Things were so crazy in March and April that my updates obviously fell to the wayside. My time in Rome is getting shorter and shorter, with academic responsibilities growing greater and greater, but I am determined to get all of the blogs in even if I have to write them from the States. Here is a look ahead at the posts to come that will take you through the end of my semester.
Krakow, Poland
Family Week (incl. Palm Sunday Mass, Real/Host Family Dinner, Dad week, and Easter)
Castelli Romani
Napoli, Italy
Happenings in Rome
Wrap Up
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This post is about my trip to Brussels, Belgium, the other 2/5ths of my spring break. Chronologically this picks up directly following "Donde. Esta. La Biblioteca."
My flight from Barcelona landed at 5pm, I took the bus back into the city, and all I could think of was how happy I was to be back in Rome. But creeping back into my mind was that I needed to be back at Ciampino airport in exactly 12 hours. I spilled into my room, took a shower, had a quiet dinner with Maria Luisa, and then crawled into bed.
My flight left too early to take the 6 euro shuttle, plus I was sick of the bus, so I sprung 30 Euro for a taxi ride. Instead of taking the Appia Nuova, we went down the Appia Antica which was beautiful with the sunrise. I met Matt around 5:45, on the plane for 6:30, and we were off to Brussels.
Now there is a phrase to describe when people have to speak in front of the class or take a test. I believe it is called "winging it." It's not usually used to describe international travel, but that's what we were doing. We didn't research, we didn't line up transportation from the airport to the hotel, hell we didn't even have a map. From the google map I looked at of our hotel, I saw the airport was probably about a 30 minute walk, which Matt was up for to pinch some pennies. He goes up to the information desk and states we would like to walk to Brussels and asks how far it is. The woman looks at him, like... I don't know what, but then says, "WALK?!?! It's 65 km!" She points us to a shuttle bus and we are on a one hour trip into the city.
It takes us a while to find our hotel. We are dropped off at the train station, struggle through the metro system, and arrive at what seems to be Brussels's equivalent of Times Square: 6 story buildings with a galleria and colorful signs. The realization that we have no idea where we are hits us after wandering this area for 20 minutes, and Matt hears someone speaking English. The young American and his smoking hot French girlfriend give us pretty decent directions and we are able to find our hotel, which is essentially a door on the street and a staircase to three floors of rooms. Our room wasn't ready, so we dropped our stuff and went out to explore the city.
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| Matt taking a video (for his video blog) of me taking a photo. |
Brussels is one part metropolis, one part quaint tow, and another part hood. Graffiti and skate parks are everywhere. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, just not what I expected.
We swung by a super market to pick up some beer, because Belgium is famous for it, ya know. But this wasn't the typical college grab '30' and get schwasted. We perused the beer aisle (yes one aisle dedicated to beer) and selected three different types each, just buying by the bottle, and it didn't run us more than 4 euro.
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| This isn't the supermarket, but this just shows how many different types of beer there are. |
Matt and I returned to the hotel, crashed for a few hours, and then began what became a Brussels tradition. Beer and friendship. After we shook off out groggy stupor, we got out a deck of cards and played a variety of games from Egyptian Rat Screw (idk if that name is offensive, but it's what it's called), Gin Rummy, President, Poker, and even Go Fish (which apparently I didn't know how to play) while we sipped our beers. I should also mention we didn't have bottle opener, so in true college fashion we opened them on the balcony railing or shower door.
Side Note: Our room had a shower. The only reason I point that out is because it was unclear on the website as to whether each room had one or it was a common bathroom. We had our own shower, but there was one common toilet for all nine rooms of the "hotel."
After a solid two and a half hours of beer and cards we hit the town. By hit the town I mean wandered around trying to find Belgian cuisine that doesn't exist. There is either seafood or fried food. We settled for fried.
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| Grand Palace at night. |
The days in Brussels weren't terribly eventful. We walked around the EU, hung out in a park and drank some sparkling hard apple cider at 11AM after struggling with the cap and then an unexpected cork. But nonetheless the day was exhausting and we returned for our nap, cards, and beer (4 bottles the second night.) Wandering the city for food again, Matt points to a kebab place, and I was trying to avoid those, but I give it a shot and man, oh man.
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| Our new favorite place |
We both got pita sandwiches, mine with "sweet sauce." It was so good I got another.
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| nom nom. |
Day two, we got up early (10am) and headed outside of Brussels to see the Atomium and Mini-EU (a miniature Europe with miniature monuments and sights, or is it sites?). Sadly Mini-EU was closed, so we just walked around the Atomium for a bit (Belgium brags as its the most visited site in Europe).
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| Scale model of an Iron atom. |
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Rinse and repeat, get beer, take a nap, drink beer, get pita sandwiches.
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| Go Beer! |
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Flying out was a little stressful as the bus to get us back to Charleroi airport was 20 minutes late, but checking in and going through security was a breeze. I was pulled aside for a pat down and the security man asked me something in French, I looked at him puzzled and he switched to English, "May I check you?" I said yes, and I was treated to a 15 second massage. It was great. And I am not afraid to admit it.
This wasn't a typical visit to any city. We didn't do any research (did it show?) and we just had a good time.
