In Brugges - Belgian waffles and fries with meat sauce

Oh no, it's been a few days. Sorry. But don't worry. I'm still alive, I haven't sustained any injuries or gotten in trouble with the law or been robbed or anything. Right now I am in Brussels, Belgium. I'm so glad we spent the couple days we did in Belgium cause I almost just skipped over this eccentric little country. But it has a lot of character and it was fun to visit.

First things first, last Friday Jenny and I toured Potsdam, basically an old royal estate with a palace and gardens just outside of Berlin. It was drizzling the whole day and made for an absolutely enchanting stroll through the gardens. Lovely. Then that night we decided to try out the whole night train thing, which was quite unenjoyable. Eight hours of sitting in a very cramped compartent (just like those little train room things in Harry Potter) with 5 other snoring people with dirty sleep-breath was not very fun. I was so glad to get out at Brussels. We went from Brussels, straight to Brugges (another hour on the train), and then proceeded to walk across the entire city, with backpacks, enquiring at every hostel, only to discover that EVERYTHING was booked for Saturday night. We then took the train back to Brussels, walked several blocks to find an internet cafe, and after an hour of searching, the best thing we could find was a hotel room in Tournai which was about an hour train ride southwest, almost in France. We did get a hostel for Sunday and Monday night (there must have just been a lot of people traveling over Easter weekend). We also met up with Janie (who had spent the previous week visitnig family in Holland) and so now our group is made of three--Danielle, Jenny, and Janie.

Brussels, however, was not what I expected. It acutally reminded me a lot of San Francisco--a very old and dirty San Francisco. I actually met an ex-Marine at our hostel here from San Fran, and he said the same thing. He told Janie he liked Brussels more than Berlin cause Berlin was too perfect and pretty, but Brussels felt more real, more alive. It is ugly, but it is eccentric and crazy and charming in its own way. One of the most challenging parts of being in Belgium is that most things are printed in 2 or 3 languages, none of them English. The main languages here are Dutch and French, but there is also a lot of West-Flemish (in Brugges), some German, and some English. At least in Germany, Jenny and I knew ebough to communicate the basics and kind of know what was going on. Here we are pretty lost unless the local knows English. Thankfully, Janie knows some Dutch, so that has been helpful. Yesterday we wandered around Brussels for most of the day and then ventured out again in the rain later in the evening in search of supper. We ended up at a hole in the wall place ran by an older couple that made us the most amazing gyros and fries. After we came in the place filled up with locals, and we allowed ourselves a little satisfaction at not simply eating at some tourist trap place.

Brugges, which we spent today in, was so amazing. The most beautiful city I've ever been in. The entire city is cobblestone and narrow winding streets with daffodil gardens and horse drawn carriages and street vendors and canals (called the Venice of Belgium). We had pancakes and cider for a late lunch in an old pancake house that reminded me of the cottage from Snow White. Pancakes here are huge and thin, cooked on a large griddle and filled with many different things. Janie had a plain one with orange jam, I ordered the 'Josselin' which was cooked with bananas inside and covered with a hot chocolate sauce, and Jenny got onewrapped around ham, lots of cheese, and an egg. Delicious. We also indulged on some Belgian waffles--pretty much the most amazing thing we've ever had. And let me tell you, we ruin these in the states. Here, you simply order Belgian waffles from a street vendor and eat one plain. They have sugar baked into them and are incredibly delicious. You don't ruin them with sauce or syrup or whatever. I also tried fries from a recommended french fry vendor. Here they put the fries in a bowl or tray and pour a sauce over the top and give you a fork to eat them with. I asked what sauce the vendor recommended, and he said the meat sauce was quite good, so I went for it. It ended up tasting like my mom's beef stew poured over fries, and was so good. I will definitely try to replicate that back in the States. We also saw someone actually making lace in a lace shop in Brugges. Belgium is famous for their lace but doesn't really make it anymore cause it's done cheaper in Asia now, but some few artists keep up the trade. It was unreal how complex making the lace by hand must be. So cool.

Tomorrow we go to Prague in the Czech Republic, which will be quite a long train ride, but we hear Prague is lovely and it will be neat to visit another country. After Prague is back to Germany for Munich and Fussen, then on to Venice.