I last posted, I went to Luxembourg with my study abroad program and that weekend we headed to Oktoberfest. Luxembourg was very very beautiful. There is a ton of greenspace and it was really fun to just walk around. We visited the European Investment Bank which is like the EU version of the World Bank. They fund a lot of development projects around Europe and in the developing world. It seems like a pretty cool institution. Now I just have to see if they have summer internships...
We left for Oktoberfest very early Friday morning. I slept most of the way there (sorry Raph and Prosser) but from what I'm told there was lots of traffic so it took a little longer than expected. All I can tell you is that the German word for exit is Ausfahrt (haha fart). At first we just thought it was an unfortunately named city but then we realized there couldn't possibly that many cities with the same name. When we finally got to our campsite it was crazy. There were sooo many people there! There wasn't even room for the car so we had to park in a private lot down the road. When we got in, there was also not very much room for our tents. We ended up setting up in a "reserved for Trailers" only zone. When we left for the night ours were the only tents there but when we got back our area was flooded with them. We decided that trying to go to the festival Friday night was a little ambitious so we hung out at the bar at the campsite. We ordered three beer steins (which are massive, by the way) and sat down with some Australians. They were... interesting. Definitely fun to talk to but they got pretty drunk pretty quickly. We stayed out until around 11 and then crashed so we could wake up early the next day. Saturday we got an early start (made particularly jarring by the ice cold shower offered by the campsite).
Walking into the festival is something like walking into Six Flags with beer everywhere. The beer tents are massive and there are a ton of rollercoasters around the park. The streets are lined with food stands and souvenir shops offering the traditional leiderhosen, dresses, and hats (tout trop cher!) We got into one tent and ordered three more steins. This was a considerably more formidable task at 9:30 in the morning than it had been the previous night. We managed to finish 2 each over the course of 3 or 3 and a half hours. In that time, the sun had risen, we discovered that the family next to us did in fact speak fluent English, our tent and surrounding area had packed with people, there was a lot of German drinking songs, and several people had already passed out. Between our table and the bathroom alone there were three or four adults just passed out leaning up against a wall or sitting on a crate. By noon. It was absolutely crazy.
We walked around the festival for a little while longer and found some food. It was really beautiful outside all weekend so we just kept walking around and drinking in the sights of the festival (no pun intended) all afternoon. We headed back to the campsite on the earlier side so we could feed the meter for the car and take naps. We didn't go out any more after that, just dinner at a really cool outdoor restaurant that was down the street from the campsite.
The second day went pretty similarly to the first. That time we got into a tent a little later and met up with one of my roommates, Caroline, and all her friends from Brown. Since it was a little later in the morning, the beer went down a little easier than it had on Friday. In fact, some of the guys at our table (Raph and Prosser included) got up on the table and started chugging their steins. This gets you lots of cheers and applause if you can do it. If you fail, however, the crowd will throw, well pretty much anything at you. Luckily our friends had figured this out before their attempt and so they were well aware of what was at stake. They all finished to cheers rather than debris. We stayed in the tent a little later that day since we knew we wouldn't be able to get back into a tent if we left. We managed to smuggle out three beer steins as well. It's a good thing we drove because lugging a suitcase with a beer stein would not have been fun on train or plane. We spent more time outside that day and all ended up taking afternoon naps on a hill outside the park. We headed back to the campsite and got dinner from the same restaurant before absolutely passing out in the tents. We left Monday morning and had a much smoother ride back to Brussels.
All in all, Oktoberfest was... well a shitshow. It was really fun but drinks were really expensive and the beer was not nearly as good as Belgian beer. Definitely something I am glad I experienced and definitely a recommendation for any euro-trip but not something I need to go back to every year or anything.
The week in between Germany and Spain was extremely hectic. 2 days of class, a huge event for my internship Wednesday evening and a paper to finish (read: start and finish) before I left. It felt like I didn't stop moving for three days. Everything turned out great and I even got to walk around with the American Ambassador to Belgium for a while at my work event. Prosser and Raph left Thursday morning and that evening I was off to Spain straight from work! We thought we were going to miss our flight because it is quite a bus ride all the way to the cheap airport from the city center. We were running through the airport in Brussels only to realize that our entire flight had still not boarded the plane and that Ryanair definitely lies about their gate closure times...
It was a pretty short (and rocky) flight to Barcelona. Once we got to the city, I got settled in my hostel and went off to meet my roommate Carolyn's (yes, my roommates are named Carolyn and Caroline) friends who are studying in Barca. We went out to a few bars and a club that night and had a blast. The next day, we did a lot of walking. I went on an adventure and found the bus station that I would be leaving from the next morning. I met up with my friends for lunch and then we were off around the city. It was a great tour! We walked all over the place through this huge outdoor market, and down to the port, past a lot of the old ruins in the City, and then over to Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's famous cathedral. It is an absolutely stunning building. We got there 20 minutes after closing so we couldn't actually go in but just the outside was just outside was astounding.
We ate dinner at a nice little Tapas place and then went out for the night. I found good boxes of wine for 50 cents!! It was really good wine too! We went to a couple bars in Barcelona and then to a club on the beach that was about 20 minutes away. The club was really cool and there were a ton of people there. The city was packed with tourists that weekend because it was the same weekend as Sensation, this huge rave that happens in a lot of major cities in Europe.
The next morning, I stopped at another Gaudi Museum on my way out and then took the 8-hour bus ride from Barcelona to Madrid. Fast forward 8-hours that I should have been studying for midterms and I was in Madrid! I stayed at this reallllly nice hostel that had lockers in the rooms and a full kitchen and was in a great location, right off of Puert de Sol. The first night, we just went to this Irish bar close to our hostel and then got some late night churros with hot chocolate sauce (soooo tasty but I'm very glad they don't have this in Brussels). The next morning there was a tour of the city that left from our hostel so we got a great 3-hour free walking tour. We walked all over the city and heard a lot about the history and politics of Madrid and Spain. I got really good paellas and sangria for lunch and then we went to the Museo de Prado, a really nice art museum in Madrid. The museum was a little overwhelming and I felt too tired to really appreciate it.
During the day, someone tried to break into my hostel room. Apparently, the guy at the reception desk thought something was up with this dude that walked in and so he locked the dude in the room he was trying to steal from (my room) and called the police. I had to go back to the hostel and make sure all my stuff was still there but I was very impressed with the service at the hostel! Saturday night we didn't really sleep since our flight was at 6 in the morning and we had to catch a bus to the airport. We went to dinner at my friend's friend's house. She was in a homestay and her house mom invited us all over for dinner. She was a really sweet woman and the dinner was great. We explored a little more of the city that night but got kinda tired and went back and hung out at the hostel until our flight. A much less eventful trip to the airport (surprisingly for 4:30 in the morning) and we were off. Unfortunately, airport security confiscated the corkscrew I bought as a souvenir in Madrid! Coming back to Belgium was pretty sad. I slept the entire flight but as soon as we walked off the plane we realized that it was cold and rainy and not the beautiful 80 degree weather we had in Spain. We got back to the city and I slept most of the day.
Midterms this week went pretty well. I don't know for sure about all the tests I took but I didn't think any of them were impossible. Last night we were planning to go to Leuven (the student town in Belgium and home of the longest bar in the world!) but people were pretty tired from midterms week and didn't want to stay out all night so we just went out in Brussels. Still had a great time! Tonight I think we are going to go out a little but I need to come back kind of early because I have an event for work tomorrow in Antwerp so I have to catch an early morning train.
So, that's all I have to report for now. I am glad to be staying put in Brussels for a weekend. I loved all the traveling I did but I was definitely a little overwhelmed and started to miss having a home. Antwerp should be really cool tomorrow and next weekend my study abroad program takes us to Normandy! Time to storm some beaches!
Happy Trails!!
The week after I last posted, I went to Luxembourg with my study abroad program and that weekend we headed to Oktoberfest. Luxembourg was very very beautiful. There is a ton of greenspace and it was really fun to just walk around. We visited the European Investment Bank which is like the EU version of the World Bank. They fund a lot of development projects around Europe and in the developing world. It seems like a pretty cool institution. Now I just have to see if they have summer internships...
We left for Oktoberfest very early Friday morning. I slept most of the way there (sorry Raph and Prosser) but from what I'm told there was lots of traffic so it took a little longer than expected. All I can tell you is that the German word for exit is Ausfahrt (haha fart). At first we just thought it was an unfortunately named city but then we realized there couldn't possibly that many cities with the same name. When we finally got to our campsite it was crazy. There were sooo many people there! There wasn't even room for the car so we had to park in a private lot down the road. When we got in, there was also not very much room for our tents. We ended up setting up in a "reserved for Trailers" only zone. When we left for the night ours were the only tents there but when we got back our area was flooded with them. We decided that trying to go to the festival Friday night was a little ambitious so we hung out at the bar at the campsite. We ordered three beer steins (which are massive, by the way) and sat down with some Australians. They were... interesting. Definitely fun to talk to but they got pretty drunk pretty quickly. We stayed out until around 11 and then crashed so we could wake up early the next day. Saturday we got an early start (made particularly jarring by the ice cold shower offered by the campsite).
Walking into the festival is something like walking into Six Flags with beer everywhere. The beer tents are massive and there are a ton of rollercoasters around the park. The streets are lined with food stands and souvenir shops offering the traditional leiderhosen, dresses, and hats (tout trop cher!) We got into one tent and ordered three more steins. This was a considerably more formidable task at 9:30 in the morning than it had been the previous night. We managed to finish 2 each over the course of 3 or 3 and a half hours. In that time, the sun had risen, we discovered that the family next to us did in fact speak fluent English, our tent and surrounding area had packed with people, there was a lot of German drinking songs, and several people had already passed out. Between our table and the bathroom alone there were three or four adults just passed out leaning up against a wall or sitting on a crate. By noon. It was absolutely crazy.
We walked around the festival for a little while longer and found some food. It was really beautiful outside all weekend so we just kept walking around and drinking in the sights of the festival (no pun intended) all afternoon. We headed back to the campsite on the earlier side so we could feed the meter for the car and take naps. We didn't go out any more after that, just dinner at a really cool outdoor restaurant that was down the street from the campsite.
The second day went pretty similarly to the first. That time we got into a tent a little later and met up with one of my roommates, Caroline, and all her friends from Brown. Since it was a little later in the morning, the beer went down a little easier than it had on Friday. In fact, some of the guys at our table (Raph and Prosser included) got up on the table and started chugging their steins. This gets you lots of cheers and applause if you can do it. If you fail, however, the crowd will throw, well pretty much anything at you. Luckily our friends had figured this out before their attempt and so they were well aware of what was at stake. They all finished to cheers rather than debris. We stayed in the tent a little later that day since we knew we wouldn't be able to get back into a tent if we left. We managed to smuggle out three beer steins as well. It's a good thing we drove because lugging a suitcase with a beer stein would not have been fun on train or plane. We spent more time outside that day and all ended up taking afternoon naps on a hill outside the park. We headed back to the campsite and got dinner from the same restaurant before absolutely passing out in the tents. We left Monday morning and had a much smoother ride back to Brussels.
All in all, Oktoberfest was... well a shitshow. It was really fun but drinks were really expensive and the beer was not nearly as good as Belgian beer. Definitely something I am glad I experienced and definitely a recommendation for any euro-trip but not something I need to go back to every year or anything.
The week in between Germany and Spain was extremely hectic. 2 days of class, a huge event for my internship Wednesday evening and a paper to finish (read: start and finish) before I left. It felt like I didn't stop moving for three days. Everything turned out great and I even got to walk around with the American Ambassador to Belgium for a while at my work event. Prosser and Raph left Thursday morning and that evening I was off to Spain straight from work! We thought we were going to miss our flight because it is quite a bus ride all the way to the cheap airport from the city center. We were running through the airport in Brussels only to realize that our entire flight had still not boarded the plane and that Ryanair definitely lies about their gate closure times...
It was a pretty short (and rocky) flight to Barcelona. Once we got to the city, I got settled in my hostel and went off to meet my roommate Carolyn's (yes, my roommates are named Carolyn and Caroline) friends who are studying in Barca. We went out to a few bars and a club that night and had a blast. The next day, we did a lot of walking. I went on an adventure and found the bus station that I would be leaving from the next morning. I met up with my friends for lunch and then we were off around the city. It was a great tour! We walked all over the place through this huge outdoor market, and down to the port, past a lot of the old ruins in the City, and then over to Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's famous cathedral. It is an absolutely stunning building. We got there 20 minutes after closing so we couldn't actually go in but just the outside was just outside was astounding.
We ate dinner at a nice little Tapas place and then went out for the night. I found good boxes of wine for 50 cents!! It was really good wine too! We went to a couple bars in Barcelona and then to a club on the beach that was about 20 minutes away. The club was really cool and there were a ton of people there. The city was packed with tourists that weekend because it was the same weekend as Sensation, this huge rave that happens in a lot of major cities in Europe.
The next morning, I stopped at another Gaudi Museum on my way out and then took the 8-hour bus ride from Barcelona to Madrid. Fast forward 8-hours that I should have been studying for midterms and I was in Madrid! I stayed at this reallllly nice hostel that had lockers in the rooms and a full kitchen and was in a great location, right off of Puert de Sol. The first night, we just went to this Irish bar close to our hostel and then got some late night churros with hot chocolate sauce (soooo tasty but I'm very glad they don't have this in Brussels). The next morning there was a tour of the city that left from our hostel so we got a great 3-hour free walking tour. We walked all over the city and heard a lot about the history and politics of Madrid and Spain. I got really good paellas and sangria for lunch and then we went to the Museo de Prado, a really nice art museum in Madrid. The museum was a little overwhelming and I felt too tired to really appreciate it.
During the day, someone tried to break into my hostel room. Apparently, the guy at the reception desk thought something was up with this dude that walked in and so he locked the dude in the room he was trying to steal from (my room) and called the police. I had to go back to the hostel and make sure all my stuff was still there but I was very impressed with the service at the hostel! Saturday night we didn't really sleep since our flight was at 6 in the morning and we had to catch a bus to the airport. We went to dinner at my friend's friend's house. She was in a homestay and her house mom invited us all over for dinner. She was a really sweet woman and the dinner was great. We explored a little more of the city that night but got kinda tired and went back and hung out at the hostel until our flight. A much less eventful trip to the airport (surprisingly for 4:30 in the morning) and we were off. Unfortunately, airport security confiscated the corkscrew I bought as a souvenir in Madrid! Coming back to Belgium was pretty sad. I slept the entire flight but as soon as we walked off the plane we realized that it was cold and rainy and not the beautiful 80 degree weather we had in Spain. We got back to the city and I slept most of the day.
Midterms this week went pretty well. I don't know for sure about all the tests I took but I didn't think any of them were impossible. Last night we were planning to go to Leuven (the student town in Belgium and home of the longest bar in the world!) but people were pretty tired from midterms week and didn't want to stay out all night so we just went out in Brussels. Still had a great time! Tonight I think we are going to go out a little but I need to come back kind of early because I have an event for work tomorrow in Antwerp so I have to catch an early morning train.
So, that's all I have to report for now. I am glad to be staying put in Brussels for a weekend. I loved all the traveling I did but I was definitely a little overwhelmed and started to miss having a home. Antwerp should be really cool tomorrow and next weekend my study abroad program takes us to Normandy! Time to storm some beaches!
Happy Trails!!
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Brussels, The Hague, Delft, and Amsterdam
OK ok I know, I need to post more often. Yadda yadda yadda. Let me first talk a little bit about my daily life in Brussels and then I will tell you about the trip I just got back from in Amsterdam.
So living in Brussels is awesome! My house is great. My classes are good (Midterms in two weeks however are NOT!) I finally started my internship (R.I.P. 5-day weekends) and that is also going really well. I am pretty busy whenever I go into the office and I have even had to take some work home on the weekends. There are some pretty nice perks though. Last night I got to go to the American Ambassador's residence for a reception for all of the new and returning Fulbright scholars.
Some of the highlights in my time here have been:
- Volunteering as a bartender at a convention in front of the EU (free beer all day :-)
- Visiting the Belgian parliament
- Meeting the Ambassador
- Production of Hairspray at the gay club. Hearing "Good Morning Baltimore" definitely was a good dose of home!
- Farmer's market every Wednesday
- Meeting french speaking students through the study abroad program
- Cooking with my housemates
Best story so far: I got lit on fire!
So, the next time someone says to you, "Hey wanna go do an absinthe shot?" Your response should be, "Sure. Just as long as it's not on fire!" Well, my roommate Bobby did not know this lesson before we took our shots. At an absinthe bar, you can do a particular kind of shot that is kind of like inhaling flaming absinthe through a glass pipe. The bartender stands on the other side of the bar and lights the absinthe on fire while he coaches you through the shot. I went first. Relatively uneventful. Aside from the fact that absinthe tastes awful, it wasn't so bad. But, when Bobby tried to take his shot, he choked and spit the absinthe out. Unfortunately for the bartender (and me), the absinthe was a little more flaming than we might have anticipated. A fireball hit the bartender in the stomach and he ran away behind the bar trying to muffle the flame and take his shirt off. We didn't see him again. I then look at my left hand to find that it is also on fire. I quickly shook it out and blew out the small fire that had lit on the bar. Overall, kind of one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Other than the singed hairs on my hand and wrist (they are starting to grow back now) there was no damage (except maybe for the bartender) and the best part is that there are now a few people in the world who only know Bobby as "Torch"
Favorite beer so far: Quintine
It is a blond beer. 8% very very good. Really good taste, not too alcoholic but not too light either
Favorite meal so far: Indonesian buffet in The Hague
Favorite Belgian food: Frites. I should definitely add this to the title of the blog! Frites (not even comparable to french fries back home) are a real staple here and most of the stands are open until 3am. They come with all kinds of different sauces (anything from mayo to ketchup to spicy sauces, sweet sauces, special sauces…) My favorite sauce is andoulouse which is a kind of sweet sauce with a little bit of a kick but they are all delicious. I introduced them to Raph and Prosser and they haven't stopped eating them since.
OK so, now the trips. Last Thursday, my program took us to The Hague to see the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. It's a pretty cool place where they are doing some really interesting work. We saw a part of the trial of a man who was accused of war crimes in Serbia. Very cool, but a little creepy to be so close to a man like that. Afterwards, we went to Delft which is a charming little city that reminded me a lot of Brugge. Not a lot going on but very pretty and very nice to walk around.
After walking around Delft, we went to this great Indonesian restaurant and I ate until I just about burst. After dinner, a pretty big group of us headed to Amsterdam for the weekend. It was a really great trip and I had a lot of fun with kids from the program and my friends from home who are visiting. I went to the Anne Frank house which was something that I had missed when I was there with Mom. I stayed at a Christian youth hostel for the first two nights (because it was the cheapest one I could find). That was also a bit of an experience. We were very nicely invited to nightly bible study and to ask the person at the front desk about the meaning of life or anything else that crossed our minds! There was a really nice free breakfast though so I couldn't complain. The second two nights, I stayed at a campsite because it was way cheaper than any hostel. Camping is definitely an experience. One that I probably could have gone without but they say study abroad is a chance to try new things so… In truth, it wasn't that bad. I was a little cold and not having a sleeping pad definitely makes things a little more uncomfortable. Overall, not terrible and I will definitely be able to survive camping at Oktoberfest next weekend.
Agenda for the next few weeks: Tomorrow I am doing a day trip to Luxemburg to see an investment bank and then we are going to a few cities in Wallonia (southern Belgium) on the way back. This weekend, I head to Oktoberfest with Prosser and Raph. I am a little nervous about driving with them (on the autobahn no less) but I am pretty excited for Ofest. Then the following weekend, I head to Spain for two days in Barcelona and Madrid each! I will try and post in between the Germany and Spain trips but no promises. Midterms start after the Spain trip so I may be kind of underground but I'll be back!
Thanks for reading, miss you all.
Happy Trails!
So living in Brussels is awesome! My house is great. My classes are good (Midterms in two weeks however are NOT!) I finally started my internship (R.I.P. 5-day weekends) and that is also going really well. I am pretty busy whenever I go into the office and I have even had to take some work home on the weekends. There are some pretty nice perks though. Last night I got to go to the American Ambassador's residence for a reception for all of the new and returning Fulbright scholars.
Some of the highlights in my time here have been:
- Volunteering as a bartender at a convention in front of the EU (free beer all day :-)
- Visiting the Belgian parliament
- Meeting the Ambassador
- Production of Hairspray at the gay club. Hearing "Good Morning Baltimore" definitely was a good dose of home!
- Farmer's market every Wednesday
- Meeting french speaking students through the study abroad program
- Cooking with my housemates
Best story so far: I got lit on fire!
So, the next time someone says to you, "Hey wanna go do an absinthe shot?" Your response should be, "Sure. Just as long as it's not on fire!" Well, my roommate Bobby did not know this lesson before we took our shots. At an absinthe bar, you can do a particular kind of shot that is kind of like inhaling flaming absinthe through a glass pipe. The bartender stands on the other side of the bar and lights the absinthe on fire while he coaches you through the shot. I went first. Relatively uneventful. Aside from the fact that absinthe tastes awful, it wasn't so bad. But, when Bobby tried to take his shot, he choked and spit the absinthe out. Unfortunately for the bartender (and me), the absinthe was a little more flaming than we might have anticipated. A fireball hit the bartender in the stomach and he ran away behind the bar trying to muffle the flame and take his shirt off. We didn't see him again. I then look at my left hand to find that it is also on fire. I quickly shook it out and blew out the small fire that had lit on the bar. Overall, kind of one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Other than the singed hairs on my hand and wrist (they are starting to grow back now) there was no damage (except maybe for the bartender) and the best part is that there are now a few people in the world who only know Bobby as "Torch"
Favorite beer so far: Quintine
It is a blond beer. 8% very very good. Really good taste, not too alcoholic but not too light either
Favorite meal so far: Indonesian buffet in The Hague
Favorite Belgian food: Frites. I should definitely add this to the title of the blog! Frites (not even comparable to french fries back home) are a real staple here and most of the stands are open until 3am. They come with all kinds of different sauces (anything from mayo to ketchup to spicy sauces, sweet sauces, special sauces…) My favorite sauce is andoulouse which is a kind of sweet sauce with a little bit of a kick but they are all delicious. I introduced them to Raph and Prosser and they haven't stopped eating them since.
OK so, now the trips. Last Thursday, my program took us to The Hague to see the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. It's a pretty cool place where they are doing some really interesting work. We saw a part of the trial of a man who was accused of war crimes in Serbia. Very cool, but a little creepy to be so close to a man like that. Afterwards, we went to Delft which is a charming little city that reminded me a lot of Brugge. Not a lot going on but very pretty and very nice to walk around.
After walking around Delft, we went to this great Indonesian restaurant and I ate until I just about burst. After dinner, a pretty big group of us headed to Amsterdam for the weekend. It was a really great trip and I had a lot of fun with kids from the program and my friends from home who are visiting. I went to the Anne Frank house which was something that I had missed when I was there with Mom. I stayed at a Christian youth hostel for the first two nights (because it was the cheapest one I could find). That was also a bit of an experience. We were very nicely invited to nightly bible study and to ask the person at the front desk about the meaning of life or anything else that crossed our minds! There was a really nice free breakfast though so I couldn't complain. The second two nights, I stayed at a campsite because it was way cheaper than any hostel. Camping is definitely an experience. One that I probably could have gone without but they say study abroad is a chance to try new things so… In truth, it wasn't that bad. I was a little cold and not having a sleeping pad definitely makes things a little more uncomfortable. Overall, not terrible and I will definitely be able to survive camping at Oktoberfest next weekend.
Agenda for the next few weeks: Tomorrow I am doing a day trip to Luxemburg to see an investment bank and then we are going to a few cities in Wallonia (southern Belgium) on the way back. This weekend, I head to Oktoberfest with Prosser and Raph. I am a little nervous about driving with them (on the autobahn no less) but I am pretty excited for Ofest. Then the following weekend, I head to Spain for two days in Barcelona and Madrid each! I will try and post in between the Germany and Spain trips but no promises. Midterms start after the Spain trip so I may be kind of underground but I'll be back!
Thanks for reading, miss you all.
Happy Trails!
Thursday, September 1, 2011
5 day weekend!!
So, I finally have my schedule and I must say, it's great! As of right now, I only have class on two days of the week. Once I start my internship (I accepted) I will work all day Thursdays but that doesn't start for another two weeks and I will still have four day weekends after that :)
I ended up dropping Development Economics and keeping the military class. The military class is too cool. It's like taking a course at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, just not something you get to do back in the states.
Yesterday, we discovered a great market right near our house with amazing and cheap food. There was a great homemade pasta guy and a ton of fruit and vegetable stands. We made a big pasta dinner last night with chicken and fresh veggies in the sauce.
Should be a fun Thursday-Sunday weekend. Today is someone in the program's birthday so we are going out to a nightclub. It seems like a pretty nice club but we have to be dressed "up to par" so hopefully a group of 40 loud Americans can get past the bouncers...
Then Josh and his Uncle get in on Friday in time for Belgian Beer Weekend http://www.weekenddelabiere.be/en/pages/programma.htm
I'm not even sure how to describe my excitement! There is a scorecard of beers about a mile (or should I say 1.609344 kilometers) long! Saturday, I am skipping the Brugge trip to hang out with Josh and then Sunday, I think a group of us still want to go out because there are a handful of people in the program without class on Mondays either!
I can't figure out how to put pictures on the actual blog but I have a Picasa album with all my Brussels and Brugge pictures. Enjoy!
https://picasaweb.google.com/115599000627342047413/BrusselsAndBrugge?authkey=Gv1sRgCO6WxJbz8tSnDA
Happy Trails!
I ended up dropping Development Economics and keeping the military class. The military class is too cool. It's like taking a course at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, just not something you get to do back in the states.
Yesterday, we discovered a great market right near our house with amazing and cheap food. There was a great homemade pasta guy and a ton of fruit and vegetable stands. We made a big pasta dinner last night with chicken and fresh veggies in the sauce.
Should be a fun Thursday-Sunday weekend. Today is someone in the program's birthday so we are going out to a nightclub. It seems like a pretty nice club but we have to be dressed "up to par" so hopefully a group of 40 loud Americans can get past the bouncers...
Then Josh and his Uncle get in on Friday in time for Belgian Beer Weekend http://www.weekenddelabiere.be/en/pages/programma.htm
I'm not even sure how to describe my excitement! There is a scorecard of beers about a mile (or should I say 1.609344 kilometers) long! Saturday, I am skipping the Brugge trip to hang out with Josh and then Sunday, I think a group of us still want to go out because there are a handful of people in the program without class on Mondays either!
I can't figure out how to put pictures on the actual blog but I have a Picasa album with all my Brussels and Brugge pictures. Enjoy!
https://picasaweb.google.com/115599000627342047413/BrusselsAndBrugge?authkey=Gv1sRgCO6WxJbz8tSnDA
Happy Trails!
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Orientation (cont'd), housing, bars, beers, etc.
Wow, so I said I was gonna post more but here I am a week later with too much to say. At least now, I have unlimited internet :)
The rest of Orientation was fun. More touring around Brussels and meeting lots of people in the program. We started Orientation for my actual school (Vesalius College or VeCo) on Wednesday. Their equivalent of OPAs are VeCo Buddies. Mine was pretty cool and started off our campus tour with a visit to the campus pub. I must say, I think I would have been a much better OPA if I could have taken my group out for a beer before the start of every program. The campus bar has Chimay (one of Belgium's famous Trappist beers that are brewed by monks) on tap but I have never received a beer with more foam in my life.
*Beer side note: Foam is much less frowned upon here than in America. Most beers have their own glasses (similar to America but here they actually care about serving the beer in the right glass) many of them are substantially larger than the quantity of beer that is to be served in them to allow room for foam. That being said, I still think the campus bar ripped me off. The foam started well below the line marking the amount of beer I was supposed to have. This actually creates quite an interesting dilemma: enjoy beers on tap because they are tastier and trust to the skill of bartenders or stick with bottles to ensure that I get the right quantity of beer? I guess I'll have to continue studying...
Anyway, the rest of the tour was good although I will be getting lost a lot. VeCo itself is all in one building but many of the classes are at VUB (the free Dutch university in Brussels) which is much larger and all of the signs are in, you guessed it, Dutch! It's a beautiful campus though and I am sure it won't be too hard to find my way around (just start from the bar!)
Thursday I took my French placement test. I placed into 103 (Intermediate I) which technically I have already taken but it is much harder here than at UMBC and they said that it is usually not a problem to convince most schools to accept the credit as a higher level french. Thursday, I also had an interview at Fulbright Belgium and was offered an internship for the semester. I am still kind of deciding whether or not I want to take it. It sounds like a really cool job but I am not sure that is how I want to spend a lot of my time abroad. I think I am leaning towards taking it (partially because it allows me to drop a Military approaches to Security class that sounds pretty awful) but I have to decide by Tuesday so I will keep you posted.
Friday I registered for classes. The system here is super inefficient. It's all done on paper and so many people register simultaneously that it seems like it would be impossible to keep track of add/drops, waitlists, etc. Luckily all the classes I wanted/needed are open. So in addition to my French and required Belgian Culture course, I am also enrolled in Development Economics and The European Union as an International Actor. Should be a good semester :)
My housing turned out great. I am in a house that has been converted to 7 different apartments with 8 people. I have a single apartment with a big living area and a lofted bed. The kitchen, laundry, and bathrooms are all shared with 6 of the housemates so it can be a little tricky. 5 of the people living here are in my program and 2 of them share the apartment on the ground floor (floor zero in Europe) and have their own bathroom and kitchen which we used last night to make a house dinner (some gourmet grilled cheeses and lots of wine). I live on the first floor and have a balcony (EXCEPT THAT I CAN'T GET TO IT BECAUSE THE WINDOWS ON THIS SIDE OF THE HOUSE DON'T OPEN!) The bathrooms also leave something to be desired. The showers are quite small and the shower head is not high enough to get my head. All in all though, I am very happy with my housing. I like that I am living with other students and the other people in the house are European and have been living in Belgium for at least a year so we have some of the inside scoop.
*Housing side note: Going on a tour of our house, our landlord says, "All of the books and things in the rooms have been left by previous residents to anything left behind is yours now." The last person who stayed in my room left half a bottle of vodka. Win!
Our neighborhood is very nice but we are still getting our bearings. Yesterday one of my housemates and I went to a grocery store and on the way home found a grocery store that was much closer. Would have been nice to know so we wouldn't have had to drag groceries as long but everything's a learning experience! We are very close to Avenue Louise which is kind of like the 5th Avenue of Brussels. It's really nice but absolutely out of my price range. Luckily there are some nice discount stores in the area too so it shouldn't bee too bad.
Last night the VeCo student government sponsored a bar hopping event (take notes UMBC) and it was pretty fun. Kind of hard to manage because there are a lot of new students but still a good time. I went out almost every day last week except for Wednesday (since I had a busy day on Thursday). I've been trying a lot of different beers and trying to get all of the Trappist beers. Chimay is a pretty popular one and is pretty tasty. I think the best value I've found is the Westmalle Triple. It's another Trappist beer that's about the same price as the others but a 9.5% and very good. I think I tried an 11% beer the other night but it was a little strong for me and I think the Westmalle is a good union of alcohol and quality. Beer is soooo cheep in the grocery store so I think we will be practicing pre-gaming a little more in the future to save some Euro. All in all though, the beers at the bars are really not that bad. I've just heard not to order beers at clubs at all. Seems like an average night is going to bars to pre-game and then maybe going out to a club later.
Tomorrow, I head to Waterloo with the program and then classes start Monday (I only have one class Monday and nothing on Thursday or Friday). This weekend, Josh and his uncle will be here and the Belgian Beer Festival will be going on around the city. Not quite as exciting as an earthquake followed up by a hurricane but it's not too bad I guess :D
Ok that seems like enough to keep you busy for now. I am going to go switch my laundry and then work on posting pictures. Happy Trails!
The rest of Orientation was fun. More touring around Brussels and meeting lots of people in the program. We started Orientation for my actual school (Vesalius College or VeCo) on Wednesday. Their equivalent of OPAs are VeCo Buddies. Mine was pretty cool and started off our campus tour with a visit to the campus pub. I must say, I think I would have been a much better OPA if I could have taken my group out for a beer before the start of every program. The campus bar has Chimay (one of Belgium's famous Trappist beers that are brewed by monks) on tap but I have never received a beer with more foam in my life.
*Beer side note: Foam is much less frowned upon here than in America. Most beers have their own glasses (similar to America but here they actually care about serving the beer in the right glass) many of them are substantially larger than the quantity of beer that is to be served in them to allow room for foam. That being said, I still think the campus bar ripped me off. The foam started well below the line marking the amount of beer I was supposed to have. This actually creates quite an interesting dilemma: enjoy beers on tap because they are tastier and trust to the skill of bartenders or stick with bottles to ensure that I get the right quantity of beer? I guess I'll have to continue studying...
Anyway, the rest of the tour was good although I will be getting lost a lot. VeCo itself is all in one building but many of the classes are at VUB (the free Dutch university in Brussels) which is much larger and all of the signs are in, you guessed it, Dutch! It's a beautiful campus though and I am sure it won't be too hard to find my way around (just start from the bar!)
Thursday I took my French placement test. I placed into 103 (Intermediate I) which technically I have already taken but it is much harder here than at UMBC and they said that it is usually not a problem to convince most schools to accept the credit as a higher level french. Thursday, I also had an interview at Fulbright Belgium and was offered an internship for the semester. I am still kind of deciding whether or not I want to take it. It sounds like a really cool job but I am not sure that is how I want to spend a lot of my time abroad. I think I am leaning towards taking it (partially because it allows me to drop a Military approaches to Security class that sounds pretty awful) but I have to decide by Tuesday so I will keep you posted.
Friday I registered for classes. The system here is super inefficient. It's all done on paper and so many people register simultaneously that it seems like it would be impossible to keep track of add/drops, waitlists, etc. Luckily all the classes I wanted/needed are open. So in addition to my French and required Belgian Culture course, I am also enrolled in Development Economics and The European Union as an International Actor. Should be a good semester :)
My housing turned out great. I am in a house that has been converted to 7 different apartments with 8 people. I have a single apartment with a big living area and a lofted bed. The kitchen, laundry, and bathrooms are all shared with 6 of the housemates so it can be a little tricky. 5 of the people living here are in my program and 2 of them share the apartment on the ground floor (floor zero in Europe) and have their own bathroom and kitchen which we used last night to make a house dinner (some gourmet grilled cheeses and lots of wine). I live on the first floor and have a balcony (EXCEPT THAT I CAN'T GET TO IT BECAUSE THE WINDOWS ON THIS SIDE OF THE HOUSE DON'T OPEN!) The bathrooms also leave something to be desired. The showers are quite small and the shower head is not high enough to get my head. All in all though, I am very happy with my housing. I like that I am living with other students and the other people in the house are European and have been living in Belgium for at least a year so we have some of the inside scoop.
*Housing side note: Going on a tour of our house, our landlord says, "All of the books and things in the rooms have been left by previous residents to anything left behind is yours now." The last person who stayed in my room left half a bottle of vodka. Win!
Our neighborhood is very nice but we are still getting our bearings. Yesterday one of my housemates and I went to a grocery store and on the way home found a grocery store that was much closer. Would have been nice to know so we wouldn't have had to drag groceries as long but everything's a learning experience! We are very close to Avenue Louise which is kind of like the 5th Avenue of Brussels. It's really nice but absolutely out of my price range. Luckily there are some nice discount stores in the area too so it shouldn't bee too bad.
Last night the VeCo student government sponsored a bar hopping event (take notes UMBC) and it was pretty fun. Kind of hard to manage because there are a lot of new students but still a good time. I went out almost every day last week except for Wednesday (since I had a busy day on Thursday). I've been trying a lot of different beers and trying to get all of the Trappist beers. Chimay is a pretty popular one and is pretty tasty. I think the best value I've found is the Westmalle Triple. It's another Trappist beer that's about the same price as the others but a 9.5% and very good. I think I tried an 11% beer the other night but it was a little strong for me and I think the Westmalle is a good union of alcohol and quality. Beer is soooo cheep in the grocery store so I think we will be practicing pre-gaming a little more in the future to save some Euro. All in all though, the beers at the bars are really not that bad. I've just heard not to order beers at clubs at all. Seems like an average night is going to bars to pre-game and then maybe going out to a club later.
Tomorrow, I head to Waterloo with the program and then classes start Monday (I only have one class Monday and nothing on Thursday or Friday). This weekend, Josh and his uncle will be here and the Belgian Beer Festival will be going on around the city. Not quite as exciting as an earthquake followed up by a hurricane but it's not too bad I guess :D
Ok that seems like enough to keep you busy for now. I am going to go switch my laundry and then work on posting pictures. Happy Trails!
Monday, August 22, 2011
Orientation
Ok, I only have 20 minutes before I have to be at Orientation Day 2. Orientation is pretty boring (there are no OPAs and no fight song!) A lot of sitting in a really hot room but today there is a brewery tour so that should make things a little more interesting. There are about 40 people in my program so I am slowly but surely learning everyone's names. Eight of the boys are in the same room (three cheers for bonding!) at the hostel.
I went out to bars with people from the program on Saturday and Sunday night. Both nights were fun, lots of bonding over drinking games. Yesterday we ordered a beer for the group that was served in a huge tube that looked just like a bong (or so I've heard). It was pretty cool.
The internet costs money at this hostel so I will probably not get a chance to post pictures here but I move into my permanent housing on Wednesday (thank goodness!) and should have steady, free internet access.
Till then... Happy Trails!
I went out to bars with people from the program on Saturday and Sunday night. Both nights were fun, lots of bonding over drinking games. Yesterday we ordered a beer for the group that was served in a huge tube that looked just like a bong (or so I've heard). It was pretty cool.
The internet costs money at this hostel so I will probably not get a chance to post pictures here but I move into my permanent housing on Wednesday (thank goodness!) and should have steady, free internet access.
Till then... Happy Trails!
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Brugge, Amsterdam, and Paris
Well, I’ve now learned that I will need to post much more often because so much has happened since my last post that it is unlikely most of you will stay awake to finish this one. Since my last post, we have spent more time in Brugge and visited Amsterdam and Paris. We are en route back to Brussels now for another day and a half before mom leaves and my program orientation starts!
The second day we spent in Brugge, we went to the frites (French fries although they were actually invented in Belgium) museum, the chocolate museum, the City Hall museum, the Brugge Liberty Museum, a gothic artifacts museum, and the Belfry tower. The Belfry was amazing although it was a treacherous climb (for someone as clumsy as I). It was a very overcast day again so the view wasn’t as spectacular as it would have been on a clear day but still great and well worth the climb. I stayed up in the Belfry for about an hour just enjoying the view, listening to the bells, and laughing at all the obnoxious tourists that ventured up throughout the morning. The City Hall and liberty museums were both kind of disappointing. There wasn’t too much to see and most of the explanations were in Flemish (which, by the way, is one of the most ridiculous languages I have ever seen and heard). I think we missed a bit of the City Hall museum because there was a private wedding (which we almost walked in on :/) happening in one of the exhibit rooms. The frites museum was very informative but I had no idea that there was so much to learn about the history, biology, and frying of potatoes (for example, Belgian fries are so special and unique because they are cooked twice… that’s about all I remember). Following the trail of free samples, we sniffed out the chocolate museum where we were able to “research” the best chocolate makers. This trip was necessary for background information in preparation for our chocolate walking tour of Brussels tomorrow J. We got some groceries for dinner and I picked up a large bottle of Delerium Tremens, another great blonde beer. This one is distinct in that it has a higher alcohol content (8.5%) than the other blondes I had been sampling but it was just as delicious. I’ll wait to give a rating until I try it on tap at the source.
*Interesting beer side note in Belgium: You know how in America, Bud Lite is a pretty crappy beer so they try and make it more interesting with things like Bud Lite Lime? Well, they do the same thing here except their idea of a beer to do that with is Hoëgarden. I got mom a Hoëgarden Rôsée (raspberry) thinking she would like it (she didn’t but that’s beside the point) and it literally tasted like raspberry soda. In fact, I refuse to recognize it on the Beer List because I think it hardly qualifies as beer.
All in all Brugge is a beautiful city that looks frozen in time and it was a perfect place to spend a few days on our trip!
On Sunday, we debated about where we could go for one last day trip near Brugge. We considered both Gent and Antwerp but most attractions in those cities are closed on Sundays so we had to settle for Amsterdam (darn!).
Just leaving the train station gave us a breathtaking view. We picked up one-day city and transportation passes and set off for the Van Gogh museum. The collection was huge and just beautiful. Despite the crowds (this time of year, similar to Brugge, there seem to be more tourists than residents in Amsterdam), it was a great museum and we got to see some of his most famous pieces. It was a beautiful day so we walked across a small park to the Rijktsmuseum (sp?) to see some more beautiful artwork and artifacts. We hopped back on the tram to get to the docks of one of Amsterdam’s famous canals to get on a Canal Cruise around the City. Seeing Amsterdam via the canals is probably the best way to drink it all in (at least in the summer) but the Cruise itself was a little disappointing. It was very hard to hear the English recordings and it was pretty uncomfortable.
*Joke of the cruise: Just pass the gay district in Amsterdam, we went past some houses that were actually crooked because they weren’t built properly on the canals. Our Captain’s quote as we went by: “But it is hard to find anything straight around this part of town.”
After the Cruise, we didn’t have time for much else so we headed back to the train station. Amsterdam, its sights, its people, and its aromas were definitely another highlight of the trip.
*For all of you Song of Ice and Fire fans following the blog, I finished A Storm of Swords on the train home from Amsterdam. It was quite hard to contain my excitement in public.
Early the next morning we headed back to the train station for our trip to Paris. Our apartment was beautifully positioned (turn left from our metro exit and BAM! the Arc de Triomph) and we spent the afternoon walking around our neighborhood and enjoying some Paris shopping. That evening, we took a bike and boat tour of Paris. Considering that I hadn’t climbed aboard a bike in about six years, I did pretty well (I only ran into one guard rail along the way) and taking in Paris at sunset atop a bike is just an indescribable experience. No matter where you look, there is something beautiful to see. We cycled almost eight miles around the city. Part of the tour was a boat trip on the Seine (we were rewarded for our hard work on the bikes with some free wine). Cruising between the Louvre and the Musée D’orsay and floating past an illuminated Notre Dame while a breeze passes on a beautiful summer evening is definitely a nice way to spend your first night in Paris (just in case you were curious).
Our first stop on Tuesday was the Arc de Triomph. This time, I had a perfectly clear day to enjoy the view of Paris (I promise pictures are coming soon). Later that day we visited the Musée D’Orsay which is a much more manageable if not equally as impressive museum as the Louvre. It has a beautiful collection of impressionist and post-impressionist works that kept us occupied for quite a while. There is also a beautiful hall of statues when you first walk in but unfortunately there were no pictures allowed in this museum. Next we visited Notre Dame. We didn’t stay there too long because services were going on and there were hordes of tourists milling around the church that made it difficult to stay still for very long. The statues and stain glass (on the outside and inside) were just stunning and so impressive (even for Jews like us…lol). In the evening we walked around the Marais district and got dinner before heading back for a walk along the Champs Élysees to our apartment.
Wednesday (Mom’s Birthday!!) we went to the Pantheon and walked around the Latin Quarter, visited the Musée de L’Orangerie, and finally the Louvre. The Pantheon was beautiful and had some very interesting artwork depicting the history or Paris (works of St. Genevieve, the Patron Saint of Paris, and Joan of Arc chief among them). The Pantheon is also the site of the graves of some of the most famous Parisians including Rousseau, Victor Hugo, and Marie Curie. The Musée de L’Orangerie also had a beautiful collection but the easy highlight was two large ovular rooms full of Monet’s Water Lillies. Each contains four huge canvases that surround the admirers with Monet’s masterpieces. A walk through the Tuilerie Gardens brought us to the Louvre where we spent the last hour and a half of energy we had for the day. While we barely scratched the surface of the museum, we saw so much. We walked through four galleries of French, Greek, and Italian statues leading up to The Winged Victory. A walk around the corner led us to Mona Lisa and hallways upon hallways of paintings. We walked for as long as we could before throwing in the towel and finding a nice birthday dinner for Mom.
Well that brings us to today. We walked around a little bit more this morning before heading to the train station. We are about 20 minutes from Brussels and it looks pretty rainy. After we check in to the hotel, we are thinking a nice leisurely afternoon and maybe trying to find the Vesalius College campus for a sneak peak before classes start.
Hopefully you made it through that but if not, the picture book version is coming soon. Happy Trails!
Thursday, August 11, 2011
A Beer and the Beach
Wow! What an insane 48 hours it has been! It is hard to believe that just two days ago we weren't sure if we were going to make it here because our initial flight to Philadelphia was cancelled and our flight to Belgium sat on the runway for an hour before we could take off! Well we made it and I am writing this from our beautiful apartment in the city of Brugge in northwest Belgium.
Yesterday after we arrived, we had quite the adventure looking for the Hostel where we could store our luggage but finally made it there and spent the rest of the day walking around Brussels unencumbered. We started our day with a cafe au lait and some famous Belgian waffles (which were amazing!). The Hostel is parallel to a very busy shopping street so we walked along that for a bit and got a cell phone. Then we headed to the spectacular Grand Place where there are a few museums and the Brussels City Hall. We walked around the Grand Place and up and down some of the surrounding streets to get a feel for the City. It is very crowded and very diverse. There are a lot of tourists around right now but I expect that will die down once the semester starts. We saw the famous Mannekin Pis and the monument to the Buls. We stopped at a little cafe and I got my first legal beer! Unfortunately, the fact that it was legal was the best part. It was called Primus and it tasted just like a Bud Lite... utterly disappointing.
We returned to the Hostel, found our way to the train station, and got on a train to Brugge where we are spending the next few days. It is a beautiful city populated with only 20,000 people! There are more bikes on the road than cars and more tourists than locals. Everyone is carrying a map and/or camera (which makes me feel better about doing the same thing). All the streets are cobble stone and all the buildings fit in perfectly with the 14th century churches that are the landmarks in the City. Last night we got lost again trying to find our apartment (Dutch is very hard to read and the numbers on the houses do NOT go in numerical order) but found our way there and lay down for a nice nap. The beer I had with dinner was much better; a blonde Olney which tasted a little like Blue Moon but darker and heavier.
This morning we learned the all important lesson of not underestimating jet lag and got a rather late start. We spent the day in Oostend, a city on the coast, and took the tram (looked just like the Baltimore Light Rail) all the way up and down the coast, getting off at small beach towns to eat and walk around. It was overcast all day but nice for walking since it wasn't too hot. The main takeaway is that beach towns all over the world are very similar. It was just like Ocean City (but cooler because everything was in Dutch)! I had a Leffe-Blonde (which was very similar to the Olney and equally delicious) while eating a crepe with strawberries and whipped cream and looking over at the beach... life here is very difficult.
Tomorrow we will visit a few of the museums and attractions in Brugge. There is a chocolate museum, frites museum, diamond museum, and brewery among many other attractions that should make the next two days great!
More to come soon, thanks for reading. Happy Trails!
Yesterday after we arrived, we had quite the adventure looking for the Hostel where we could store our luggage but finally made it there and spent the rest of the day walking around Brussels unencumbered. We started our day with a cafe au lait and some famous Belgian waffles (which were amazing!). The Hostel is parallel to a very busy shopping street so we walked along that for a bit and got a cell phone. Then we headed to the spectacular Grand Place where there are a few museums and the Brussels City Hall. We walked around the Grand Place and up and down some of the surrounding streets to get a feel for the City. It is very crowded and very diverse. There are a lot of tourists around right now but I expect that will die down once the semester starts. We saw the famous Mannekin Pis and the monument to the Buls. We stopped at a little cafe and I got my first legal beer! Unfortunately, the fact that it was legal was the best part. It was called Primus and it tasted just like a Bud Lite... utterly disappointing.
We returned to the Hostel, found our way to the train station, and got on a train to Brugge where we are spending the next few days. It is a beautiful city populated with only 20,000 people! There are more bikes on the road than cars and more tourists than locals. Everyone is carrying a map and/or camera (which makes me feel better about doing the same thing). All the streets are cobble stone and all the buildings fit in perfectly with the 14th century churches that are the landmarks in the City. Last night we got lost again trying to find our apartment (Dutch is very hard to read and the numbers on the houses do NOT go in numerical order) but found our way there and lay down for a nice nap. The beer I had with dinner was much better; a blonde Olney which tasted a little like Blue Moon but darker and heavier.
This morning we learned the all important lesson of not underestimating jet lag and got a rather late start. We spent the day in Oostend, a city on the coast, and took the tram (looked just like the Baltimore Light Rail) all the way up and down the coast, getting off at small beach towns to eat and walk around. It was overcast all day but nice for walking since it wasn't too hot. The main takeaway is that beach towns all over the world are very similar. It was just like Ocean City (but cooler because everything was in Dutch)! I had a Leffe-Blonde (which was very similar to the Olney and equally delicious) while eating a crepe with strawberries and whipped cream and looking over at the beach... life here is very difficult.
Tomorrow we will visit a few of the museums and attractions in Brugge. There is a chocolate museum, frites museum, diamond museum, and brewery among many other attractions that should make the next two days great!
More to come soon, thanks for reading. Happy Trails!
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