Churches, Theaters and French Fries

So I know I just made a post about my weekend in Prague, but that was actually not this past weekend so I still have quite a bit to talk about, and I figured getting through it all before I got to Norderney (update didn't finish it in time actually) and had no internet whatsoever would be a good idea. So for this post, I'll lay out the week of the 5th and our weekend in Brussels.

So technically our week started off with a holiday on Monday which we decided not to spend in Prague, as we figured we could actually use a day off to try to set up more travel plans, work on our paper and just actually sit for a day. So Monday was a rather unexciting day where I slept in for the first time on the trip (until 9:30 when I felt guilty and got up), then sat around in my room for a while looking up material for the essay but not actually writing anything, watching some Netflix and lazing around. I eventually made my way into town to meet up with Jules, Carter, Hailey, Kathryn and Alana to work out the plans for our next trip to Brussels (discussed later). After spending way too much time trying to find trains and also look into our weekend five plans which will involve a plane, I headed home to meet up with the host family for some BBQ. While I still believe that their BBQ is not the same as ours, I also don't care, because the sausages and bread I had were excellent. Afterwards Johanna, my host sister, took my fellow study abroad student Dan and I across the Rhine to what could best be described as a county fair in America. We rode bumper cars that would put the ones in America to shame with their speed and violence (you seriously could get some whiplash on these), and rode this contraption that swung like a pendulum until it started doing full circles and spinning you around in your seat. It was dizzying to say the least, but was honestly a better ride than a lot of the ones I've been on in amusement parks in America. After effectively destroying our sense of balance, we decided to call it a night and head back across to the house, where I went to sleep to prep for a long day of class the next day.

Fast forward a bit (because class is interesting but also just class, besides the fact that it was our last German class) and on Wednesday we went on our excursion to Cologne. We left fairly early and arrived to an immediate view of the Cologne cathedral, a truly amazing sight to behold as it towers with classic gothic architecture over the rest of the city. On a side note, it also a UNESCO World Heritage Sight, and as much as I love the Alamo, it doesn't quite seem like it should be on the same world level as the Cologne cathedral but oh well. That aside, we started up to the church, blasted by what must have been 30 mph winds that seemed to come from nowhere. Going inside the church is as much of an experience as just seeing the outside, with its ceilings that seem to never end and more stained glass than an antique shop in Boerne. We toured through the church briefly with Dr. Wasser before going back outside to split into two groups to go up to the top of the church. Let me say right away that this ended up being the best part of the trip to date, and it is an experience I will never forget. We rode an elevator on the side of the church up to a modest 25 meters, then hopped off for the first stop. We got to see the inner workings of the church (essentially the attic) and hear a bit of the history about the church that took over 600 years to build. We all then made our way around the inside walkways of the church looking over the ground floor, which attracted many stares from the poor people on the ground that would not get to see what we would see. The views of the stained glass were perfect from here, and we got to get an up close view of some of the glass and stonework in the church. We finished the level by looking at what would have been the old library of the church, another room bathed in light from stained glass on all sides, and made our way to the elevator to go up higher. The next stop was at 47 meters, and we were officially at a pretty scary height. By 45 meters you're walking through and around the flying buttresses of the church, essentially moving around on the lowest parts of the roof. We walked on narrow metal walkways and saw stonework as close as you could get, close enough to see clearly which pieces had been replaced and even which pieces were from the original build, then the 19th century completion, then modern stone. I took too many pictures to count, amazed by the incredible work around me and wondering how in the world you could try to do this in the 1200s. After we made a lap around the flying buttresses we went back to go to the top level and our max height of 65 meters (I think, it might've been 67 but close enough). We got to see the vaulted ceilings from above in the attic, so we were above the ceilings of the church, a crazy thing to think about given we had just been on the floor and I had thought they were unbelievably high. Finally, we climbed a set of stairs to the top of the smallest tower of the church, which gave a 360 degree view of Cologne and an excellent view of the church itself from above the flying buttresses. Breathtaking was the best way to describe it, and we took enough photos to hopefully capture at least part of the beauty and significance of this historical landmark. After our photo op was complete, we sadly made our way back down to the bottom of the cathedral to make our way to the Roman History Museum, hence the tidbit about the hair pieces in the last post. The coolest part was by far a floor from an old residence that was a beautiful hand made mosaic of various characters partying and enjoying wine. Turns out the floor was the floor of the old party room in the house and so it fit pretty well, but the most shocking thing was (and always is) the depth at which it is all found. The floor sits about 21 feet below current ground level, and it's always strange to me to think that that was somehow their ground level not really all that long ago. After making our way through the museum we were done for the day, so we grabbed some gelato as per usual and made our way back to the train station. We then proceeded to get on an IC train that we were definitely not allowed to use (but we didn't know that), but nobody asked for tickets in the short ride so all was well. After making it home to some dinner, I called it a night for the next early start to Koblenz.

We left at around 8 to drive to Koblenz, eventually ending up at the Koblenz theater, an opera house that is still in use today. We enjoyed an excellent tour from a woman who worked there as she took us through all of the different departments of the house to see how all of the pieces come together. After the tour we were able to grab some lunch by the Rhine before taking a beautiful gondola ride up to a fortress situated on the top of a hill right up against the Rhine. It was a massive complex, and while the tour guide's english was not the greatest, the structure in and of itself was still incredible. It also happened to have an excellent photo taking area, which resulted in yet another one of our many photo ops. Finally, we made our way back to the bus to head back to Bonn after yet another busy, jam-packed day, and I quickly went to bed. Friday was rather normal with one class in the morning before we were technically free to go, but most people wanted to go to a concert for our program coordinator, so we ended up staying Friday night and just leaving very early on Saturday. I went to sleep at a decent hour, knowing that waking up at 5 for the train to Brussels would be tough. Sure enough it was, but everyone managed to get there on time and by early in the day we had made a simple train ride to Brussels.

The thing is, everywhere I go seems to be my new favorite place, and I don't know if I'm just going to keep that pace up or if at some point I'll finally go somewhere that wasn't cooler than the last city I was in. Nevertheless, Brussels was once again my new favorite place almost immediately from the start. Sure, finding the airbnb took a minute and that part of town wasn't great, but as soon as we got into the city it all came to life. It was less tourist filled than Prague but still with the vibrant people and attitude that made Prague so charming. We knew we were short on time since we only had Saturday and part of Sunday, but luckily there were really only four or so things on the agenda: get french fries, have a Belgian beer, get a Belgian waffle, and get some chocolate. We knocked out one of the tasks right away by getting lunch at a small restaurant in town that served waffles as a dessert. Let me tell you, they are totally worth it and are actually a little different than Belgian waffles in America, so it's not just hype. They're crispier, come covered in powdered sugar, and in my case came with thick, rich chocolate syrup. It was a small waffle heaven that lasted for a whopping 20 seconds or so until I was licking the leftover chocolate off the spoon. After eating, we (once again my group consisting of me, Carter, Jules, Kathryn, Hailey, Alana, Drake, Emily, and Dae) decided heading to a nearby park to lay down would be the best move. When we got there, the park was surrounded by giant palaces and was fully fenced in with trees planted in rows, separated by walking paths and patches of grass. It was beautiful, and I for one love just sitting in parks and doing nothing, especially since we seem to be on the move all the time on this trip. So we picked a nice spot on the grass and proceeded to fall asleep for about an hour before deciding we needed to eat again, of course. Here, we knocked off our second task: french fries. We found a stand and ordered some, most people sharing a cone of the delicious fried spuds. They were very crispy, and came with a wide variety of sauces to choose from, so I went with Brazilian after someone said they had heard it was good. It didn't disappoint, and I was once again in a sort of food heaven. After coming down from the clouds we did some more exploring of the town, and eventually made our way to the Grand Place, the old market square of Brussels. It was flanked on all sides with beautiful historic buildings, and was bustling with people and activity. We just stared for a bit, taking in the beauty of the place and discussing how once again we had made it to the best place in Europe so far. Eventually we decided to just pick a direction and walk around, and ended up finding the little peeing boy statue that is so famous. We weren't looking for it, but if we were I would've been let down. It was really tiny, maybe two feet tall, and is a little bit back off the road, so it's difficult to see especially with all the people crowding around it. We moved on a bit before deciding to stop for dinner in a little bar that seemed charming with open windows to the street and some decent prices (always a consideration for us), and proceeded to take up half of their restaurant like we usually do. The food ended up being delicious and we stayed for a few hours at the restaurant enjoying some beer (check that off the list), wine, and talking to each other before deciding we should let them close and take the conversation back to the airbnb. We talked in our rooms for at least another hour before finally calling it a night, deciding to wake up at a very reasonable 9 AM or so to leave for day two.

Our last morning started with eating breakfast at a place in the Grand Place run by an incredibly kind old Belgian man, who was both hilarious and very helpful. He loved hearing we were from Texas since it turned out he had spent a year and a half in the States, including time in Austin, and told us he had loved it all but the heat. The people you can meet in the world to make it feel so small, am I right? After getting breakfast out of the way we made our way to a cathedral in the town where we caught the tail end of a mass, meaning we got to hear some of the organ as people cleared out. I personally love the organ and never get to hear it since America isn't really known for it's amazing Catholic cathedrals, so I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the powerful instrument in it's natural habitat. After that short visit, we made our way to a different park than day one that was surrounded by museums and once again took another hour or so nap (everyone was feeling a little too poor to pay for more museums). I took some time to call my mom (shoutout to you mom) before we made our way to pick up even more french fries at a place that supposedly had the best ones in the area. It was a tiny little shack, but sure enough they were even better than the ones from day one which is definitely saying something. After fries we all wanted to go back to town to do some shopping for souvenirs and the like, so I picked up an amazing sweater and walked with everyone else as we shopped and got some chocolate to cross off the last item on the list. We did start to run a little late and ended up having to book it to try to catch our train before things started to finally take a turn downward on this trip.

 While looking for our train, we noticed that it didn't have a platform next to it's name, just three asterisks. We figured it was just late or they didn't know the platform yet, so we went to the one our tickets told us to go to and waited for a minute. Then we noticed the train wasn't even listed on the screen above the platform, and we started to get a little uneasy. Then we asked a worker what was going on, and he informed us that our train was cancelled. Not late, not broken, just cancelled. How does that even happen? We were legitimately stranded in Brussels, and made our way down with everyone else who was supposed to be on that train to figure out what to do. We were told an alternate route with many more train changes, a bus ride, and a very late arrival time that would also get us home. Instead of being in the host home by 10, it was now looking like 12:30 at best. We figured there wasn't much else we could do though, and went to wait for the new train. Good news, they were now paying for all the transport we needed to get home because of the screw up, so that ended up being convenient. Anyways, we boarded the first train and started our journey back home through a seriously convoluted route. Only thing was, we weren't entirely sure what stop we needed to get off on since the man had just told us a town and was talking kind of fast, so when we got to Aachen, Germany, we got off. We thought he had said that, so we started looking for the bus to catch next while Jules and Carter asked for more info. Suddenly, while we're standing outside, Jules bursts through the train station doors and yells at us to come on before sprinting back through the door. We of course chase after her into a room where Carter is talking to a woman who simply looks at us all and yells, "Platform 3, go go go!" We turn and book it through the station, literally sliding through corners, and fly on to platform 3 to see a Thalys train getting ready to leave. A side note for those who don't know the Thalys: it is a train that runs out of France and requires seat reservations for use, an oddity since most trains don't require a reservation but offer one. Anyways, Carter comes flying up after us and just says to get on the train, so we run up to the man at the train doors who asks for our tickets. Carter quickly disperses tickets that came from the woman we were talking to, we board the train panting, and it starts to pull away. Turns out when they asked the woman what we should do, she told them we had gotten off too early. When they asked what to do next in that case, she said to them to just take the Thalys to Cologne and go from there to Bonn. Then, when Jules said sure and asked when it left, she calmly replied, "In three minutes." She then printed blank tickets for us to get on the train and sent us on our way. Needless to say our panic was warranted. Now that we were on the train getting stared at by the people who didn't understand why all these panting people were standing on a full train, we had to find a place to sit. Since the train, like I said, is reservation compulsory, there were no seats, and so we ended up just sitting in the connecting hallways between each car. We were next to the bathroom stalls and in the same area as the rubber flexible portion of the train that allows the train to turn between cars, bunched up in a narrow hallway with no AC and no space. Of course, we all looked at each other and burst out laughing at just how funny our situation was. We had made it, somehow, and at least now we had a story to tell. It really couldn't have gotten any more comedic. A german girl was even stuck with us, and she laughed and joked with us too before we all took a selfie for the sake of posterity. Luckily, after the first stop some people got off and we stole their seats, meaning the last hour of the ride was really not all that bad. In addition, because of the screw up on our part we would now be home slightly earlier. So, at around 9 PM, we rolled into Cologne Hbf and started looking for the train to Bonn. Of course, to add insult to injury, the normal one was delayed 50 minutes, so everyone crammed (and I mean crammed) into an IC train that used Bonn as a stopping point. We rode for 30 minutes packed like sardines before finally getting to Bonn Hbf at around 10:40. I caught a bus, and finally by 11:15 I was home. Unfortunately my host family had all gone to sleep, which means I didn't get the chance to tell them I would actually be leaving very early the next day to Hannover and again wouldn't be back until Sunday, so at the time of this post I actually haven't seen them for 6 days... whoops. At any rate, it was a hilarious way to end the trip and certainly provided some great memories and stories to tell. Brussels is definitely a place I would go back to if I somehow get to come back to Europe, even if it means another convoluted journey home. Next up, Hannover and Norderney followed by a long weekend in Paris.

(Spoiler: Norderney is the greatest place on the planet.)