Is different. I don't think I like it as much as Madrid; it's not as pretty or walkable, but it's got more stuff and I want to come back when I have more time.
I woke up early this morning to Kristen complaining about something James said I said and then went to the train station. I slept most of the way, and it was fairly comfortable. We got lost trying to find the hostel because of a failure to read a map, but finally arrived. It's awesome - the decorations and everything are really cool. We went and got lunch from Pans, which was a Spanish fast food place. The french fries were basically Arby's flavor in a waffle fry. They were very tasty. The chicken nuggets were... interesting.
Then we came back to the hostel about 1 so Kristen could take a shower and we chilled until 330 or so when Jackie, Katie and Michele showed up. Joel and Kirby also joined us. No one wanted to decide what to do, so we may have left about 4:30 or so, and then we walked all over, finally finding a place to eat about 5:30 because most people hadn't eaten anything all day. I had delicious 3 cheese pork ravioli. Most others got pizza, and they came with cool little hammer looking knife things. They literally were slightly sharpened chunks of metal on a stick. I didn't get a picture, but my facebook won't upload pics anyways. (Which is why I haven't put pictures up since Venice - sorry!)
Then we walked up Montjuic and looked at the cool buildings. There was a cell phone convention going on, with everything blocked off and a ton of people, but we finally got to the top and had a fantastic view as the sun was setting. We wandered for a long time and saw some cool things. We headed back, stopping at a grocery store for dinner. Once again, baguettes and deli meats and cheeses to make sandwiches and chips and dips, all split between us. It's not bad.
They also got a bottle of booze, like they have every night. This time it was a licorice flavor that was very potent and burned, but not too bad. I had a tablespoon and that was enough. They finished the bottle. (There are seven of them.) And they're going out tonite. I'm going to bed.
Goodnight, world.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Boring Mornings and Awesome Afternoons
Saturday - 9:40 AM/11:30 (finished)
Wow, what a night. We got back about a quarter til 4... Sam and Kristin (who went out with their friend Allie who lives here) got back at 630. Both of those times are AM, not PM.
The pub crawl was fun. Three bars and a nightclub. We stayed at each nearly an hour, except for the nightclub, where we stayed for 10 minutes. The first bar was Embabia, then Sol y Sombra, then some Irish bar. With our tour we got free drinks, but not very many and not particularly good. We danced the whole night (James figured for over five hours) and my ears are still ringing. Everyone's amazed, but I must have really sensitive hearing because I can't ever hear anything after going to a bar or club (or concert or dance or anything with loud music). It was a ton of fun, but I think I'll limit it to just this one.
This morning we all groggily got up and got breakfast. The normal toast and cornflakes. Then Kristen, James and I got our tickets to Barcelona - they were more expensive than we thought. But we have them now and will be leaving tomorrow. Now we're all sitting in the room writing and/or getting ready. We're going to Toledo later, and before that, Jackie and I are going to the flea market. I've already spent too much, but it will be fun to look.
I am so tired. And can't hear anything. But we'll have a good day, hopefully. Tell you more later.
9:15 PM
Well, Jackie and I didn't go to the flea market. We ran out of time. Instead, we chilled for a while and left the hostel about 1, I guess, to go to the train station. We planned to go at 1:50, but the train was full, so we got the one at 3:50. Jackie, Kristen, Michele and Katie got Burger King and James and I had brought food. We stopped at a grocery store on the way to the train station - a Carrefour like we have in Brussels. Thing is, it has a huge difference in stock and, most notably, prices. The coolest part is that I found different brands of specific products - like fruit-filled chocolates and mate - that I remembered and loved from Chile that I couldn't find anywhere else. They had awesome types of German chocolate, too. At less than a quarter of the price it is in Germany. I don't know how they do it, but every single person that has traveled here has asked why we didn't just study in Spain because it's so much more awesome than Brussels... And there's sun here.
So we took the train and went to Toledo. It was gorgeous. We had a list, but no map, so we wandered for about three hours and managed to see everything on our list plus some great views and a parade. Carnaval was cool because everyone was dressed up. I saw some typical Halloween costumes, but I also saw some really cool/new ones. It was gorgeous, and the three hours that we were there were perfect. We got views of the sunset, but all the sights before it got dark.
We got back and went to the grocery store and everyone else is eating right now.
Tomorrow we have a 7:30 train to Barcelona, so we'll get to spend the whole day there. We're coming back Tuesday to fly out early on Wednesday. It feels like we've been here forever, but we still have a couple days left. I love it here, but Venice is still top. I think I would say Venice -> Madrid -> Zurich -> Toledo -> Dusseldorf -> Amsterdam Airport -> Cologne, but we'll see what Barcelona holds in store. I'm pretty sure the weather had a lot to do with the order, but that's been my experience so far.
Time for a shower and bed.
Goodnight, world.
Wow, what a night. We got back about a quarter til 4... Sam and Kristin (who went out with their friend Allie who lives here) got back at 630. Both of those times are AM, not PM.
The pub crawl was fun. Three bars and a nightclub. We stayed at each nearly an hour, except for the nightclub, where we stayed for 10 minutes. The first bar was Embabia, then Sol y Sombra, then some Irish bar. With our tour we got free drinks, but not very many and not particularly good. We danced the whole night (James figured for over five hours) and my ears are still ringing. Everyone's amazed, but I must have really sensitive hearing because I can't ever hear anything after going to a bar or club (or concert or dance or anything with loud music). It was a ton of fun, but I think I'll limit it to just this one.
This morning we all groggily got up and got breakfast. The normal toast and cornflakes. Then Kristen, James and I got our tickets to Barcelona - they were more expensive than we thought. But we have them now and will be leaving tomorrow. Now we're all sitting in the room writing and/or getting ready. We're going to Toledo later, and before that, Jackie and I are going to the flea market. I've already spent too much, but it will be fun to look.
I am so tired. And can't hear anything. But we'll have a good day, hopefully. Tell you more later.
9:15 PM
Well, Jackie and I didn't go to the flea market. We ran out of time. Instead, we chilled for a while and left the hostel about 1, I guess, to go to the train station. We planned to go at 1:50, but the train was full, so we got the one at 3:50. Jackie, Kristen, Michele and Katie got Burger King and James and I had brought food. We stopped at a grocery store on the way to the train station - a Carrefour like we have in Brussels. Thing is, it has a huge difference in stock and, most notably, prices. The coolest part is that I found different brands of specific products - like fruit-filled chocolates and mate - that I remembered and loved from Chile that I couldn't find anywhere else. They had awesome types of German chocolate, too. At less than a quarter of the price it is in Germany. I don't know how they do it, but every single person that has traveled here has asked why we didn't just study in Spain because it's so much more awesome than Brussels... And there's sun here.
So we took the train and went to Toledo. It was gorgeous. We had a list, but no map, so we wandered for about three hours and managed to see everything on our list plus some great views and a parade. Carnaval was cool because everyone was dressed up. I saw some typical Halloween costumes, but I also saw some really cool/new ones. It was gorgeous, and the three hours that we were there were perfect. We got views of the sunset, but all the sights before it got dark.
We got back and went to the grocery store and everyone else is eating right now.
Tomorrow we have a 7:30 train to Barcelona, so we'll get to spend the whole day there. We're coming back Tuesday to fly out early on Wednesday. It feels like we've been here forever, but we still have a couple days left. I love it here, but Venice is still top. I think I would say Venice -> Madrid -> Zurich -> Toledo -> Dusseldorf -> Amsterdam Airport -> Cologne, but we'll see what Barcelona holds in store. I'm pretty sure the weather had a lot to do with the order, but that's been my experience so far.
Time for a shower and bed.
Goodnight, world.
Friday's Recap
Because I couldn't get internet the last night...
Well, today's been interesting. Sitting here talking to Michele and waiting for the internet... Which means that this probably won't be posted for a while, but I'm going to go ahead and write this.
I made a list today. Several lists, actually.
But first, I need to do an update on yesterday's post. You know that shower I took? It was the most obnoxious of my life. Have you ever seen those faucets that you have to push and hold for the water to come on? You push them in and 30 seconds later the water turns off? Yeah, that was my shower. Fun, don't you think?
Ok, on to my list.
- Museum Security - What's the deal with not being able to take pictures? If you look on my facebook when I next upload pics, you'll see a lot of diagonal stuff and some are pretty blurry because flashes are what alert the guards. Not only that, but they take your bags (I carried my bookbag because of a lack of a lock and having my laptop.) and make you go through a metal detector and put your stuff through an xray machine, like you do at the airport. It was intense. I understand the palace, but the art museum?
- Keyboards - The keyboards are different here (as in most foreign countries) and it is always weird to get used to. Not to much to say, but it's interesting. The biggest difference for me is that there are three symbols on the keys so there's shift and another funny key to get the third symbol. Once I figured it out, it wasn't bad, just hunting for keys.
- Porsches - There are so many porsches here. Small ones, big ones, shiny ones, new ones, and always black. I don't know why, but they're everywhere.
- Cops - The police here wear bright, bright lime green uniforms. Florescent to the nth degree. It's kindof interesting, and very noticeable. There are a good amount of them. Mostly at crosswalks and large intersections. They're at crosswalks because they arrest jaywalkers. There are lights like stop lights to allow you across the street. If you cross when you don't have a green light, then you get a ticket... which I saw first-hand. The other thing is that crosswalks have sounds to let you know when to cross. It sounds like the bullets in Space Invaders. It's kindof funny, but also very annoying.
So there's my list.
Today we went to Palace Real (Royal Palace) and walked all over. we also walked up Gran Via and and saw the Neptune fountain and the Plaza de la Independencia (big arch) and the Puerta del Sol, where the bear and the strawberry tree statue is. Then we went to the Prado museum and saw the art. I recognized "Las Meninas" by Diego Velazquez from Spanish class, got to see a whole bunch of works by El Greco and Raphael and many others. My "favorite" piece of art was a statue by Antonio Sola called "Roman Charity". It was very interesting, but I suggest you go reasearch the story before you look at it.
When we got back, we all went to the grocery store and split meat, cheese, potato chips and cookies for dinner. Most people "pre-gamed" with rum and coke for the pub crawl we're doing tonite. It meets at 10:30, so about an hour before we go. It should be interesting.
Tomorrow Jackie and I are going to flea market early and then probably going to Toledo, but we don't really know. It should be fun, whatever we do.
I miss everyone lots and it absolutely sucks that I don't have internet. There are computers available, but I don't have any way to move this over to post. I'll check my email and stuff.
Time to get ready for a pub crawl. I don't know what it will be like. Hopefully fun.
Goodnight, world.
Well, today's been interesting. Sitting here talking to Michele and waiting for the internet... Which means that this probably won't be posted for a while, but I'm going to go ahead and write this.
I made a list today. Several lists, actually.
But first, I need to do an update on yesterday's post. You know that shower I took? It was the most obnoxious of my life. Have you ever seen those faucets that you have to push and hold for the water to come on? You push them in and 30 seconds later the water turns off? Yeah, that was my shower. Fun, don't you think?
Ok, on to my list.
- Museum Security - What's the deal with not being able to take pictures? If you look on my facebook when I next upload pics, you'll see a lot of diagonal stuff and some are pretty blurry because flashes are what alert the guards. Not only that, but they take your bags (I carried my bookbag because of a lack of a lock and having my laptop.) and make you go through a metal detector and put your stuff through an xray machine, like you do at the airport. It was intense. I understand the palace, but the art museum?
- Keyboards - The keyboards are different here (as in most foreign countries) and it is always weird to get used to. Not to much to say, but it's interesting. The biggest difference for me is that there are three symbols on the keys so there's shift and another funny key to get the third symbol. Once I figured it out, it wasn't bad, just hunting for keys.
- Porsches - There are so many porsches here. Small ones, big ones, shiny ones, new ones, and always black. I don't know why, but they're everywhere.
- Cops - The police here wear bright, bright lime green uniforms. Florescent to the nth degree. It's kindof interesting, and very noticeable. There are a good amount of them. Mostly at crosswalks and large intersections. They're at crosswalks because they arrest jaywalkers. There are lights like stop lights to allow you across the street. If you cross when you don't have a green light, then you get a ticket... which I saw first-hand. The other thing is that crosswalks have sounds to let you know when to cross. It sounds like the bullets in Space Invaders. It's kindof funny, but also very annoying.
So there's my list.
Today we went to Palace Real (Royal Palace) and walked all over. we also walked up Gran Via and and saw the Neptune fountain and the Plaza de la Independencia (big arch) and the Puerta del Sol, where the bear and the strawberry tree statue is. Then we went to the Prado museum and saw the art. I recognized "Las Meninas" by Diego Velazquez from Spanish class, got to see a whole bunch of works by El Greco and Raphael and many others. My "favorite" piece of art was a statue by Antonio Sola called "Roman Charity". It was very interesting, but I suggest you go reasearch the story before you look at it.
When we got back, we all went to the grocery store and split meat, cheese, potato chips and cookies for dinner. Most people "pre-gamed" with rum and coke for the pub crawl we're doing tonite. It meets at 10:30, so about an hour before we go. It should be interesting.
Tomorrow Jackie and I are going to flea market early and then probably going to Toledo, but we don't really know. It should be fun, whatever we do.
I miss everyone lots and it absolutely sucks that I don't have internet. There are computers available, but I don't have any way to move this over to post. I'll check my email and stuff.
Time to get ready for a pub crawl. I don't know what it will be like. Hopefully fun.
Goodnight, world.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Rough Day
Wow. Today was long. I'm sitting in the lobby of my hostel in Madrid, waiting for Sam, Kristen and Kristin to come back from the bar. It's a cool bar, but I don't feel well so don't want to drink or stay up really late (which is all they do, apparently).
This morning I woke up relatively early and went to our last "French" class - we toured a church near Grand Plac. It was really cool and we saw the excavations discovered in the past 15 years and went in all the restricted places. The most awesome part was that our French teacher was our guide and he did half of the tour in French - and I understood!
Then I finished all my food (ravioli and milk) for lunch and officially have nothing opened (except for nutella) or in the fridge. Grocery shopping is item number one when I get back. Marketing class was empty (less than ten of out out of thirty) and we only did one chapter so we left early. We caught the train and the view was really pretty because I hadn't yet seen it with two feet of snow. (Yeah, we have that much in Brussels, too. I'm sick of snow. No, thanks. I don't think I could ever live in it all winter every winter.) We caught the plane with enough time and it was the longest two hour flight of my life. I have never felt so sick on a plane. But we landed safely and the Madrid Airport is AWESOME. There's a jungle gym and a play area and one of those ball pins... We're going to have fun on Tuesday when we're there for 4 hours. =]
We took three metros to get to our hostel, and then they didn't have a room, so we dropped our stuff and wandered a bit. We went to get dinner, but they didn't serve food, so we ended up going to Burger King. Apparently this is also normal for them. Seems like this is going to be an Americanized adventure. Their reasoning was that it was because it was cheap.
Anyways, we came back to the hostel and got our room. The paint job is really awesome because every surface is a different color. Our room is lavender, but the hallway is navy and turquoise and the foyer is lime green and royal purple (like the Charley lounge). It's really pretty and fairly nice.
After dropping off our stuff, we went to a bar across the street. (Our location is great - walkable to a whole bunch of little stores and restaurants and bars and stuff.) There was a live American band (judging by their accents) and Sam and Kristin got 5 euro beers. I came back early, took a shower and you know the rest.
I feel like this is a really short post, but I guess not that much happened today that was interesting. Tomorrow we have a full day and we're going to meet up with everyone. Two of the guys can't make it, so it'll be James with seven girls... which should be interesting as I'm the only one that's really talked to him or know him. 0.o I know I haven't gone out and partied or gotten a beer or something in a while, and I hoped to do that this trip with everyone. Not get drunk, by any means, but have a good time. I'm not sure if having James be there will hinder that because he doesn't do that stuff. We'll see what happens. I'm sure it will be fun no matter what.
Anyways, time for Sam to use my computer. And for me to go to bed.
Goodnight, world.
This morning I woke up relatively early and went to our last "French" class - we toured a church near Grand Plac. It was really cool and we saw the excavations discovered in the past 15 years and went in all the restricted places. The most awesome part was that our French teacher was our guide and he did half of the tour in French - and I understood!
Then I finished all my food (ravioli and milk) for lunch and officially have nothing opened (except for nutella) or in the fridge. Grocery shopping is item number one when I get back. Marketing class was empty (less than ten of out out of thirty) and we only did one chapter so we left early. We caught the train and the view was really pretty because I hadn't yet seen it with two feet of snow. (Yeah, we have that much in Brussels, too. I'm sick of snow. No, thanks. I don't think I could ever live in it all winter every winter.) We caught the plane with enough time and it was the longest two hour flight of my life. I have never felt so sick on a plane. But we landed safely and the Madrid Airport is AWESOME. There's a jungle gym and a play area and one of those ball pins... We're going to have fun on Tuesday when we're there for 4 hours. =]
We took three metros to get to our hostel, and then they didn't have a room, so we dropped our stuff and wandered a bit. We went to get dinner, but they didn't serve food, so we ended up going to Burger King. Apparently this is also normal for them. Seems like this is going to be an Americanized adventure. Their reasoning was that it was because it was cheap.
Anyways, we came back to the hostel and got our room. The paint job is really awesome because every surface is a different color. Our room is lavender, but the hallway is navy and turquoise and the foyer is lime green and royal purple (like the Charley lounge). It's really pretty and fairly nice.
After dropping off our stuff, we went to a bar across the street. (Our location is great - walkable to a whole bunch of little stores and restaurants and bars and stuff.) There was a live American band (judging by their accents) and Sam and Kristin got 5 euro beers. I came back early, took a shower and you know the rest.
I feel like this is a really short post, but I guess not that much happened today that was interesting. Tomorrow we have a full day and we're going to meet up with everyone. Two of the guys can't make it, so it'll be James with seven girls... which should be interesting as I'm the only one that's really talked to him or know him. 0.o I know I haven't gone out and partied or gotten a beer or something in a while, and I hoped to do that this trip with everyone. Not get drunk, by any means, but have a good time. I'm not sure if having James be there will hinder that because he doesn't do that stuff. We'll see what happens. I'm sure it will be fun no matter what.
Anyways, time for Sam to use my computer. And for me to go to bed.
Goodnight, world.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Reflections
I've been noticing that, as much as I include in my blog every day, there are a ton of things I leave out. I was thinking about it today, and I know that I do, but right now it's not coming to mind. It's little things, like how coming back to Brussels that particular smell made me feel at home, and how when I fold laundry it's crunchy because we don't have a dryer or fabric softener or how the snickerdoodles my dad sent have raisins and are fantastic or any number of things that I'm not thinking of right now because I'm trying to remember and write about it.
If you look through my pictures on facebook, there are things that I don't mention here, like how every Carneval costume is hand-made or how you can't buy cooked chicken. There are so many things that I talk about when I talk with people through Skype or instant messengers that don't make it to the blog, but are still part of this fantastic experience. I don't think I mentioned how awesome the ghetto was (seeing it - not the consequences or reasons for it) and how I got The Book of Jewish Food and stuff. It's little things that get skimmed over but are interesting, too.
Now I feel ridiculous because I don't know specifics for what I've left out, but I'll try to remember them in the future.
Today was ordinary, I guess. Woke up, had breakfast, did some homework, the usual. Went to get money and my credit cards aren't working, which isn't so good. Also packed and printed out boarding passes for Madrid and figured out what I'm doing.
Oh, and the most GORGEOUS flowers came today =]
After we figured out plans, I made dinner for the five of us (Jackie, Kristen, Kristin, Sam and me), which was pesto pasta. It tasted sort of funky, but it's gone now.
So we're leaving tomorrow afternoon, and it should be an adventure. I'm looking forward to knowing the language, and we all took Spanish, so we should be able to get around. We might be doing a pub crawl in Madrid, which would be super cool, but we're going to play it by ear. There are lots of things to see and do, and I'm most definitely looking forward to it.
Goodnight, world.
If you look through my pictures on facebook, there are things that I don't mention here, like how every Carneval costume is hand-made or how you can't buy cooked chicken. There are so many things that I talk about when I talk with people through Skype or instant messengers that don't make it to the blog, but are still part of this fantastic experience. I don't think I mentioned how awesome the ghetto was (seeing it - not the consequences or reasons for it) and how I got The Book of Jewish Food and stuff. It's little things that get skimmed over but are interesting, too.
Now I feel ridiculous because I don't know specifics for what I've left out, but I'll try to remember them in the future.
Today was ordinary, I guess. Woke up, had breakfast, did some homework, the usual. Went to get money and my credit cards aren't working, which isn't so good. Also packed and printed out boarding passes for Madrid and figured out what I'm doing.
Oh, and the most GORGEOUS flowers came today =]
He even remembered my favorite color. =] It was a fantastic gift and they look amazing in my room. <3
I miss everyone lots and I feel bad for missing things like holidays and birthdays.
Speaking of which, I don't know if I'll have internet this weekend (I'm taking my computer, but don't really know) so happy birthday, Ms. Marli!
This evening we finalized plans for Spain and it looks like I'll be going to spend Thursday night in Madrid with Kristen, Kristin and Samantha, and then we are meeting up and spending Friday night in Madrid at a different hostel with Michele P, Katie, Jackie, James, Kristin M, Kristin E, Samantha, Joel, Kirby, James and me. Saturday Kristin and Samantha head to Alicante for a couple days and the rest of us are going on a day trip to Toledo or Segovia. Then we're all going to Barcelona Sunday before Kristen and I meet Sam and Kristin in Madrid Tuesday afternoon. We decided that, since we have to be at the airport at 3 in the morning or so, we're not going to get a hostel, but we're going to stay up all night and/or sleep in the airport. It... should be interesting. And hopefully less confusing than it was to type. =]
Interjection >> I'm sitting here writing this and talking to people online and it just hit me that I miss driving. Like, I want to get in a car and drive. But not here because the people are crazy and the traffic laws are weird. I want to go home and drive. Downtown, West Ashley, drive out to Folly, over the Mt. Pleasant bridge... That sounds so... relaxing. Or something. Huh. It sounds weird but I really just want to go driving.
After we figured out plans, I made dinner for the five of us (Jackie, Kristen, Kristin, Sam and me), which was pesto pasta. It tasted sort of funky, but it's gone now.
So we're leaving tomorrow afternoon, and it should be an adventure. I'm looking forward to knowing the language, and we all took Spanish, so we should be able to get around. We might be doing a pub crawl in Madrid, which would be super cool, but we're going to play it by ear. There are lots of things to see and do, and I'm most definitely looking forward to it.
Goodnight, world.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Back in Brussels...
... for the next two and a half days.
I leave at 3:15 for Madrid on Thursday. Six nights, three or four in Barcelona. We don't actually know what we're doing yet, but only two out of four of us want to talk about it. It's kindof expensive to travel from Madrid to Barcelona, but there's nothing to do in Madrid for five days. We'll see what happens.
Today I woke up without an alarm clock at 4:40 AM. My alarm never went off, but I woke up "on time" which I was very grateful for. We got hot milk and had our leftover rolls while we waited for the water taxi, then we caught the bus (just barely) and made it to the airport with an hour and a half before our flight left. The flight was uneventful, as was the other travel. When we got to Charleroi, we had trouble finding a bus, but we did eventually. We got to the train station and got our tickets to Brussels; the train left in a half hour.
On the way to Charleroi, we had seen a little "snack" place across the main boulevard from the train station. We didn't have time to stop on the way out, but we did on the way in, so we walked over. Apparently fewer people speak English in Charleroi than in Brussels, but, feeling confident after picking up Italian in a few days, I tried out my French. We had no idea what anything on the menu was, but I managed to ask a few questions and translate most of the food items. James got a chicken curry sandwich and I got sliced gyro meat on a toasted bun. I'm not sure what type of meat it was, but it was fantastic and tasted like pulled pork. (By the way, restaurants to visit upon returning to Charleston: Arby's, Manny's, Melvin's, and Captain D's... No, I didn't plan for them all to be possessive...)
We also got some fantastic fries, which we ate on the train. It was very slightly snowing the entire time, and the snow in the tracks was really pretty. It was also really cold. Charleroi was -4 Celsius according to the pilot when we landed at 11 or so. We got home to Brussels about 12:30 and I immediately went to the post office to get my package.
My parents are awesome. Let me just throw that out there. Peanut butter, grits, popcorn, gum, DELICIOUS cookies, and some other helpful items. It makes me miss home so much and I've been having a lot of trouble today. I've been taking all these weekend trips, but, in all actuality, the best trip would be to come home, if only for a couple days. I know this is a fantastic experience, and I am having fun, it's just that I want to be with friends and family.
So I got back, went straight to CUBC for a marketing test, and then came home to unpack. I did laundry and watched most of Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter book 3) with Sam and Brinley. To go with the movie, I poured one of the bags of crushed cookie into a bowl and ate it with a spoon. I can think of no better way to eat crushed cookie. It was fantastic. Then I read a bit, played with my KidSpeak (Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Hebrew, Chinese, German, Japanese, Korean, and Indonesian all on three disks. Not advanced, but a good start for basics.) and "did homework"... i.e. watched House and Psych with my textbooks open next to me. =]
Tomorrow nothing is on the schedule. Hopefully my clothes will dry so I can pack them for Thursday's trip. Also management, marketing and communications homework. Oh, and sleep. =]
Speaking of which, I'm exhausted, so it's bedtime for me.
Goodnight, world.
I leave at 3:15 for Madrid on Thursday. Six nights, three or four in Barcelona. We don't actually know what we're doing yet, but only two out of four of us want to talk about it. It's kindof expensive to travel from Madrid to Barcelona, but there's nothing to do in Madrid for five days. We'll see what happens.
Today I woke up without an alarm clock at 4:40 AM. My alarm never went off, but I woke up "on time" which I was very grateful for. We got hot milk and had our leftover rolls while we waited for the water taxi, then we caught the bus (just barely) and made it to the airport with an hour and a half before our flight left. The flight was uneventful, as was the other travel. When we got to Charleroi, we had trouble finding a bus, but we did eventually. We got to the train station and got our tickets to Brussels; the train left in a half hour.
On the way to Charleroi, we had seen a little "snack" place across the main boulevard from the train station. We didn't have time to stop on the way out, but we did on the way in, so we walked over. Apparently fewer people speak English in Charleroi than in Brussels, but, feeling confident after picking up Italian in a few days, I tried out my French. We had no idea what anything on the menu was, but I managed to ask a few questions and translate most of the food items. James got a chicken curry sandwich and I got sliced gyro meat on a toasted bun. I'm not sure what type of meat it was, but it was fantastic and tasted like pulled pork. (By the way, restaurants to visit upon returning to Charleston: Arby's, Manny's, Melvin's, and Captain D's... No, I didn't plan for them all to be possessive...)
We also got some fantastic fries, which we ate on the train. It was very slightly snowing the entire time, and the snow in the tracks was really pretty. It was also really cold. Charleroi was -4 Celsius according to the pilot when we landed at 11 or so. We got home to Brussels about 12:30 and I immediately went to the post office to get my package.
My parents are awesome. Let me just throw that out there. Peanut butter, grits, popcorn, gum, DELICIOUS cookies, and some other helpful items. It makes me miss home so much and I've been having a lot of trouble today. I've been taking all these weekend trips, but, in all actuality, the best trip would be to come home, if only for a couple days. I know this is a fantastic experience, and I am having fun, it's just that I want to be with friends and family.
So I got back, went straight to CUBC for a marketing test, and then came home to unpack. I did laundry and watched most of Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter book 3) with Sam and Brinley. To go with the movie, I poured one of the bags of crushed cookie into a bowl and ate it with a spoon. I can think of no better way to eat crushed cookie. It was fantastic. Then I read a bit, played with my KidSpeak (Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Hebrew, Chinese, German, Japanese, Korean, and Indonesian all on three disks. Not advanced, but a good start for basics.) and "did homework"... i.e. watched House and Psych with my textbooks open next to me. =]
Tomorrow nothing is on the schedule. Hopefully my clothes will dry so I can pack them for Thursday's trip. Also management, marketing and communications homework. Oh, and sleep. =]
Speaking of which, I'm exhausted, so it's bedtime for me.
Goodnight, world.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Last Day in a Great City
Ok, hands down, Venice is my favorite city. The water is a gorgeous blue-green, the people are nice, the gelato is fantastic (from best to most interesting: hazelnut, lemon, cherry cream something or other, chocolate, coconut and pistachio), and it's (kindof) cheap (in the scheme of European prices).
Tomorrow I have to get up at 4/430 to leave this beautiful city, but it's been fun and we've exhausted our options on things to do.
Seriously.
This morning we went to Lido, which is the beach 10 minutes away. We walked around for a long time (couple of hours) and took some really pretty pictures. The "boardwalk" was closed for the winter, but we hopped the fence and had some fun. There weren't very many people, but there were all of these little wooden huts covering the ENTIRE beach. It made me sad. I'm not too much a fan of the beach, but to cover it with cabanas so you can't even see the ocean from the street is a little excessive.
We walked back and took the vaparetto up to Rialto, where James got a mask but my puppet man wasn't there anymore. (I've had bad luck with returning to places. The puppet man and the jewelry store being the most notable. I went back to that store both yesterday and today and it was closed all day both days.) We grabbed hot drinks at the same place we got our mini sandwiches yesterday, and then headed over to this bookshop we had heard about.
It was definitely worth the hype. It was PACKED. It made me sad that I didn't speak or read Italian, but there were some cool books in English and some diagram books (like boat details and stuff).
Oh, and the best part? It looked like this:
Tomorrow I have to get up at 4/430 to leave this beautiful city, but it's been fun and we've exhausted our options on things to do.
Seriously.
This morning we went to Lido, which is the beach 10 minutes away. We walked around for a long time (couple of hours) and took some really pretty pictures. The "boardwalk" was closed for the winter, but we hopped the fence and had some fun. There weren't very many people, but there were all of these little wooden huts covering the ENTIRE beach. It made me sad. I'm not too much a fan of the beach, but to cover it with cabanas so you can't even see the ocean from the street is a little excessive.
We walked back and took the vaparetto up to Rialto, where James got a mask but my puppet man wasn't there anymore. (I've had bad luck with returning to places. The puppet man and the jewelry store being the most notable. I went back to that store both yesterday and today and it was closed all day both days.) We grabbed hot drinks at the same place we got our mini sandwiches yesterday, and then headed over to this bookshop we had heard about.
It was definitely worth the hype. It was PACKED. It made me sad that I didn't speak or read Italian, but there were some cool books in English and some diagram books (like boat details and stuff).
Oh, and the best part? It looked like this:
Awesome, if you ask me.
Then we went our separate ways. We were bored and wanted to see different things and didn't have anything else in any of the three guide books that we hadn't seen or said no to.
I wandered east and James wandered west. We both saw some pretty cool things. We ended up meeting at the hostel by chance, and I grabbed the marketing book and my laptop and James went out to explore some more. I felt bad about not having studied yet...
On his adventures, James found a couple little restaurants, and we went to one for dinner. I got pasta and bean soup that was very tasty and he got lamb that was incredible. We shared fries (under "vegetables" on the menu) and then afterwards, we decided to be adventurous and tried profiterole. We didn't actually know what it was, but we pointed at it and it was very, very good. It tasted like a chocolate dipped ice cream cone and vanilla ice cream - pure, creamy heaven.
During dinner we talked about this and that, but I now have proof that I truly am my father's daughter...
Yup. That's the paper tablecloth. Yup. That's our renditions of Idaho and South Carolina. (Don't ask.) Yup, that's my failure to draw Europe under my attempt at the continental US. Yup. I changed Scandinavia into a cape-toting fat gingerbread man (or something).
It was fun(ny), and we left a very nice note to the restaurant. All in all, dinner was very tasty and good.
We just got back, I'm going to read marketing and then go to bed early.
Goodnight, world.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Wonderful Day
Venice is gorgeous. I want a second home here.
I woke up around 9 after a good night's sleep and ater a very relaxing stretch, I came down to breakfast in just a tank and long sleeve tee shirt. The sun was shining and the sky was clear. My clock said the temperature in my room was 74, which is the warmest I've been since leaving Charleston... If not September. I went outside in just my teeshirt for a little bit before we ate breakfast. They had very yummy strawberry jam.
Afterwards, I got my sweatshirt and jacket for extra safety, and ended up wearing only my sailing jacket all day. (And a scarf, but that was because of the wind.) Carneval started yesterday afternoon, so when we got to the main island, there were tons of people dressed up in costume. Here are just a few of the ones we saw:
We took the boat to Rialto (the old town and the market) and saw many gondolas with people all dressed up from everything from Snow White and the seven dwarfs to musical notes to jail breaks to gangsters to unidentifiable multicolored blobs. It was awesome. They had a parade (obviously on the water) and there was music and people and lots and lots of colors.
We got to Rialto bridge and looked at all the little shops. We're going back tomorrow to get things because we wanted to scout prices. While we were there we got awesome tiny sandwiches. I got procuitto, prochetta and salami, and James got procuitto, speck and some sort of cheese sandwhich. They were fantastic.
I woke up around 9 after a good night's sleep and ater a very relaxing stretch, I came down to breakfast in just a tank and long sleeve tee shirt. The sun was shining and the sky was clear. My clock said the temperature in my room was 74, which is the warmest I've been since leaving Charleston... If not September. I went outside in just my teeshirt for a little bit before we ate breakfast. They had very yummy strawberry jam.
Afterwards, I got my sweatshirt and jacket for extra safety, and ended up wearing only my sailing jacket all day. (And a scarf, but that was because of the wind.) Carneval started yesterday afternoon, so when we got to the main island, there were tons of people dressed up in costume. Here are just a few of the ones we saw:
We took the boat to Rialto (the old town and the market) and saw many gondolas with people all dressed up from everything from Snow White and the seven dwarfs to musical notes to jail breaks to gangsters to unidentifiable multicolored blobs. It was awesome. They had a parade (obviously on the water) and there was music and people and lots and lots of colors.
We got to Rialto bridge and looked at all the little shops. We're going back tomorrow to get things because we wanted to scout prices. While we were there we got awesome tiny sandwiches. I got procuitto, prochetta and salami, and James got procuitto, speck and some sort of cheese sandwhich. They were fantastic.
Then we caught the boat to Murano (where the glass is from). I can't say enough how gorgeous the day was. Hopefully these pictures express it.
Once we got to Murano, we went to a bunch of small stores with all of the glass. It was a lot cheaper than in Venice. We were pleasantly surprised. We went to the glass museum (just look at the pictures on Facebook... whenever it decides to stop being stupid) and then went back and shopped. The glass is amazing and I got a lot of gifts - I hope everyone likes them.
My problem with gifts is this - it's really easy to find things for certain people and incredibly hard for others. Pretty much if you're male, I have a hard time finding gifts for you. Girls are easy. Jewelry or a collection. But I think I got some cool stuff today, and hopefully those of you who receive gifts will think the same.
After Murano, we went back to San Marco, window shopped a bit, ended up in another museum that we saw part of the other day, and looked for a place to eat dinner. Oh, and got and AWESOME Dolce and Gabbana purse. =]
I had absolutely no intention of getting a purse, but I had seen it a couple of times from hawkers like those you see in Times Square. I looked and asked how much it was... 55 Euros. Absolutely not. He dropped quickly to 45, then 40, then 35. I said no. He asked me how much I'd be willing to spend. I said 15 Euros. He said no (obviously) and I said I couldn't do it. He said he'd ask his boss to see, but continued to haggle, 30, 25 Euros. I said we had no way to get it home, couldn't do it. Started to walk away, and he said yes.
Yes, 15 Euros to this gorgeous, huge purse:
We couldn't eat where we wanted because it was full and we wanted to sit, so we headed back to the hostel and got pizza from a place really near by. It was good. Very similar to certain American pizzerias, like Andolinis or maybe Mellow Mushroom. The slices were huge and inexpensive, and very tasty. I got mushroom and ham:
Then we logged on, James checked email, etc while I finished my giant jar of Nutella. It is now clean (except for the very top with the lid and everything - I'll have to get a knife to clean that) and ready to be a purse. We think we're going to put glass stuff in it to get it home safely. I have been trying to upload pictures to facebook for over an hour now, and not succeeding. I put 200 up yesterday and took another 288 today. My camera is fantastic and Venice is a gorgeous city to use it in.
Now for a shower and bed. Lido and Rialto tomorrow, then leaving at 5AM on Tuesday.
Goodnight, world.
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