We took this travel day as something of a leisure day. This meant...NO ALARM CLOCKS! We had a good little sleep in, took our showers, packed our bags, and set out. We only had a few errands, the first of which involved dropping Estelle's keys off at her work (she kindly left us the keys so we could sleep longer). Then we went to the train station to get our tickets validated. We wanted to be on a 3:22 train for Amsterdam to be sure to meet our host at 8 PM. However, we still hadn't had our last waffles, our last frites, and I hadn't picked up my AWESOME present for Sam yet (amazingly bizarre spandex pants; I bought them on the condition that she would wear them at least once). We had to do some quick thinking, since it was already 2:45. In the end, Laura let me drop off my bags with her, and I went on a last hoorah mad dash through Brussels, on and off the tram, running up the stairs, frantically trying to find a landmark, sprinting through the streets, in and out of shops - phew. Turns out I got to the spandex pants pretty quickly, which left time for a...waffle! I got a plain one with just whipped cream on it. It was delicious.
Laura was a little surprised to see me when I returned to the train station so quickly. We then dragged our bags to our platform, and I went back upstairs to get us lunch (read: frites and fatty delicious sauces). That was a cool experience because since we were in a rush, I asked the Frite Lady in French if she spoke English. She looked a little pained and motioned her hand to say 'kind of, a little bit, not really.' OK. So I quickly asked her if she was making frites today (because I didn't see any). She said yes; I then asked her for two orders to go, asked which sauces she had, chose my sauces, got them on the side, et voila! She made some fresh frites for me and five minutes later I was on my way back to the platform.
Laura looked a little relieved to see me; We made our train with about 3 minutes to spare. We got lucky and even found a little 4-seater area where we could sprawl with all of our bags. We were happily munching on our fries like the fat kids we should be when the conductor came by to check our tickets. This was the first time we were using our Eurail passes. So, la la la we showed him our tickets. He first scolded us for not writing the date on the ticket (since we have multiple day passes, we are supposed to record the dates of travel before we board the train). Then he asked to see our passports, and took our tickets and our passports to go sit down with them and look them over. I was a little freaked out at this point - it really seemed like something was wrong. He did not seem happy and was not very talkative. Finally he came back. It turns out that in the pile of documents that came with my Eurails there are Travel Passes. If you read the first paragraph of the Travel Pass, it clearly says that the date must be written on the ticket before you board the train AND that the Travel Pass must be filled out. If either of these things are not done, your tickets can be considered invalid and you could get them confiscated and/or fined. WHOA! So that was a big wake up call (neither of those two horrible things happened to us, thank goodness, we just got dirty looks from Mr. Conductor).
Between the Eurail drama and my tendency to fall asleep on moving objects, we were in Amsterdam before I knew it. It was only two and a half hours away. Crazy that in Europe two and a half hours easily means being in another country! Love it. Hannah and Lila told us we would see a lot of bikes here, but HOLY MOLY there are bikes everywhere!!!! I have never seen so many bikes in one place in my life; literally everybody had one. Absolutely insane. We took a free commuter ferry to where our host said he would meet us and ended up getting there about an hour and a half too early. So we're just standing at this dock, in this really industrial looking area, thinking 'I wish there was a cafe with a glass of water and some internet around'. Nothing. Then...just like in a movie...people cleared away, the mist rose, and a cafe appeared 100 yards down the road along the river. Ok, there was no mist. But seriously this cafe just popped out of nowhere it felt like! And they had internet! After not drinking anything but beer for a week my body is so dehydrated it should be a prune. Laura got fresh squeezed orange juice and I got some amazing cranberry juice with a vitamin C boost in it and we sat at this cute cafe on the water for the next hour. My progress during this time was to calculate how much money I spend in Brussels. Total was about $190 for the five days we were there. Pretty amazing. I would be thrilled to spend less than $200 in every country.
Soon we found our new host, and he picked us up in his "red, almost pink" car and drove us back to his condo. Our new host's name is Arthur. I think he is around 40 years old, is divorced, has a long-distance Ukranian girlfriend, is Indonesian but was born in Holland, and works for a ship building company. Quite different from any of our other hosts! If you don't know about CouchSurfing (and even if you do) staying with a 40 year old divorcee might seem a little strange. And to locals, it might look juuuuust a little weird having Arthur pick up two blond American girls half his age at the ferry dock; but never mind that...Anyway, Laura and I are always really careful about who we CouchSurf with and have never had a bad experience. Arthur was no different; He was very talkative and knew a ton of cool information about Amsterdam and was very appreciative of the company. He also had a good sense of humor and laughed at our lame jokes and antics. He taught us things I never would have known from reading a guidebook or staying at a hostel. He also gets free Amsterdam guide books from his work, so he gave us one that has a map, descriptions of neighborhoods, a list and descriptions of all the museums, parks, city walks, restaurants, etc. The best thing about this little guidebook is that neatly embedded between "Dry Cleaning" and "Guided Tours" are 20 PAGES of "Escort Services". Hilarious! Since I didn't research Amsterdam at all (the Netherlands was Laura's researching turf), this little guidebook is extremely useful. It even has embassy numbers, where to rent bikes, the customary amount to tip, and a host of other great information.
Arthur took us to the grocery store where we bought food to make him dinner and breakfast (we're only staying with him one night because we found another couch closer to the city center...Arthur lives a ten minute drive + a 20 minute ferry away from the city). Back at his place, I assumed the role of chef with Laura as my trusty sous-chef. We made a huge vegetable stir fry, chicken, and Mediterranean rice. It was not my best cooking effort, but it worked. The potatoes were a little undercooked and the chicken wasn't quite seasoned enough, but it was definitely edible. I just enjoyed eating fresh vegetables! I haven't eaten anything nutritious in...a while. Thanks, Belgium.
Then to satisfy Laura's and my secret desire to be obese, we busted out the ice cream. We bought one container of Stracciatella, but Arthur had three more boxes! We ate a disgusting amount of some of the best boxed ice cream I've ever had!
We spent the rest of the evening just chatting, learning tons of random things from Arthur. He showed us where expensive touristy areas were on a map and told us not to expect to be able to use credit cards here or get free tap water. He also explained how the canals ended up looking like they do (the city built the first one to protect itself, then decided it wanted more land, so it took another chunk of land and built another canal; this process was repeated around four times). He also explained that there are so many bikes here because of outrageous parking fees. It can cost up to 6 euros an hour to park! Other interesting stories he told us were about the justice system, Amsterdam police, and traveling adventures he has had.
Quotes:
Hilary: "Did you like dinner?"
Arthur: "Yes. You can stay."
"You two have changed my point of view about American CouchSurfers." - Arthur (HOW COOL!?)
Accomplishments:
See second quote.
Nice People Alert:
Frite Lady who gave understood my French and made us fresh delicious frites!
Travel Tip:
Read how to use expensive important documents before you try using them.
Showing posts with label Brussels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brussels. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
Belgium (Nouns)
The Mannekin Pis...a tiny little peeing boy.
Belgium at Easter time...haha.
Awesome clock at one of the train stations.
Weird bunny on a bike sculpture......?
All the different languages here!
Beer Planet - my favorite store.
"Beer is the Answer." (That's what I'm pointing to.)
The CouchSurfing gang: Kevin, me, Sophie, Laura, ?, Estelle, Lila, & Hannah!
Around 4:30 AM, driving home (Kevin, Laura, Katinka)
In Bruges...a beautiful fairy tale town.
The best street musician I've ever heard.
Gorgeous gazebo in Bruges.Belgium (Food)
Waffle!
More waffle!
Me eating a waffle!
Eating frites with our host Estelle.
Beer in Brussels!
Beer brewed in Bruges!
Lots of waffles...
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Dinner & a Movie
[Followers in the double digits, holler! So excited by that :) ]
Our day started off by meeting the gang (Sophie, Hannah, Lila) at the tram stop, where coincidentally we saw the Mormons from our first day in Brussels. They were on their way to Easter church, we were telling them about how much beer we drank yesterday. Awesome! Haha.
First stop of the day was courtesy of our lovely host Estelle; we went to one of her favorite flea markets! It was very cool and there was bargaining allowed but I didn't see anything I really wanted. There was this one Van Gogh-esque painting that was large and colorful and it was a European cafe dusk scene, really cool. But if my French is correct he was starting his bid at 80 Euros.
Something weird that happened today was that while we were at breakfast (which I didn't eat because I was holding out for street waffles) Hannah told us a lot about her Israeli Birthright trip. That is the program where Jewish kids get to go to Israel for free to learn about...Israel. I asked her a lot of questions and by the end of breakfast, Lila, Sophie and I were all ready to sign up. I need to do more research, but it's free if you're under 26, you have to write a ~200 word essay about what Judaism means to you, and then you get to pick which program you want to go on. Hannah did the outdoorsy "Quest" program and raves about it. So now I am considering doing that...maybe next winter. I didn't realize it was only 10 days, I thought it was a longer time commitment. And Hannah said the main focus was to teach about Israel, not confirm or reaffirm people's Judaism. And they pay for literally everything! Could be a cool way to see that part of the world. I am definitely way more interested after talking to Hannah than I ever have been about the program, and I've heard about this program for years. So good job, Hannah! Haha.
After the flea market we went to the city center area of Brussels. we walked past the Mannekin Pis again and then Estelle took us to what she considers to be the best Belgian chocolate, a shop called Neuhaus! We are so lucky to have her! I got an assortment of maybe 10 or 11 little chocolates. They look amazing. I've contained myself and only eaten two. They taste incredible! Yum yum and yum!
Then we got street waffles on our way to Beer Planet, where we got more unique beers that I can't wait to try. After that we stopped at a grocery store. I think Estelle had food she was going to cook for Laura and I, but I feel badly eating my hosts' food + I love cooking + the other three girls wanted to join us = so I had everybody chip in for groceries and we got: pasta, pesto, a baguette (used the bread slicer, obviously), cheese, peppers, mushrooms (I didn't eat those), and broccoli and we made a BOMB dinner for the 6 of us ladies!!!! We all split a huge bottle of beer from the Beer Planet, and Estelle had some chicken and fresh tomato sauce into the list of options as well, so we had like a pasta-vegetable-sauce-buffet. It was SO GOOD to cook, and to have fresh vegetables, and to have it cost like 2 euros!!!!! The six of us just sat around in awe of what a solid, delicious, healthy, fun meal in it was. This couldn't have happened without CouchSurfing. I love CouchSurfing. It is pure awesome. You will get sick of me continuing to write that! :) I just can't get over it!!! Ah. Okay. Calming down. I just love our little CS group so much. We all get it, we're all obsessed, and quite frankly we're all just so cool :)
After dinner we watched a movie (ladies' night CS date, basically). We watched In Bruges, which was a great movie, and super cool because we will BE in Bruges tomorrow! Also cool because Colin Farrell is in it...Need I say more? After the other girls left, I did something new....
Tried SEWING! I have sewn before...but not really out of necessity. My jeans were REALLY looking like they were about to rip, and I love them, and it hasn't even been two weeks! So I sewed over some of that to hopefully strengthen the fabric. Also I sewed a button on one of my shirts that had popped off. Very proud of myself! Hannah had the amazing idea to get a patch of the country I'm in and put that on my jeans if they really seem like they're going to rip. That would be super funny. Hopefully my jeans will last but if not I will probably do that and had some character to my trusty pants!
Quotes:
"I can't decide what I love more, waffles or CouchSurfing!" - Hannah
"Lila, don't blow away!" - Hannah (Lila is stiiiiiick skinny; there was a big gust of wind)
Accomplishments:
Laura and I both wore mascara. While traveling, that is a big deal.
Found my Belgium plate.
Tried Belgian chocolate.
Made dinner with our CS host.
Sewed.
Nice People Alert:
Woman at Neuhaus Chocolate Store - After I bought my chocolate she asked if she could ask me a question...of course I said yes. She wanted to know what my lipstick was, because she loved it and was looking for something just like it!!! Luckily I had it with me so I showed it to her and she wrote the brand and name down. Totally made my day that somebody other than me loved my lipstick!! Haha I'm so obsessed.
Travel Tip:
When traveling in the spring, always have a rain jacket.
After watching that movie, I can't wait to go to Bruges tomorrow with our new friends!
Our day started off by meeting the gang (Sophie, Hannah, Lila) at the tram stop, where coincidentally we saw the Mormons from our first day in Brussels. They were on their way to Easter church, we were telling them about how much beer we drank yesterday. Awesome! Haha.
First stop of the day was courtesy of our lovely host Estelle; we went to one of her favorite flea markets! It was very cool and there was bargaining allowed but I didn't see anything I really wanted. There was this one Van Gogh-esque painting that was large and colorful and it was a European cafe dusk scene, really cool. But if my French is correct he was starting his bid at 80 Euros.
Something weird that happened today was that while we were at breakfast (which I didn't eat because I was holding out for street waffles) Hannah told us a lot about her Israeli Birthright trip. That is the program where Jewish kids get to go to Israel for free to learn about...Israel. I asked her a lot of questions and by the end of breakfast, Lila, Sophie and I were all ready to sign up. I need to do more research, but it's free if you're under 26, you have to write a ~200 word essay about what Judaism means to you, and then you get to pick which program you want to go on. Hannah did the outdoorsy "Quest" program and raves about it. So now I am considering doing that...maybe next winter. I didn't realize it was only 10 days, I thought it was a longer time commitment. And Hannah said the main focus was to teach about Israel, not confirm or reaffirm people's Judaism. And they pay for literally everything! Could be a cool way to see that part of the world. I am definitely way more interested after talking to Hannah than I ever have been about the program, and I've heard about this program for years. So good job, Hannah! Haha.
After the flea market we went to the city center area of Brussels. we walked past the Mannekin Pis again and then Estelle took us to what she considers to be the best Belgian chocolate, a shop called Neuhaus! We are so lucky to have her! I got an assortment of maybe 10 or 11 little chocolates. They look amazing. I've contained myself and only eaten two. They taste incredible! Yum yum and yum!
Then we got street waffles on our way to Beer Planet, where we got more unique beers that I can't wait to try. After that we stopped at a grocery store. I think Estelle had food she was going to cook for Laura and I, but I feel badly eating my hosts' food + I love cooking + the other three girls wanted to join us = so I had everybody chip in for groceries and we got: pasta, pesto, a baguette (used the bread slicer, obviously), cheese, peppers, mushrooms (I didn't eat those), and broccoli and we made a BOMB dinner for the 6 of us ladies!!!! We all split a huge bottle of beer from the Beer Planet, and Estelle had some chicken and fresh tomato sauce into the list of options as well, so we had like a pasta-vegetable-sauce-buffet. It was SO GOOD to cook, and to have fresh vegetables, and to have it cost like 2 euros!!!!! The six of us just sat around in awe of what a solid, delicious, healthy, fun meal in it was. This couldn't have happened without CouchSurfing. I love CouchSurfing. It is pure awesome. You will get sick of me continuing to write that! :) I just can't get over it!!! Ah. Okay. Calming down. I just love our little CS group so much. We all get it, we're all obsessed, and quite frankly we're all just so cool :)
After dinner we watched a movie (ladies' night CS date, basically). We watched In Bruges, which was a great movie, and super cool because we will BE in Bruges tomorrow! Also cool because Colin Farrell is in it...Need I say more? After the other girls left, I did something new....
Tried SEWING! I have sewn before...but not really out of necessity. My jeans were REALLY looking like they were about to rip, and I love them, and it hasn't even been two weeks! So I sewed over some of that to hopefully strengthen the fabric. Also I sewed a button on one of my shirts that had popped off. Very proud of myself! Hannah had the amazing idea to get a patch of the country I'm in and put that on my jeans if they really seem like they're going to rip. That would be super funny. Hopefully my jeans will last but if not I will probably do that and had some character to my trusty pants!
Quotes:
"I can't decide what I love more, waffles or CouchSurfing!" - Hannah
"Lila, don't blow away!" - Hannah (Lila is stiiiiiick skinny; there was a big gust of wind)
Accomplishments:
Laura and I both wore mascara. While traveling, that is a big deal.
Found my Belgium plate.
Tried Belgian chocolate.
Made dinner with our CS host.
Sewed.
Nice People Alert:
Woman at Neuhaus Chocolate Store - After I bought my chocolate she asked if she could ask me a question...of course I said yes. She wanted to know what my lipstick was, because she loved it and was looking for something just like it!!! Luckily I had it with me so I showed it to her and she wrote the brand and name down. Totally made my day that somebody other than me loved my lipstick!! Haha I'm so obsessed.
Travel Tip:
When traveling in the spring, always have a rain jacket.
After watching that movie, I can't wait to go to Bruges tomorrow with our new friends!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Estelle - CS #4 | Bieres
Today in a word: Beer.
Pretty much don't even need to read the rest of this post, all you need to know is: Beer.
Warning: I am really tired. I almost always use Laura's computer to blog, but that makes me always second in line. So she stays up pretty late doing all of her stuff, then she gets to go to bed at a normal time while I stay up into the wee hours writing for you all. That's what I get for not bringing a cute little netbook. But also, if you want an uber detailed account of everything we do, Laura's blog link is here.
So amazingly, after yesterday, our 5 AM party day, we were up and moving at 10 AM. Very impressive. And by We I mean Laura, Sophie, and me. We got street waffles at this fantastic little shop. It was half as much as the waffles in a restaurant from yesterday! And obviously super fresh, and with only strawberries and whipped cream on mine I could actually taste the delicious, fresh waffle dough that causes me to gravitate towards waffle stands in the first place. Waffle stands here are like pizza stands in Chicago - everywhere, and SO GOOD.
Then we went to Catillon, which is the last traditional lambic brewery in Brussels, maybe in Belgium. It was a museum/brewery, so we toured eight different rooms and learned about the process of making lambic beers. Lambic beers are special to Brussels and the traditional lambics use spontaneous fermentation for one to three years. You can also add fruit to them, or you can combine one year old lambic with three year old lambic to produce geueze. We weren't allowed to touch anything because it is all still in use today. At the end we got to sample traditional framboise (raspberry) lambic and traditional geueze. If lambics aren't traditional, they are called modern; modern lambics often add artificial sugar and speed up the fermentation process.
From Catillon, we went to a pub called the Old Oak where we met up with a ton of people. Most importantly, we met up with Estelle, our fourth CouchSurfer host and our first female host! We also met up with Kevin (still hosting Sophie) and his two new American surfers, Hannah and Lila. There were some other people too but this is the main cast of the next 48 hours. We stayed for the entire duration of the Manchester United vs. Chelsea football (soccer) game. It was one of Estelle's favorite pubs where she is a regular so she recommended some great beers. First I had a framboise lambic (they are so good! They just taste like candy!) and then a darker Belgian beer.
Estelle is awesome! She loves beer on par with how much Laura and I love it. She is very laid back and friendly, and she loves to host CouchSurfers and show them around town. She humors us by answering all of our questions about which building is what, where the best whatevers are, and which things we should see and do. It is awesome! I have learned a lot about Belgium by talking to her. It is so much more interesting that reading a guidebook...
It was awesome having all of us at the bar together because we were with a huge group of people! It was like we had friends! :) Seriously without CouchSurfing that never would have happened! It was so wonderful to be with a group of people just hanging out like normal.
Another CS plug - CS takes a lot of the stress out of traveling. You meet with your host, who if you're smart you have carefully selected to stay with them based on their profiles. Then, you have a bed for the next two or three nights. You have a hot shower. You typically get the gracious benefit of free wireless internet. And every once in a while you get to wash your clothes in a real washer! And honestly, not worrying about leaving your stuff in a hostel with 10 dorm beds, coordinating 10 showers, and finding laundromats or doing sink-washing makes the trip much less exhausting. All that, and the fact that you get kind of an automatic friend and a local's perspective of the city just continues to prove my point that CS is pure awesome.
Anyway, after the soccer game we were standing outside and met an American guy who was a little drunk for that early in the afternoon and his Norwegian friend. We (all 8+ of us) ended up chatting with them for like 20 minutes before finally parting ways. We all meandered back to Kevin's to pick up our stuff and then Laura, Sophie and I went with Estelle to drop our bags off at her place (so we really never carry them for very long....it's awesome).
Since we were about to head out for more beer, Laura and I ate some of our leftover baguettes with meat and cheese and then we embarked on our continuous beer mission. Belgium is a 5 day beer mission. I'm not sure what kind of beer I had at this next bar but it was delicious. And the bar served us malted barley to snack on, like instead of peanuts! Strangely addicting! Very fun to chew on, and you can really taste different beer flavors and undertones in the malt. Super cool.
From there we went to a place called Friteland where we got frites. Frites are fries, and according to Estelle Belgium is actually the true creator of what we know as French Fries, but she says since nobody really knew about Belgium and it was close to France, France basically gets all the credit. But the originals are from Belgium, and they're called Frites, and we went to her favorite Frite shop! Delicious! Naturally. We got her two favorite sauces too, one was a curry ketchup and the other was called allendouse I think? It was mayonnaise with ... something... basic? Spices? Herbs? Not quite sure but both sauces were great!! So we cleaned up those plates.
Next stop: a Tapas restaurant, where we just got some chicken, and some bread and cheese. And beer of course. The weirdest part was when Sophie ordered sardines. Her plate was quite literally a pile of like 15 sardine fishes. Head, eyes, scales, everything, just piled up on a plate. SO GROSS. She ate about one and a half and then called it quits. They looked so gross Laura put a napkin on them so they would stop staring at us. Also, Hannah and Lila met up with us here, which was great! They are both so fun, very good company to have.
And that was the end of our beer/waffle/frite day of crazy indulgence!!
Quotes:
American guy outside of the Old Oak: "I work for the government. For the D.H...?....S! Dude, am I drunk?"
Kevin: "Hey man, sorry about the game, I was for Man U as well." (Chelsea won!)
Norwegian outside of the Old Oak: "Yeah I know,until they play again on Wednesday it really fucks up my whole week."
Hannah, trying Sophie's sardines: (1st bite): "Tastes like fish..." (2nd bite): "Real fishy..." (3rd bite): "OK I can't eat this anymore."
Lila: "Dude I think I smoked so much in Amsterdam I almost got sick...my throat needs a break."
Hannah: (takes a drag) "Yeah dude, me too."
Accomplishments:
I think I tried 6 different, unique, genuine Belgian beers today.
Made MORE friends!
Laughed all day.
Nice People Alert:
Directions Guy - we were trying to find the Old Oak and I asked this older guy for directions in French. Then I took a right one street too early. He came running after us down the street to tell us that we were on the wrong street. So cute!
Travel Tip:
Street food wins. Always.
We heard there's not much to do or see in Brussels, but when you're with awesome people it hardly matters. It has been crazy fun here!
Pretty much don't even need to read the rest of this post, all you need to know is: Beer.
Warning: I am really tired. I almost always use Laura's computer to blog, but that makes me always second in line. So she stays up pretty late doing all of her stuff, then she gets to go to bed at a normal time while I stay up into the wee hours writing for you all. That's what I get for not bringing a cute little netbook. But also, if you want an uber detailed account of everything we do, Laura's blog link is here.
So amazingly, after yesterday, our 5 AM party day, we were up and moving at 10 AM. Very impressive. And by We I mean Laura, Sophie, and me. We got street waffles at this fantastic little shop. It was half as much as the waffles in a restaurant from yesterday! And obviously super fresh, and with only strawberries and whipped cream on mine I could actually taste the delicious, fresh waffle dough that causes me to gravitate towards waffle stands in the first place. Waffle stands here are like pizza stands in Chicago - everywhere, and SO GOOD.
Then we went to Catillon, which is the last traditional lambic brewery in Brussels, maybe in Belgium. It was a museum/brewery, so we toured eight different rooms and learned about the process of making lambic beers. Lambic beers are special to Brussels and the traditional lambics use spontaneous fermentation for one to three years. You can also add fruit to them, or you can combine one year old lambic with three year old lambic to produce geueze. We weren't allowed to touch anything because it is all still in use today. At the end we got to sample traditional framboise (raspberry) lambic and traditional geueze. If lambics aren't traditional, they are called modern; modern lambics often add artificial sugar and speed up the fermentation process.
From Catillon, we went to a pub called the Old Oak where we met up with a ton of people. Most importantly, we met up with Estelle, our fourth CouchSurfer host and our first female host! We also met up with Kevin (still hosting Sophie) and his two new American surfers, Hannah and Lila. There were some other people too but this is the main cast of the next 48 hours. We stayed for the entire duration of the Manchester United vs. Chelsea football (soccer) game. It was one of Estelle's favorite pubs where she is a regular so she recommended some great beers. First I had a framboise lambic (they are so good! They just taste like candy!) and then a darker Belgian beer.
Estelle is awesome! She loves beer on par with how much Laura and I love it. She is very laid back and friendly, and she loves to host CouchSurfers and show them around town. She humors us by answering all of our questions about which building is what, where the best whatevers are, and which things we should see and do. It is awesome! I have learned a lot about Belgium by talking to her. It is so much more interesting that reading a guidebook...
It was awesome having all of us at the bar together because we were with a huge group of people! It was like we had friends! :) Seriously without CouchSurfing that never would have happened! It was so wonderful to be with a group of people just hanging out like normal.
Another CS plug - CS takes a lot of the stress out of traveling. You meet with your host, who if you're smart you have carefully selected to stay with them based on their profiles. Then, you have a bed for the next two or three nights. You have a hot shower. You typically get the gracious benefit of free wireless internet. And every once in a while you get to wash your clothes in a real washer! And honestly, not worrying about leaving your stuff in a hostel with 10 dorm beds, coordinating 10 showers, and finding laundromats or doing sink-washing makes the trip much less exhausting. All that, and the fact that you get kind of an automatic friend and a local's perspective of the city just continues to prove my point that CS is pure awesome.
Anyway, after the soccer game we were standing outside and met an American guy who was a little drunk for that early in the afternoon and his Norwegian friend. We (all 8+ of us) ended up chatting with them for like 20 minutes before finally parting ways. We all meandered back to Kevin's to pick up our stuff and then Laura, Sophie and I went with Estelle to drop our bags off at her place (so we really never carry them for very long....it's awesome).
Since we were about to head out for more beer, Laura and I ate some of our leftover baguettes with meat and cheese and then we embarked on our continuous beer mission. Belgium is a 5 day beer mission. I'm not sure what kind of beer I had at this next bar but it was delicious. And the bar served us malted barley to snack on, like instead of peanuts! Strangely addicting! Very fun to chew on, and you can really taste different beer flavors and undertones in the malt. Super cool.
From there we went to a place called Friteland where we got frites. Frites are fries, and according to Estelle Belgium is actually the true creator of what we know as French Fries, but she says since nobody really knew about Belgium and it was close to France, France basically gets all the credit. But the originals are from Belgium, and they're called Frites, and we went to her favorite Frite shop! Delicious! Naturally. We got her two favorite sauces too, one was a curry ketchup and the other was called allendouse I think? It was mayonnaise with ... something... basic? Spices? Herbs? Not quite sure but both sauces were great!! So we cleaned up those plates.
Next stop: a Tapas restaurant, where we just got some chicken, and some bread and cheese. And beer of course. The weirdest part was when Sophie ordered sardines. Her plate was quite literally a pile of like 15 sardine fishes. Head, eyes, scales, everything, just piled up on a plate. SO GROSS. She ate about one and a half and then called it quits. They looked so gross Laura put a napkin on them so they would stop staring at us. Also, Hannah and Lila met up with us here, which was great! They are both so fun, very good company to have.
And that was the end of our beer/waffle/frite day of crazy indulgence!!
Quotes:
American guy outside of the Old Oak: "I work for the government. For the D.H...?....S! Dude, am I drunk?"
Kevin: "Hey man, sorry about the game, I was for Man U as well." (Chelsea won!)
Norwegian outside of the Old Oak: "Yeah I know,until they play again on Wednesday it really fucks up my whole week."
Hannah, trying Sophie's sardines: (1st bite): "Tastes like fish..." (2nd bite): "Real fishy..." (3rd bite): "OK I can't eat this anymore."
Lila: "Dude I think I smoked so much in Amsterdam I almost got sick...my throat needs a break."
Hannah: (takes a drag) "Yeah dude, me too."
Accomplishments:
I think I tried 6 different, unique, genuine Belgian beers today.
Made MORE friends!
Laughed all day.
Nice People Alert:
Directions Guy - we were trying to find the Old Oak and I asked this older guy for directions in French. Then I took a right one street too early. He came running after us down the street to tell us that we were on the wrong street. So cute!
Travel Tip:
Street food wins. Always.
We heard there's not much to do or see in Brussels, but when you're with awesome people it hardly matters. It has been crazy fun here!
Friday, April 2, 2010
Beer Planet
We accidentally slept in until 11:30 AM again. Woops! Kevin's futon is just that comfortable...
Our first mission of the day was finding a Belgian waffle for breakfast (duh). Mission accomplished. We got these ginormous waffles covered in ice cream, whipped cream, and hot chocolate fudge sauce. It was a yummy mess. You really couldn't tell what was waffle and what was other stuff, it was just a big pile of yum. Extremely rich and extremely filling!
We did a lot of wandering...we're good at that. Poked around in many cute little shops, smelled all the street food, and strolled through Brussels. We found this sweet thrift shop where everything was only 5 euros! I found this cute little dress but they didn't have my size. I'd heard that when people in Brussels realize you speak English they will not speak French with you. But the lady in this shop spoke French with me as I slowly warmed that side of my brain up! Then...THEN...we found the Beer Planet. Our (smoke free) heaven. So many beers. The nicest shop men. They spoke French with me too :) Laura and I were so excited and overwhelmed with all the beer that they asked if they could take a picture of us to put on their website as happy customers! We were like, heck yes! Sweet! We're going to be on a Belgian beer website! Also, they had a three tiered beer fountain...so cool.
Random note: being in Belgium around Easter time is crazy. Today we saw a huge gold bunny rabbit riding in the bed of a car; it was a weird sight. We also saw a huge painted statue of a over sized bunny riding a bike. Totally random! And I think that's here all the time, not just for Easter...
Our wanderings continued and took us to the Cathedral, where they had very pleasant chaises out on the lawn that we laid on for a bit. Then we toured the Cathedral - there were a lot of very pretty and colorful paintings. Aaaand churches don't entertain either of us that much so that was a quick stop. Next, we walked through the Grand'Place, Brussels' main square. It is surrounded on all sides by gorgeous buildings! All the streets that span out from it are of course very touristy and filled with good things to eat and drink, as well as a lot of tchotchky things to buy. The Grand'Place is also very close to the Mannekin Pis (the little pissing boy) so we went to go see him. HE IS SO SMALL! I can't believe this city makes it into such a big deal! It's like good food and beer isn't enough, they need to put images of this tiny statue on everything that says "Brussels" on it. It's ridiculous! All the same, we checked it off our list. We also visited Chocopolis, a large chocolate store where we got free samples, passed through a super cute market with lots of fun jewelry I had to resist buying, and pretty much covered most of what there is to see on foot in the immediate Brussels area.
Heading back to Kevin's flat, we finally did some grocery shopping. Which actually just means we refilled our supply of baguettes, meats, and cheeses. Oh and we got some grapes. Coolest part about that grocery store (yes there is a cool part) is that they have an automatic bread slicer. It is straight up amazing. You just put the bread in...a baguette, loaf, anything, and press a button, and out come perfect petite tranches (little slices). Then, there is a contraption that looks kind of like a diving board. You place all the little slices on the board, and slide your baguette/bread bag over it, et voila! Perfectly sliced bread in a bag. Apparently these are only in Belgium...? Kevin was surprised though that we'd never seen them before.
Waiting for Kevin to go back, Laura and I drank our beers from Beer Planet, which were all amazing. The night was really feeling slow, it got too late to go to our Easter fun party (at another CouchSurfer's place), so we waited for Kevin to come home. He finally arrived around midnight with Sophie, another CouchSurfer he is hosting. She is from China, but studied in the States, and has been living in Germany for the last 6 years. She is incredibly sweet and funny and we immediately adopted her. We get very excited to meet new people (especially fellow Surfers)! Not that we don't love each other...but especially with being gone for 13 weeks it is definitely nice to have more people in on a conversation. Then this is where the night gets interesting. Kevin asks us if we want to go to a "cool bar" -- those are the words I remember. But what he realllllly meant was this intense Euro techno dance club bar where everybody dances on tables and stays out until 6 AM!!!!!
Ok, so we were only out until 4 AM - but still. By 3:30 Laura and I were like "we're not used to staying up this late! BEEDDDDD!" The dance club was crazy. Really crazy. A lot of the tables didn't look that stable, the floor was slippery with beer, there was broken glass everywhere, you had to shout to talk, push to move, etc. One guy tried standing on something (I think a trashcan) and it slipped and fell over and hit and injured two people. But, the music was really fun, and finally we heard some European tunes and not just American dance music. Also, in Europe they actually just dance! Not dirty dance! It's amazing. And we really weren't sure if the guys were just "European" or gay, or some combination of the two...but they were...touching a lot. Haha it was pretty funny and wild. And as I'm sure you all know, dancing/clubbing is REALLY not my thing, so I refused to get on a table (kind of a party pooper, but oh well), and I awkwardly attempted to dance (which wasn't really passable as dancing in any way, shape, or form). I was really pathetic. But observing and just seeing the crowd and feeling the energy and clubbing in Brussels til 4 AM was pretty awesome in retrospect.
Around 3:30 AM Laura and I took a breather outside and sat on the pavement (guaranteed to be cleaner than anything in that bar). These two drunk Croatian (?) guys came up to us and started speaking French. I stayed quiet because I wanted them to leave. But they kept asking us all these questions, including if we were lesbians!! Laura and I just started laughing and then tried explaining, no, we're not... They also wanted to "see" our American passports which was creepy but Laura told them that we didn't have them with us (I'm sitting there clutching mine under my fleece). Then, Tatinka (another CouchSurfer who met up with us at the bar) came outside and told the men that we were with her and invited us to come back inside. Once inside, a bouncer asked Laura if we wanted those guys in the bar (who followed us in); she said no and they got kicked out. Very efficient! It was a little bit creepy but nobody was that drunk and I think all three of us handled the situation pretty well.
Finally, Kevin took us all home: Laura, Sophie, Tatinka, and me. Tatinka was supposed to go back to her Surfer's place (she wasn't staying with Kevin) but she didn't have a key and her host was asleep so there was no other choice but to take her in too. We all ended up crashing at about 5 AM. I haven't been up that late (for fun reasons) in a very, very long time.
Quotes:
Hilary: "Ca coute combien?" ("How much does this cost?" to the Beer Planet sales guy)
Beer Planet Guy: "Deux euros and two smiles."
Kevin: "Ok, let's go, what do I need?!"
Hilary: "Wallet, here. Keys? Phone?"
Kevin: "This is why it's good to have a girl staying here."
Kevin: "Just to be clear, not awkward, I do host boys...I just want you to know that." (He's hosting some American boys next week.)
Kevin: "To all of my ladies, goodnight." (There were 4 of us sleeping in his studio flat!)
Accomplishments:
Knowing that we will be featured on a Belgium beer website!
Partying until 4 AM.
Making new friends.
Nice People Alert:
Beer Planet clerks - amazing for speaking french with me, giving us recommendations, and saying they would feature us on their website!
Travel Tip:
SMILE! It can get you pretty far :)
Sigh...so rewarding. This is what CouchSurfing is all about. Meeting new people, exchanging travel stories, spontaneously creating new travel memories, bonding quickly because you only have a few days, and just hanging out. Sophie seemed very excited about everything Laura and I did today so she is going to bum around with us tomorrow! Yay for new company!
Our first mission of the day was finding a Belgian waffle for breakfast (duh). Mission accomplished. We got these ginormous waffles covered in ice cream, whipped cream, and hot chocolate fudge sauce. It was a yummy mess. You really couldn't tell what was waffle and what was other stuff, it was just a big pile of yum. Extremely rich and extremely filling!
We did a lot of wandering...we're good at that. Poked around in many cute little shops, smelled all the street food, and strolled through Brussels. We found this sweet thrift shop where everything was only 5 euros! I found this cute little dress but they didn't have my size. I'd heard that when people in Brussels realize you speak English they will not speak French with you. But the lady in this shop spoke French with me as I slowly warmed that side of my brain up! Then...THEN...we found the Beer Planet. Our (smoke free) heaven. So many beers. The nicest shop men. They spoke French with me too :) Laura and I were so excited and overwhelmed with all the beer that they asked if they could take a picture of us to put on their website as happy customers! We were like, heck yes! Sweet! We're going to be on a Belgian beer website! Also, they had a three tiered beer fountain...so cool.
Random note: being in Belgium around Easter time is crazy. Today we saw a huge gold bunny rabbit riding in the bed of a car; it was a weird sight. We also saw a huge painted statue of a over sized bunny riding a bike. Totally random! And I think that's here all the time, not just for Easter...
Our wanderings continued and took us to the Cathedral, where they had very pleasant chaises out on the lawn that we laid on for a bit. Then we toured the Cathedral - there were a lot of very pretty and colorful paintings. Aaaand churches don't entertain either of us that much so that was a quick stop. Next, we walked through the Grand'Place, Brussels' main square. It is surrounded on all sides by gorgeous buildings! All the streets that span out from it are of course very touristy and filled with good things to eat and drink, as well as a lot of tchotchky things to buy. The Grand'Place is also very close to the Mannekin Pis (the little pissing boy) so we went to go see him. HE IS SO SMALL! I can't believe this city makes it into such a big deal! It's like good food and beer isn't enough, they need to put images of this tiny statue on everything that says "Brussels" on it. It's ridiculous! All the same, we checked it off our list. We also visited Chocopolis, a large chocolate store where we got free samples, passed through a super cute market with lots of fun jewelry I had to resist buying, and pretty much covered most of what there is to see on foot in the immediate Brussels area.
Heading back to Kevin's flat, we finally did some grocery shopping. Which actually just means we refilled our supply of baguettes, meats, and cheeses. Oh and we got some grapes. Coolest part about that grocery store (yes there is a cool part) is that they have an automatic bread slicer. It is straight up amazing. You just put the bread in...a baguette, loaf, anything, and press a button, and out come perfect petite tranches (little slices). Then, there is a contraption that looks kind of like a diving board. You place all the little slices on the board, and slide your baguette/bread bag over it, et voila! Perfectly sliced bread in a bag. Apparently these are only in Belgium...? Kevin was surprised though that we'd never seen them before.
Waiting for Kevin to go back, Laura and I drank our beers from Beer Planet, which were all amazing. The night was really feeling slow, it got too late to go to our Easter fun party (at another CouchSurfer's place), so we waited for Kevin to come home. He finally arrived around midnight with Sophie, another CouchSurfer he is hosting. She is from China, but studied in the States, and has been living in Germany for the last 6 years. She is incredibly sweet and funny and we immediately adopted her. We get very excited to meet new people (especially fellow Surfers)! Not that we don't love each other...but especially with being gone for 13 weeks it is definitely nice to have more people in on a conversation. Then this is where the night gets interesting. Kevin asks us if we want to go to a "cool bar" -- those are the words I remember. But what he realllllly meant was this intense Euro techno dance club bar where everybody dances on tables and stays out until 6 AM!!!!!
Ok, so we were only out until 4 AM - but still. By 3:30 Laura and I were like "we're not used to staying up this late! BEEDDDDD!" The dance club was crazy. Really crazy. A lot of the tables didn't look that stable, the floor was slippery with beer, there was broken glass everywhere, you had to shout to talk, push to move, etc. One guy tried standing on something (I think a trashcan) and it slipped and fell over and hit and injured two people. But, the music was really fun, and finally we heard some European tunes and not just American dance music. Also, in Europe they actually just dance! Not dirty dance! It's amazing. And we really weren't sure if the guys were just "European" or gay, or some combination of the two...but they were...touching a lot. Haha it was pretty funny and wild. And as I'm sure you all know, dancing/clubbing is REALLY not my thing, so I refused to get on a table (kind of a party pooper, but oh well), and I awkwardly attempted to dance (which wasn't really passable as dancing in any way, shape, or form). I was really pathetic. But observing and just seeing the crowd and feeling the energy and clubbing in Brussels til 4 AM was pretty awesome in retrospect.
Around 3:30 AM Laura and I took a breather outside and sat on the pavement (guaranteed to be cleaner than anything in that bar). These two drunk Croatian (?) guys came up to us and started speaking French. I stayed quiet because I wanted them to leave. But they kept asking us all these questions, including if we were lesbians!! Laura and I just started laughing and then tried explaining, no, we're not... They also wanted to "see" our American passports which was creepy but Laura told them that we didn't have them with us (I'm sitting there clutching mine under my fleece). Then, Tatinka (another CouchSurfer who met up with us at the bar) came outside and told the men that we were with her and invited us to come back inside. Once inside, a bouncer asked Laura if we wanted those guys in the bar (who followed us in); she said no and they got kicked out. Very efficient! It was a little bit creepy but nobody was that drunk and I think all three of us handled the situation pretty well.
Finally, Kevin took us all home: Laura, Sophie, Tatinka, and me. Tatinka was supposed to go back to her Surfer's place (she wasn't staying with Kevin) but she didn't have a key and her host was asleep so there was no other choice but to take her in too. We all ended up crashing at about 5 AM. I haven't been up that late (for fun reasons) in a very, very long time.
Quotes:
Hilary: "Ca coute combien?" ("How much does this cost?" to the Beer Planet sales guy)
Beer Planet Guy: "Deux euros and two smiles."
Kevin: "Ok, let's go, what do I need?!"
Hilary: "Wallet, here. Keys? Phone?"
Kevin: "This is why it's good to have a girl staying here."
Kevin: "Just to be clear, not awkward, I do host boys...I just want you to know that." (He's hosting some American boys next week.)
Kevin: "To all of my ladies, goodnight." (There were 4 of us sleeping in his studio flat!)
Accomplishments:
Knowing that we will be featured on a Belgium beer website!
Partying until 4 AM.
Making new friends.
Nice People Alert:
Beer Planet clerks - amazing for speaking french with me, giving us recommendations, and saying they would feature us on their website!
Travel Tip:
SMILE! It can get you pretty far :)
Sigh...so rewarding. This is what CouchSurfing is all about. Meeting new people, exchanging travel stories, spontaneously creating new travel memories, bonding quickly because you only have a few days, and just hanging out. Sophie seemed very excited about everything Laura and I did today so she is going to bum around with us tomorrow! Yay for new company!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Kevin - CS #3 | Delirium
Today we managed to escape London only getting yelled at once more for trying to take a picture. We of course needed a photo with our CS host, Rob, so we figured we'd snap a quick one in their grocery store (Tesco). We were standing by the entrance and began configuring ourselves. This employee (who naturally does not speak English...) started yelling at us about how we couldn't take a picture in the store (even though you couldn't see a Tesco sign or any merchandise in the picture). So we were confused but like, alright, we'll put our food down, walk 10 feet so we're out of the store, and take a picture there. Well, he followed us out and kept on yelling! So we walked a few more feet and eventually just took a picture with him still yelling at us. So weird. We still don't really understand what was illegal about it....?
We made it to our bus with plenty of time to spare and soon were on our way through the English countryside (very beautiful). When we got to the Euro Tunnel, we kept hearing announcements about "boarding" and we were like...boarding what? So it turns out that cars and buses literally drive onto a train and then then train goes back and forth across the channel! So crazy! So we drive onto this train, our entire busload of people, and there is only maybe a foot on either side of the bus to the wall of the train, it was extremely narrow but our Irish bus driver was a champ. Then once the bus was in, this wall came down behind us, so we were entirely enclosed. It felt like we were in an alien time capsule! Very strange knowing you're about to be under so much water pressure. A little scary actually. The actual crossing only took about 25 minutes, and then we were in France! Amazing! It was really enjoyable to drive through that part of France since I've never seen that part of the country. Eventually we arrived in Brussels at about 730 PM so I figured there wouldn't be much to blog about. Wrong.
Belgium...where we are back in the land of driving on the right side of the road, spiral staircases, bottled water (read: they will not give you tap water for free), and being able to cross the street without fearing for your life...it's a great change of pace from London actually. There is no honking here either, it's very quiet and peaceful. It has about a million people but it's so spread out it feels quite small. Coming from a country known for terrible food to a country known for chocolate, beer, waffles, and frites (fries) was a good choice. And you want to know why it's known for all those things? It's because Brussels' streets are LITERALLY 85% lined with: chocolate shops, waffle stands, bars, and frite stands. It's crazy! It is not a mistake that they have this reputation...
As soon as we got off the metro there were a few things I noticed. There were more "beware of pick pocket signs" than there were in London. The tram stations all smelled (read: reeked) of urine. There were many more homeless people around. There is no consistent and effective way of checking who has paid for public transportation (you can just walk on and walk off...there are people who occasionally check tickets but it's pretty rare). So it seemed a little seedy at first, even though being able to smell waffles before you could see them was deliciously fun. Oh, and the escalators are automatic here, which really freaked me out at first. I was about to go on an Up escalator, and I thought it wasn't working, so I was like ok fine I will just walk up it. So I started walking and all of a sudden it started moving! Very startling. Anyway....
The plan was to meet our 3rd CS host, Kevin, at a park right next to a metro stop at 8:15 PM. We arrived at the meeting point at about 8:20 and didn't see him anywhere! We were sure we were in the right place. But, it got dark as we waited in the cold until 9 PM and finally we went back to the warm and lit metro station (we're so smart). I found a payphone and called Kevin, so said he had waited until 820 PM (I think; maybe 830?) and then left because it was cold. And we were like, yeah, we know it was cold, we were out there til 9! Haha. And randomly we met some Mormons (from Utah, naturally) who were doing their mission in Brussels. We talked with them until Kevin found us.
After meeting up with Kevin we hit the town immediately. He took us to the "tourist bar" so we could do that first and get it out of the way. This bar is called Delirium and has over 2,000 beers. Laura and I were in a smoke filled heaven (smoking is allowed and widely practiced in bars here...yuck). I think Delirium is in the Guinness Book of World Records for having so many beers! Some of Kevin's friends met us there, who brought some of their (Italian) friends, and soon the six of us were conversing in mostly English but also a little bit of French, Dutch, and Italian. I love being around so many languages and I love that Europeans all know like three to five fluently. Americans have a reputation of not knowing any other languages besides English and it's pretty embarrassing.
Kevin is maybe the only person in Brussels who doesn't like beer (!!) but he more than made up for that by being our funniest host yet :) He is another example of a multi lingual European. His father is Dutch and his mother is French, but aside from those two languages he knows English and Spanish, a little bit of Hungarian, and some of two other languages as well I think (German and Italian?). Amazing. He is also really into futbol - he plays on at least one team, coaches a team of U16 boys, and is a dedicated Manchester United fan. Coolness aside, he had to get up at 6 AM for work (as a Sports Journalist) so it was an early night for us. Outside of the bar he showed us a hidden statue of the female version of the Mannekin Pis (another thing Brussels is famous for: this statue of a little boy peeing) and then we went back to his studio apartment in our smoke drenched clothes...It was a good first night in Brussels!
Quotes:
Laura: "So, do you like chocolate?" (after learning Kevin doesn't like beer)
kevin: "Oh! Yeah..well, chocolate, even if I am full there is always room in my tummy for chocolate."
Accomplishments:
Crossing the English Channel!
Trying the Delirium Tremens beer (one of the many beers Belgium is famous for).
Travel Tip:
If you're planning on meeting up with someone, have as much contact information for them as possible! A local phone number is a very useful thing to have.
Nice People Alert:
Euro Tunnel Service Lady - I asked her where a water fountain was and she said there wasn't one. I began walking towards the bathroom to fill up my water bottle; she came after me to tell me that bathroom tap water was bad to drink and she just remembered a new water fountain they built. She walked me all the way to it (it was outside and around the corner). First genuinely nice service industry person I met in England!
I'm excited to see how cute this town is in the daylight!
We made it to our bus with plenty of time to spare and soon were on our way through the English countryside (very beautiful). When we got to the Euro Tunnel, we kept hearing announcements about "boarding" and we were like...boarding what? So it turns out that cars and buses literally drive onto a train and then then train goes back and forth across the channel! So crazy! So we drive onto this train, our entire busload of people, and there is only maybe a foot on either side of the bus to the wall of the train, it was extremely narrow but our Irish bus driver was a champ. Then once the bus was in, this wall came down behind us, so we were entirely enclosed. It felt like we were in an alien time capsule! Very strange knowing you're about to be under so much water pressure. A little scary actually. The actual crossing only took about 25 minutes, and then we were in France! Amazing! It was really enjoyable to drive through that part of France since I've never seen that part of the country. Eventually we arrived in Brussels at about 730 PM so I figured there wouldn't be much to blog about. Wrong.
Belgium...where we are back in the land of driving on the right side of the road, spiral staircases, bottled water (read: they will not give you tap water for free), and being able to cross the street without fearing for your life...it's a great change of pace from London actually. There is no honking here either, it's very quiet and peaceful. It has about a million people but it's so spread out it feels quite small. Coming from a country known for terrible food to a country known for chocolate, beer, waffles, and frites (fries) was a good choice. And you want to know why it's known for all those things? It's because Brussels' streets are LITERALLY 85% lined with: chocolate shops, waffle stands, bars, and frite stands. It's crazy! It is not a mistake that they have this reputation...
As soon as we got off the metro there were a few things I noticed. There were more "beware of pick pocket signs" than there were in London. The tram stations all smelled (read: reeked) of urine. There were many more homeless people around. There is no consistent and effective way of checking who has paid for public transportation (you can just walk on and walk off...there are people who occasionally check tickets but it's pretty rare). So it seemed a little seedy at first, even though being able to smell waffles before you could see them was deliciously fun. Oh, and the escalators are automatic here, which really freaked me out at first. I was about to go on an Up escalator, and I thought it wasn't working, so I was like ok fine I will just walk up it. So I started walking and all of a sudden it started moving! Very startling. Anyway....
The plan was to meet our 3rd CS host, Kevin, at a park right next to a metro stop at 8:15 PM. We arrived at the meeting point at about 8:20 and didn't see him anywhere! We were sure we were in the right place. But, it got dark as we waited in the cold until 9 PM and finally we went back to the warm and lit metro station (we're so smart). I found a payphone and called Kevin, so said he had waited until 820 PM (I think; maybe 830?) and then left because it was cold. And we were like, yeah, we know it was cold, we were out there til 9! Haha. And randomly we met some Mormons (from Utah, naturally) who were doing their mission in Brussels. We talked with them until Kevin found us.
After meeting up with Kevin we hit the town immediately. He took us to the "tourist bar" so we could do that first and get it out of the way. This bar is called Delirium and has over 2,000 beers. Laura and I were in a smoke filled heaven (smoking is allowed and widely practiced in bars here...yuck). I think Delirium is in the Guinness Book of World Records for having so many beers! Some of Kevin's friends met us there, who brought some of their (Italian) friends, and soon the six of us were conversing in mostly English but also a little bit of French, Dutch, and Italian. I love being around so many languages and I love that Europeans all know like three to five fluently. Americans have a reputation of not knowing any other languages besides English and it's pretty embarrassing.
Kevin is maybe the only person in Brussels who doesn't like beer (!!) but he more than made up for that by being our funniest host yet :) He is another example of a multi lingual European. His father is Dutch and his mother is French, but aside from those two languages he knows English and Spanish, a little bit of Hungarian, and some of two other languages as well I think (German and Italian?). Amazing. He is also really into futbol - he plays on at least one team, coaches a team of U16 boys, and is a dedicated Manchester United fan. Coolness aside, he had to get up at 6 AM for work (as a Sports Journalist) so it was an early night for us. Outside of the bar he showed us a hidden statue of the female version of the Mannekin Pis (another thing Brussels is famous for: this statue of a little boy peeing) and then we went back to his studio apartment in our smoke drenched clothes...It was a good first night in Brussels!
Quotes:
Laura: "So, do you like chocolate?" (after learning Kevin doesn't like beer)
kevin: "Oh! Yeah..well, chocolate, even if I am full there is always room in my tummy for chocolate."
Accomplishments:
Crossing the English Channel!
Trying the Delirium Tremens beer (one of the many beers Belgium is famous for).
Travel Tip:
If you're planning on meeting up with someone, have as much contact information for them as possible! A local phone number is a very useful thing to have.
Nice People Alert:
Euro Tunnel Service Lady - I asked her where a water fountain was and she said there wasn't one. I began walking towards the bathroom to fill up my water bottle; she came after me to tell me that bathroom tap water was bad to drink and she just remembered a new water fountain they built. She walked me all the way to it (it was outside and around the corner). First genuinely nice service industry person I met in England!
I'm excited to see how cute this town is in the daylight!
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