I just recently returned from my latest adventures. It seems in Spain we have a holiday every other week, which is great for my travel plans. This past week I had whole week off but the rest of Spain wasn't so lucky. Since most Spanish holidays have fixed dates, like Halloween, they tend to fall on strange days. Last week Tuesday, Thursday and Friday were holidays but on Monday and Wednesday the rest of Spain still had to work and go to school. Fortunately I don't work at my school on Mondays and Wednesdays, so I cancelled my private classes and had the entire week off, two weeks before Xmas break I might add. To take advantage of this extended vacation I traveled up to northern Europe with Jessica, Kevin (my friends who from San Jose who are doing the same program but in Bilbao), their roommate Piper and Jessica's friend Maria who met up with us in the middle of her solo trip across Asia and Europe. Jessica being the organized person that she is basically planned the trip for us by booking apartments, hostels and bus trips. All I had to do was show up!
The first place we visited was Brussels in Belgium. I arrived Saturday, a day after the rest of the group. Upon leaving the airport, I immediately noticed that Brussels was different. I was not in Spain anymore. The first noticeable difference was the architecture. Brussels had hundreds of old elegant buildings that were very different from the Arabic style architecture in Spain. Brussels felt very much like old Europe. Another difference was the people. Brussels seemed to be a very international city with people living there from all over the globe. In Brussels, we rented a single room apartment with a loft for all three of us. It was a nice apartment close to the center of the city. The only problem was there were only two beds for the five of us. Fortunately we were able to make it work. After I settled into the apartment we decided to see what Belgium night life had to offer. We found a cool bar/club where we stayed and danced for a while, then continued to bar hop until the wee hours of the morning. It was definitely a blast but it made getting up early the next morning to explore the city a tad difficult. Saturday morning when I finally got going. I met up with the rest of the gang at a Christmas market in the center of Brussels. The Christmas market was lined with shops that were selling all sorts of good foods and drink. Up until this point had not felt like Christmas but being in Brussels with the cold weather, the Christmas markets and the decorations it started to feel like Christmas.
The next day we traveled to a small town called Brugge that was an hour outside of Brussels. The town seemed to be something out of a fairytale. Old brick houses lined the streets and plazas, while canals crisscrossed the town. Throughout the town, there were a four old towers that made the town feel like a castle. We spent the whole day exploring the town and eating good food. My favorite part of the day was stopping at a bar to have some beer. This was not just any bar. The bar had a beer list that was a book that was more than an inch thick, basically a Bible of beer. We each ordered two beers at this bar and shared them amongst ourselves. I ordered two Christmas ales from Belgium breweries. The beer there was no question the best I beer I've ever had.
On Tuesday, we left our apartment and were on the bus to Amsterdam, or as I was calling it Hamster-man. Maria left us to continue on with the last leg of her Euroasian trip. I must admit that before going to Europe, Amsterdam wasn't high on my list of places I wanted to visit. I basically expected Amsterdam to be like Las Vegas. As I soon learned, this was not the case at all. Like Brussels, Amsterdam was a beautiful city. Beautiful old houses stood on the edges of canals that went throughout the city. The city seemed to have a lot culture and a forward-thinking attitude. It reminded me somewhat of San Francisco. There appeared to be lots of young people living there, who navigated the whole city on a bikes. I've never seen so many in my life. All the bikes made it very difficult to cross the street.
We spent most of our time just walking through the city and seeing the different monuments, buildings and various markets that were in the city. One day we went to the Anne Frank house, where she and her family hid from the Nazis. I had not realized before that the house was in Amsterdam. It was a little bit sad and depressing to think about that part of history but it was very interesting to be in the actual house where they successfully hid from their eventual captors for so many years. On a lighter note, we visited a brewery in Amsterdam that was in a windmill. The beer there was not quite as good as the beer we had in Belgium but none the less it was tasty. We also did go through the Red Light district a few times. I never got used to seeing the girls behind the windows. It always was a little strange to me. For our last night in Amsterdam we went to a bar that was near our hostel. The bar was supposed to be like an American blues bar. It had a live band that was playing the old blues and rock and roll classics. As you might have imagined, I really enjoyed it! Well that is about it after another successful trip in Europe. I have two weeks of work and then will be heading to Germany for Christmas and London for New Years!
Happy Holidays!!!
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