June 19:
First of all, Happy Fathers day!! Wish my dad were traveling
in Europe with me on Fathers day, how amazing would that be!!
Took the tram to Central station and bought snacks for the train as
always! I'm sure I've said it before, but I love the fact that I arrive at the
train station twenty minutes before the train leaves, get snacks, and then
board the train. Simple simple simple! I hope airports are one day like this,
or at least easier! Makes traveling that much more enjoyable!
On the train to Brussels, listening to some great tunes with my new
WESC headphones!! My iPod/iPhone headphones barely work and manage to
have quite an attitude with me. Good quality headphones now!
Oh and I failed to mention how amazing this pastry is that I'm
eating. And I found Acai Vitamin water! Not the exact same brand though, unless
they changed their packaging! Excited nonetheless.
My host/hosts are amazing!!!! Waffles within ten mins of being in
their nice apartment.
Great great vegetarian dinner, eight of us total.
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| Main Square |
Then went to a club and danced the night away.
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| I am DYING to know how he chose his outfit that night. |
My new famouse rap: "Bananas falafels... Yeah I'm in Belgium! You wanna waffle?!?"
June 20:
Honestly can not believe it. I have exactly one month left in
Europe. Seriously though? Is that true? Please please explain to me how that is
possible. Yes looking back at February and flying on the 777 felt like a long
time ago, but how could this experience have passed by so quickly. I have major
mixed feelings. Basically if my friends and family were in Europe with me then.
I wouldn't want to travel back. I've fell in love with Europe even more so than
when I can in '07 and '09. Being here for a long time. Actually living here
makes it that much better. Okay I won't go on and on, but I definitely could!
T-minus one month.
Woke up, went to lunch with the guys. We went to a place called Mr.
falafel!! Hah, I so wanted to ask the guy I'd he was THE Mr. falafel! Walked
around the city together, explored, had the typical Belgium dishes:
chocolate!!! And waffles!! I got a plain Waffel and really enjoyed it! The
chocolate was of course delicious as well, has white chocolate, coffee, and
caramel chocolate pieces.
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| Main Square during the day |
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| Cathedral |
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| Apparently a cool museum, I didn't go in. |
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| View of Brussels |
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| Nice buildings |
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| Garden |
At a cafe now, relaxing and trying to officially wake up! Plan to
meet with another couchsurfer tonight too! In case you didn't know, I love
meeting ew people. Oh and my latte here came with a piece of chocolate :
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| WAFFLES! |
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| White Chocolate Waffle. Start drooling now. |
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| Pieterjan and Hilde's flat! |
And Belgium doesn't have the best reputation, everyone says Brussels
is boring, ugly, people are rude etc. Didn't stop me from coming here. And I
haven't felt that way at all since being here. It's the people you are with,
not where you are. I always say that because it's so true. The waitress at the
coffee shop is extremely nice! I'm liking Belgium.
June 21:
Woke up late, explored the city. Bought a bar of chocolate
and walked around.
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| Awesome |
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| Tourist street |
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| Laughing |
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| This is somehow famous in Brussels, don't ask me why. |
Went to the top of Parking 58, great view of the city.
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| Overlooking Brussels |
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| Yum!! Dark Chocolate Ginger! |
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| Panorama |
Back
to the apt and Heldi and Peterjan and I went out to dinner. Very good, just the
three of us which was great. And be prepared, they officially introduced me to planking. It's quite popular now, where you just act like a plank on random objects in random locations. Let's just say I like it a lot.
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| First plank ever |
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| At dinner! |
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| Hilde and I |
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| And again |
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| Second plank... not as easy! |
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| Sunset! |
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| Gorgeous |
Then we met more of their friends, went to a GIANT
concert. Thousands of people in a park. Bob Marley’s son was playing, Martin Solveig,
and more!! Walked around, they ran into a million people they knew!
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| Everyone who performed at the concert that night |
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| Crowded park! |
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| Group photo! |
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| This guy was just hanging out on this statue. Loved it. |
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| Jumping photo! |
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| Chocolate in every language. |
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| One of my favorite planks so far! |
Got some
chocolate again… it’s good okay?
Walking home we saw this man entertaining a large group of people!
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| Found this in some random store! |
Tomorrow we will go to Ghent! Happy first official day of summer!
June 22:
Pieterjan and I took the train to Ghent.. but while waiting on the train..
So basicaly, what I kept saying when we were leaving was that "I would like to go to Ghent aghent. It was really nice."
Took the train back to Brussels and I had dinner with another couchsurfer in Brussels, Alex. He is from Vienna actually but works at EU Parliament now. He's been to Innsbruck and is a sporty guy so we talked all about that and traveling the world of course.
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| European Parliament |
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| People protesting |
June 23:
Had intentions of going to the flea market in the morning. I awoke
at 9 am, my dream was too good, I was on a cruise with the family so I went
back to sleep to continue that dream. When I did awake, I had a relaxing day.
Three of us had coffee and breakfast outside, then went to the top of the
building to see the view! Overlooked the train tracks so we saw a million
trains go by which I loved. Even saw an Austrian train all the way in Belgium.
I think it was lost
Actually spent time on a little project, made a poem for Pieterjan
and Hilde. After finishing that, I put it onto a poster and cut out pictures
and words from magazines and newspapers! I'm not artistic at all, but put it in
a frame and bought a rose plant and a cool pot to put them in! The least I
could do for two amazing Couchsurfing hosts!
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| My masterpiece |
Here is what it actually says:
Dear, Hilde and Pieterjan
Even though I didn’t sleep on that (insert adjective) yellow
couch
I went planking in Ghent and broke some skin and then said
ouch.
I must say, I fit in with the Belgian culture very much
Although, there is one problem; I don’t speak Dutch…
But I can if you like… OWWW!
Mijn naam is matt
En heb met jullie een leuke tijd gehad
Please keep back your tears
As we will stay in contact for years
Dank u...Merci beaucoup!
-Matt the Couchsurfer
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| Group photo |
That evening we had pancake night with their friends and even ate
Turkish delights from their last trip! Wow do I love being in Europe. Amazing
random nights like these. Getting to know other cultures and new people.
Couldn't get much better.
June 24:
So you would be proud to know that I did eventually make it to the
flea market!! And look at it...
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| Flea market.... what!?!? |
Haha just kidding it was really cool though.
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| Okay this is a bit more like it. |
Wanted to buy this amazing very very blue coffee mug, but decided I shouldn't
buy anything for luggage space/weight problems. So I let that pass me by, then
after thinking about it, I decided I wanted it, went back and it was gone.
Wasn't meant to be I guess! Had breakfast/lunch with Pieterjan. Then eventually
went to explore more of the city on my last day in Brussels. Rode a random tram
through the city, got off and found an amazing cafe with another large
community table. In case you don't know, I have a mild obsession with public
transportation and cafes.
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| Natural Cafe |
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| Random art. I wanted to yell into is so badly! |
After I was back, it was time to head to the train station and say my "see you laters". After a few photos of course!
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| Couchsurfing! |
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| Pure art. |
And one last amazing amazing photo... get ready for this.
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| TRIPLE PLANK! |
You would be amazed where I spent most of my time Friday night... No
not at a club or anything of that sort. At the airport actually. I intended to
do this. Didn't want to couchsurf for just one night, that's not what it's
about. I could have gotten a hostel in Amsterdam, only to have to wake up at
four am. So I decided to take the last train from Brussels to Amsterdam. Got to
the airport around eleven at night, been walking around, exploring. Found free
wifi, the Starbucks is 24 hours, and they have this Running wheel outside to
raise money for preventing cancer. They want to make it continuously run for
365 days! Wish I could partake in it!
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| 365 Running Wheel |
Anyhow, I have a very very early flight
tomorrow straight to Innsbruck. And this just checks off another thing I wanted
to do someday in my life, sleep in an airport. But get this, I've been hanging
out in a Boeing jet engine. No joke. They have one inside the airport and
aircraft wheels so you can see the magnitude of how large airplanes really are.
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| My free hostel? |
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| Hanging out in the engine |
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| Someone offered to take my photo! |
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| Can you see me? |
Well you would be happy to know that I comfortably fit in it, plus my giant
backpack, computer bag. I have my book and music sitting in an aircraft engine.
Hmm.. Maybe I should stay in airports more often! :) Managing to put smiles on
quite a few people walking by. Amazing design beoing, perfect for a nights
sleep on the airport.
Back awake and off to catch my flight. After the important stuff of course... coffee.
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| Goodbye Belgium and Netherlands |
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