Let the Journey Commence!

Well this is going to be difficult. Remembering 5 days’ worth of adventures and putting it all into one post.

Great. Which is exactly why I a breaking it up into 2 posts….maybe 3. We’ll see how I feel in an hour.

Quick synopsis of the flight:

                My flight from Denver to DC was very fast, but that is probably because I slept for pretty much all of it. The couple next to me was incredibly sweet. They were returning to Pennsylvania after a 2 weeks trip through Wyoming, South Dakota, and some other state. They said it was absolutely beautiful and wished me well on my trip, which I greatly appreciated. When the flight landed, I had a 4 hour layover in DC which was incredibly boring. In three words: Ate, Coffee, Texted. The End. The plane, however, from DC to Brussels was incredible. The seats were incredibly comfortable, you got a TV in front of you which allowed you to watch one out of about 25 movies, about 15 different movies and had the option to listen to music (really, really bad music) The meal was also amazing. I didn’t even know I was getting fed and then in front of my pops broiled fish, sesame noodle salad, fresh bread, and cheesecake! There was so much joy in my face that I didn’t have to pay extra for this meal, you don’t even understand. The only negative was the fact that I had to sit next to Mother Theresa. Meaning, she was old. And couldn’t hear anything. And also kind of had a slight resemblance to Mother Theresa herself. She would constantly tap me asking me to lean her chair back and yell at me to eat when I didn’t want to at all. It was an interesting flight to say the least.

The minute I touched down in Brussels, I couldn’t even try to stop smiling. It had begun. The backpacking trip I had waited for, for 4 years was finally beginning. That was, it started when I found Sjors. Which took a while. Once I got out of customs, I had to look for my friend, Sjors (if you didn’t realize that was a name before) My phone, of course, didn’t want to work for the exact 30 minutes I was freaking out that I couldn’t find him. Luckily he showed up and I got all 1,000 messages stating the trains were late and he would be there later on. Our hostel for the night was booked in Gent, but we decided to wander Brussels first before heading there.

I just love how the moment you leave a train station, you can tell immediately that you’re not in America.  The streets were narrow, the building close together, and the street names? I still don’t get why the names have to be THAT long! But that’s Dutch for you.

Sjors explained to me that seafood was extremely fresh because they get it right out of the ocean that connects to the dam. I really didn’t consider seafood at the time but all around me were signs for buckets of mussel and a beer special which lets you know exactly what we did first. It was clearly a tourist area but what the hell, right!? 15 Euros for a bucket of fresh mussels, a beer, and fries? Heaven. On Earth.  After we ate and I continuously took pictures of my food like a typical American tourist, he took me to Delerium, the most famous bar in Belgium. If you are in Brussels, this is a MUST. It is known to have the most beers on tap in the world. THE WORLD! I wish I could tell you what I got, but I don’t really remember. The highlight of our night was running into this guy, Fernando. He asked us a question about the beer and I knew that he was American so I asked where he was from and he told me New Jersey. That makes me happy to begin with but the kicker was he was living in Washington Township! The town right next to mine! Talk about a small world. So Fernando, Sjors, and I had a great conversation over some wonderful beer mostly about traveling until he had to head out. That was our cue to also leave and head for Gent.

Once we got back on the train, the entire ride, I tried to pronounce the name of every station we stopped at. I failed, miserably. But the man across from us seemed to get a kick out of me butchering every single thing that I said. That’s when he decided to join in and explain to me how pronunciation is different between Belgian Dutch and Holland Dutch. From that moment on, I decided to never attempt Dutch again. Sjors agreed.

When we got off the train, we headed straight for the hostel because it was getting dark and we had no map. That being said, we got lost. But it wasn’t our fault! Google maps lied. Once we arrived, I was exhausted but I knew the last thing I should do was go to bed. So we hung out with some others in the living room and played Jenga for a while. I’m a beast (I don’t know if that’s something I should admit). Then we decided to go get food (which consisted of, fries with mayo and horsemeat sausage... don't ask) and on our way back, we realized how beautiful Gent truly was. Everything was lit up with the dark sky as the backdrop. People were socializing, smiling, laughing, and it honestly felt as if I was living in a made up city. The beauty is incomparable to anything I've seen yet. Upon arriving back to Uppelink (the hostel), I decided jet lag and sleep are for fools so I made the decision to go out on the town since it was my only night to do so. So, me, Sjors, Irene, Alec, and Valerie went out to local bars. It was incredibly strange; not the bars themselves, but the walk there. We came across at least 3 different groups of people dressed in the most obscure way all because they were getting married. Turns out to be marriage weekend because everybody and their sisters were getting married. It was so much fun because they loved having me say things in Dutch and screaming and running around the square with them. I wasn’t so sad, though, when we ended up losing them.

After a few drinks, laughs, dancing, and smiles, around 4:30am we decided to call it a night….or morning….