The next day we visited the Anne Frank house in the morning. It was quite depressing, of course, but in a good way in that it really made you think about how terrible her situation was and how many restrictions Jews had on their life in those times. What especially got to me is when they talked about how when she was sick she couldn’t even cough because the workers in the warehouse might discover all of the people in hiding. To not even be able to be sick is such an extreme restriction that I can’t even imagine. It was a moving museum. Afterward we got lunch – delicious creamy mushroom soup. It was perfect for a cold day, especially since we were not at all used to the cold coming from sunny Seville. During lunch, two kids in blackface came into our restaurant and threw some candies on the ground. We were very confused but later found out the reasoning. The next day was the holiday Sinterklaas in the Netherlands where Sinterklaas (who looks a lot like Santa) and his helper Black Pete (yes, there are racial undertones but they say he’s black because he is a chimney sweep) bring gifts. I guess kids dress up as Black Pete and bring small gifts around to places such as restaurants. After lunch we started heading in the direction of museums. By the time we got to the museum area it was too late to go in to the museums, so we meandered our way back. When we got back to the hostel, we met up with my friend Lauren from home who was studying in Amsterdam for the semester. It was crazy to see her so far from Newton and we were so excited to see each other! After a long hug and an introduction to Taylor, the three of us headed out to find dinner. We ended up at a pizza place, which had pretty good pizza and since I hadn’t really had pizza all semester, I enjoyed it. Mostly, it was great to see Lauren and hear about her perspective on the Netherlands and Dutch culture. After dinner, we parted ways for a little, but I would be staying with Lauren in a few days so it was a quick goodbye.
On Saturday, we got our stuff together and headed for the train station. We were staying in Bruges for the night but planned to stay in Brussels for the day. The train to Brussels was three hours long but it went by quickly. One thing I did notice during the ride was that a lot of individual houses in the Dutch and Belgian countryside have solar panels. Once we arrived in Brussels, we left our bags at the train station and walked out into the city. Of course, we had no idea where we were so we just started walking in one direction, which turned out to be a good one. In a block we arrived at the main square in Brussels, Grand Place. It was quite an impressive introduction to the city since Grand Place is filled with extremely ornate buildings and was crammed with people because it was Sinterklaas, which is also a holiday in Belgium. In the center of the square there was a huge Christmas tree decorated with blue lights and a large nativity scene off to the side. It was very Christmas spirited, which felt nice because Seville was not yet in the spirit of the holiday season. We stood in the square for a while just taking everything in and then went off to find the famous Manneken Pis fountain of the little boy peeing. On our way we saw some mini donkeys and lots of people in windbreaker jackets with the outline of the Manneken Pis on the back. We were confused as to why these adults were walking around with outlines of a peeing boy on their backs, but we continued on. The statue was a block away and he was dressed as Sinterklaas, which was really cute. Then we went to find lunch, which of course had to include famous Belgian frites. They were good, but not necessarily the best French fries of my life, I guess it comes down to personal preference and I like my fries really crunchy. After lunch we headed back to the Grand Place to orient ourselves before heading to the art museum. As we were walking down the street away from Grand Place, we ran into a spontaneous parade! Ok, it wasn’t a spontaneous parade, just spontaneous for us because we hadn’t been expecting it, but it was still amazing. It was especially exciting because we hadn’t been waiting around for it but just happened upon the parade and if we had taken a different route to the museums or not gone back to Grand Place or lots of other what-if scenarios, we wouldn’t have seen the parade. It was a great one, there were crazy dancers and adorable little children, the mini donkeys and people in Manneken Pis jackets we had seen before, and men on stilts that reached the second story of the buildings, one of whom almost stabbed me with his stilt as a joke. They were even passing out candy so we got some toffee with a little Belgian chocolate. It was such a great and unexpected part of our trip, I think it made me like Brussels much more than I would have on a normal day. Still smiling from the awesome parade, we finally did make it to the art museum. There was a really cool piece that looked like a big globe but was made of shiny beetles. Soon it was closing so we left and walked to the Royal Palace and through a park and over to Waterloo street, which is like Brussels fifth avenue. Basically we were just walking and trying to see as much of the city as we could. Sometimes we would see a big building and try to figure out what it was based on the map in the guidebook – not exactly the most accurate tour but it was fun! We eventually wanted to head back to the center to get dinner and then the train and on our way passed through a park that was all lit up with lights so that it looked like a rainbow in the topiary. Then we began our search for dinner and what else was there to eat but some waffles? Well, one of the laws of traveling I have discovered is that whenever you are looking for a specific type of food, especially one that is supposed to be very common in the area you are traveling in, you can never find it. We walked around for 20 minutes trying to find the perfect waffle place and eventually ended up at a place we had seen earlier in the day. The waffles were absolutely delicious! We got one strawberry and chocolate and one banana and nutella and they were definitely the best waffles I had ever tasted. I’m not usually a breakfast foods person, but these were that good. After dinner, we went looking for dessert. Just kidding, I’m not that ridiculous about food! We actually headed back to Grand Place, which was now lit up like Disneyland with a light show and everything. If it weren’t raining, we might have stayed for a while but instead we just went back to the train station, which was somehow harder to find than we had remembered. On the train there were no translations into English like there had been on the train to Brussels so we were worried about getting off at the wrong stop. It wasn’t as difficult as we had anticipated, however, and we made it to Bruges and our hostel perfectly fine. We didn’t get in until close to midnight so apparently reception was already closed and we had to check in at the bar underneath the hostel. It was the strangest check-in ever but it turned out we had our own room, which was nice in comparison to the dorm in Amsterdam. We decided to walk around for a little while just to check out the town and probably walked the whole thing in 15 minutes, then came back to the hostel and went to sleep.
park with rainbow lights
building in Grand Place
PARADE!
The next day we walked to the center of town, where there is a belfry with supposedly great views of the city. We decided, however, that we would prefer to go to the other building with a panoramic view that not only was cheaper but also had an elevator instead of stairs. It was a good decision because although the building was really empty, it did afford some nice views of the red roofs of Bruges and the belfry and cathedral. On our walk through town, we discovered that Bruges has speakers on most of its blocks that play music for the public. At first we thought they were speakers associated with a particular store, but as we walked through the whole town and heard the same song, we realized it was the “official” music of Bruges (which included some Barry White and Brown Eyed Girl, among others.) We went to the cathedral to see a sculpture by Michelangelo, which had randomly made its way to Bruges. After, we were walking by a chocolate store (which are ubiquitous in Belgium) and decided to go in just to look. It turned out they were giving away free samples so we got our first tasting of real Belgian chocolate. It was delicious, but I have to admit I’ve had chocolate just as good in the US, Spain, and many other places not known for their chocolate. So we had tried fries, waffles, and chocolate, which meant we only had one more thing of typical Belgian cuisine to try: beer. There was a brewery tour with a beer included so we decided to go on the tour. It was interesting because I know absolutely nothing about how beer is made, so I learned a little and enjoyed the corny jokes our tour guide made about how beer makes you “very hoppy.” As we went outside to drink our beer because the indoor seating was full, the sun finally emerged through the clouds and the rain. I know I shouldn’t let the weather affect my opinion of a place, but it is proven that people are happier when it is sunny out, and apparently I’m very affected by this phenomenon because I always like places better when it is sunny during my visit. So naturally, my opinion of Bruges (which was already positive) only increased as we walked around with blue sky and sun shining over us and tried to find a place for lunch. On our way, we walked through one of the famous Christmas markets and passed a stand selling cheese. We tried the free samples of almost every kind and really liked the pesto cheese. Since we were on our way to lunch we decided not to buy anything then but vowed to return if we had time. For lunch, we had Italian, which was good but took forever to arrive. Then we walked to one of the windmills on the edge of town and pointed another pair of tourists in the direction of the train station. After seeing the windmill and a nice view of the afterglow from sunset over the city, we went back to the main square to get some French fries from one of the stands. We had to get the Andalusian sauce of course, and ate our fries while watching people ice skating on the rink in the middle of the square. After, we went back to buy the pesto cheese and then back to our hostel to get our bags. After realizing we had just missed the bus to the train station, we decided to walk in that direction and hopefully find a taxi along the way since we only had a half hour to get there and it was past the edge of the town. Even though we didn’t think we could make it, we started speed walking once we realized there were no taxis around. I had the map out and when I realized we were walking through a rotary, I knew we were close to the station. With 5 minutes until the train was set to leave, we started running toward the train station, got inside and found our track number, ran down the stairs, got on the train, and the doors literally closed behind us. We couldn’t believe we had made it, and I was sure it had been too good to be true and we were on the wrong train or something. We weren’t. We arrived in Brussels, bought our tickets back to Amsterdam and went out into the city to get another dinner of Belgian waffles. This time I got coffee ice cream on my waffle – even better! We got back to the train station (managing to get a little lost again) with plenty of time and got back to Amsterdam without any problems.
street in Bruges
The next day we went to the Van Gogh museum, which had a really interesting combination of his paintings and some letters he wrote, mostly to his brother. I liked how there was some context and progression to everything in the museum. After, we found a bakery and decided to get some sesame bread to go with our cheese, which was a great combination. We walked through a flower market and got some grapes, ate more cheese, and then headed back to the hostel. I was meeting Lauren there because I was going to stay with her for two nights, while Taylor went back to Seville. After saying goodbye to Taylor, Lauren and I went back to her program center, where I met some of her friends. Then we went back to her house and had dinner with her host mom, who had nicely made dinner for both of us. It was great to talk to her host mom about everyday things and see a little slice of Lauren’s life for the semester. After dinner, we got drinks with some of her friends, but on the way got some incredibly delicious, smothered with butter and powdered sugar, mini Dutch pancakes. They were incredible.
The next day Lauren had to do work because her semester-long project was due that week, so I went wandering Amsterdam by myself. I went to Lauren’s favorite market and got a cheese sandwich for lunch. It was weird because the café owner’s dog was roaming inside and went up to the different customers begging for food. I feel like that wouldn’t happen in most places because it is kind of a nuisance to be begged at by a dog while you’re eating, but I was more amused than anything. Then I got some dark chocolate with cranberries on my way out and went to the Rijksmuseum. It had some nice artwork by famous Dutch artists like Vermeer and Rembrandt; I wasn’t as enthused as I had been at the Van Gogh museum, but I still enjoyed it. After a while, I walked to another neighborhood I hadn’t yet visited and then met up with Lauren. We got some goat cheese with honey mixed in that she had told me about the day before and had it with bread when we got back to her house. I can’t even tell you how good it was! The flavors of the goat cheese and the honey were both shone through but also mixed together really well and basically it was heaven. Afterward, Lauren went to Frisbee and I did a little work and ate some dinner. When Lauren got back we hung out with her housemate Jonathan for a while and then went to sleep before waking up at 5 so I could get to the airport and Lauren was nice enough to walk me to the bus stop before the sun even rose. It was an incredible trip and a nice way to relax before I had to go into crazy work-mode for the next week and a half.
canal in Amsterdam
No comments:
Post a Comment