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Monday March 17- Tuesday 18, 2008
We left Barcelona this morning around 8 for Antwerp, Belgium and finally got into Belgium around 10:00 pm! Obviously, we were on trains all day long! Surprisingly, the trip wasn't that bad. I am not sure if it is because we had prepared ourselves for over 12 hours of trains, but we had fun and entertained ourselves with sleeping, playing cards, pretty much anything to make us forget we were on a train. The night before in Barcelona, we had looked for place for us to stay while we were in Belgium and actually found a really cheap hotel with 3 twin beds, which worked out perfectly! So once we got to Belgium, we went to find our hotel. It was actually only about 100 meters away from the train station, which is amazing compared to what we normally have. Normally we have to take a taxi or subway to our hotel or hostel, but when we got into the taxi and told us to take us to the Hotel Agora, he told us to get out and walk about 100 meters. So we walked
When we were in Dublin, we had met some people studying in Belgium so we met up with them. They took us to a bar and then to an Irish Pub. Since it was St. Patrick's Day, it was definitely fun. It was actually more authentic than any of the pubs we went to in Dublin! There was a girl river dancing and they were playing Irish music, so it was a lot of fun! I attempted to learn how to river dance but gave up very quickly. Caitlin kept trying though! But it was a lot of fun! After the night was over, the boys took us to get some Belgian frites, which is where fries originated. They serve them here with mayonnaise and ketchup…mm healthy I know But after that, we just went back to our hotel to sleep!
The next day, Tuesday, we started the day a little later than the normal 8 o clock in the morning. But it was definitely nice to sleep in! We weren't super sure what all there was to do in Antwerp, so we figured it was okay to start a little later . We walked around the main street and then went inside the cathedral. It was a beautiful cathedral! We also saw Reuben's House (famous artist's house), and went shopping a little bit. Since we were in Belgium, we HAD to try a Belgian waffle. They were amazing so we each ended up eating 2!They weren't really served like we eat them in the states, they were just a waffle and we got them plain, but they had like sugar cooked onto them (can't really explain it, all I know is it was good!) That night, we went to a nice restaurant with Drew, one of the guys from Dublin. Caitlin and I tried mussels for the first time. They actually were surprisingly not bad! We got a huge bucket of them! But they actually weren't that bad! Afterwards, we went to a popular student bar and hung out with Drew a little longer and then we headed back to our hotel to pack all of our stuff up. We were leaving the next day for Amsterdam, so we wanted to be sure we got sleep because we knew we had another long day of the train ahead of us!
Belgium was pretty fun. There wasn't as much to see, but it was kind of nice having that break from having to be tourists for a day! We loved the Belgian waffles and the frites! It was really nice just having a pretty relaxing day and not be rushed to see anything. Plus it was fun going someplace where we knew people and were able to go out with them and places where they knew were fun. Actually, one of their friends knows a girl from my UNI club soccer team, so it was pretty funny. But all in all, Belgium was fun and more so a quick break from some other crazy cities.
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