A couple weeks ago now I embarked on my first official solo trip in Europe. Although I have done the "getting there" part of traveling alone countless times, I've always had someone I was meeting in any given destination. I had been hearing amazing things about Belgium throughout the past few months, so after my friend, Lindsay, and I made plans to meet in Amsterdam on Friday, May 16th, I realized that if I was going all that way, I might as well tack on a quick trip to Belgium.
Since Brussels is only about a 2 hour train ride away from Amsterdam, and I found I very cheap flight for Wednesday night, the 14th, I decided to go for it! I found a day trip that went to the two cities I'd been wanting to visit even more than Brussels--Bruges and Ghent. I figured that, since I was traveling alone, it would be all together less stressful and more fun to go with a tour group.
So, after meticulously planning out every detail and printing out every piece of information/tickets I could possibly need, I left on Wednesday night on a direct Ryanair flight from Sevilla to Brussels. While in the air, I realized it was most likely my last Ryanair flight. I felt pretty accomplished. For those of you who don't know about Ryanair, it's an extremely low budget European airline. I started writing a blog post all about Ryanair that I will be posting within the next week. The title is in the works, but I think it's going to go something like "Thank you, Ryanair: A love/hate letter to the study abroad student's favorite airline."
I got to my hotel in Brussels a bit after 11pm on Wednesday night, so I went right to sleep in preparation for my day trip that started at 8:30 the next morning. Turns out, I made an excellent decision to go with a tour group instead of completely by myself. On the bus on the way to our first stop, Ghent, I met two Canadian girls who are my age named Taylor and Kiera. We ended up spending the whole day together and meeting the next day for breakfast. Lindsay and I even met up with them a few days later in Amsterdam, since that was their next stop, too!
Our first sight in Ghent was to Saint Bavo's Cathedral.
After fueling up with some tea with Taylor and Kiera, we joined the rest of the tour group for a walking tour through the city center. I was very impressed by our tour guide, who led our 60 person group in four different languages: English, Spanish, French, and Dutch. French and Dutch are the two primary languages spoken in Belgium--French in the South and Dutch in the North, where we were. In Brussels everything is totally bilingual, but in my observations it seemed a bit heavier on the French side.
After we finished seeing the beautiful architecture (including the castle above-wow!) that Ghent had to offer, we got back on the bus to head up to Bruges. I had heard several people rave about Bruges, so I have to be honest, I had pretty high expectations. My expectations were surpassed! It, along with Ghent, was one of the most unique places I've ever seen. The Flemish architecture is just so different than everything I've seen so far in Europe. I was so happy with my decision to tack on a trip to Belgium, and to make a day trip to Ghent and Bruges a part of it.
When we got to Bruges, we had some free time for lunch. Taylor, Kiera, and I had some soup and salad at a cafe and then did a little shopping before meeting our group for a canal boat cruise. Bruges has canals going through every corner you pass, so it was a wonderful way to see the city.
Our tour then headed to Our Lady's Church, where we saw on of Michelangelo's only works outside of Italy, the Madonna and Child.
The rest of our time in Bruges consisted of lots of walking around, shopping, and checking out various chocolate shops. Belgian chocolate is pretty famous around the world, and, I must say, the real thing did NOT disappoint! I got a small box for myself and a larger box to take home to my host family, especially since my two new roommates who are here for a 4 week summer program were going to be there when I got back! (More on them in a future post, but we are getting along very well and are taking a little day excursion down to Cádiz tomorrow!)
After a 2.5ish hour bus ride back to my hotel in Brussels, I got ready for one of the experiences I was weirdly looking forward to: going out to a sit down dinner by myself. Seems like something a person (especially a people person like me) wouldn't exactly look forward to, but for me it was the ultimate experience of realizing how far I have come throughout the past year.
This year has been invaluable in terms of personal growth. Obviously my passion for the Spanish language and Hispanic cultures has been able to grow tremendously, but the biggest gain I will leave this whole experience with is greater independence, confidence, and overall fulfillment as a person. And for some reason, going out to a nice dinner by myself and enjoying it was something that made me realize how much I've grown. So, I put on some bright red lipstick, freshened up my curls, and went to a restaurant I found on Lonely Planet after doing a bit of a self-guided walking tour throughout the city center.
I enjoyed some Belgian Leffe beer and the local specialty of beef stew with fries. I thought it was going to be a bit too heavy for me, but it was actually amazing and flavorful. The waiters kept me company throughout lots of the meal, and the rest of the time was mostly occupied with people watching from the window and thinking. The waiters were intrigued why such a young girl was all alone at a sit down dinner. I explained to them that I was meeting my friend the next day and decided to tack on a trip to their beautiful country. I think they liked my answer (or just me?), because they asked to take pictures with me.
Thumbs up to an awesome dinner in Brussels!
The restaurant had a whole window filled with beautiful pies, so I decided to get one to go (since I was stuffed) and enjoy it in my fluffy hotel bed! I got a great night's sleep and checked out of my hotel in the morning before taking my stuff to meet my new Canadian friends at a waffle place I had read about online. I got a Leige waffle with cherries and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It was amazing, and made me wish I had one more morning in Belgium! I am insanely lucky to have gotten to try it at all, though, and to have had the opportunity to casually go to Belgium for 36 hours.
And thus ended my time in Belgium! I boarded a 2 hour train to Amsterdam and arrived at the airport just in time to meet my friend Lindsay. We had an excellent four(ish) days in Amsterdam that I will be writing about later today! Slowly, slowly catching up.
<3 A
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