Hi everyone! I’m sorry I’ve been slacking on blog posts. I just had a week vacation where I visited Scotland and Ireland and I can’t wait to share it with you. But I don’t have the time right this second because I have a practical today (wish me luck!).
I promise I’ll be updating you on my week, but in the meantime, here’s a preview of what’s to come:
Cheers!
Thursday
So Court and I woke up at the crack of dawn after “sleeping” (aka a three hour nap) and got ready to head to Brussels. We had to take the tube to the bus so we left at 6:50 am for the 8 am bus. When we left to go walk to the tube stop, it was pouring. So we changed into rain boots and trekked to the tube stop in the rain as our suitcases and sweatshirts got soaked. After a thirty minute tube ride, we finally got to the bus station! …or so we thought. Apparently the bus station was outside of the tube, through the national rail station, across the street, through an overpass, across the street again, inside double doors, back outside and then back through another set of doors. By the time we figured that out, it was 5 before 8 and check in had closed.
Luckily, there was a 9:30 am bus to Brussels! They had us wait until 9:15 to check in, and that time actually flew by. We finally had our official tickets! But after over an hour in the bus station with birds flying all around and barely any heat, anyone would get antsy. So when 9:30 rolled around, we were pumped to get onto the bus. Then at 9:30, they made an announcement. And we started to gather our luggage. And we stopped. The announcement was not that the bus was boarding, but that the bus was delayed forty-five minutes (which turned out to be an hour). Of course. So, we waited. I was coughing up a storm and Courtney’s back had given up on her, but we sat and waited and discussed how awesome the Pats are. (Courtney hates the Pats.) So at 10:30 the bus finally arrived and we got on!
After driving along for a few hours (it’s about an eight hour ride), we go into a tunnel and just stopped. Great. We sat there for what seemed like forever. We were in such heavy traffic that the bus driver came back and answered someone’s question! So I asked, “Excuse me, what are we waiting for?” He giggled and said, “We’re in the English Channel”. Turns out the dumb American thought that the boat/vessel carrying us through the sea was a tunnel with traffic. That explained the light rocking of the bus…..
Skip through a lot of sleeping and ta-da! We had arrived in Brussels, Belgium! We were ecstatic. Now all we had to do was find the hostel. Easier said than done. The hostel was walking distance from the bus station, which was great. What wasn’t great was that the directions were in broken English. And by broken English I mean that they made no sense. It must have been very amusing to an onlooker to see these two young, American girls with no sense of direction wandering around with suitcases past stores like “Sexy City” and “Erotique”. Instead of a ten minute walk, it turned into a thirty minute struggle.
But then we found the hostel. We were done and we could relax and get dinner! Just kidding. My card was declined. Backtrack a few moments before to me on the bus frantically emailing Mommy to make sure that I had enough money on my debit card to pay for the hostel. I didn’t. So she transferred money (Thanks again Mom!) and I thought that was that. Turns out, ING loves to take their time transferring money (it’s been 5 days now and still no money). When I went to pay for the hostel, the money hadn’t transferred yet. Courtney couldn’t use her card outside of the UK and didn’t bring enough money in cash to pay for all three nights up front. What about my British bank account you ask? I entered the wrong PIN too many times and my account had been locked for five days. With my luck, these five days included our entire trip to Belgium. After freaking out and holding back tears, with Devin and my mom’s help and patience, I managed to get Mama Kaston to call the front desk and give me a credit card number. Keep in mind, when Mommy calls after all of this panicking, she says, “All you need is a credit card number?” in the most nonchalant manner. I guess technically I had been overreacting, but after this kind of day I think my insanity was reasonable.
So we finally had the room in the hostel taken care of and we could lay in a bed and relax. Of course not. The reception was ten minutes away from the hostel we had booked. And because Courtney and I have no sense of direction, the ten minute walk doubled to twenty.
Okay, so I’m serious this time when I say that we got to put our bags in the room and grab dinner. We ate at a cute little restaurant. I had spaghetti for dinner and was tempted into having double chocolate cake for dessert. No regrets: it was delicious. Keep in mind, this is Belgian chocolate we’re talking about.
Friday
After a much needed long night’s rest, Courtney and I grabbed some breakfast and headed out to see the sights of Brussels …in the rain. Thankfully, our hostel was on the same street as the center of town, so we walked around getting free chocolate samples and going into literally every single tourist shop in the city. For lunch, we had a nutritious and delicious box of Belgian chocolates. If I could have that for lunch every day and not get diabetes, I would do it in a heartbeat. I would elaborate, but our entire day was pretty much just walking around and eating chocolate. And for dinner we had a Belgian classic: Subway.
After dinner we met up with some friends that came separately to Brussels at a notorious bar called Delirium Café. The bar is famous for having 2,004 beers on tap [number according to Wikipedia] and a pink elephant as its logo. It was lots of fun and many selfies were taken. Courtney and I may or may not have stolen the cute cups that they have, which are in the pictured to the left.
Saturday
We started the day off right with some Belgian waffles at Waffle Factory. To say that these waffles were delicious is an understatement. I had one covered in bananas andstrawberries, and one filled with Belgian chocolate.
Courtney’s had chocolate drizzled over strawberries (Courtney also got another waffle later, don’t worry). After breakfast, we continued to go into the last few tourist and chocolate places that we hadn’t bothered yet and finally saw Mannekin Pis. I’d like you to keep in mind that the only thing in tourist places in Belgium is this statue, chocolates and beer souvenirs. Naturally, Courtney and I were expecting this lavish statue that people from all corners of the world came to see! Instead, we nearly missed the tiny thing. 
There are replicas of the statue in store windows that are bigger than the real one. Regardless, we got some pictures (like the one to the right) and ate more chocolate.
So we headed back to the hostel room and did some research; someone had mentioned a beer festival was going on. We did some intense Googling and found out that the 6th Annual Beerfest in Brugge was that day! After going to the tourist center and finding out how to get to Brugge by train, we headed off to a beer festival. I mean, who could pass up a Belgian Beerfest?! I used the last of my money to get the train ticket and we headed on the next train to Brugge, Belgium. As we were sitting on the train ride there, I turned to Courtney and asked, “What if we walk out of the station and the Beerfest isn’t there?” Clearly we hadn’t thought that far ahead, but it was too late now. We got to the station and there was no Beerfest in sight. Thank goodness I have no shame because I literally started asking everyone around where it was. Finally, we discovered that it was in the center of the town, a twenty minute walk away.
As we got closer, we saw more and more people with beer glasses. We eventually found the Beerfest, only to discover that although admission was free, it was ten euros for a package (tokens for beer and a glass), money I clearly didn’t have. So Courtney and I may or may not have managed to get glasses and one and a half drinks each (as maybe shown on the left). The second beer was the most delicious beer I’ve ever had in my life, some sort of berrylicious concoction. Then we headed back to the train station (we actually didn’t get lost!) and went home. We crashed and then woke up bright and early for our eight hour bus ride back home.
To end our struggle of a trip, the tube line that took us home from the bus was closed, so we had to transfer, ending the trip just the way it had started. Regardless of all of these bumps in the road, we still managed to have an awesome trip and survive our first endeavor in Europe.
From T to Tube 