A couple weeks ago as the second part of our European Study Tour, our program took the Eurostar to Belgium. Upon arrival, we had about two hours before our first class, so we ventured about for lunch – and this ultimately became our only free daylight hours in Brussels the entirety of the trip, cool. And the impressions left on me of Brussels from that trip are the following: chocolate shops, cobble-stone streets, some pretty architecture, waffles, and lots and lots of annoying rain.
Nim hanging out at the Royal Palace of Brussels
I found a treestar on the street!
The roomies explore Brussels... for an hour!
I do not like portion sizes in Belgium >:(
Commence more classes on the EU.
For days. And guest speakers. And guest speakers at Parliament. And silly
group-work preparing presentations about the EU. And more speakers. And no free
time.
One up-side to the program though
was that all the b-school students studying abroad in Europe participated, not
just us Londoners. Thus, I got to see some well-missed friends.
DSP (my business fraternity) does Brussels!
Everyone returned to their
respective countries on Saturday, but as our train didn’t leave until 7 or so,
we had the bulk of the day free. We decided to spend our free day in Bruges,
which is about an hour away by train. If I only had a few words to describe
Bruges, I think I would sum it up by calling it a fairytale city, because
that’s what it was. Cobblestone streets, horse and buggies riding around,
quaint little shops, and swans, lots and lots of swans. I kept my eyes peeled
for Snow White or Cinderella or Little Red Riding Hood the whole time, because
I would not have been surprised in the least. (Consequently, after going to
Bruges I watched the film In Bruges,
which I would not recommend if you want to get a picture of Bruges, because the
tone of the film is a 180 from the town. I would recommend it if however if you
like to see some good ‘ole head smushing…).
Pretty Bruges
Lovely architecture
Like any European city, we got to
see a number of lovely cathedrals. I should have started a tally at the
beginning of my study abroad of all the cathedrals I’ve been to, but too late
now, oh well!
One of many in the Dylan photoshoot in Bruges
I don't remember the names of all of them anymore, sorry.
Fortunately, unlike a certain
chilly European city that I had previously been scarred from the week before,
there was more to Bruges than just its cathedrals. Upon arriving, Dylan and I
never walked more than 20 feet without popping into a chocolate shop and
indulging ourselves in happiness. I like happiness.
Dylan and I stumbled across a Salvador
Dali exhibit, which was really sweet. Later on we also went to a Juan Miro /
Pablo Picasso exhibit, which was good but limited in the scope of works
exhibited.
But mainly the best part about
Bruges was just walking around the streets exploring. We didn’t stop at all to
eat or rest in fears of missing a second of it, and as such I feel like we
really got to experience Bruges in our short amount of time there.
As always, I will conclude my
blog post with apologies about being late, and I know I am still 2 posts
overdue to catch up on the 2 weeks following my time in Belgium, so I will jump
on that soon. And as always, I will remind you to drop me a note if you get a
chance. Seeeeyasoon.
-what beautiful buildings!!
ReplyDelete-i love that you found a treestar
-dylan photoshoot, haha
-i'm glad it wasn't as cold
-miss you!
I have land before time queued up to watch as I fall asleep in a few minutes. it makes me happy. although for some reason netflix here only has 2 land before times, XI and XII. At least i get invasion of the tinysauruses - winning. but falling asleep to the first one makes me happy :).
ReplyDeleteI miss you too zneszsnorg. i bet you have less people to call you znescznorg with me gone. can't wait to see you.