In Bruges.

Greetings from Belgium. John and I recently got back from a weekend excursion to Bruges, a city in Northern Belgium famous for its canals. It is the best preserved medieval city in Europe, and you can't turn a corner without seeing a huge church or centuries-old houses. Needless to say, everything was absolutely gorgeous.

The first day was a lot of wandering and picture-taking. The only downfall to the weekend was how cold it was (as countries in Northern Europe tend be), but I think we braved it pretty well. I got a great shot of John in front of the only rays of sunshine that we got all day. For dinner, we attempted to go to a restaurant called The Hobbit (or, the equivalent in Dutch), but since we had no reservations, we were redirected to their sister restaurant across the road, called Tolkien. I don't know what the deal was with the Lord of the Rings obsession, but the food was great so I didn't bother to think about it much.

The next day, Valentines Day, was probably one of my favorite experiences in Europe thus far. For one, the weather was fabulous, and I got to enjoy the most constant sunlight I've seen in about a month and a half. We wandered into an old fashioned toy shop, and amused ourselves with beautifully carved wooden swords and shields and a wide array of puppets. Then we visited the candy shop across the street, where they roll out the candy on a hot table right in front of you. After that, a short stroll down the street (or straat, as we got in the habit of saying), we found a church that contained Michelangelo's Madonna and Child, one of the only Michelangelo pieces that you can find outside of Italy.

Soon after the church, John and I came across a canal that had a line of people sitting next it. We thought, 'is that a line for a restaurant? At 11 a.m.?' We soon realized that it was the line for boat tours (or, bootexcursies), and we took no time to join the line ourselves. The boat tour was awesome, and it gave us such a cool perspective of the city. It makes me wonder why all cities don't have canals...Manhattan could certainly use a few, they would spruce it right up.

After the boat tour, we decided to get some frites (fries) in the Mark't (main square). Right in front of the main cathedral there are two dinky little frite stands, that both claim to be the best in Bruges. We decided to do as the locals do, and each got our own frites from each stand. I still say that my stand's fries were way better (something to do with the seasoning), but John claims his were the best. Either way, they were delicious, and I've decided that mayonnaise on fries is basically the best combo in the world.

For dinner, John and I got dinner in a restaurant called Sacre Cour (Sacred Heart), ad got the Valentines Day treatment. For appetizer, there was carpaccio of tuna, which we later googled and found that it is raw tuna, thinly sliced. Believe me when I say that it was scrumptious. For the main course we had quail in a sweet grape sauce (sooo goood!), and for desert there was the Love Apple, which was a baked whole apple with raspberry sauce dribbled on top. All in all, one of the best meals I've had in a longgg long time.

The rest of the weekend was more sightseeing, more shivering, and more warming up in pubs. We actually got a drink in a pub called The Druids Cellar, which was apparently the regular pub for the cast and crew of In Bruges. It was honestly just your standard Irish bar, but it was cool to think that I could have been sitting at Colin Farrel's favorite table.

I'm in Brussels until Thursday, and then I'm off for Scotland on Friday! I'll be sure to post again about that whole adventure. 

Snow Day!.......so, no excuses

Here are a few things I love about this country:

1) We get about 4 inches of snow, and everyone freaks out and cancels classes.

2) French fries come with EVERYTHING. So do peas.

3) Old men in pubs compliment me on my "healthy complexion"

4) cookies are called "digestives"

5) The tube. (usually)

6) You can get breakfast and curry all day, everywhere. 

7) People ask, "Are you all right?" as a way of saying "What's up?"

8) The free gossip newspapers they pass out to you at every tube station

9) Ridiculous street names such as "Goodge Street", "Tooting Broadway", and "Mudchute Road"

10) Markets where I can get black leather combat boots, a kebab, and a used bra all in one go. (Not that I actually would get the first or last of that list)

Things that I miss about home:

1) My friends and family

2) Being able to order chinese or pick up shampoo at 3 a.m.

3) New York style pizza

4) Being able to go to class with sweats on without getting dirty looks

5) Paying in dollars instead of pounds

As you can see, the good outweigh the bad 2:1. Therefore, you can rest assured that I'm enjoying myself immensely. Yesterday, Jordyn, Conor, Brian, Joe and I all took a day trip to Bath. It got off to a rough (yet surprisingly hilarious) start, due to the fact that public transport sucks on sundays, and we ran in the completely wrong direction when trying to catch our bus. We missed the one we had prepaid for, and had to pay AGAIN for another ticket. However, it was totally worth it, and I had one of my best days thus far in England. The city of Bath was beautiful, and the Romans baths and the museum surrounding it made for some hilarious picture-posing. The main question I came away with was this: why don't we do this whole steam-bath thing here? Its awesome! You just sit around in saunas and hottubs all day, get massaged, socialize, and then go home! Granted, I suppose there are spas and the like today, but it just isn't the same. Here are some of my favorites pics. If you want more, I made an album on facebook.

This guy was calling out to a goddess to bless the waters for spiritual and physical cleansing. Somebody should have told him that the pipes that let the waters flow into the pools were made of lead, and therefore the opposite of physical purification. Also, we were debating whether or not he was paid by the museum for this performance, or if he was just a townie with too much time on his hands. Either way, he was kind of creepy, and Brian had an intense staring contest with him.

Also, its snowing outside! Like, legit big flakes and everything! I guess a little bit of home travelled all the way across the pond. Can you say, snow day? 

I know that my posts have been few and far between, and I definitely left out my trip to Brussels a few weeks ago. However, I'm going again in two weeks, so you can just wait until then to hear about the fun, food, and Trappiste monk beer.