Week 1 - Brugge, Amiens and Paris

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Well, week 1 of my adventures have turned out well so far. I thoughly enjoyed my week with the EUMS tour. It started off with, well, with what I can only describe as an explosion of good times. I guess that’s what happens when you let 3 busloads of university students bring their own booze onto an overnight ferry. As my memory of the later part of the ride is somewhat cloudy, I can’t be certain as to what might have happened. A group of us decided at around 6 that we would do a centurion outside on the deck. I’m quite proud to say that all of us who started did end up finishing said centurion. As luck might have it, I still had a few beers left over, and finished them off, not too much after. Since I didn’t want to carry a half full glass bottle of Crown Royal (graciously given to me by one Adam Knorr) , as anyone who is familiar with it knows the bottles look fantastic, but are not the most practical to travel with. Having smartly purchased a litre water bottle so I wouldn’t need to buy water on my travels, I proceeded to empty the contents of the Crown Royal bottle. I also found a 40/60 mix with Dr. Pepper to be fantastic.

A centurion followed by more beer and a half litre of whisky may have not been the best idea. I remember seeing a great sunset on the North Sea, and playing in a ball bit at some point. The stories that were told to me the next morning will be left out of this blog. Needless to say, I was not feeling too fantastic, and the 4 hour coach ride to Brugge was pretty much the worst coach ride ever. It didn’t help that once in Brugge, the coaches couldn’t drive up to the hostel, so we had to walk 20 minutes with all our bags. I had a relatively quiet night that night. Since I was in Belgium though, I did sample a few of the 300 different beers at the pub. Belgian beer is fantastic. I don’t know how they do it, only the Belgians know how to make a 12% beer taste delicious. Not only do the beers taste great, each brewery have their own glass. Some put a little more effort into theirs then others, but they all have their own. If you’re ever in Belgium, I highly recommend ordering a Quak. It’s not the most delicious but it does have the most unique looking glass. The rest of the tour was fairly low key for me, though the last night in Brugge was spent playing a variety of drinking games. Oh, and there was also some singing and some orchestra-ing done as well. I’m not the biggest into choral singing, but singing in the Amiens cathedral, the biggest in France, was pretty cool. The cathedral itself has seen better times. I was disappointed how many of the stain glass windows have been lost over the years. It’s still a lovely cathedral, still worth a visit if you have the time. It’s only a €10, hour long train from Paris.

In Paris, I was lucky enough to stay on the most comfortable pull-out bed, ever, thanks to the lovely Aurianne. The weather my first day was poor, and didn’t do a whole lot. I found a French pastry cookbook, and walked around the neighbourhood market, full of cheeses, meat, vegetables and pastries. Everything looked delicious, and I didn’t hear a word of English. It was fantastic. Luckily the weather improved the next day and I walked almost 9 hours from Aurianne’s flat, into the city centre, up Montmartre and back again.

In my time spent in France the pastry shops, or patisseries, are definitely my favourite. A little one right near the Amiens Cathedral had the best quiche, I’ve ever had. The éclair was just as good as anywhere else I tried one, but I never found another quiche quite like the one I had in Amiens.

Now I wait on the plane, ready for Riga. It’s 20 minutes late leaving already, and I only had 45 minutes to catch my connecting flight to Tallinn. In Hindsight, I should have looked into Estonian Air. The direct flight to Tallinn, scheduled to leave 10 minutes later has already left. Well the door’s now shut so here’s hoping I make it Tallinn tonight. Wait no, apparently we now need to wait for the next opening on the runway.

It’s now 35 minutes late, and finally I think we’re about to start moving. Can I make my flight? I sure hope so.

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