Easter Break..... First Stop: Brussels, Bruge, & Luxembourg

@ the chocolate museum

Okay so I need to start by saying I had a 10 day vacation for Easter, or known as Semana Santa (Holy Week), in Spain.  Spoiled? I know!  :)

Also I haven't shared a quote in a while so here you go.

“Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.” – Cesare Pavese

 This quote helped me through my whole trip during Easter Break.  You will understand after you read about all the places I have visited.  With that being said Mom & Dad please don't kill me or have a heart attack before I come home.

So to start with I was traveling alone for the most part, except for a few friends I met along the way and I did something that is very popular in Europe called CouchSurfing.  So instead of staying at a hostel you send a message to people in the city you are going to and ask them if you can stay with them.  First I know what everyone is thinking.  Small town girl traveling by herself through Europe and then asking complete strangers if she can sleep on their couch.  Stupid right?  Best experience of my life.  I now know that there really are good people still left in the world... and that maybe I'm to trusting of others.  Well you live and you learn and this was one of those times that it worked out.   Yes Mom & Dad I know I lied but you win some and lose some... I won this one.  I love y'all... don't forget that!  Now that that's off my chest let's get to the real story.

Chocolate display for the chocolate stores

The Lambic Brewery in Brussels

So I got to Brussels on Monday morning and went to where I was staying and dropped everything off and quickly left to go discover the city.  I must say the chocolate and beer IS all that it is cracked up to be.  Don't get me wrong I had some beer that I didn't like but overall some of the best beer I have tasted.  The chocolate pralines are to die for...  find me while I'm home and maybe I will be generous enough to let you try some! I started my first day with a tour of the chocolate museum and got to taste chocolate and see how they make pralines.  It was right off Grand Place (the main square) so I spent some time there and did some shopping at The Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert.  Then I went to see the Manneken Pis statue.  You can see from my photo in the Picasa photostream that they change the statue occasionally and the day I went it was a vampire. I also walked up to the Royal Palace.  Before heading back I went to the Cantillon brewery to have some Belgian beer.  The beer they make is Lambic.  Now don't get me wrong it was really cool to hear about how they make the beer different from traditional beer, and I tasted other lambic beers on my trip that were delicious, but these were horrible!  Still pretty cool experience though.  The people I stayed with cooked me a great dinner and then took me out for beers.  The next day I woke up early and went and saw the Cathedral St. Michael and then met some of my friends.  We rented a car and drove to Bruge.  

Sam & I @ the brewery in Bruge

Bruge is very small but has canals running through it which makes it even more beautiful.  Downfall we went on a Saturday and it was packed with tourists and people trying to go shopping. We just walked around, attempted to get lost, went to a brewery, and I ate the specialty: french fries.  All Belgians will tell you that they are the ones who invented french fries.  I met some French people in Belgium and they also said that it was the Belgians.  The difference between their french fries and ours is that they fry them twice.. yes twice (they are true southerners at heart) and serve with a mayonnaise/ ketchup sauce.  I must admit they were delicious but you can't really go wrong with french fries.  

View from the Bock Casemates

On Sunday I met up with my friends again and we drove to Luxembourg to spend the day and stay the night there. Little history Luxembourg is the only Grand Duchy left in the world aka it's expensive.  We went to the capital Luxembourg City which is tiny.  It was beautiful and everywhere you looked someone was driving some sort of a very expensive car.  We went in the Bock Casemates... built by the Spanish during the war to be used as a defense system that could house soldiers and if needed the citizens.  It is underground and now there are 17km still remaining.  There used to be more.  After that we just walked around and saw the cathedral conveniently called Cathedral Notre Dame and the palace.  Epic story of Luxembourg: I had to take a bus from Luxembourg to Brussels South airport.  About a 3 hour bus ride away.  One of my friends decided he would wake up at 3 in the morning and drive me to the bus stop with our rental car.  This was great I could sleep a little later and wouldn't have to walk 20 minutes there.  When I got there I went to pull out my wallet... no where to be found... mini panic attack.  So we got back in the car and drove back to the hostel.  I ran to the room and found my wallet underneath my blanket.  Bad news is if I miss this bus I miss my flight because the next bus was in like 2 hours so I had to get on this bus.  Luckily driving like race car drivers we made it back in time.  Life saver.  

I made it safely to the airport and was off to my next location: Budapest!