Hi!! I'm back!! Sorry it's been forever... turns out when there's actually stuff to do keeping a consistent blog isn't as easy as it was last summer!!
Anywho, lots of catching up to do. But to start, Victoria & I just got back from our weekend in Belgium!! And apologies in advance, but I just re-discovered the wonders of the app "Picstitch" and even though it's supa cliche and reserved for instagram and birthday facebook statuses, I decided it was a fantastic way to put my weekend to words.
Thursday:
Take a late flight from Limerick and get to our airbnb in Brussels around 11:30 p.m. The owner's boyfriend gave us a quick tour of their flat when we got there (we were renting a room)... . he walked us straight into their bedroom and his girlfriend was already in bed. I guess that's one way to make your guests feel right at home!
Friday:
Wake up early and go explore Brussels! The boyfriend (I really should have learned his name...) gave us a pretty cool map of Brussels that was made by locals and included sassy commentary about the places to go in Brussels, so we felt well equipped. The day consisted of vintage shops, regular shops, some delicious food (obviously), and getting to know the city!! The first thing the map of Brussels says is "Brussels is ugly and we love it". Honestly, that's a pretty accurate description. It's the capital city of the European Union, so it's just a big city with lots of traffic and a good amount of people. It's not like Rome (or Ghent, but we'll get to that later) where there are pretty buildings around every corner, there aren't cute cafe's around every corner and there are no huge parks in the middle of the city. That being said, if you're a city person, it would be a really cool place to live. There is a TON of culture mixed throughout different parts of the city, the people are supa chill (and the vintage shops are AWESOME. I'm learning that vintage = trendy thrift shop clothes (seriously, one guy told us he gets half his stuff from the Goodwill storehouse in Texas), so next time someone criticizes you thrift shopping, just call it vintage and then it's trendy. Brussels gives a vibe that it holds a lot of hidden gems that would be fun to find over time, but that's hard to do in a day (or weekend). And if you're a beer drinker, obviously Brussels is a wonderful place for beer tasting. On Friday night, we went to a bar called "Delirium" (if you're a college student and you've studied abroad, you've probably heard of Delirium). It's a side street that has turned into a couple different bars, but it's known for it's Beer Bar that has a bajillion different beers (seriously, I think it's a bajillion. They even had craft brews from the states!!) and 20 different beers on tap.
Belgian cookie-flavored ice cream, a grapefruit and tonic (I saw a local drinking it - YUM), and Belgian fries (per recommendation of "the boyfriend"). Because what a better way to pretend like you're a local than to eat like one!
... yes, that's actually how big the famous "Peeing Boy" statue is. He's an icon in Brussels - all the tourist shops are filled with statues/bottle openers/post cards/t-shirts of the peeing boy. Turns out the statue is about 2 feet tall on a street corner - it marked where peasants could sell their urine as fertilizer (I think). Nonetheless, it has been dressed up, hooked to a keg, and stolen throughout the years of living in Brussels. So as a tourist, we at least had to get a picture!
SaturDAY:
Wake up. Train to Ghent. Explore the city!!
We went to Ghent per recommendation, and it was WONDERFUL. It's a smaller city about 40 minutes outside of Brussels that is a city on a river with medieval architecture. Not only does it have cool shops, restaurants, and graffiti streets that we explored during the day, but there was also a HUGE festival going on (Gente festeen) that brings in about a million people to the city. So it TOTALLY threw off the "small, quiet city" feel, but it made Ghent a really fun experience. Plus, Victoria and I hadn't had the best "festival" luck and decided we completely redeemed ourselves with this one (but we will still always "cherish" Enniscorthy)
Saturday NIGHT:
was a
blast. Victoria and I cooked dinner at our POSH hostel (I don't exactly know what posh means, but I'm pretty sure it's sleek and trendy and the hostel felt like it should be described that way). We were only about a 7 minutes walk from the festivities, so it was in a prime location, had a great room AND a kitchen. We became hippies for the night and headed to the festival to see what all the hype was about. The city had set up huge stages in the middle of the main squares, and by the time we showed up the bands were playing and there were
tons of people. We stood in the back of the crowd for the first band - it was a 70s/80s rock band (and playing American songs!!), and they were having so much fun performing that it made it impossible not to enjoy watching them. We decided we'd continue exploring when the band took a break, so we kept walking and came up to the river where a huge stage was set up and a Latin band was playing. Right as we got there it started raining, so not only was I getting to listen to LIVE Spanish music and watch salsa, but we were also dancing in the rain.
Savour joy.
We headed back to watch the tail end of the first band, and we were about to leave when they finished but then "Call Me Maybe" came on over the loudspeaker. If you ever get bored with American pop music, come abroad and hear a bunch of stuff in another language, and then hear a song you're familiar with. You might go crazy and dance in the rain too. We ended up starting a tunnel in the middle of the crowd with a couple of other dancers, and before we knew it the square had turned into this dance tunnel made of people that we kept rotating through (sorry that's an awful description. You know when people get in two lines and face each other and touch hands so they can form a tunnel? That's what we did, but it was with a big crowd and a bunch of people were singing and dancing through it. It was great).
Sunday:
Wake up, eat HOMEMADE breakfast nom nom, hit up the Sunday markets, and head back to Brussels. Our flight wasn't until 10:30 that night, so we had a good part of the day to "kill" in Brussels (and yes, that means we got back at 4 a.m. HOORAY for 9 a.m's instead of 8 a.m's!!) We ended up camping out at a trendy coffee shop for a bit and then headed to the station. On the way, however, we had to stop and eat our MUSSELS IN BRUSSELS (yes, I have been waiting to write that on my blog). It's the first time I'd tried mussels, and they were delicious!!!
MUSSELS IN BRUSSELS!!!
(I was too excited about the phrase to only use it once)
Things I learned this weekend:
1. I like dressing like a hippy
2. I love cities that are 30-40 walking distance all the way across. You get to walk everywhere but it doesn't take a crazy amount of time, and I like that.
3. I like running (I left my running shoes at home and I actually missed it!!)
4. Just because I buy a big chocolate bar doesn't mean I have to eat it all at once
5. I love water (drinking water AND rivers/lakes/boats/PEACE)
6. I need to decide before I go to cities whether I'm "sight seeing" or "culture exploring" because I have a hard time doing both. I've found that I actually appreciate sight seeing, but I also love learning about cultures (aka getting to know the local life) and that's harder to do on weekend trips. I think there's a balance, I just haven't found it yet.
