Belgium
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Bruges was awesome! Definitely the most beautiful city that i've been to so far. I think it was the perfect place to start off the semester.
The first day we left Well at 6:50 am. After navigating ourselves on and off four trains and getting the european train system down, we arrived in bruges at about 12 pm. It was a sight to behold. European cities are definitely much different than american cities, it seems. There weren't any sky scrapers or many modern looking buildings. Instead there were a lot of orange topped cute buildings with a few cathedrals mixed in.
At first we didn't have a map to navigate ourselves, so we sort of just wandered around. We dropped off our stuff at our first hostel. it was very futuristic looking. it was fairly clean but i felt like i was in a woman's shelter or an orphange or something. we spent most of the day shopping (they had an H&M which made my day). we had some belgium chocolate -- which were very oddly shaped. we had some belgium beer (pretty tasty, except for hoegarden, which was very sour and gross, in my opinion). on our way home we discovered that a bar was right across the street from our hostel, so we figured we'd check it out. it ended up being pretty embarrassing. first of all, it had rained when we went to change our clothes, so when we went to the bar the seats were all wet. we spent a lot of time drying off our seats, but we ended up with wet butts anyways. wherever we went people seemed to know that we were americans (even though we were pretty quiet and minded our own business) and would talk about us. we couldn't tell what they were saying but they would look over at us, then chuckle, and then say something to their friends. i look forward to when we go to spain and france because we will have an idea what they will be saying, ha ha! then casey ended up hating her beer, so she dumped it on the wet sidewalk. the french man siting near us was very sad, shook his head, and said "what a shame."
the next day we dedicated to sight seeing. we went to our lady cathedral (notre dame), a chocolate museum, and a brewery. our lady cathedral was gorgeous. i have been to the cathedral in nyc and one in montreal, but they don't even compare. it's crazy to see what effect architecture can have over you. just walking into the building made me want to cry. the music playing, the huge ceilings, the light coming in through the windows, the artwork everywhere. it was completely overwhelming. it was probably my favorite place that we went to. the chocolate museum was interesting, and now i feel like an expert on how to make chocolate. the brewey was also cool, but as soon as we got on the roof of the building, my attention was deferred to the great view.
after walking around all day we were pretty tired and didn't feel up for really going out. so we decided to go to a movie. out of the 3 or 4 movies that we could have seen, we probably picked the worst one. first of all, the others were in english. the movie we saw (it was called 5x2) was in french with dutch subtitles. we thought it would be ok to see a movie in french, especially since casey could speak some french, but we were wrong. it really sucks to see a movie that you don't understand. also the movie itself was disturbing. it's the kind of movie that makes you give up faith on love.
our second hostel was cool. the walls were all brightly painted and the atmosphere was very college - like. it seemed that a lot of people staying there were american too, which was a relief, because i'm sick (already i know) of getting crap for being american (twice this weekend), but i was homesick too.
on sunday we took a guided boat tour along the canals. it was the perfect ending to our weekend, and only 5 euros :).
hostel 1 (europa)- i rate it a B - it was clean but had a weird vibe
hostel 2 (snuffel sleep in) - i rate it a B+ - it wasn't very clean, and there weren't locks on the door, but they had big lockers, and the atmosphere was very cool
Bruges: i rate it an A. it was an awesome city, the buildings were beautiful, there was plenty to do, the food was good, the people were nice.
Bruges was awesome! Definitely the most beautiful city that i've been to so far. I think it was the perfect place to start off the semester.
The first day we left Well at 6:50 am. After navigating ourselves on and off four trains and getting the european train system down, we arrived in bruges at about 12 pm. It was a sight to behold. European cities are definitely much different than american cities, it seems. There weren't any sky scrapers or many modern looking buildings. Instead there were a lot of orange topped cute buildings with a few cathedrals mixed in.
At first we didn't have a map to navigate ourselves, so we sort of just wandered around. We dropped off our stuff at our first hostel. it was very futuristic looking. it was fairly clean but i felt like i was in a woman's shelter or an orphange or something. we spent most of the day shopping (they had an H&M which made my day). we had some belgium chocolate -- which were very oddly shaped. we had some belgium beer (pretty tasty, except for hoegarden, which was very sour and gross, in my opinion). on our way home we discovered that a bar was right across the street from our hostel, so we figured we'd check it out. it ended up being pretty embarrassing. first of all, it had rained when we went to change our clothes, so when we went to the bar the seats were all wet. we spent a lot of time drying off our seats, but we ended up with wet butts anyways. wherever we went people seemed to know that we were americans (even though we were pretty quiet and minded our own business) and would talk about us. we couldn't tell what they were saying but they would look over at us, then chuckle, and then say something to their friends. i look forward to when we go to spain and france because we will have an idea what they will be saying, ha ha! then casey ended up hating her beer, so she dumped it on the wet sidewalk. the french man siting near us was very sad, shook his head, and said "what a shame."
the next day we dedicated to sight seeing. we went to our lady cathedral (notre dame), a chocolate museum, and a brewery. our lady cathedral was gorgeous. i have been to the cathedral in nyc and one in montreal, but they don't even compare. it's crazy to see what effect architecture can have over you. just walking into the building made me want to cry. the music playing, the huge ceilings, the light coming in through the windows, the artwork everywhere. it was completely overwhelming. it was probably my favorite place that we went to. the chocolate museum was interesting, and now i feel like an expert on how to make chocolate. the brewey was also cool, but as soon as we got on the roof of the building, my attention was deferred to the great view.
after walking around all day we were pretty tired and didn't feel up for really going out. so we decided to go to a movie. out of the 3 or 4 movies that we could have seen, we probably picked the worst one. first of all, the others were in english. the movie we saw (it was called 5x2) was in french with dutch subtitles. we thought it would be ok to see a movie in french, especially since casey could speak some french, but we were wrong. it really sucks to see a movie that you don't understand. also the movie itself was disturbing. it's the kind of movie that makes you give up faith on love.
our second hostel was cool. the walls were all brightly painted and the atmosphere was very college - like. it seemed that a lot of people staying there were american too, which was a relief, because i'm sick (already i know) of getting crap for being american (twice this weekend), but i was homesick too.
on sunday we took a guided boat tour along the canals. it was the perfect ending to our weekend, and only 5 euros :).
hostel 1 (europa)- i rate it a B - it was clean but had a weird vibe
hostel 2 (snuffel sleep in) - i rate it a B+ - it wasn't very clean, and there weren't locks on the door, but they had big lockers, and the atmosphere was very cool
Bruges: i rate it an A. it was an awesome city, the buildings were beautiful, there was plenty to do, the food was good, the people were nice.
posted by Rachel at 7:38 AM
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