Belgium

So, this weekend was Brussels. It was incredible. Left very early Friday morning (I slept on campus in Jim's room and woke up at 5:30AM to get a cab to the airport) and got in to Brussels around noon. We took a bus from the small airport about an hour outside to get to Central Station at Brussels city center, then took the subway to the suburbs to the apartment where Linda lived. Linda is a family friend of my good friends Allie Faust and Elizabeth DiMaggio, and via Flannery Bohne's communication, she was nice enough to allow 6 of us to stay in her home. She was hysterical. She bought us pizzas and made us breakfast, and she told us to come back as late as we wanted. She is originally from the UK, but has lived all over, and lives in the US during the summers, and winters in Brussels. She had a thick British accent, and endless amounts of energy. Her boyfriend Tim was a 'jolly' fellow who I had a nice time talking football and rugby with. I digress. After we dropped off our stuff, we went to downtown Brussels and saw the Grand Plaza, which was beautiful, and Manneken Pis, which is a statue of a little boy peeing that Brussels is famous for (a little weird? Yes. I thought it was weird until I saw the statue of the little girl peeing on the other side of town. Weird Belgians.).  We got some Belgian waffles, mine covered in Nutella, and they were delicious. We walked into about 20 different chocolate shops, but I was waiting for the one that felt right to make a purchase. More details to come. After that, we just kind of roamed around, but got cold quickly. We sat down in a very nice bar that used to be some sort of landmark in Brussels. It has a big statue in the middle, an art gallery around the outside walls, and it was nice and quiet. Had a beer there, then got some Thai food for dinner. After Thai food, we went to Delirium. Anyone reading this who likes beer needs a trip to Brussels for this sole reason. Delirium is a bar with 2500 (not a typo) different types of bottled beer, and 27 types of draft beer. The girls had chocolate beer, pear beer, passion fruit beer, and pumpkin beer, which were all delicious, and they were happy. I tried Addrian (sp?) Brouwer Dark, which was pretty good, and had Delirium Nocturnum, which was a darker house beer. Jim tried Leroy Christmas, which I thought was disgusting. But it was a really cool, very crowded place. After that, we tried to find a place to just sit down and relax, but after a long day of traveling, we gave up in favor of going back and getting a good night's rest. We woke up the next morning and met our other friends in Brussels at the train station and caught a train to Brugges. This is a smaller city in Belgium, but I think it was definitely my favorite city I have been to so far. My sister's friend Lauren Smith from Sheffield suggested that I go there, so I think I owe her a thank you! It was a beautiful little town with small winding cobblestone streets, and several large bell towers that were big tourist attractions. We walked around for a while before stumbling upon THE chocolate shop, called Depla Chocolatier. I can't really describe the beauty, but the chocolate was just too goodlooking for words. I will try to steal a picture from one of my friends and put it on Facebook, as I still don't have a camera. Needless to say, I bought a half a kilogram of assorted chocolates and tried to ignore the price tag (good advice from Brad Zandstra: in Belgium, go to chocolate store, buy now and think later!). I've only tried two so far, chocolate with cherry liquer and an almond inside, and chocolate filled with dark chocolate mousse, and they were delicious. After that, we went to a small shop to get hot chocolate and sit for a while because it was freezing. Space was limited, so we had to split up. My friend Julia and I sat down and I ordered a white hot chocolate, and she ordered dark. We were surprised to receive a cup of steaming milk and a plate of chocolate and biscuits. The waitress explained that we simply pour the solid chocolate in and mix. It was hands down the best beverage I have ever consumed. The restaurant and hot cocoa were perfect. Julia just kept saying "This isn't real. It's too perfect!" Then, to make the experience better, an older British couple sat next to us, and we got to talking. The woman, Geraldine, was a teacher in Manchester, and her and her husband were checking out Brugges in preparation for a trip her school was taking there in the spring. We talked for a half hour or so, and at the end they gave us their e-mail address and said that if we're ever in the UK we have to contact them, and we could stay at their house. Best day ever? I think yes. After leaving there, we did some shopping and wandering around, then split up into two groups, and Jim, Julia, Julie, Mandaline and I went to a small bar for a drink and snack and then went to a chocolate museum. It was pretty interesting. Chocolate originally came from South America for anyone who didn't know, the Belgians just did a damn good job of perfecting it. After that we made our way back to the train and headed back to Brussels. We went back to Linda's place and made some pizzas, had a glass of wine, and met her for the first time (she was at work when we went Friday, and was up and out before we were up Saturday). We had fun talking to her, then got ready to go out. We started the night at Delirium again, and then made our way to the 'dance on tables' bar. Everyone kept calling it that. No idea what the real name was. We got there around 11:30, and we were informed that at midnight, people would start dancing on tables. It wasn't a joke. 12 o'clock sharp every table in the entire place was crowded with people dancing. Anyone who knows me knows I'm not much of a dance-on-tables personality, but I even participated for a while. It was a blast. From there, we went to Celtic, an Irish pub and hung out for a half hour or so, then made our way back to Lindas, where we promptly crashed. We woke up the next morning, had breakfast with Linda and Tim, and then said our goodbyes and thank-yous and headed out. We met Laura and Luke and went to Atomium, which is a big metal monument shaped like an iron atom, which was pretty cool. It reminded me of the Arch and St. Louis!  After that, we went back to the train station, caught a bus to the airport, and got to the plane just in time. Flew home, and here I am. Really incredible weekend. I think my friends think I'm cranky when we travel. Possibly inherited from my dad, I get a little stressed out when traveling. I feel responsible for making sure the group is there on time and such, so I'm pushing everyone to go, go, go and double check and blah, blah, blah, and everyone is like "Dude, shut up. It's going to be fine." I always laughed when my Aunt Lillie said she was a worry wart, but I guess I picked it up from her a little bit after all. Other news from the week, I wrote an article for the monthly Rome campus newsletter called Ciao, Roma. I titled it "My Right Way To Study Abroad" (clever right?). Basically, I wrote about how I'm glad I am studying abroad by myself. I miss my friends so much back home, and I think they know that, but I'm meeting new people and branching out and being challenged. I like it alot. Julia was a bit offended when she read it, as she's here with a few of her best friends, but I didn't say it was the single right way, just the right way for me you know? It was a realization that came out of the first few weekends of travel. Anywho, this quickly turned into a novel. Hope all is well for anyone who took the time to read this whole thing. Have a great week, and I'll write more when I need to. E-mail me! Arrivederci! -Ryan