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The land of chocolate and beer

Sunday, June 18th, 2006

Belgium has turned out to be a lot of fun. Staying at a great hostel (centre van gogh) and its full of really cool people and nice atmosphere. First night spent it with an american and an english girls, had a very nice evening with lots of chocolate and some crazy types of beer. After 4 days here Ive now had honey beer, raspberry beer, cherry beer, beer made by monks, 12% beer, Lambic beer, organic beer….there is a lot of beer here. Went to a proper Belgium beer bar last night which had about 100 different sorts.

Also theres lots of chocolate, like lots of chocolate. You can buy cheaper good chocolate from the supermarket and also went to some really expensive place where they invented chocolate or something and brought a whole 2 truffles…so good but so expensive.

Brussels is a pretty small city, spent a day with an English chick and we had waffles, went to a brewery and checked out the centre, which is pretty cool, lots of beautiful buildings and lots of chocolate shops. Also went out to look at this crazy thing that was built in the 1950s like a big atom, all shiney and space aged, very weird. Had a good couple nights out, not getting much sleep but thats what its about.

‘Doing’ Brussels only takes an afternoon so today I caught a train to a town called Brugges, very pretty, very belgiumish. Went to the chocolate museum, had lunch, sat by the river, lovely day.

Last night tonight here then off to Paris, and good news is I found a job, so am nannying for a french/NZ couple down in the south of france for July, theyre really great, really relaxed and I can stay with them. So thats good to have that out of the way and will head down there next week.

So summer here is looking good then will do the big Europe trip which after hearing everyones stories am def. looking foward to.

Great, hope you are keeping warm at home sounds like its freezing.

 

 

Posted in h.Belgium | 2 Comments »

Sleeping in hotel foyers

Friday, June 16th, 2006

Ive finally arrived in Belgium after a very long journey here. Pretty much just hung out in Tours for the last day then caught the last train to Paris that evening; becuase my bus to Brussels was a 6am the next day I didnt think there was much point in getting a hostel room so plannes to just wait in the bus staion cause theres always security guards and people around…..so I arrived in Paris about midnight, got the last metro over to the bus station….which they closed….hmmm wasnt expecting this. So its about 1 am, its pouring with rain and Im standing on the street in some industril type area in Paris with the metro shut, wasnt exactly the plan.

 So for the first time in awhile I really have no idea what to do, I couldnt just sit on the road with my big bag, there were hotels around but all about 80 euros a night, not so good. I figured at lease I could put my bag somewhere then people maybe wouldnt want to rob me so much so I went to the hotel that was right there and looked very sad and asked if I could leave my bag there, and maybe just wait in the lobby, or I could sit outside the doors and could he just make sure I didnt get attacked…what could he say? He kind of just was like you cant really do that but go to the forst floor and put your bag in a locker, and theres some seats there. So upsatirs in this flash hotel I ,put my bags in the locker and found a chair to wait out the night in. A few security people came passed but ignored me which was good, even managed to get a bit of sleep! at about ‘am a while bunch of australians came back form town who I ended up talking to, they were on a contiki tour ans they confirmed all my stereotypes of those tours! basically they spend 2 days in each country for a month, get drunk every night and all sleep with each other. It was pretty interesting! So had a good few hours chatting to these crazy drunken guys before slipping out the front doors just before 6 and going down to catch my bus. So I survived the night! the drunk people even gave me money cause they were drunk and thought I was homeless or something…good for me!

Slept all the way to Brussels only a 3 hour bus ride, good weather is gone, its grey and rainy. Brussels is a strange city, its kind of small, not much to do, very odd. Staying in a nice hostel thuogh and have meet some cool people. Last night we went and brought chocolate and different types of belgium beer, theres so many raspberry, cherry… because thats what you do in Belgium, and today we are off to find Belgium waffles! Here for another 3 nights and will prbably take some day trips around the country, every thing is only about an hour away at most cause this country is so small. Very strange but should be fun and will eat lots of chocolate!

Posted in h.Belgium | 2 Comments »