Out trip began early last Saturday morning. I woke up at 4 AM because I had to walk to the train station and our train left at 6. After a train layover in Paris, we were in Brussels by noon that day- but the weather was rainy and miserable. We walked to our hostel in the rain so that we could get cleaned up and rested up before going to "Museum Night Fever"- a party that happens once a year where you get access to 20 different Brussels museums and each museum has set up concerts and activities inside. Well, the concept was really cool but we were all absolutely exhausted so after one museum we decided to head on back to our hostel. On Sunday it had stopped raining, so we just walked around Brussels to see all of the sights. There is Grand Place- A beautiful square where tourists and Belgians alike hang out; and my personal favorite place- The Brussels Bourse aka the stock exchange and my future work place. We spent the next few days seeing all of the important Brussels sights. Manneken Pis stature, Palais de Justice, Palais Royale, The European Union building, touring the Cantillon Brewery, and of course eating typical Belgian food- lots of waffles, chocolate, and fries.
Standing in front of the Brussels Stock Exchange
Grand Place
The most delicious waffle on the planet- chocolate, strawberries, and whipped cream
Meeting room of the European Union
Me and some friends in front of the French flag at the EU (Everyone would take pictures with the flag of their country. Obviously the US flag wasn't there so we decided to use the French flag instead.
Palais de Justice
Manneken Pis- Yes it is what you think it is, a little boy peeing. Most famous statue in Brussels. The first time we tried to find it, we got distracted by waffles and the statue is so tiny we walked right past it without even realizing.
On Wednesday, we left Brussels and took a train to Amsterdam. It was absolutely freezing but the city is beautiful! There are canals everywhere and I loved the architecture. While in Amsterdam, we visited the Van Gogh museum, the Heineken Brewery, and Anne Franks hiding place. The weird thing about Amsterdam is that there are bicyclists EVERYWHERE. Every street has a bike lane and I really believe that I saw more bikes than cars. The problem is, if you are walking you have to be careful and not stray into the bike lane or they will run you over in a heartbeat.
The outside of Anne Frank's hiding place... it was amazing to see where they actually hid from the Nazis.
A typical street name in Amsterdam. It took us 30 extra minutes to get anywhere just because we had to pronounce the street names.
Beautiful Canal!
Bikes.... they were parked EVERYWHERE
Heineken Brewery- The tour included horses, a simulator ride, and videos
All in all, winter break was amazing and I didn't want to leave. But then I remembered that this whole semester is an adventure! I have resolved that now that I am back in France, I am not going to waste any time. I want to see and do everything that I possibly can while I am here. Well, I am sorry that this post is so long but I wanted to recap my break! A toute a l'heure!
No comments:
Post a Comment