La Belgique

With this weekend coming to a close I've officially finished all of my travels outside of Ireland! It's so sad that I won't have anymore adventures outside of the homeland, but I'm also glad to have some time to rest and recharge. Tomorrow also marks just two weeks left in Ireland, which is mind-blowing! It feels like I haven't been here that long... where did the time go? I'm going to try to make the most of my time left here.

This week was my last week of classes! This also meant it was the end of a lot of the activities for societies and clubs. On Monday, I had classes as normal and went to my Pilates class :) Tuesday was pretty busy! I went to my last Criminology class of the semester in the morning, and then I went to a holiday-themed Café Croissant with French Society. As it was the last one of the semester, French Soc went all out and brought so many treats and snacks! I was full enough to make it to Film and Trampoline later that night with only one other small snack during the day. Film Society showed Home Alone for their last movie night, and then we had our last Trampoline practice! It was a lot of fun, but it's also really sad that it's over.

On Wednesday, I had my final for my Ireland Uncovered class. Once that was over, I packed and got ready for my trip to Belgium as quickly as possible! Me and my friend Makenna had an early flight on Thursday (at 6:30), so we had to leave our apartments at 3 am! I didn't get a lot of sleep that night, but it was easy to sleep on the 2-hour plane ride to Brussels. Once we arrived, we set straight out to explore! I immediately fell in love with the city.

In Brussels, the first language they'll speak to you is in French, but most people can converse in at least three languages, if not four or five. Because of Belgium's location between France, the Netherlands, and Germany, its official languages are French and Flemish (a dialect of Dutch), but most people speak German and almost everyone speaks English as well. I also heard one lady speaking in Spanish while I was there... it's so impressive how multilingual Europeans are!! It was also wonderful to see how multicultural Belgium was, while still being distinctly Belgian. Anyway, here are some pictures from the first day of us exploring Brussels, along with captions.

The first things we did were get French (Belgian french, though) fries and waffles! We ate both of these right in a row after each other and it was the best way to start off our trip!!

We visited Galeries Royale Saint-Hubert, which was a beautiful shopping mall/centre filled with stores of all kinds- from chocolatiers to clothes stores (pictured above). Actually, the Belgian chocolate praline here (and we certainly had lots of those while here!). Our favorite store was Akaso, a fashion store with a very interesting background (I've added the link so you can read more if you're interested). We wandered in because the clothes looked really beautiful, and the owner and founder (who happened to be in the store) told us all about the concept! He founded Akaso by using the designs of the Kara tribe in Ethiopia. The Kara tribe is well-known for its famous and beautiful body paint designs, so the owner brought world-famous designers to Ethiopia to help them collaborate with the body painters of the tribe. What resulted was an eco-friendly clothing line that uses durable but well-made materials, "respects the women's body," and gives the Kara designers a respectable income. We were blown away by the story and the man's willingness to explain everything to us. He was so friendly, and it seemed like an incredible brand. If (hopefully when) I could afford to support him, I'd love to do so! Anyway, back to the rest of the day...

We saw Manneken Pis (the peeing boy statue pictured below). He's an icon in Brussels, even though I couldn't tell you why. All of the souvenirs we saw throughout Brussels (and even in Ghent!) had him on it. He's a character. We also did a beer tasting!! Belgium is famous for their many national brews (apparently there are over 180 breweries in the country and over 1600 different types). That's pretty impressive when you consider that Belgium is slightly smaller than the state of Maryland. During our beer tasting, we tried 28 different brews! Apparently, I do like beer.

Above and below is the Grand Place! It was absolutely beautiful, especially when it was lit up at night. The architecture of the buildings were just astounding. A lot of the buildings that we saw in Belgium had so much detail, it was incredible! The building below is the Town Hall. The more gothic and darker building in the left of the picture above is the Maison du Roi.

There were lights all over the city of Brussels and even in Ghent as well! Here is the "La Bourse de Bruxelles" lit up at night and pictured during the day time, with the bottom picture showing the town hall in the background. Again, the architecture was just so incredible. In Brussels, the entire area around the Bourse and the Grand Place was surrounded in little market stalls. You can see a few in the picture below. At night, these all opened up, the lights turned on, and the place became very lively! There were food stalls, stalls selling solely alcohol, jewelry stalls, clothing stalls, antique stalls, and even a Harry Potter stall! The Christmas market was just so cute and it was fun walking around here at night.

Below is Église Sainte Catherine, a beautiful church that we passed by on every journey that we had. I had to snap a picture of it before the end of the day.

We had mostly done sightseeing all day on Thursday, with the interlude of the beer tasting in the middle of the day. It snowed during the day, making Brussels the perfect little winter wonderland! Unfortunately it made our feet super wet so we headed back to the hostel shortly after we finished sightseeing. We checked into our hostel (which was more like a hotel!) and refreshed before we went out to dinner. After dinner, we walked around and traversed the Christmas markets some more, and had a couple of beers at some bars downtown. We went back to the hostel and ate some nachos at the bar in the hostel- they hit the spot!

However we went to bed fairly early on Thursday night, because we had been awake so early that morning. We slept in a little on Friday morning, and upon waking up we set off for Ghent. Ghent was about a 40 minute train ride outside of Brussels, and it was one of the cities recommended to me by my friend from UMD, Charlotte. We are so glad that we took a little trip to Ghent!! It was beautiful! The architecture, the bridges, the water, and the little shops and alleyways made it a wonderful get-away from the busier Brussels. Here are some pictures and captions from Ghent:

Here's a picture of me in the heart of things in Ghent. All of the beautiful sights to see in Ghent were within a few blocks of each other, which made it really easy to see and to fall in love with! I'm so glad we went here for the day! Visible is the Belfry and the Cathedral of St. Bavon, also displayed in the picture on the left below. Another tidbit about Belgium is that it is well-known for its comics. Throughout Brussels and in Ghent as well, we saw lots of street art dedicated to comics. It made the streets so lively and fun! Here's one of my favorites from Ghent.

Up top you have that beautiful view of the old city centre of Ghent. The building in the left part of the picture is St. Nicholas' Church. Below you can see one of the lovely bridges crossing over the river in Ghent, the . It was so beautiful to walk alongside the river, a perfect place for a snack... like waffles!

Another one of the bridges and some more views from Ghent. It was a picturesque and friendly little city!

Above is the Gravensteen Castle. It was built in 1180 by Count Philip of Alsace, and was restored in the late 1800s. It had historically been used as the seat of the Counts of Flanders, and it was so cool to be in the midst of such an old and impressive building! Below is just another beautiful view we found on the streets of Ghent.

In Ghent, and throughout most of our stay in Belgium, we did a lot of wandering around. We didn't have a specific game plan of things we had to do, but I think it worked out way better this way. Although there were some things we had wanted to see, the best way to get the feel of a city is often just to get lost in it, and that's what we did both in Brussels and in Ghent. In doing so, I feel like we really got a lovely picture of just how amazing Belgium was. I loved that we weren't stressed about doing a certain amount of things, and overall, it was a really amazing plan- to have no plan. I think we actually got to see more that way.

After returning from Ghent, we went back to the hostel to take a bit of a rest and to find a good place for dinner. We settled on a ramen restaurant. Look at how beautiful my tofu ramen was!! It was so delicious. We sat and chatted there for a while. When we left, we happened to pass by a pâtisserie that was closing... this means that they let us get delicious pastries for cheap- it was only €1 for this amazing mille-feuille!!!

I absolutely LOVED Belgium. It was probably one of my top two trips, if not my favorite (I hate picking favorites haha). I loved that they spoke French and had many aspects of French culture, but easily switched into English or another language if that was easier for you. I heard one of my favorite French songs on the radio and I got so excited!! I also was not as embarrassed as I would've been speaking French in France, where the people are sometimes not as forgiving. We had so many lengthy conversations with the people we meet, all of whom were very friendly, nice, and interested in hearing about why we were in Belgium.

The food was just indescribably good. I ate my weight in waffles, and they were SO TASTY. If you know me, you know I'm not a breakfast food fan at all, but the waffles there were beyond incredible. The fries (literally the birthplace of French fries) were just as delicious and we ate them with mayo, just as we did in Amsterdam. And all of the chocolate stores and bakeries we went into (an innumerable amount) offered us free samples. I ate so many different types of Belgian chocolate without ever having to buy some for myself. It was wonderful... the chocolate was WAY better than I had imagined (they don't exaggerate about their chocolate). Finally, all of the meals I had there were so yummy, and I had food from Italian, Japanese, and Mexican cuisines; Belgium, you've mastered the art of food (and the way to my heart)!

I am so glad that I went to Belgium (and glad that I convinced my friend Makenna to join me). I wasn't sure if I would get a chance to go, but I am more than happy that I was able to make it work. I'd love to go back in the future and see even more of the country (and eat even more of their food). Here's one last picture from my flight back to Ireland... the views of the clouds were unbelievable.

With that comes the end of my travels outside of Ireland! I'm hoping to do a few smaller trips around the countryside within the next two weeks. I also have exams and papers to be studying for/writing, so we'll see how much free time I have. Thanks for reading and I'll write again next week :)