The Amazing Adventures of Annie Abroad!: January 2013

WARNING: Lots and lots of photos in this post. Just FYI.

Okay okay, I know it's been a really long time since I last posted, and it is definitely not Christmas vacation anymore...but hey, what can you do. Here's how my Christmas vaction started.

For the first time ever, I spent Christmas away from home this (okay, technically last) year--in Nîmes, with a small group of assistants who stayed in France. We had a lovely small lunch together, and that night was my friend Anna's birthday party (she was born on Christmas), so we had another small dinner. It was a lot of fun!

The next day, however, I left for Belgium with Louise and Natalie. Our first stop was Brussels--we arrived on December 26th pretty late at night, and our CouchSurfing host Brunel came to meet us at the train station. He took us back to his house, where he was hosting quite a few people...14 (including us), to be exact! Yeah. Pretty insane. There were some people from Mexico, two girls from Poland, a girl from Russia, 3 other American girls...it was quite the party. Anyway, since we arrived pretty late we didn't do anything the first night.

The next day, however, was our first day in Brussels, and we met up with Louise's old boss Joelle from the U.S., who is actually Belgian and was in Belgium for the holidays. She took us around the city center and showed us some of the sights. Some (okay, many) pictures below!

View of Brussels' city center


Mannekin-Pis

Grand Place!

Absolutely incredible architecture

Lace shop!

Lunchtime...eating moules frites the Belgian way =D

Tintin shop!

The museum of instruments and music...didn't go inside, but isn't it gorgeous?

Brussels is an absolutely fantastic city; I love it so much. Joelle accompanied us up until a little while after lunch, and then she left and we headed on to the Magritte museum. You know the painter, René Magritte? The one who painted this:

Yeah, that guy. Well, apparently he's Belgian, so they have an entire museum dedicated to him in Brussels. We spent a good couple hours in there, and then we met up with Brunel and the other CouchSurfers to walk around Brussels some more. Brunel showed us where to get the best Belgian waffles (YUM) and also took us to the best chocolate shop. Okay, I have tell you, Belgian waffles...ARE all they're cracked up to be. They are seriously phenomenal. Like you died and went to heaven type of good. If you ever are in Belgium, go to this place called Australian Home Made Ice Cream right near the Grand Place (apparently it's a chain so there are some other locations, you can look them up). Yes, I know, it's kind of bizarre that it's an ice cream shop, but apparently they have the best waffles. These waffles are not even like American waffles at all--they're made from a dough, not a batter. So you can watch them literally slap a wad of dough on to the griddle, shove it down into the waffle iron with a spatula, and then slam the iron shut. It's amazing. Anyway, here are a couple photos (not from that night but whatever):

WAFFLE.

Do you see those layers?? It's like a freaking croissant inside!

After eating waffles, Brunel took us to Leonidas, which is a chocolate company, but apparently the best one. We bought our fair share of chocolate, and Brunel also bought each of us a box of chocolate! So nice. Another photo:

So much chocooolaaateeee

Once we finished pigging out, we went home, had dinner, and then Brunel took us to Delirium, which is an incredibly famous bar that has the largest selection of beer, for a bar, in the world. Pretty cool. I tried this Belgian beer called Chimay, which is supposed to be one of the best Belgian beers. It was actually very good!

Entrance

With my Chimay

Then, after Delirium, we went to this other bar which was also a dance club. Okay, I'm going to stop right there for a second because I have to say this: I have never, EVER experienced anything like I experienced at this bar. This is what happened--as soon as all us girls (since it was mostly girls) got onto the dance floor and formed our dance circle, ALL of the men in the bar literally descended upon us. Like moths to a flame. They formed their own weird creepy guy circle around our dance circle. Brunel had to practically fight them off to keep them from grinding on us. It was...disturbing, but also hilarious. And amusing. So...yeah. I wish I had taken a video or something, because it was definitely one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen.

Anyway, so our second day in Belgium was--for me and Louise--going to the chocolate museum, and then getting another waffle. And then going back to the apartment. Natalie actually got up earlier and went to the lace museum, which I kind of regret not going to, but oh well.

Old guy giving a chocolate-making demonstration

In the afternoon, we went to Brugge with the rest of the CouchSurfers and Brunel, because the three of us were supposed to stay in Brugge for two nights. When we got to Brugge, Louise, Natalie, and I headed to our hostel to check in first and drop off our bags. It was pretty far outside town, so we had to take a bus there. Upon arriving at the hostel, we found that it was closed...which was very strange and unnerving, so we went across the street to ask a produce vendor about it. She told us that it was closed for the holiday season until the end of January. We were like, "WHAT" and then we looked at the reservation and saw that we had booked it...for January 28th. Not December 28th. Yeahhhh. Not so great. Sooo, I called Brunel and explained what happened, and he told us to meet them in the central square and we would figure something out. We walked all the way back, which took quite a while, and met Brunel and the others. I'll give you the short version of what happened: basically, we tried to find a hostel, couldn't, and ended up going back to Brussels to stay with Brunel again. And this time, it was even more crowded--18 CouchSurfers. Yeahhh. I slept on the couch that night, haha. As did two others. It all worked out though.

The next day, since we couldn't actually spend any nights in Brugge, we went back for the day and saw the city during the daytime. Brugge is a beautiful city, really, but very very touristy. Brussels is touristy too, but I just feel like Brugge doesn't feel real, you know? It looks like something out of a brochure or storybook. Still, it's gorgeous. Also, what was really weird for us was that, in Brussels, everyone speaks French (good for us, since we speak French), while in Brugge, everyone speaks Flemish! Quite a leap for just one hour on the train. And no, we don't speak Flemish, but almost everyone speaks English too, so that made things easier.

However, the summary of the day was...lace. Haha. We went into SO many lace shops, because apparently Brugge is the lace capital of...Belgium? Europe? I have no idea. It's some sort of lace capital. And we must have gone into at least 10 lace shops. Pretty exhausting. However, I also got some legit Belgian fries in a white paper cone, which was awesome. Photos!