Yet, again, I’ve had my ass kicked by another beer drinking country! Haha. I’m just kidding. Brussels is amazing…It’s the land of Beer (over 600 DIFFERENT types) waffles, chocolate, a peeing statue, and French fries with mayonnaise! Add in a few of your best friends and you’re bound to have an amazing time, which we did! Everywhere I go, I’m always shocked by the irony of the stigma of Americans. I don’t understand how the US is considered the fat country when all there is to do in a country like Belgium is eat crap food, that just so happens to taste wonderful and drink! Why aren’t they the fat ones in the world? Oh well. Our trip started out with a 5 hour bus ride to Madrid, a few subway stops and a night in the Madrid airport with a ton of other cheap travelers! The group consisted of me, Jordan, Avery (Chi O’s from North Carolina) and Lindsy (a Chi O from Arkansas). Lindsy, being crafty and adorable, made us all “Belgian Beer Books” so every time we tried a new beer we could record and describe it, more for fun the to actually remember the beers. Once we arrived in the airport and saw so many people sleeping on the floor, Jordan and I thought we’d start our beer books early, and we each had a beer so we could sleep – best idea I ever had. Had I not drank that beer I probably wouldn’t have slept at all. We woke up and checked in with our airline at 4:30 am!!! We checked in so early because we flew the shitty la bomba airline, Ryanair, who is notorious for overbooking and will find any excuse to kick you off of your flight or charge you extra money. Extra fees is where they make their money because their flights are so cheap, particularly with luggage that is too big or too heavy. It took us about 15 minutes to condense our luggage and smash it into this stupid metal box to show the lay checking us in that we were traveling with the right sized luggage, meanwhile all of security is busting up with laughter each time we tried to pull the bags out of the box – that was the real tricky part. Luckily we all got through with our bags, grabbed a piece pastry for breakfast, and went to the terminal. As we all lined up to board, there was a group of Spanish guys behind us passing a bottle of alcohol, completely wasted by 7 in the morning! I have to admit, they were pretty funny too. One guy kept letting out spastic shouts the entire 2 hour flight from the back of the plane. The weekend we went to Brussels there was a huge techno party there that tons of people were traveling to. Something probably close to 30-50,000 people in attendance. So another guy on the plane would randomly shout, “I love techno!” with his heave Spanish accent, and the plane would cheer. You’d think we were on a party bus. Somehow I managed to conk out and wake up as we were landing. The plane was bouncing on the runway. I felt like we were in the Snoop Dog music video where the plane has hydraulics. All the drunks cheered and clapped and we all rushed off of the flight, just to find Ryanair had screwed us yet again and flew us into an airport an hour outside of the city and owned a bus that we had to pay for to get there: Our options were Ryanair bus for 25 euros round trip, or a cab for 100 euros one way. Obviously we took the bus. We got there and walked through a complete ghetto looking for our hotel because the cab driver we hailed said it was too close for him to take us! After checking in we napped and headed out to explore. We stumbled upon our first beers and fries in a café which were wonderful compliments to the ham and cheese sandwiches that Jordan and I couldn’t finish, but saved and devoured two days later. (Gross, I know but I’m in college so I can). Our first beers were peach and tasted more like apple juice than beer! We stumbled upon city center where we continued our night tasting all sorts of beers and basking in the glory of our lives together. Friday night was an early one because Saturday was packed. We had free breakfast in the hotel Saturday morning and darted past the worlds sketchiest flee market near our hotel onto the subway. We toured the European Union headquarters and got to sit in the room where all of the nations gather for meetings. We learned all about the communication process through all the language barriers and had a great photo shoot with all of the flags affiliated with the EU. After we toured a chocolate museum and learned all about the different types of chocolate. For instance, white chocolate really isn’t chocolate, according to Belgians, because it doesn’t contain any cocoa, only cocoa butter. I also learned that candy bars are made with oils, like vegetable oil and not cocoa butter, or a lower amount of cocoa butter and is hence not as rich. Then we had a huge explanation on the difference between dark and light chocolate, a law that was passed by the European Union that allows candies made with cocoa powder and oil to be called chocolate, which the Belgians refuse to follow, and about a fashion show in Cuba where the models wore dresses decorated in chocolate in celebration of the opening of a new Cocoa bean plantation. After that we stumbled, literally, upon the statue of the peeing boy while we were looking for food. He was SOOOO small, and dressed in clothes supporting National Diabetes Day. People send outfits for him from all over the world and “the friends of (statues name)” change his clothes. Interesting and comical considering it’s a statue of a little boy peeing. We continued our beer tasting and headed out to do some shopping none of us could afford. I knew the minute my card was swiped at H&M it would be cut off, as I didn’t tell Bank of America I’d be in Brussels, and boy was I right. It is still currently deactivated! Haha. We finished the night off with Subway (if you haven’t noticed, we eat American food every chance we get), and a visit to O’Rielly’s pub, where I met the tallest Austrian guy I’ve ever seen in my life! (And of course I asked for a picture). We woke up the next morning and ran downstairs in our pj’s so we’d be able to eat in time and were sent back upstairs when some snotty European woman looked at us in disgust and the waitress tried to appease her. Okay, yes pj’s are tacky but let me break this down. We are in the shittiest of shitty in Brussels. The only thing around us is Shwarma and Kebab places, trash, and scary people! Not to mention, this hotel is just about the cheapest thing you could stay in without catching a disease and this grown woman and her husband are staying there! Give me a break and get your nose out of the air…If she did maybe she’d notice her European BO and shower! That being said we all ran upstairs and threw on our nicest clothes to piss her off – mission accomplished. We scarffed down breakfast and started our day with a tour of the only remaining family owned brewery in Brussels (or something special like that). The tour was awesome! We saw all the machinery and different stages of brewing beer, including bottling and then got a taste test! From there not much else happened besides eating, shopping and loving life. We toured St. Michaels Cathedral and sat in for part of a service, had our first Belgian hot chocolates, which are famous for a reason, and ended the night, yet again at O’Rielly’s. While it’s kind of cheating to go to Irish pubs because they’re not “authentic” you’re always guaranteed to meet English speakers from Ireland, England and all of Scandinavia. You’re also guaranteed to meet other nationalities who speak English and go to pubs because they know where to find all the white girls. Thank the lord the wake up call was loud the next morning because I was flying solo, literally, and had to be at the bus stop by 5:45. Fortunately, the concierge also called my taxi the night before like I’d asked so I didn’t have to trek through sketch-ville alone with my suit case. The cab driver’s first question was whether or not I’d had any problems staying in the area because it was that bad! The only problem we had, besides the usual cat calls, was surprisingly during the day. Two young guys, mid 20’s, slowed as they drove by and spoke French in a frenzy. We did as we were supposed to and ignored it (considering I don’t know how to tell him where to go and how to get there in French), when the driver whipped the car around the corner we were at, making the back of the car fish tale, partially blocking our paths. He threw it in park, hopped out and ran around the car. I literally thought, here we go, he’s going to try and put us in the car because he was moving so quickly and purposefully. The good thing is, my mind didn’t blank, I was completely ready and actually bracing myself to take this guy out. Luckily all he did was walk about 10 feet with us and speak French. His friend, who’d obviously gotten in the driver seat pulled up, he hopped in, and they were gone. That moment was probably the most scared I’ve ever been. All I could think about was the kidnappings in the movie “Man of Fire” in Mexico and South America. Luckily we had safety in numbers, a bit of ferocity in all of us, daylight, and guardian angels. I didn’t tell the cab driver this though as it was too early and I was completely hung over. I checked into my flight from Brussels to Madrid and laughed when I got to my terminal and saw that my flight was full of kids my age who were in similar, if not worse conditions, as they all were probably at the techno party. Needless to say it was a quiet flight until we landed and the little song of a horn that plays at the beginning of horse races blared and Ryanair announced we were on time and that they held the record for more on-time flights than any other European airline. I laughed…That shouldn’t be too hard with countries like Spain who do what they want, when they want. Instincts lead me through the subways of Madrid to the bus station, which had no name, and was a complete guess. I bought my 3 salad since I’ve been in Europe, and the first Cesar salad I’ve seen. I was so excited and then the lady handed me oil and vinegar to put on it! I was a little shocked, slightly bummed it wasn’t Cesar dressing, and laughed because I should have known. I made it onto my bus and home to Granada in once piece. This time I didn’t even realize I was traveling alone. There’s something slightly lonely but very empowering and exhilarating about traveling alone. It’s an automatic confidence booster when you look back and realize you just maneuvered without any doubt or complications from one country to another where neither spoke your native tongue. That being said, I’m so grateful to my parents, family and even co-workers who helped me get here. This is likely to be the best experience of my life. I’m getting a bit antsy to return to the states, which is not appeased at all by the Christmas decoration flying up everywhere throughout Europe as it’s their next holiday…no Thanksgiving. Last week, Kathleen’s mom and her best friend came to Spain and took us out to the best dinner I’ve had since being in the US, and she asked us our favorite part of being abroad. I’d like to share: Although I’m by no means a fluent Spanish speaker like I thought I’d be, and I have a LOT to learn, it is such a cool feeling to land in a Spanish airport after traveling somewhere in Europe and feeling immensely relieved to be surrounded by Spanish speakers. It’s pretty cool too when you meet people and you pray they speak Spanish, and are a complete chatterbox when you find that they do! It truly is my second language, and in that sense, I’ve accomplished what I came for, and sooooo much more! The second coolest thing is the opportunities that being abroad has brought. Particularly, the ability to move to New York. I’ve ALWAYS wanted to move to New York for a chapter of my life, but in the back of my head have always doubted my ability to leave home, but after being in Spain with expensive cel phones, a horrible time difference and a completely foreign culture, I have no doubts that I can survive and completely dominate any city in the US, and not feel completely removed from home. Now the 5.5 hour flight between New York and Cali seems like a cake walk. Anyways, while none of my plans are certain, I’m really lucky that my goals in life are quickly becoming reality and within near proximity. That being said thanks so much to everyone who’s gotten me here. I miss you all so much and can’t wait to be home for the Holidays!!!
