Belgium

About Belgium! We had a great time, saw three cities in three days and pulled two all-nighters. A typical trip, although one of the all-nighters was due to a boo-boo made during the acquisition of plane tickets to Belgium. We decided to depart for Belgium on Thursday the 4th and there happened to be two flights out of Skavsta (the Ryanair airport for Stockholm) that day. One of them left at a very sane time in the afternoon and the other at 6am. Yep, we ended up on the 6am flight. 6am doesn't sound that bad until you consider that Skavsta is two hours by bus away from Västerås. And the kicker: there is no bus that leaves Västerås early enough for us to have made the flight by leaving on Thursday morning. Instead we left on Wednesday night and explored Stockholm. Thanks to some valuable intel, we located a kebob shop where we stayed awake all night until our bus left for Skavsta at 4am.

Oh, there was a post right before this one. Check that out if you missed it. These were posted in close succession since I was recently overcome by a bad case of lethargy.

Limping away from Junior for the bus station (remember that blown-out ankle? It's still all blowed out at this point..).

Unfortunately, I stopped taking pictures for some reason. Probably distracted by the pain of limping all over Stockholm after letting that dumb ankle stiff-up for a couple of days. Between here and the next pic, we met up with Fernando (remember, our couch surfer host from the first night in Sweden) for some beers. After that, we made our way to the kebob shop where we spent a couple of hours waiting for the bus station to open.

Waiting for the plane at Skavsta. Don't worry, I'll introduce the Belgium crew a bit later once we get a proper roll-call.

The sun rising over Sweden as we settle in for a short nap.

We found our way to the emergency exit row for the extra leg room. The plane ride was the first opportunity for meaningful sleep in over 24 hours. I laughed at the "IMPORTANT NOTICE" provided above the seat-back safety instructions. This was definitely my first time ever violating a legal requirement on a plane.

That sign: Welcome to Belgium. Me: Why, thank you!

Getting on a train is complicated in Belgium. I finally got fed up and bought a ticket on my own. Mistake. It turns out there was a pretty sweet discount deal that I missed out on as a result of my impatience. Lesson learned.

Look at us. On a train, just like real Belgians.

I heard some girls speaking Swedish behind us and wanted to see what they looked like. I wonder how mad the one on the right will be if she ever sees her picture all upon the internet like this...

City #1: Gent. First thing we see walking out of the train station. Literal tons of bikes became a motif for Belgium.

You know we're going in there.

Friets!!

I thought this was a cool picture. Definitely click to make it larger.

Ok, not a true roll-call, but I should just introduce people while I've got a chance...I was expecting a good roll-call sooner, but I guess I didn't take one. Starting on the left: Tyler, Ariel, Megan, Taija, Aaron and Anton. You probably remember Ariel and Megan from Paris. They're Americans. Taija (Finland) is a familiar face as well, I'm sure. Aaron is also an American, originally from Detroit. Anton is from Sliven, Bulgaria. This picture is pretty important for later: we happened down this alley where a massive crossword had been painted. We decided that our visit to Gent would not be complete until we were represented on that wall.

Little known facts about Gent: (1) It is home to the cutest Mc Donald’s. (2) It is under construction.

See what I mean? This would probably have been a very nice place to soak in the sights of old Belgium, except it was mostly fenced off and full of heavy equipment.

Scenic Gent. And a digger.

That GUY! And what's he got? A WAFFEL! You know we're eating one of those...

It looks better as it gets closer to my mouth. Some waffle-action shots are next...

It was really that good--Tyler was nearly brought to tears. The display was met with disapproval from the Finnish delegation.

I think she's beginning to understand, though.

Oh yeeah, he gets it.

Look how happy that guy is. Man, I wish I was eating that waffle right now...

There's what the place looks like from the street. If you find yourself in Gent, GO THERE. Don't even bother with anything else until you've had a waffle with chocolate and cream from that place and the man in the red hat (who, incidentally, looks a bit like Fernando). I'm serious.

Look at that castle. It had some kind of metal spider web in the front. And some more construction on the left...

We stumbled into a place where we were given free egg-nog shots and some delicous dessert foods. I can't even believe the luck we have sometimes. It always pays to wander into places where it seems like you are not allowed. People will either tell you to leave or give you stuff for free.

There's a nice roll-call. Little know fun-fact: I am in immense pain in this one. I thought I could jump, but it turns out that sprained ankles hate being involved in jumping of any sort. Even for group photos.

We returned to make an addition to the crossword.

Hard at work.

Taija's done. Her word is "nolo." It's a Finnish word for embarrassment. (You'll probably have to click to see it)

The group contribution. "Progress"--a theme borrowed from the '09 spring break trip up the west coast. Similar circumstances made it appropriate: Instead of four-thousand miles in nine days, we had three cities and three days to experience them. Tyler's word, "playa" is on the left. It's spanish for "beach," not gangsta for "player" (some people were confused...).

There's mine. It pretty well captures the feeling in my brain as I piqued it for something to write. Come to think of it, that's pretty much the feeling when I bother it for anything...

I don't have pictures of the other words.

Our couch surfing host, Dieter, fed us mussels and friets for dinner that night.

There's Dieter, lockin' up his pad before helping us get IN BRUGES! HOOO-WEEE! (It was a goal of ours to get in Bruges after seeing the movie, long before we could have imagined even having opportunity.)

A better view of Dieter's place. I really liked that house...so quaint in the countryside just outside Brugge.

The group gathered two new members. They took the later flight and met up with us in Belgium. In the group of people on the right, starting at the left and moving right: Adelina (from Romania), Aaron is behind her, Megan, Anton, Taija, and Laimis (Lithuania). Adelina and Laimis were the new additions. You may remember our two meter Lithuanian friend from the Paris trip.

Bruges is great. You can walk around a corner and at any time you might run into one of these...

Moments before I narrowly avoided being run over. I was trying to get a cool picture with the reflection. Ariel is actually turning around at this instant to inform me of my impending doom.

There's that famous tower...

Everybody act natural...

Maybe we should get some friets from one of those green boxes.

I really like those little forks that they give you with friets.

I'm a little upset that they came in a plastic tray-dish instead of a paper cone. I don't think it harmed the deliciousness, though.

We made a pyramid before finally saying goodbye to that famous square.

I have a feeling that guy has something I want...

Oh yeah. He definitely had something I want. And now I've got it. Did you know that is REAL melted white chocolate on that waffle?

A meter of cheap Belgian beer? I'm in.

A closer look.

An *even closer* look.

Walking to the train station, it's time to get out of Bruges. It was nice, but we've still got one more city to see.

Hello Brussels! One of the first activities was to go to a really cool bar with our couch surfing host. It was quite dark in there.

This was my view to the right sitting in that bar. We ended up spending entirely too long there. The trams stopped running.

So we had to walk back to our host's house in the middle of the night in the rain. This is what 2:30am in Brussels looks like.

The next day was sunny and beautiful. And it turns out that Brussels is under construction as well.

I wonder who is supposed to be on drugs...the performers or the audience? We should have checked, but we had progress to make. After staying out so late we only had a few hours to see Brussels before Museum Night Fever (another of the goals of Belgium).

When he saw us coming, this guy sprinted out of his restaurant and grabbed (actually physically restrained) Tyler to convince us to eat at his place. It worked and we were disappointed. It was a pretty good special they had running, but the food was really not very good. And everything beyond the special was way expensive. A definite tourist scam. Live and learn...

Some famous square in Brussels.

Looking a different direction in that same famous square.

Looking in yet another direction. It was a pretty nice square.

Look at that thing! It's famous too!

Zoom in a bit. Maybe you recognize it.

We made it! MUSEUM NIGHT FEVER! This was definitely the best museum on the tour. It's a museum of musical instruments and they give you a pair of wireless headphones that are RFID activated. They would play a little recording of the instruments when you walked up to them.

Here's that famous square at night.

A colorful garden near that famous square. You can see the tower from the square in the background.

After Museum Night Fever, we had another all-nighter to pull. Luckily we were able to locate a kebob shop.

Tyler and I bought a beer the night before with the intention of drinking it. But then we didn't. Since they don't let liquids on a plane any more, it had to be dealt with in the airport bathroom--there was absolutely no chance of me throwing it out.

It was like 7am and Tyler wasn't feeling well. Oddly, Aaron was the only one to step up and help me out--I guess warm beer in an airport bathroom at seven in the morning is not appealing to many people. It was about the worst experience of the trip. That is until the alcohol and sleep deprivation took full effect. Then it was pretty funny. But it's certainly something I will avoid in the future...at one point we were in the duty free shop and I decided to sample all of the perfumes all over my jacket. It still smells quite strongly of about 30 heavily perfumed women a week after the fact. I did sleep pretty well on the plane, though.

Back in Sweden! We had to take a train to Västerås from the airport since I made a mistake in scheduling the return bus tickets. It cost me a kilo-krown. I guess I didn't want Tyler to outdo me on the booking boo-boos. Kind of a dumb thing to be competitive about...I'll probably choose something else to compete about in the future.

That's all for Belgium. It was a pretty good trip. Better than Paris, but slightly worse than Italy--which is not to say anything bad about Belgium. Actually, it was an epic trip, but Italy was really something. Maybe it was as good as Italy. But that kilo-krown boo-boo at the end really made me sad. I guess I shouldn't take it out on Belgium. It really was a good trip. Plus, I learned a few valuable lessons: 2/3 of Belgish cities are under construction, kebob shops are basically a free hotel, and trips become extremely expensive when you book bus tickets with the expectation of arriving at the same time the plane is scheduled to take off.

We're in Västerås for two weeks now. We still haven't planned another trip for sure, but it has been decided that we will go on one in two weeks. Probably somewhere close. I don't know if there will be some posts for the upcoming weeks. I try to put something short up, though.

A Week in Västerås

2 posts coming your way: this one for the week spent in Vasteras, and the next to capture Belgium. I suppose I could have combined them since I'm behind and composing them at the same time, but that would be inconsistent with the other posts. I'm not sure I could live with such inconsistency. The mind of a borderline obsessive-compulsive...

The week in Vasteras began with a wait in the school library for a group project meeting. I also wrote some postcards to send home.

The next day was equally boring. I spent entirely too long taking pictures of some chocolates from Italy.

The trouble begins! After nearly accepting boredom for the evening, Tyler and I scoundrel-ed our way into a dinner party.

Attempting to wrangle a mass of drunken humanity for a group photo...

No one expected the picture to be taken from THIS direction!!

There's something on your head...let me get that for you.

The Americans.

Two Americans and three Finns. Lucky Americans...

Later at the club, still kickin' it with the Finns.

SCENE MISSING...

Good ol' camera buddy got away from me and missed some pivotal events. There was a mask party, some clubbing, and I blew out my ankle like never before. The aftermath is recounted below.

Looks pretty blowed out, right? I'm pretty sure that's exactly how your ankle should look after spraining it to the max right before limping across town three times with visits to a mask party, a club and Mc Donald's in between. The sensible thing to do would be to take it easy for a couple of days.

But instead, it's time for a shot party! Tyler and I contribute a New Mexican specialty: Red Chile vodka!

In full swing, the shot party from above.

Mmmm...ketchup shots..

The count. (Don't get too worried, each one is barely a half shot...) Afterwards, we went to a club to dance it off.

The ankle was looking much more colorful after the second night of not taking it easy. It still didn't feel any worse, though...

...so let's go to another club! This one is called simply ‘å’ and is open only once a month. I basically had no choice but to go check it out.

Subway after. Because, what night of resting a sprained ankle is complete without needlessly trekking clear across town?

More snow.

Party time's over. On Monday we gave presentations of our final group projects for "Sustainable Energy Systems." They went quite well.

Finally, it's time to start resting that ankle. I spent most of Tuesday sitting around. The Belgium trip was approaching fast and I had to be ready for a lot of walking around. You can even see that ankle in the bottom of this picture all wrapped up and healing--no dancing or anything.

And those other feet in the previous picture? That's Taija. We were working on her Couch Surfing profile for most of the morning and the sun broke through the clouds. The sun was full of treats for us that day...check out the next pic.

The sunset on Tuesday. A serene scene to end a restful day.

I hung my pants on the light fixture in my room. They were wet and the dryer was broken. The paparazzi rushed in.

Ok, I admit it..pants hanging from a light fixture is a bit of an odd scene. Here's a better view of the pants hanging in my room, and the last picture before embarking on a Belgian adventure.

A week spent in Sweden is a good week. But I'm beginning to think that it is actually better for my health to not stick around too long. Let's see Belgium, then.