Ghent and Bruges

Another weekend and another trip!! This time to our neighboring country, Belgium, which to be honest just really wants to be the Netherlands. Don't tell anyone Belgian I said that, of course. The weekend was arranged by my American program, CIEE, and was only overnight, at maximum four hours by car from center city Amsterdam. But, it was a lovely, lovely trip with so much to do and to see. We spent the first day in Bruges, a tiny city with a medieval castle, a 400 year old bar, a meat market with cured hanging hams, a beautiful cathedral, and the most romantic looking weeping willows trees. We ate a meal at a hilarious restaurant, where we drank with the bus driver and had unlimited veggie burger platters. This was a very strange thing to have unlimited, in my opinion. For the night we went out on the town, finally ending up in an empty bar, which we took over as our own American student bar (we rarely do this) and danced until very, very late.

As a result we woke up very, very tired in our little hostel, so appreciative of the free breakfast (and unlimited coffee!!). Everyone got back on the bus and we took a short drive to the city of Ghent, which was quite a bit larger but just as charming as Bruges. The bus ride was just long enough to take care of our tradition of making ridiculous puns about the places we visit. For example, from my roommate Kristen, "We are looking for Ghent-lemen." Or, from my friend Drew, "You are just cruising for a Bruges-ing." When we arrived, we had two back to back tours, one of chocolate-related sites and one of a brewery. The chocolate tour told us that there are 51 chocolate shops in Ghent- which is so many considering that it is a very small city!! There was one chocolate shop at least for everyone on my program! I tried a Belgian waffle and some chocolates, but they were actually a bit too gourmet for my taste. Some were fried onion flavored or wasabi flavored. Yikes! I came home not wanting any more chocolate for a while, but of course that soon went away!!

Recovering from trips is the best and the worst. Of course, I have just seen something incredible and am refreshed for the coming week, but also there is so much to take care of and so many people to catch up with. Which is why I spent last weekend, my birthday weekend, in Amsterdam. On Friday we made a small party at my friend Alberto's house, and they baked me a spice cake which was very delicious. We never made it out out, but that was good because the next night I attended the Amsterdam Dance Event at a club called Panama. We stayed from eleven until five in the morning dancing to the different sets from all of the DJs. There were light shows and air guns and it was just ridiculous, but I had a very good time. I LOVED all of the birthday cards and boxes from the States. It felt so, so good to receive something I knew had been found in a familiar shop and packaged by familiar hands. And, now I am twenty. Which means not much except that I am no longer a teenager. I guess I have to stop being so childish! Ja ja ja. That is how Spanish people type laughter (see the next blog post).

PS- for anyone who is disoriented with my blogging progress- I am as well. And I apologize, but I figure getting it down is the important thing, not so much consistency or chronology.

Sending lots of love. Julie