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Published: October 10th 2011
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Tourists are lame - Brugge
Our first view of the Reitjes after hopping off the bus from Leuven to Brugge. (Imagine 2984 students in gloms walking across a 5 foot wide footbridge. All taking this photo. You know those trips when you miss the last train and spent the night in an empty train car while waiting for the station to reopen? Wait...that's never happened to you? Well I can tell you from experience, it's exactly what you think it'd be: a giggle-provoking adventure at first followed shortly by uncomfortable fetal position seat-sleep and incessant whining until we could beat feet outta there.
Over the past few weeks I've been able to
pry myself away from my rigorous studies to see some sights with my international band of gypsies. Brugge, Brussels, and most recently, Barcelona.
Mad props to my mom for the latest and greatest from Rick Steves. He's helped us from A to B and then some plenty of times. He's also made me famous amongst my friends for missing the view out the plane/train window because my nose is buried in his pages in preparation. Nerd alert. Brugge was more beautiful than I had expected. I've attached a photo of my first authentic Belgian waffle.
drool-warning. I have since encountered several post-dinner contemplations of making the 1.5 hour return trip just for dessert. It was a life altering experience. Loved our guided tour
Wafflicious - Brugge
My first authentic waffle. Laura and I drooled as we watched the waffle maker put the dough (not batter) onto the griddle. Best.Thing. Ever. with 450169 other KUL students, appreciated the architecture, eyeballed lace and tasted the chocolate...several times. Also climbed the 366 steps to the top of the belfry featured in the film 'In Brugge' -- definitely worth the trek for the view.
Brussels was a little less lustrous. Luckily its only 20 minutes by train from Leuven, so once we had shopped and seen the parks and plazas, we were ready to ramble on home.
Now, the good part.
Barcelona. -- Headed for a three night adventure of planes, trains, and automobile style exploration. My gypsy-tramp-theive entourage included Malene from Norway, Aurielle from France, and my trusty Canadian, Laura. Charleroi>Rues flight were dirt cheap on Ryanair. Flying the roundabout route requires shuttle busses and train connections galore, so now we understand the worth of a huge discount. (more on this hardship later)
Once we arrived at the gnarliest hostel known to mankind we quickly deadbolted ourselves inside our private room and hid our valuables...
I mean...got ready for dinner. All joking aside, we were safe and sound the whole time. Taking the hundreds of warnings of ruthless pickpockets to heart, we guarded our goodies and thanked our lucky stars that
Villo! - Brussels
Mama, I found those Villo day-rentals that you and dad were telling me about. Tons in Brussels! 2 of us were 6ft tall. No one steals from huge scary broads. (At least we got away unscathed).
We spent Friday and Saturday on a cheesy double-decker tour bus. Felt lame at first, but I have to admit it was worth the 30 euro for the two day hop on and off pass. We were able to see tons of amazing Gaudi architecture, parks, shops, the Olympic Stadium, the gothic quarter, and tons of other highlights that my buddy Rick suggested we seek out. Sunday was a beach day, sunning with topless grandmas and speedo-sporting grandpas. Talk about a test for my gag reflex. 😉
Besides the fact that every 10 minutes, without fail, you got a huge whiff of feces, Barcelona was a really lovely city. Something about their sewer or trash collection methods really stank up the place.
Damn you, sensitive sniffer! Our journey home was a bit rough. Everything had gone smoothly until Sunday night. We hadn't been robbed, we had managed to ration our money, we had stayed out of trouble and experience everything we had set out to. Of course, we'd miss the 1 hour train home from Charleroi. -- We
La Rambla Market - Barcelona
Seafood and fruit galore at this outdoor market jut a stumble from our hostel! took a shuttle from the airport to the train station and our bus driver let us know he couldn't take us all the way to the shuttle stop, because of construction. This forced us to walk for 10 minutes...arriving to the train platform at 12:29. Wouldn't ya know it: last train had left at 12:27. Trains resumed service at 4:36 and we were screwed. Cue the laugh/cry.
Awesome. Good. Great. Grand! Long story long: some kind soul working the night shift offered to open a stationary boxcar (likely out of service because of the bedbug outbreak in the upholstery) and fire up the engine to keep us warm through the night. Talk about an angel. We'd have been balled up on cold concrete in the Belgian mist all right had he not come to our rescue. Merci, Jaques.
See attached photos of tomfoolery. We ended up taking 2 trains home (stopping at eeevery stop on the way for the Monday morning commuters who judged us greasy backpackers the whole way.) With our first Biomechanics class of the semester starting at 9am, we stumbled into our abodes at 7am and showered with just enough time to make it to
Nerd alert - Barcelona
Double decker tourist bus, anyone? Two days of hopping on and off this sucker, and we were fully content with our Barça experience. class. Chico State Whitney would have crawled in bed. KULeuven Whitney went to school and sat through 6 hours of class. Look who's growing up.
kinda
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Mama Mac
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You all looked like you were actually having a good time on that abandoned train car--bunch o\' monkeys! Looking forward to more Barcelona photos...still a little jealous, but so glad you enjoyed yourselves there (except for the stinky whatever with your keen sense of smell thing...is sometimes a curse). REALLY glad to hear you are appreciating Rick Steves\' tips. Never be afraid embrace your nerdiness! Love you, Mama