now, how to sum up the trip without boring you with all those little 'you had to be there' details?
i guess i'll start off with the highlights:
-- Aurélie lives in a huge home with 10 other students in a co-op kind of deal. it's pretty incredible. dinner is eaten together every night (the chef rotating on a schedule in the kitchen), all food and house responsibilities are shared, eggs are collected from the chicken coop, musical instruments are scattered in each room, and nights are frequently ended all around the firepit in the front yard chatting about days events and stories of when we discovered the truth about santa clause. (pic of breakfast on the patio)-- the weather was incredible. sun. blue sky. t-shirts. i am convinced that what they say about the country have 300 days of cloudy skies and the majority with some sort of precipitation is a grand conspiracy.
-- it must also be noted that everyone in the house (and our travel group) spoke french...except me. there was a lot of listening, trying to interpret body language, and trying to contribute as much as possible with smiles. just another facet of the adventure.
--our second day there we took the train to a little town called, Bruges. it is in the Flemish part of the country (no french spoken here) and is seriously something out of a storybook (and is referred to as the Venice of the North). a canal connects the majority of the town and runs along brick buildings with potted plants and charming moss covered roofs. in addition, almost every street contains at least one chocolate shop with a window display begging to be eaten. it was a magical day of strolling the streets, riding a small boat along the canal, and being together--a group of young people, appreciating a beautiful city. 
this is the main square in Bruges--horse drawn carriages run everywhere and those triangle shaped roofs are everywhere. love them!
the city from the oldest bell tower in the town.
a garden of daffodils in a park made for the nuns of Bruges to enjoy.
-- one night, it was MEXICAN FOOD night. Aurélie had promised the house my cali-mex cooking specialty a while before we got there, so fajita style burritos it was! cooking for 18 people was an adventure (along with giving several lessons in how to properly fold a tortilla...a skill that must be practiced i learned).
--next big adventure was Brussels, "the capital of Europe" and home to all the official EU buildings. i must say i enjoyed the city, but found it very different from any place i'd visited before. maybe it's the combo of the Flemish and Franco parts of the small country or the clash of modern and gothic architecture...regardless, it was a cool place. here are some pics to prove it.
the spanish flat together in Belgium!
buildings in the main plaza
maybe it's just me, but sitting on the ground in a main plaza felt odd..yet, here it's all the rage and a completely normal way to enjoy the architecture.
i was a little out of the monuments loop when i was told we on our way to see one of the main monuments in Belgium...the statue of Brussels, the dignified 30 cm statue of a little boy peeing into a fountain commemorating an old tale of a young boy saving the city by putting out a fire with his bodily fluids. i was told it's Belgium humor. (they even dress the statue up on holidays and for random occasions)
those five days in Belgium are ones i will never forget--it was a trip unlike any other on many accounts. now on to the next adventure :) cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment