Weekend #1: Brussels and Bruges

This past weekend I traveled with 8 other GTL-ers to Brussels and Bruges in Belgium.  I packed most of my stuff the night before because I knew we would have to be up at the butt-crack of dawn the next day.  I packed my smaller backpack, but I think on my next weekend trip I will probably take the larger one just so I have plenty of room for everything.  I was definitely stuffing my Northface to its breaking point on the return trip.


We caught an early train out of Metz to Luxembourg and then caught another train to Brussels-Midi, but we ended up getting off early at the Brussels-Centrale stop because more of the things we wanted to do were closer to that station.  Once we were off the train, we spent awhile getting oriented before making it to the Comic Strip Museum.  We were dying of hunger and thirst by then, so we ate at the restaurant there.  I had a "gaufre sucre" (waffle with sugar).  It was decent, but not the best food I've had so far.  After that we ran into the other half of the group that traveled to Brussels and visited the cathedral together.  James, Ethan, and I decided that we wanted to find Delirium, a bar that was highly suggested by others.  We hadn't been able to locate it all day, but Ethan and I wandered off into an indoor shopping area and stumbled upon some cool alleys and eventually randomly found Delirium.  So, we hurried back and brought James and we all settled down for 3 rounds of beer.  The bar was underground, so it was nice and dark and cool down there and the 3 of us had a good time just chilling out for a few hours.  After that we wandered around Brussels some more and ended up in the park in front of the cathedral and laid down for a sunbath.  James and I dozed off for a bit, haha.  After visiting another park, we were starting to get hungry and we decided to try Belgium's famous fries.  They were good, but nothing mind-blowing.  The fries came in a paper cone and you could choose a sauce (ketchup and mayo seemed to be the most popular).  They also gave you a tiny plastic fork to eat the fries from the cone while you were walking.  It was basically a to-go cup for fries.  Before heading back to the train station, we bought some famous Belgian chocolate so we could say that we had tried all the famous foods and drinks (aka beer).


The next train we caught was to Bruges, a romantic medieval little town near the coast.  The train ride to Bruges was fairly entertaining mostly due to the insane man that was sitting across the aisle from our group.  Unfortunately, Ethan had to sit across from him for at least 30-45 minutes of the journey.  This man would mumble to the air while making violent hand gestures and then he would slump forward and fall asleep and then wake up and take a swig from his soda and start the process all over again.  He didn't seem to be very threatening, so I wasn't worried...just amused.


Once we were in Bruges, we used our Use-it map to navigate to the hostel, Charlie Rockets.  Our hostel used to be a movie theater, but now it is a bar with a hostel above.  It was an interesting place and definitely not one of the shittier hostels.  It was a little sketchy because I was in a room with some random people, but nothing bad happened.  I stayed at the hostel and had a drink or two with some of the guys before taking a shower and heading to bed.  Sleeping was hard that night because people in our room would come in at all hours and the room got very hot during the night so I would wake up periodically.


James, Ethan, and I started the next day by climbing the 366 steps to the top of the Bellfry.  There was a great panorama (as they say here) from the top and definitely worth the effort of the climb.  Once we were back on the ground, we sat and listened to a large band rehearse in the middle of Markt Square and they played one of my favorite Mika songs, "Grace Kelly."  We walked over to a canal and saw the lace map of Bruges (lace is famous here and sold in many shops for way too much money).  The canal was very pretty, but filled with boats of tourists.  We checked out the Gruuthuse and the neighboring Church of Our Lady, which housed Michelangelo's "Madonna with child" before getting some lunch.  I had a kid's spaghetti with bolognese sauce and I couldn't finish it because it was so much food.  Nevertheless, we stopped by an ice cream shop shortly after lunch and had some of the best ice cream I've ever had in my life!  We found a cool park to chill out in and the boys had a lot of fun on this spinning merry-go-round type of playground equipment.  Since it was still early in the afternoon, we decided to rent bicycles and try to bike out to the beach to chill out.  We biked for an hour and a half and never saw the ocean, so we had to turn around so we wouldn't be late to turn in our bikes.  I had a lot of fun doing this, but my ass is still sore from the bike seat.  We had dinner at Nicky's Bed & Breakfast.  Soup, salad, and a main dish for 9.35!  It was a good deal for dinner and very good/satisfying.  We visited an underground bar later that night and had a few drinks before hitting up the Irish pub.  We made our way back to the hostel, I showered and went to bed.  I slept really well that night :)


The next morning we checked out the exhibit underneath the Crowne Plaza hotel.  The foundations of Sint-Donaas church are built in with the foundations of the hotel and there is an entire exhibit in the basement dedicated to the excavation of this church.  Our map suggested a game of hide and seek be played in the ruins, haha!  We walked around some more before grabbing some awesome crepes and ice cream yet again. We checked out a few more parks and some other smaller sights from our Use-it map before heading to the train station to catch our train to Brussels-Nord.  We made it back to Metz without any troubles and took a taxi back to Lafayette because the buses weren't running anymore.


Click here for pictures from this trip!


-JChamp

Packing, Cleaning, and Stress!

Right now I'm taking a break from my packing and cleaning routine.  I've been at it pretty much all day, ahhh!  I consider myself a pretty awesome packer from years of trips with the Charlotte Children's Choir, but I have never had to pack for a period of time this long (4 months!).  I'm sure I'm going to forget something or pack too much of one thing or too little of another.  I plan on checking 2 bags, a large suitcase and a backpacking backpack, and taking a small duffel as my carry-on.  That way I can pull the suitcase, carry the backpack on my back, and put the duffel across my body and shoulders when walking within airports and train stations.

I'm a little nervous about getting to the right train and making it all the way to Metz.  I also thought I would be able to make it to the check-in office on campus before it closed on Wednesday, but upon second glance it looks like I might have to get a hotel room.  That's fine, I guess, but I would rather not spend the money.  I land in Brussels around 9:30 AM and then have to take a train from the airport to the main train station where I can take a train to Metz.  The issue is that the train from Brussels to Metz only runs 3 times per day (7AM, 1 PM, and 5 PM).  So I will have to catch the 1 PM train, which puts me in Metz right before 5 PM.  I then have to take a taxi to campus, which should only take a few minutes, but I'm not exactly sure how long.  The housing check-in office closes at 5:30 PM.  So, I'm definitely cutting it close....we shall see what happens.  Adventure!

Metz is tucked into the Northeast corner of France.  Here are some pics of exactly where I'm going:

Metz, France - GTL is located in the Technopole Metz 2000 

GTL

That's all for tonight.  More packing and cleaning to do!!!  I depart from Charlotte Douglas at 11:51 AM on Tueday and have a connection at JFK that leaves at 7:15 PM.  Hopefully my bad luck with missing connecting flights doesn't strike!

-JChamp

Last ATL road trip :(

This weekend was my last time in Atlanta until December!  So depressing!  I'm going to miss so many people, but I know I will make lots of new friends this semester...hopefully :)  I had a great weekend catching up with friends and saying my goodbyes.  There will be lots of Skype dates throughout the semester, I'm sure.  Here are some pics from the weekend:

Keaton and me at Bone Garden Cantina

Katherine and me at Unplugged in the Park

Rugby girls at Ru Sans

I'm getting a bit stressed/nervous about everything I need to finish before I leave the country a week from today! Ahhhhh!  I'm afraid I'm forgetting something big and the authorities won't let me leave the US and I'll be screwed.  I've been really organized this summer and have tried to get everything finished early (like my visa).  The GTL advisor, Catherine Bass, told me that I was the first person to go and get mine.  Woo, over-achieving! I'm also a little worried about having enough money for the semester.  I waitressed all summer, babysat almost every week, and house-sat at least twice a month.  I've saved up a lot, but I still need to make some purchases before I actually get out of the US (like my textbooks, my extra checked luggage, and a new comfortable pair of shoes).  I will make it work.  I always do, somehow!

It's really late and I need to be up kinda early to babysit, but I just wanted to get this blog going before I leave.

So excited!!!

-JChamp