Hey there readers (if any of you still exist!). It's that time of year where everything slows down (including my blog updates). I wanted, however, to update everyone on the rest of my winter break activities as well as what's going on back in Aix which, needless to say, isn't a whole hell of a lot.
So Ingrid and I left for Brussels, Belgium on the 27th where we were to spend 5 days before heading back to Paris on January 1st. Unfortunately, after all of our hard partying over Christmas (the French would say "nous avons trop fait la fête") Ingrid and I both arrived in Brussels both exhausted from little sleep over the last 3 days and sick as a dog (who came up with that expression?). After some slight confusion and about 30 minutes after leaving the train station, we finally found our first hotel. The only thing we could think of was how bad we wanted to sleep. We get to our room, aka the freezer, and set our stuff down. We find that the window had been left open and the heating all turned off so we closed the window, turned the radiators all the way up, and then decided to head out for a quick bite while the room warmed up. Our "quick bite" turned into an hour long adventure to find an ATM which, apparently, is a rarity in Belgium. We had trouble finding them during our entire trip, except for in the metros which, you know, is such a safe place to put those. After asking about 5 people we FINALLY got some cash and a warm kebab. We were so cold, exhausted, and sick that we had trouble leaving the restaurant because we didn't want to walk out into the cold. We made our way over to a pharmacy and bought 6 different medicines.
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| The table in our hotel room taken over by our medicines. |
After spending the entire rest of the first day sleeping and resting up, we headed out the next day to do a little sightseeing. Our first stop was Cantillon, one of Belgium's famous breweries and producers of delicious (but sour!) beers such as Gueze. Ingrid was probably one of the only French people in the whole building as we found ourself surrounded by Americans. After doing a little tour of the place, we got to try some of the beers (the best part!).
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| Me posing in front of a bunch of the bottles. |
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| Ingrid and I trying out the Gueze, a delicious sour/citrusy Belgian beer. |
After that we headed out to find our way to the big Palais de Justice, which boasted some amazing views of Brussels from it's labyrinth interiors. Our "quick way" of getting there and avoiding the cold by taking the tram backfired as it turned out we had to take like 6 different trams to get to our destination. But we finally got there and checked out the Palais de Justice. It probably would have been much more impressive if it didn't have construction scaffolding surrounding it but hey, it was still pretty cool considering we got to stay inside away from the cold. Unfortunately, we didn't find any impressive views and after doing exploring that ended up with us taking an elevator to a floor forbidden to the public, we decided to call it quits and head back outside.
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| Palais de Justice |
The rest of our trip here involved us doing several little things each day since we were easily fatigued and coughing up a storm. I told Ingrid that our room had been designated the "chambre des invalides" ("room for sick/handicapped people"). After the 2nd day we had to move to a hostel which meant bye-bye TV/cable/internet and hello uncomfortable beds and cold showers. The room was super clean though and MUCH warmer than our room at the first hotel. The next day we preceeded to do a little bit more exploring. We checked out the Palais Royal (Royal Palace), the Museum of Musical Instruments, and we had our first taste of Belgian Waffles as well as seeing the famous light show in the Grand Place.
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| Le Palais Royal |
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| First Belgian Waffle! (got it plain and simple with just powdered sugar on top!) |
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| In Grand Place at night. |
The next day I did some exploring on my own while Ingrid attempted to go to the library to get some studying done. I indulged in another waffle, some Belgian fries (eaten with mayo, just like a true Belgian!), and checked out the famous Manneken Pis, a tiny fountain of a boy peeing. Belgian's like to pee in public, even more so than the French seem to. In fact, on the side of one of the cathedrals they even put a little urinal out! (fun fact I learned from my youth map/travel guide I got at the hostel!).
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| Manneken Pis (yes it really is that small!) |
Overall it was a good, easygoing trip. We were hoping to get out and party a little bit more (would have loved to try more of the Belgian beer!) but unfortunately our illnesses prevented us from any hardcore partying/going out. We did manage to have a good New Year's Eve though (other than suffering from numerous harrassments by drunk men). We passed the "décompte" (countdown) in the Grand Place, which was filled with thousands of people. After that we found a cozy spot in the back of a nice bar/restaurant where we had two cherry lambic beers before turning in early so we could check out by 10am and catch our 12 o'clock train.
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| Our last drink in Belgium. |
Now I am back in Aix and in my final exam period. Everything has pretty fallen back into normal. Madame is still combatting the little cockroaches she insists come in from the balcony (how a cockroach gets into our apartment from the 12th story balcony baffles me, but you know, can't question an 85 year old French woman!). I passed my first exam on Thursday (oops, by passed I mean passed as in the French way as in "had", don't know my grade yet!). I think it went alright though. I have another history exam Monday (woops, should get working on that!) and then my last exam is on Thursday. Immediately after my last exam I am running (literally) to catch a bus to the Marseille airport, where I will catch my low-cost flight to spend the weekend in LONDON, where I will be reunited with my good friend Sarah V, who I first met junior year of high school on our trip to Quebec. Should be an awesome weekend, although I know it will go all too quickly!
Anyways, Im off to bed so I can get up "early" and "study". HAH. Yeah right.
Paix beeshes,
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