So I’m about three weeks late in posting this, I hope you’ll forgive me. I’ve had two essays to write, so I’ve been a little preoccupied. Anyway…
Team Bunkbed (my roommate Kelsey and I) took an early morning train to Brussels on Friday morning, then wandered around the station for awhile before grabbing yet another train to Amsterdam. It was a much longer trip than we realized it would be, but we weren’t on a particularly tight schedule, so it worked out fine.
The second I left the Amsterdam train station I knew I was in love with the city. The station is on one of the canals, the buildings in the area are beautiful, and there was a three story bicycle parking structure filled with thousands of bikes right outside. So cool.
After lunch at an Italian restaurant on a really touristy street near the station, we walked around a little bit past all of the stores selling souvenirs, bongs, pipes, and tie dyed apparel. It was definitely a good introduction to Amsterdam. We made it onto a canal cruise, and spent about an hour learning about the history of Amsterdam and all about the architecture of the beautiful gabled canal houses.
Next we headed to the Anne Frank house, which was just as inspiring and shocking as I expected. The craziest part was walking up the staircase behind the bookshelf. There were a few of Anne’s personal belongings around the house, but her father insisted the house not be furnished when it was turned into a museum, so there are only replicas of the original layout. I’m really glad I was able to experience that, though I couldn’t really say that it was fun.
We wandered through Amsterdam to our hostel in the red light district, and got our first taste of the prostitutes in the windows. I should mention that we stayed in a Christian hostel called Shelter City, and it was literally on an alleyway lined with lingerie clad women. The red light district was mind-blowing. There are live sex shows, tons of bars, and lots of alleys lined with prostitutes. They each have their own little window with a door, and people just walk up and down these narrow streets looking at them. It was super awkward walking past men trying to bargain the price of these women’s “services” down, and even stranger when I passed one ordering a sandwich from her window to a worker of the café across the street. Until that happened I had almost forgotten that these girls (not all of them very attractive) have lives outside of their dimly lit windows. That stuff just doesn’t happen in America, and I’m really glad. It was all a little unnerving.
We ended up with yet another leisurely Italian dinner, then headed to Neumarkt Square near our hostel for a stop at The Jolly Joker coffee shop. Make of it what you will.
Saturday morning we woke up to a city beautifully covered in snow. We got breakfast at the hostel before walking to Amsterdam’s floating flower market. There were some gorgeous flower shops full of bulbs of more tulip varieties than I knew existed. It was really pretty and I was able to pick up some souvenirs. After a stop at a shwarma place and picking up our bags at the hostel we hopped on a train back to Brussels.
I wasn’t feeling well after the train ride, so we got dinner at a café near the train station before taking a cab to our hotel. Kelsey and I took it easy at night, and watched a Flemish TV show called “My Name is Michael” for nearly three hours, even though we couldn’t figure out what was going on. There were a bunch of men pretending to be Michael Jackson, and they seemed to talk in both Flemish and English, with Flemish subtitles regardless of the language. It was strange.
On Sunday I consumed the best breakfast of my life at the original location of Le Pain Quotidien. It wasn’t far from our hotel, and was packed with gorgeous breads and pastries. There was a huge assortment of jams and chocolate spreads on every table that were shared between all of the diners. Everything I ate was the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted. I had eggs, bread and lots of dark chocolate spread and strawberry jam. I still have dreams about that breakfast. Amazing.
Next up was a stop at Brussels’s major square, Grand Place. And it was grand indeed. The square is lined with huge buildings with individual elaborate architecture. It was overwhelming and beautiful.
Our last stop in Brussels was the Musical Instruments Museum, four floors of old and new instruments from all over the world. The plaques were in Flemish and French, so I couldn’t read anything about the instruments I was looking at, but we were given headsets that play music typical of the instruments. It was a really great concept, my music geekdom was at an all time high. We looked at accordions, bagpipes, ornate pianos, trombones, cellos, guitars and everything in between. I think I bored Kelsey with my explanations of the old violin, viola and guitar structures, but she humored me anyway. Being at the museum proved that my middle school music teacher was right, music really is the universal language. The people at the museum spoke all different languages, but we were all listening to the same smile and dance provoking music. It was really cool.
Our last city of the weekend was Bruges, a mere hour long train away from Brussels. We only spent the afternoon there, but I think we got a feel for the canal city. I’m pretty sure a quarter of the retail space is Bruges is occupied with chocolate shops, and I ended up purchasing some Belgian chocolate for my friends and family. Bruges caters to wealthy tourists, meaning restaurants there were incredibly expensive. We got the cheapest meal we could find before wandering to the canals, then into one of the main squares. It was beautiful, and made me really miss Venice.
We got home after three train rides (Bruges to Brussels to London to Farringdon Station) and made the short walk home happy with our productive weekend of adventures. I never thought that I’d get a chance to go to the Netherlands, and I definitely never imagined myself seeing two cities in Belgium. I feel so lucky to be doing all of this. Pinch me.
No comments:
Post a Comment