Ok, so here it is:
Starting from Friday, we had an afternoon train to Brussels leaving from Strasbourg at 2:30 and we didn't get in until almost 8 - it was *long*. But we got there and had a half hour to kill before out next train to Bruges. So we went and got food - I found a banana nut muffin and was in heaven (I got a random craving on the train lol). Then we got on the train for Bruges and got there around 9:30. We got taxis to the hotel, checked in, got our keys and rooms and basically went to bed (we hung out a little before, but didn't go out, at least I didn't).
Saturday we got up and got breakfast and while it was nothing compared to Prague, it was good and we got fresh coffee. Then we had a guided bike tour of Bruges, which was really cool, but it was sooo cold! We were all frozen by the end. But, we did learn a lot about the city and its history:
- it has the first stock market ever which was founded around 1273ish I think
- The "Lake of Love" has a very Romeo and Juliet-esque story: a rich girl and a poor boy fell in love (why is it always rich girls and poor boys and never the opposite?) but her family got upset and so they got him sent to the war front thinking she'd forget about him. Obviously, she didn't, and so her family told her that the boy died in the war, thinking that would make her forget about him. Wrong again. She was so heartbroken, she drowned herself in the lake. Well, then the boy came back and found out that she had drowned herself, so, naturally, he drowned himself. See? the Bruges version of Romeo and Juliet.
- There are lots of old windows that aren't flush with the wall, they hang out over the river (easy to see, harder to describe), those are former toilets.
- The Belgians have over 300 different kinds of beer
- The term "daylight robbery" (the american equivalent is "highway robbery") comes from the taxes levied on windows - people with more windows paid more taxes. So, people used to brick up their windows to avoid the tax, and thats why they called it daylight robbery. There are also lots of bricked up windows in Bruges.
So, yeah, it was a really neat tour and our tour guide knew a lot of interesting history.
After that, we went back to the hotel to warm up (slash thaw out) and then went searching for lunch. We went to a sandwich shop with soups and salads and sandwiches and desserts called Humpty Dumpty. I got soup and a waffle :) The soup was really good - I really miss soup with vegetables in it, I feel like all I have here are cream soups (like cream of mushroom type soups) and it came with whole grain bread. I haven't seen whole grain bread in so long! It was like a dream come true. And then to top it all off, I got my waffle with chocolate sauce and a little bit of ice cream.. ah-maz-ing.
So after gobbling down all that goodness, we went to try to climb the Bell tower, but it costs 6euro and it was a long wait and we weren't into that, so we decided to just wander a bit. I got chocolate - a box for my host fam, a bag of fruits de mer (chocolate with praline on the inside in the shape of seashells) and a few random truffles (delish!) Literally, every other store was a chocolate shop, so I just chose one and it ended up being really cheap, at least, compared to other peoples' purchases. Anyways, from there Kelly and I went to the chocolate museum (lol I was a bit obsessed with chocolate), which was really cool and very well done - it chronicled the history of chocolate starting from the Aztecs and how it came to Europe and we got to about the 19th century when the last demonstration started, so we went down and got our free piece of chocolate :) We only had about an hour there and I wish we had had more time, but oh well, such is life. then we went back to chill at the hotel for a bit before dinner.
For dinner, we went to this cool restaurant, Restaurant le Passage, and had a nice dinner. I got the chicken stew, which was hunks of chicken (by hunks I mean I stumbled across a wing - skin and bones included) in a light cream sauce with potatoes and veggies and bread (more whole grain bread!) on the side. Then for dessert I got another waffle with ice cream and whipped cream and a dish of chocolate sauce on the side (I gave away most of the ice cream and whipped cream since I figured that'd be asking for trouble...) and it was SO good.
Then that night, we all went out together (all the BC kids) and it was really cool because our hotel was right in the middle of the nightlife area, there were tons of bars and clubs within 100 meters of our room, it was awesome. First of all, we went to Cathedraak, and I'm still not sure what kind of club it was... I think it might've been a gay club. Because we were literally the only girls and most of the people there looked to be in their 30s. So, we were a group of 12ish girls and 3 guys, all 20 or 21 in a club full of 30something men. Yeah, interesting... but it was fun, they played good music and we had fun dancing [only with each other]. After that, it kind of went downhill, we went to a few different bars but none of them were much fun, so Caitlin and I went home relatively early.
Then on Sunday, we got up and had to check out by 11, so I got up, showered, got bfast, changed and packed.
We checked out on time (barely) and Caitlin and I ended up just sitting in the sun until the cabs came to get us at 12 to take us to the train station
We went to the train station and took a 12:30 train to Brussels, where we met Susan and her daughter (Susan left early to figure out a problem with the tickets) who then took us around Brussels. We saw Grand Place and it was amazing - all four sides of the square were occupied by some architectural beauty: a cathedral, guild houses, a museum, etc. I can't even describe how overwhelming it was to see it. I took pictures, but those don't do it justice either. Oh well, after that, we saw the statue of the little boy peeing that's a symbol of Brussels for some reason. Then we got frites. Oh goodness, those were the best french fries I've ever had. They were so good and the sauce was amazing - it was called samurai sauce and it was some kind of spicy sauce with hot chilis. They were messy but so worth it. That was my lunch on Sunday - healthy I know lol. Then we went to a square where all the chocolatiers have stores (I didn't get any though, I still have chocolate leftover) and then from there we headed back to the train station, and a bunch of us got subway for the way home. I've missed American sandwiches with vegetables SO MUCH. In Europe, it seems like there's always one piece of lettuce and one piece of ham and one piece of cheese. I asked for extra veggies on my subway sandwich when the guy was making it because I've missed them so much.
In conclusion:
waffle: check!
chocolate: check!
frites: check!
Belgium: check!
It was a fun (if quick) weekend trip. I would like to go back sometime with Mom and Dad and go see the house where we used to live and where the cows scared me all the time, but I have a feeling that won't happen for a while. So, all in all, it was fun :)
Tomorrow I'm going to Nancy, a town about an hour from here, just for a quick day trip and I'm excited for that, it should be fun, and hopefully I'll post about that quicker than I posted about Belgium ;)
So, hope all is well with you! laterrr
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