http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Brian-in-Belgium/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Brian in Belgium en-us Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:30:17 +0000 Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:30:17 +0000 DisclaimerI know this is late in coming. I know it's been over a month since I actually visited the Isle of May but I've been a busy boy lately and this is the first chance I've had to post some photo's.The Isle of MayNeed a day trip from St. Andrews Then I highly recommend the Ilse of May. Take a bus to Anstruther grab some lunch at Prince Willy's favorite chipper then hop on the May Princ http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Isle-of-May/blog-60621.html Had a great day in St. Andrews today. Walked around the beach and around the Old Course only the oldest golf course in the world. Watched some golf...was dissappointed. I thought that St. Andrews required certain handicaps before you could play on the Old Course. Apparently one group of Americans we watched either forged their documents or somehow slipped by because they were terrible. On http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Saint-Andrews/blog-57661.html St. Andrews at LastWe left Edinburgh on the train to Leuchars which is as close as a train gets to St. Andrews. Our departure was delayed by about half an hour because they were changing the power plant on the train. When we finally got underway it didn't seem like the change did much good because purple smoke was rolling down either side of the train cars but the old girl eventually got warm http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Saint-Andrews/blog-57655.html After leaving Glasgow we took the train to Edinburgh. Again we didn't spend much time in Edinburgh because we wanted to get to St. Andrews before dark but we did walk around the city a little. Glasgow and Edinburg are both places that I would love to visit again but unfortunately on this trip there just wasn't enough time to see much. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Edinburgh/blog-56921.html IntroductionWell off to the next big adventure. I'm afraid that the biggest challenge on this one was to keep my wallet firmly in my back pocket. With the pound stirling currently equal to about 1.8 US dollars my wallet kept trying to lift itself from my pants and fly into the hands of surrounding merchants. Not to worry I managed to escape with my shirt still on my back despite a missed fli http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Glasgow/blog-56914.html I went to my first professional soccerfootball game in Brugge this weekend with Krzys Patricia and Petrus. Petrus is from Brugge and he hooked us up with some cheap student tickets. Thanks Petrus I had a great time. I don't really have time to write about it so just check out the pictures. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/West-Flanders/Brugge/blog-54996.html Well Mom and Jim came for a visit over the Easter holiday. It was great to have some of my family come all the way over here to visit me although it did make me a little homesick. We had a wonderful time. They arrived on a Friday morning and I did my best to keep them awake all day so that they could get over their jet lag. Their first taste of Belgium came from the waffle stand at Gent St. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/blog-54576.html Our next stop in Luxembourg was Vianden a short bus ride from Ettelbruck. Viandenrsquos claim to fame is a huge castle perched way up on a hillhellipsomething I had to see. Once we got to Vianden we didnrsquot have much trouble finding the castle since it was the most prominent feature in the town and was visible from just about anywhere but we did make a few wrong turns before finding t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Luxembourg/Vianden/blog-53090.html Day two in Luxembourg started off rainy and gray but thatrsquos just par for the course in this part of Europe. A friend once told me that if you wait for the rain to stop before you travel you may not ever go anywhere. Living in Belgium Irsquove learned to take this little nugget of wisdom to heart and not let the rain stop me.So after a decent breakfast in the hostel we made for the tra http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Luxembourg/Ettelbruck/blog-53088.html I've ridden them bet on them but never knew they were so tasty....So wersquore in Luxembourg wersquove found a nice restaurant wersquove been walking all day in the sun and the rain wersquore hungryhellipreally hungry. Since most everything closed at 1800 and we had nothing else to do we were planning on a nice long dinner. Which is exactly what we got. We arrived at the restau http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Luxembourg/Luxembourg-City/blog-53087.html IntroThere wasnrsquot much going on this weekend so Daniel Christina Laura and I decided to take a trip to Luxembourg. We had a social event on Friday night so we opted to meet at Gent St. Pieterrsquos on Saturday morning at 830 AM. The meeting time was a bit early but we all made it. We caught the train out of Gent just before 900 and were looking forward to a nice peaceful ride acr http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Luxembourg/Luxembourg-City/blog-53085.html On Sunday we visited the town of Dinant on our way back to Gent. It was another beautiful day and the view that greeted us when we got off the bus was of the fortified citadel looming overhead. Many of us climbed to the top. The Citadel provided a great view of the city and the bridge below. We took a guided tour of the citadel. It was informative but a little slow because everything had to http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Namur-Province/Dinant/blog-47918.html I had such a good time with ESN on the Gent by Night tour why not follow up with an ESN weekend in the ArdennesWe left Gent at about 530 on Friday afternoon and took a chartered bus to the little town of Hastiere. On the way we stopped at the Belgian equivalent of a truck stop. Not a rest area but one of the big intercountry convenience stores. It was like any other convenience store in http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Namur-Province/Hastiere/blog-47913.html Maybe I didn't realize what I was getting myself into or maybe I knew exactly what I was doing. You be the judge.ESN or Erasmus Student Network is a group of local volunteers who help organize activities and social events for foreign students here in Gent. I'm on their email list and here's the email that caught my attentionGHENT BY NIGHTWednesday 15 march there will be the lsquoGhent b http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/East-Flanders/Gent/blog-47912.html Day 5 begins. Today was my museum day. Some people don't like museums I do. The Louvre was a must see for me.The LouvreAs I said in an earlier blog this time of the year Paris is not too crowded. It only took us about thirty minutes to go through the security checkpoint in the pyramid of the Louvre and purchase our tickets on the main floor. A little tip there are automated ticket machin http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-43867.html Today I took a trip to the Fort of Breendonk not far from Gent. Breendonk was originally built in the early 1900's as part of the outer defense network for Antwerp. During WWII the Nazi's took posession of the fort and used it as a concentration camp. The fort now stands as a memorial to those who suffered during WWII.The visit to Breendonk was not exactly pleasant. I'm not going to post a lo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Antwerp-Province/Willebroek/blog-46471.html So you may be wondering...what have I been doing with my free time since I've been here By free time of which I have very very little I mean the times when I'm not working going to class commuting back and forth to Brussels studying trying to learn Dutch and usually failing miserably or traveling. Well believe it or not I've actually made a few friends over here. I mainly hang aro http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/East-Flanders/Gent/blog-45490.html OK so I got up this morning and it was snowing outside. We decided to go see the Museum Dr. Guislain. I'm writing this almost three weeks later and I'm in a hurry so I'll be brief. The Museum Dr. Guislain was a really bizarre museum but I found it immensely entertaining. The museum is housed in an old insane asylum and depicts artwork by the mentally deranged. The exhibit I went to that d http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/East-Flanders/Gent/blog-42387.html Cimetiere de l'Est du Pere LachaiseDay 3 begins. Our first stop this morning was the famous cemetary Pere Lachaise. It was rather close to our hostel so a short walk took us to the cemetary. We didn't go in at the main entrance but in one of the side entrances. We actually tried to enter in one place that just turned out to be a small park but we eventually made it inside. The entrance we http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-43862.html First ImpressionsOK so day 2 in Paris begins. You should know that so far I really hadn't seen much of Paris. It's hard to get an impression of a place from a train or Metro or the 300 meters you walk from the Metro to the hostel. So when I woke up on Saturday morning I was ready to go see some sights. I figured that the best way to start would be to get on the Metro and get off in the mi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-43859.html