Four Cities, Two Days

If I were to ask you, "What do you associate with Belgium?" I think it's safe to assume that your response would include waffles and chocolate at some point. That was all I really knew about the country when we booked our $40 roundtrip from Copenhagen to Charleroi (an hour south of Brussels) for February 4th. The flight that we booked was with Ryanair. For those of you that have never flown with Ryanair - it's an experience to say the least. For the first time in my life I had to go outside to board the plane via a detachable staircase. The efficiency of the airlines however is astounding. The previous flight landed about 20 minutes prior to us taking off. So in that 20 minute period the incoming passengers were unloaded along with their baggage, the plane was fueled, and all outbound passengers were boarded. The flight was relatively quick, although Marnie and I were not seated next to each other. I was surrounded on all sides by happy couples that insisted on making me feel uncomfortable with their excessive amounts of affection. When we landed in Belgium, we were incredibly bitter because we didn't receive a stamp in our passport. We then made our way to the shuttle that would take us into Brussels center. As I said previously, I didn't have a great deal of knowledge about Belgium prior to coming, and it was made clear to me that it isn't exactly the safest place. There were numerous men in uniform walking around with rifles which was very alarming to me. Currently there are many middle eastern refugees that are fleeing to northern Europe which has in turn raised the level of security.

When we finally got into the city center from the shuttle we hailed a taxi to get to our hostel - Brussels isn't somewhere that you want to be wandering around at midnight. That night was our very first hostel experience, in the Meininger - Brussels, and it was not a good one. When we walked into our room, a shared 6 person dorm, we were greeted with a surplus of snoring. Marnie kept shushing the snoring man located on the top of her bunk, which greatly amused me. I quickly noted that earplugs were an essential for hostels that I so conveniently forgot. After a night of sleep, interrupted multiple times by our favorite dorm mate, we rose early in the morning to begin our exploration of Brussels. The city reminded me of a less populated NYC, with older architecture. Our first stop was at The Grand Place, home to gothic 17th century buildings. Numerous pictures were taken before proceeding to the next tourist attraction - Manneken Pis, also known as "The Peeing Boy".

Prior to seeing the statue, it intrigued me. Now that I've seen it, I can't help but wonder why it's famous? We had purchased waffles from the shop located next to the boy and the gummy that we received on top of our waffles of the peeing boy might have been bigger than the actual peeing boy. The waffles however lived up to my expectations - and then some.

My waffle was coated in Nutella, kiwi, strawberries, and whipped cream. The only negative thing I have to say about the waffles were the utensils given to us to eat them. Trying to consume a waffle with a minuscule, 2 pronged fork proved to be a colossal test of patience.

Our exploration in Brussels quickly came to a close as we made our way to Central Station to purchase a train ticket to Brugge. We bought a Go 10 rail pass for 50 Euros, which allowed us to split a total of 10 train trips. We hopped on the train and traveled to the magnificent Brugge. Immediately when I stepped off the train I fell in love with the city. A medieval - fairytale city is the best way I can describe it. Cobblestone streets and romantic canals are intertwined throughout. It is absolutely breathtaking. Our first expedition led us to a park- the home of our new favorite trees. We call them Jew trees, and I'm sure you can see why.

After exploring the park, we came across quite a sight - an asian lady with a fur hat and sky high heels. She was quite the fashionista, and I was lucky enough to capture the moment with immense secrecy. 

After exiting the park we found ourselves in a very quaint section of Brugge. We noticed a sign that informed visitors that pictures and talking was forbidden. Naturally this encouraged us to do both of these things. The community that we entered, Beguinage, is a section of Brugge that now serves as a Benedictine covenant. 

In the 16th century however, Beguines resided here. Beguines, simply put, are nuns that don't take any formal vows or oaths. It was refreshing to have the peace and harmony of the countryside in the heart of a city. Following our exit, we noticed a plethora of swans in the canal that ran perpendicular to the streets. I even witnessed the heart that two swans create with their necks!

After the swans, we followed the tall buildings that tower over the residential ones, which led us to the Markt. No matter the direction I looked I saw absolutely stunning architecture, a common theme in Belgium. The Markt consists of Belfort Tower, the Historium (a medieval history museum), and a colorful row of buildings that resemble a rainbow. 

After entering the medieval museum and deciding we didn't have enough time, we went and climbed Belfort Tower. The journey to the top was laborious due to the treacherous, and narrow spiral stone staircase. Three hundred and sixty six steps later we arrived at the top, and were welcomed with a chorus of bells, as if to congratulate our quest. The views from the tower were breathtaking. 

We were then ravenous after our trek, therefor a pit stop at Ellis Gourmet Burger was vital to refuel. The restaurant's free wifi helped us route the rest of our journey and following paying our checks, we decided to walk to the edge of Brugge to see the windmills. As we were on our way to the windmills, splashing noises from the river caught Marnie's attention. She quickly questioned, and I quote - "What kind of f**king duck is that?". Upon further investigation we realized it was not a duck at all. It was a bird that had strayed from his normal path and was drowning. Marnie being the humanitarian that she is, ran to the edge of the river, waited for the bird to come within reach and scooped him out of the water, and in the process almost fell in herself.

As she put him down on the grass she realized the bird was shaking from the cold water. Naturally, this inspired Marnie to so charitably wrap the bird in her hat and carry it around until the shaking ceased. Safe to say we received some incredibly strange looks from bystanders.

Marnie carried the bird around, as shown, for about 30 minutes before she hesitantly returned the bird to the grass. She did this only after pleading with me to smuggle the bird back to Denmark. Once I finally separated the two, brought together by destiny apparently, we finally made it to the windmills. The windmills were wooden and painted red, white, and blue which made me grin (MERICA). Being Environmental Engineering majors, obviously these windmills captivated Marnie and I more than it would most people. However, I would find them quite impressive regardless of my bias. 

After investigating the windmills we made our way back to the train station to move onto our next destination - Ghent. The train took a little over an hour, and upon arrival in Ghent a 1.5 mile walk stood between us and our Air BnB. On our walk we were approached by these two guys questioning if we knew where the Marriott was. Unable to help them - due to our lack of knowledge about Ghent - we went our separate ways. Oddly enough, we ended up crossing paths with these two on three more separate occasions for the duration of our 24 hour stay in Ghent. It's safe to say that either they were stalking us or we were stalking them - not sure which one though. 

Ghent's architecture greatly resembled that of Brugge: 13th-16th century Gothic. Following our departure from our Air BnB, with a bed that was sloped toward the middle - inevitably making Marnie and I radiate to one another throughout the entirety of the night, we stopped at a flea market. I purchased a bracelet that had consisted of the same colors as the Belgium flag. This bracelet ended up giving me hives, but we won't get into that. Next, we had our picture taken on St. Michael's bridge, an iconic tourist destination in Ghent, before making our way to my favorite part of the trip. The Gravensteen,  or "Castle of the Counts", was built in 1180 and is one of the oldest castles in Belgium. 

You can feel the history of the building almost immediately upon entrance. I think part of what made the experience so exciting was the fact that Marnie and I managed to gain free admission into the castle by pretending that we were 18 years old. We may look too young to get into bars back home, but we can get into castles for free so I ask you, "Whose really winning?" As we worked our way through the museum; armor, weapons, torture devices, and even a guillotine were scattered on the various levels of the castle. We again had to conquer the dreaded narrow spiral staircases in order to reach the top of the castle. It did prove to be worth the trouble because it gave us a picturesque birds-eye view of Ghent. 

As we were exploring Ghent we kept coming across candy carts that were selling these cone shaped gummies called Cuberndons. They have a hard outside and gelatinous inside, and are actually quite gross. However, we figured we should try them. The first cart we went to required us to buy a box of six, and we asked if we could just purchase one. Our request was declined, so we continued on to next cart after being directed to the nearest McDonald's by our gracious previous vendor. 

Our last tourist attraction in Ghent was Saint Nicholas' Church (11th century). Trust me, I have spent my fair share of time in churches and this was the most beautiful one I've ever seen. It's mammoth size demands the attention of spectators amid a bustling square. When inside, I lit a candle in my grandmother's honor - knowing that she is watching over me.

We tried changing our flight time back to Copenhagen to an earlier time because we had completed the three cities before we had originally anticipated. After finally finding wifi at a store similar to Best Buy, we managed to get a hold of Ryan Air and discovered it would be too expensive to change our flight. Let me just say, finding wifi when you need it is a surprisingly difficult task! Also Starbuck's wifi works about 1% of the time. Therefor use caution before purchasing a 5 Euro coffee in order to take advantage of their "fake" wifi. We attempted to make the most out of the situation and decided to hit one more city before heading to the airport - Antwerp.

According to trip advisor, the number one thing to do in Antwerp is to see the train station. When we finally arrived at the station I was astonished. I would describe it as Grand Central Station on steroids. 

With the exception of the train station, Antwerp was pretty lame. It was heavily commercialized and had hundreds of high end designers such as Chanel and Red by Valentino. All stores which Marnie and I could obviously afford on our college budget. Our time in Antwerp was brief with only a quick stop at Steen Castle, which in my opinion was far inferior to the Gravensteen. At the entrance of the castle there rests a famous statue called the Lange Wapper, who according to Antwerp folklore, was a giant that enjoyed teasing people. The Steen is also home to the world's oldest half hour glass which I insisted on turning over.

We took the train back to Brussels that night and returned to Grand Place to see it lit up. My rating of Brussels climbed a few steps solely because it is significantly more impressive at night.

We made two more stops before leaving - one to the same waffle place that Marnie loved so much from the first day, and the second to buy - you guessed it - CHOCOLATE (admit it you probably said chocolate in that raspy voice from SpongeBob). Ironically enough, I bought some and still have not tried it so I can't give you a reliable opinion on Belgian chocolate.

It was finally time to begin our journey back home. We caught the shuttle around 9 pm that night, and were thoroughly amused for the duration of the ride because of the drivers choice in music - the Mamma Mia soundtrack. When planning the trip I had this genius idea of spending our last night in the airport in order to save money, considering our flight was at 7am. THIS WAS A HORRIBLE IDEA - with heavy emphasis on HORRIBLE. We ended up spending 9 hours in Charleroi, one of the world's crappiest airports as awarded by yours truly. After finally finding a seat at a desk with two computers, the countdown to takeoff began. People kept coming up to the desk and asking us questions because they thought we were employees. Although, we did help them if we were able to. By hour 6 I was incredibly grumpy and could not wait to get back home (crazy that I think of Copenhagen as home for the time being). When we landed back in Denmark the sky was the bluest I've seen it since arriving - mocking me as if it knew I was going to be sleeping for the remainder of the day. 

Our first European excursion was a complete success. It went surprisingly smoothly, and we were able to see so much of Belgium in such a short period - 4 cities in 2 days to be exact. For people that are considering traveling to Belgium I would suggest spending the majority of your time in Brugge, a day in Ghent, and your arrival/departure days in Brussels. 

Still debating whether to open my chocolate or not,

R-