SPAIN: Belgium

My first weekend trip was to BELGIUM! We flew RyanAir which is a super cheap airline in Europe. No complementary beverage and a scary landing. Friday morning the flight took off at 6:30 a.m. After a little confusion speaking with the taxi driver, we made it to the airport on time! We arrived in Brussels, Belgium by 9:00 a.m. ready to start the day. There were six of us in Belgium from Auburn! Let's see... Friday we spent most of the day roaming around Brussels. Thank goodness we packed light because we were carrying our bags with us. Besides the clothes on my back I just brought one extra outfit and some pajamas. We ran into these people doing some kind of scavenger hunt for work and they needed a picture with tourists, so they directed us to fun things to do. We went to see Manneken Pis, a statue of a little boy peeing that is super famous. There were waffles everywhere! Belgium is known for it's chocolate, beer, fries, mussels, and waffles. Oh, and it's lace! We hung out in the Grand Place for a while and did a little shopping, or more like looking. Then we went to the Royal Palace. Brussels is so beautiful, partly because people there speak English, French, and Dutch!

Next stop: Bruges. Sara and I decided we wanted to spend the night in Bruges, which is less than an hour away from Brussels. So we hop on a train after making friends with these English speaking ladies. Turned out they were from the USA but moved to Paris ten years ago "when the political climate in the US was unfavorable." You do the math. Telling them we were from the South didn't help our friendship too much. Turns out we had to switch trains. On to friend number two: a Belgian himself. Meet Luciaan. He was traveling from his University town to Bruges where he is from. Some people in Europe think Americans are interesting, want to learn about our culture, and practice their English. So, Luciaan or "Lotion" as we liked to call him offered to show us around Bruges the next day. Free tour guide and native to the city. I say yes. Since our phones don't work outside of Spain we planned on meeting him at 10:00 a.m. in a Cafe next to the Hostel that we did not stay in. Once we arrived in Bruges it was amazing from then on! I want to move there. I felt like I traveled back a few centuries in time because of the stunning architecture.Saturday Luciaan met us at ten and the tour began! I know it may seem a little strange that we met this guy on the train and ended up spending a few hours going around town with him, but we made it out alive and saw so much more! He said he could write about this experience in his portfolio. Whatever. We went everywhere. We walked through the Market Square, which is the center of town, and saw the Belfry. I bought some lace at one of the 1231203 lace shops. I ate so much chocolate, there were Chocolatiers literally everywhere. We went to Choco-Story, just a museum dedicated to chocolate and how it has evolved and why Belgium has the best. We got to watch a demonstration of how fine chocolates are made. I think I've found my calling in life. We went in this one Chocolatier called "Dumon" and when we told the lady we were from America she asked us if we knew Rick Steves. Haha, our country is bigger than yours. Then she showed us a picture of Rick & family eating her chocolate. Rick doesn't mess around with bad chocolate. That might have been the most delicious thing to ever touch my palette. Don't worry family, I did so some things that didn't have to do with food. We went in the Basilica of the Holy Blood which claims that it has Christ's blood brought back from the Crusades. It was beautiful. We also went to the Church of Our Lady and saw Michelangelo's Madonna and Child. This is his only piece outside of Italy. Go Belgium! Don't worry, we also saw Madonna and Child carved out of white chocolate. Fun fact: they call Bruges the Venice of the North. The canals throughout the city were gorgeous. There were swans and ducks in this one park. For lunch we tried Mussels! Not my favorite but if you eat them with fries it works. Late Saturday we took the train back to Brussels and met up with the rest of our friends.
It was strange going back "home" to Spain. Pilar asked us if we spoke Spanish the whole weekend like we were supposed to. Pilar tends to be a little dictatorial. She read my face and said I have a guilty conscious. Traveling around Europe and seeing how many people speak three or more languages really makes me feel like a wimp! I am inspired. Ironically, Pilar fixed us fried Mussels for lunch and they were way better than the one's I tried in Belgium. Home Sweet Home.