Day Trip - Dinant

Matt and I had the idea to visit Dinant - a small town in southeast Brussels, located on the outskirts of the Ardennes mountains - so we woke up this morning and headed to the train station at around 11:00am. We took the train to Dinant, took about an hour and a half.

The train ride was sweet. It was my first time heading in this direction and it was real pretty. We first passed through some woods, which I haven't seen since I have been here. Then came the pastures and rolling green hills with horses and lambds roaming about. There were windmills all over the place, and at one point we saw about fourteen parachuters in the sky doing god knows what. It was a pretty cool sight. Once we approached the city of Namur (the biggest city in southeast Belgium), we began to see the Meuse river - the same river that splits Dinant in half. The views were starting to get prettier and prettier, and a little more down the track and we came to Dinant. We had to wait for our friend Chase who took a later train then us, so Matt and I sat down and had a bite to eat at a small restaurant. I had some chicken wings and frites - it really hit the spot. When Chase got into town we walked across the bridge into the main city area. The views were absolutley insane. Dinant is a small town that lies next to a fairly large river. The city is looked over by a huge fort at the top of a pretty jagged cliff. Underneath the fort is the famous citadel with a crazy onion-shaped top. We wanted to go to the fort, so we took a crazy old cable car up. When we got to the top (about 1 minute later) we had an incredible view over the town. It was a little bit hazy out so my pictures weren't as great as I hoped, but they are still pretty sweet. We took a guided tour of the inside of the fortress, and it was really cool. We got to see where they would shoot guns from and the dungeons etc. After our tour we took some more pictures and then went to this playground that was also at the top of the cliff and messed around for a little bit on the jungle gym. I felt like a ten year old. About two hours after we first made it to the top of the cliff we decided to head back down to the town. We decided to take the stairs this time, all 500 of them. It was a good idea at first until my legs felt like they were goin' to fall off. When we reached the bottom we were hungry again so we found a cool little restaurant to eat at with tables outside along the river. I had a nice meal consisting of an omelette with ham from the Ardennes (so damn good), and a nice cold trappist beer. Not a bad cap to a good day. For dessert we went across the street and got waffles with icecream and hot fudge. I think I don't have to eat for a while now.

Chase took off and me and Matt stayed for another hour and walked around the city for a bit. Aside from the church and the fortress, there isn't much to Dinant. But I had a great time taking pictures because the city was so damn sweet looking. The train ride home was nice and relaxing and I zoned out to some music for the majority of it. I noticed a lot of motorcyclists in this city - everywhere you turned people were out on their bikes. I'm not sure if it was just because the weather was nice, or if there is a large population of bikers in this town. I also saw alot of roadbikers, and it finally began to show that Belgium actually does have a large population of roadbikers - something that I always here about. In Brussels it isn't so "biker friendly" so I never see too many. Matt and I decided that we are going to make another trip back down to the Ardennes when it gets a little warmer out to do some kayaking or hiking. It is a really cool place!

One week till spring break! I have to start preparing myself for a crazy trip. Hopefully I will update again by then. Make sure to check out my pictures from Dinant!

Been a while....

Well sorry for taking long between my last post and this one - I have been super busy with midterms/papers/trip planning etc.

Matt and I finally are almost done planning our spring break - should be ridiculous. Our first five days will be spent in Paris, France with our class. We will fly from Paris to Krakow, Poland and stay there for a few nights, take a train to Budapest, Hungary, stay there for a few days, and then take a train to Vienna, Austria and spend the rest of our break there and then fly home.
In Krakow we are planning on visiting the Auschwitz Nazi Camp for a day, and Budapest we are definetely hitting up their famous thermal spas and massage places. May take a day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia when we are in Vienna - not sure yet.

Midterms went alright. I am still kind of pissed that this school feels alot more like school than I expected. Most kids go away to study abroad and barely have to focus on their schoolwork but Vesalius isn't too much different than Bentley. Oh well, I am here to study anyways I guess.

I never actually made it to Barcelona, I came down with some weird virus and ended up being in the doctors instead of the airport. Hopefully I can get down there sometime in April or something.

My mom is coming to visit me in the middle of April, right after spring break, so I will be excited to show her around Brussels etc.

I am sure I am going to have some crazy stories to share after my Spring Break trip, so bear with me if I don't post for a few more days.

Later.
Tom

Amster...Damn

Well lots has happened since I last posted...most importantly, my first overnight trip with my european studies class, a trip to the ever-so-famous city of Amsterdam. We left Brussels early Friday morning, at around 8:15. Matt and I almost missed the train...whoops.

Anyways, we got on the train which was actually pretty comfortable and set off on our journey. The ride took about two and a half hours to Amsterdam Central station - which is one huge station. It was a pretty sweet station, and I have many pictures of it. After we all got off our train and got our stuff together we set off to find our hostel. It was located about a ten minute walk through the city and over a few canals. It was called the Hotel Keizersgracht and was located right on one of the main city canals. It was a pretty humble place but the location was good and easy to find. We checked in to our room; I was in a room with Matt, Garrett, and Tim - who joined our trip at the last minute and therefore slept on our floor. We had a private bathroom etc. so it was not too bad, and we had a pretty sweet view over the garden.

After we settled in Prof. Delsemme hooked us up with some free sandwiches and fruits and then we set off on the beginning of what would be a 48 hour tour of the city.

We visited and did many different things in Amsterdam over the weekend including:

• The Van Gogh Museum
• The Rijksmuseum
• The Anne Frank House
• The 'T Ship Museum
• Canal Tour
• Museum of Amsterdam History
• and the Portugese Jewish Synagogue....

At night time we were free to do what we wanted, so we enjoyed some of the Amsterdam nightlife and took a walk through the famous red light district. Wow...interesting place. It was almost surreal. There were hundreds of women of all shapes and sizes ready to prostitute themselves out to whatever perverted customers wanted. Not for me. But it was cool to see and I am glad we walked through it.

Amsterdam is a crazy crazy city. There are so many bikes that I feel if I spent any more time there I would have gotten hit by one. (Mom - picture Copenhagen and multiply it by ten) It almost felt a little claustrophobic, but it was still a very pretty place. All over the city are the famous "coffeeshops" which do indeed sell coffee along with any type of marijuana you want. It is weird to see stuff that is so illegal back home and even here in Belgium be sold as a legitimate business. Just another strange offering from Amsterdam.

My favorite thing - which was actually the thing I dreaded doing the most - happened to be the Anne Frank House. Something about being in the same house that was talked about in a book that I read back in middle school was really interesting. We got to see the entire house including the Annex in which they spent months living.

We came home Sunday evening, and I was absolutely whiped out.

Overall my trip was pretty good. I can't say I enjoyed Amsterdam as much as I had anticipated, but I am definetely glad that I went. Now I can cross the Netherlands off of my "Countries to Visit" list.

P.S. Check out my pictures on the link at the right!

BARCELONA IN THREE DAYS!

Antwerp, Beer, and Frog Legs...

So I have had quite an eventful last few days. On Friday it was my turn to cook food for the family so I cooked my favorite thing in the world, kielbasa with noodles and garlic sauce. Everyone really liked it so I was happy.

Saturday we had our second class trip, this time to Antwerp which is to the north of Belgium. We visited many different things including Ruben's House and a printing press museum, and the famous cathedral of Antwerp, the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The printing press museum was actually really interesting. We watched a film on how the first printing press came about, and lets just say that it was way to difficult just to print one page. Thank god for printers. We also saw the famous harbor, which reminded my of a less populated Charles river...so it wasn't that exciting. Antwerp had a different feel than Bruges, as it was a little more populated and lively, but certainly not as pretty. The church however was pretty sweet. A few of us ate lunch at a small italian pizza place, and I got a pretty big personal pizza and a coke for 6 euros...score! This was once again another hectic day with Professor Delsemme, so by the time we got back on the train we were all pretty tired. By accident a few of us sat in the first class section, and after about 15 minutes we were told to move...whoops. We spent the night just hanging out downtown etc. with some friends. We met a few kids from Brazil who were studying in Germany and showed them a few things including Delirium Cafe. They were cool.

Today I slept in till about 1:30, and when I woke up I was starving, but broke. So I had to find an ATM that actually worked, which ended up being one downtown. Ryan, Matt, and I went to the ATM then found a pretty cool little Thai Restaurant for lunch. I ordered a chicken and honey dish, Ryan a chicken and curry dish, and Matt got FROGLEGS! I tried some of the legs, and they were suprisingly pretty good. They were like real tender chicken wings (smaller of course). After lunch Ryan wanted to check out a beer store. So we went there and guess what I found...the number one ranked beer in the world, Westvleteren 12. Beeradvocate.com has had it ranked number one for years, and it is extremely rare to find. You can only buy cases of it from the actual monastery, and the monks brew only a small number of batches of beer a year. Yeah, be jealous. I can't wait to try it. It was very expensive though, 7 euros, so that is vitaully a 10 dollar bottle of beer. But whatever, number one is number one :)

During the afternoon we watched a rally of people in front of the Bourse building. We werent sure what they were doing but we figured out that it was a bunch of people from Kosovo who are celebrating their new independence from Serbia. People were beeping horns, hanging out of cars with flags, and dancing through the streets. It was pretty cool to see and I felt happy for them.

This week is going to be hectic, I have lots of work to do. But its okay, because on Friday we are heading with class to Amsterdam for the weekend! I have heard so much about it and can't wait to go.

One Month Down...

So I have survived my first month in Belgium! (Crazy huh). What a great time I have had so far. The food, the sights, the travel, the beer, and even some school has all been great. Except, after a month of me talking about how great this place is, maybe your wondering what I don't like. So here it is.

1) Waking up at 6:00am Mon-Thursday just so I can eat breakfast and start my 40 minutes commute to school.

2) The trash on the streets. It gets pretty gross especially after the weekends.

3) The crowdedness of the subways. At 7:00am I don't want to be grinding with a bunch of business men and smelly homeless people.

4) The expense. Stuff here is way overpriced. Granted, I can buy a few things cheap (chocolate, waffles, rice cakes), but everything else is ridiculous. Not to mention that it first looks over priced (ie. a package of cookies will have the price tag 4E), at first you think "oh thats not too bad," but after doing the conversion from euros to dollars, you realize that the cookies cost 6 bucks.

5) 10 DOLLARS TO DO MY LAUNDRY. ARE YOU JOKING?!

6) The fact that stores close at the most random times, and often for lunch, and it just so happens that those times are exactly when I want to go to them.

7) Getting lost on a regular basis. Though I am getting better, its still annoying.

8) The inability to buy all that you need in one place. Suppose I want to cook dinner, I have to go to the butcher to get meat, the baker to get bread, the wine store to get wine, the pastry shop to get desert. I feel that in order to accomplish any one single shopping trip you would do in the states requires you to visit at least three different stores here.

9) Mayonaisse on everything. EVERYTHING. Just so happens to be my least favorite food. Luckily on day one I told my host family that "mayonaise makes me sick" so they do not use it in my food :).

10) Dog poop. Lots and lots of it.

11) The fact that you can rarely find cold milk anywhere. They sell the milk (and eggs) on the shelf here, and it is always served room temperature, and can last for days. I don't understand how they do it.

12) The homeless people. Im sure I'd say the same if I lived in the heart of Boston, but seriously, get off your ass and get a job.

13) The inability to get a straight answer from anyone. "Where do I need to get my train ticket?" "I'm not sure, try one of the stations."

14) Having both dutch and french signs for everything. I can't speak either. Why do you have to confuse me like this?

Despite this list, I am still having a blast here! This weekend I am heading with class to Antwerp so expect an entry about that.