Land of Waffles, Fries, Raspberry Beer... and Tintin

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Greetings from Belgium...well to be honest we just arrived in Berlin this evening, but internet has been scarce/keyboards have been warped, so I'll have to start from the beginning.

First off there was our flight to London over a week and a half ago. No problems. I had an aisle seat with two empty seats next to me! Unfortunately our in-flight entertainment consisted of Aeon Flux, Bridges of Madison County and everyone's favorite sitcom, Cheers. No thank you. Regardless we arrived in London ahead of schedule and without incident.

Our luck continued to our connecting flight, and all was going well. We arrived in Amsterdam just past 9pm, tired but excited to finally get out into the fresh air of the city. We boarded the train to the city and patted ourselves on the back for making it this far on our own.

An hour and a half later we got curious and asked a fellow passenger when we were scheduled to arrive at Amsterdam Central Station. She laughed. Not a good sign. Turns out, as you may have guessed, we were on the wrong train. The 15 minute train ride to the city centre, had ended up being a 2 hour train ride to the far East corner of Holland, just off the border of Germany. Oops. Lucky for us it was midnight and we were on the last train. Ha. Brief summary of the events that followed: got off train, train lady mean, got random man to help us call hostel, random man told us to go a few stations down so that we would be closer next morning, got on train without ticket cause debit and credit not working (panic), made it to Deventer train station and set up camp in waiting area, approx. 3 hours later get kicked out of waiting area by security guard. Huddle in warmest clothes with arms linked and sleep sheets over top to keep warm, on bench outside train area. Eat chocolate bar every hour to make the time pass. 7am purchase tickets and boards train to Amsterdam Central Station. 930am welcome to the Flying Pig Amsterdam. I know it doesn't seem like a summary, but trust me, I could offer many more ridiculous details. Point being, mishap #1 complete. Oi.

Now on to the interesting stuff. Amsterdam was fabulous!! The city was beautiful and we crammed in tons of sites. Highlights included: shopping (!!!), Van Gogh museum, Rijksmuseum, Heineken Experience (seriously awesome)...I could go on, we all fell in love with the city. Oh, and how could I forget the Poezenboot. Yes, we flew across the world to visit a cat shelter on a boat. World, meet Julia and Danielle. The hostel was pretty nice, though we are still getting used to people smoking EVERYWHERE...and the fact that we all stink like smoke because of it ALL THE TIME. All you can eat breakfast including croissants, nutella, cereal etc. etc. however...fine by me. 😊

After a few days in Amsterdam we headed off to country #2, Belgium. First stop was Bruges, a small medieval town full of charm and...tourists. The traffic there was rather interesting for a small town. You had to constantly be on the lookout for cars, tour busses, cyclists, and horses and carriages. Weird. There wasn't much to see in the town itself, and the sites we did see were not particularly amazing. We visited a church which supposedly housed a few drops of Christ's blood. When we arrived however all we found was a recording on repeat asking for donations in various languages and a sign saying: 'Your belief in God is Christ's blood' or something to that effect. Ooook. We also paid 5 ridiculous euros to see a chocolate museum that was recommended in our guidebooks, only to be fullz bored (I actually fell asleep during the video portion). And they didn't even feed us chocolate!! What the heck kind of chocolate museum is that?!?!? My favorite part of our time in Bruges was a night we spent with some Canadian and American girls from the hostel, in a bar that boasted over 300 different kinds of beer. After sampling a few belgian classics I decided to stick to my new favorite, Raspberry Beer. Seriously awesome.

Other random Bruges highlight: our Venezualan roomate Hernan, who kept us entertained with stories about the virtues of choosing high quality Christmas trees (???), as well as cautions against his bomb, which turned out to be his bag of dirty socks and underwear. We have been laughing a lot this trip.

After the questionable quiet of tourist ridden Bruges, we were actually pretty excited to be heading to the capital city of Brussels. First reason I loved Brussels: our hostel. New, clean, and with showers far superior even to my own at home...wow. The staff was super friendly and gave us many tips for the best places to visit in town. We also had a bonus of a roomate who had bought 1kg of chocolate to bring home to his mom...not realizing that Belgian chocolate is made with fresh cream and therefore goes bad after about 3 days. Lets just say I am definitely not losing any weight on this trip, especially when you consider our high level of fry and waffle consumption. Not my fault if the local fare happens to be a little on the super delicious side. Reason #2 I loved Brussels: the sites of course! La Grande Place is the main square full on amazing buildings and sites. We headed back there several times for shopping, eating, and of course to take loads of pictures. Reason #3 I loved Brussels: well this one is kind of unfair because really it fits for all of Belgium, but Tintin!! Yes I'm a big nerd and headed off to the Belgian Comic Strip museum which Steph and Danielle, who had no interest in the subject matter, headed over to the the Ancient History Museum. I also made more than one visit to the Tintin Boutique. Ah to be rich and indulge my nerdy tendencies...some day. 😊

Our last day in Brussels was probably my favorite of the trip so far. We took a 2 hour train ride to Ypres for the day, to visit the World War 1 memorials, and take in Flanders Fields. Unfortunately we didn't realize that the bike rental place was closed from 12-4 (europeans keep very weird hours), but once we got going it was waaaaay to much fun. People in Holland and Belgium ride their bikes EVERYWHERE, and now I understand why. Their bikes are much comfier, with high handle bars and low, wide seats. Also there's bike lanes everywhere, which makes navigating traffic relatively easy.

Once we got our wheels we sped off to some of the recommended sights, specifically Hill 62, the Canadian war memorial. En route however he had a rather unpleasant experience. As we followed the signs to Hill 62, we came upon what seemed to be the sight. We entered the building to find a strange dingy looking restaurant, with a big dude sitting behing his scummy counter. We asked about the trenches which we had been told was nearby, and he informed us we were in the right place. His attitude was very arrogant, and we were not particularly impressed, especially when I asked if there was a student discount off the 6 euro price. His reply was 'No, this is my private property. My museum.' We paid the fee and had a look around, and while we all agreed we were glad to see the trenches, I was probably more disturbed by the man running the place than by the area itself. The museum was poorly kept and dirtz was random broken artifacts everywhere. It left me with a sick feeling that someone so unpleasant was profiting over such a terrible part of world history. We left cursing the man who Steph now referrs to as 'Stupid Fat Man', and headed about 30 seconds up the road to the REAL Hill 62. This was actually a beautiful memorial to the Canadian soldiers who served in World War 1, with great views from all sides of the countryside of Flanders. Overall our experience in Ypres was great, but definitely sobering to realize how some of the people in this are profit from the tragedies of war.

Finally we are up to date. This morning we headed off early for a 7 (gasp) hour train ride to Berlin. And when I mentioned earlier that people smoke everywhere in europe, I definitely was not kidding. Our second train ride was 5 hours stuck in a car with about 20 chain smokers. No windows. I think we all aged about one year after that train ride today. Ew.

Berlin so far has been awesome. We were a little lost in the train station, and the English here is a little more limited, but I began to feel more comfortable when, after a few sneezes on the train, a friendly Berliner handed me a full package of kleenex to keep hehe. We managed to get directions to our hostel from the friendliest policemen we've met so far, and had a massive pasta dinner at a super friendly italian restaurant for only 3.50 euros!! Cheapest and biggest dinner so far!

Anyway, I'm sure I've bored you all to tears, but cheap internet has been scarce and we've had many adventures so far, so I hope you've enjoyed hearing of all our mishaps. :P

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Photos

Train Adventures
Steph demonstrates with her left hand where he were supposed to take the train to, and where we ended up. Har.

Poezenboot
Steph and Danielle with the cat which was nicknamed by the old Japanese man at Cat Boat 'Affection Junkie'.

Getting Fat
Waffles = yummy.

Heineken Experience
An experience indeed...where else do you get to virtually experience what it's like to be a beer bottle?

Atomium
Relic from the 1958 World Fair in Brussels.

Cycling Adventures in Ypres
Who knew grandma bikes could be such good times.

World War I Trenches
Disturbing for unexpected reasons.

Comments

[E.Ho]

WOW!!
Hey JU~ Your trip sounds great, you guys must be having such an amazing time!!! I'm definitely jealous. Keep the blog updated when you can, I will definitely be reading it, you crack me up with your funny travel stories. Say hi to Danielle and Steph, take care, and don't let any people who rip off tourists bring you down... They're everywhere and they suck! Love you lots BYEEE!!!!!!

[Robin]

so jealous!
so glad you've gotten travelblog worked out, loved the entry! i'm stuck here in van working two jobs, but already planning a next trip.. how do you feel about south america?