Hola, hola! Did you think you were going to get rid of me? NEVER! I have material for a lifetime of this blog, my dears.
We haven't discussed (and by that I mean I haven't rambled about) my recent trip to the continent! Ah, this was the one thing I omitted from this blog--until now. So sit back and be ready to be amused--or not, because to be honest not a lot of tragically funny things happened during this trip and I enjoyed myself enormously mostly without any incidents.
Here we go, then!
1. Belgians are super tall and skinny and they all have bikes.
This is Model-land. It's ridiculous--everyone is attractive, fair-skinned, tall, thin, classy. And even if you do see a fellow chubster, they have the appearance of health and vigor because they all ride their bikes--young and old, men and women, slave and free--BIKES, BIKES EVERYWHERE!! You know what that means, right? That means they can afford to eat their ridiculously fatty traditional food and be totally okay. But me? I got the Mexican Carb Curse... so let's just say that there's a valid reason why I have to unbutton my jeans after a couple hours of wearing them.
2. The land of the Fries
Belgian food is fried everything, which is both a blessing and a curse. Being a junk food lover, this was paradise-- even if there comes a point when you can't actually tell what exactly you are eating--I had a squared fried goody called "The Mexicano" that tasted nothing like anything Mexican and, to be honest, I'm not even sure what kind of "meat" (if indeed it was meat) it was:
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| what are we looking at here, you ask? Your guess is as good as mine... |
But I can't complain-- eating fries and waffles everyday was a beautiful dream.
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| The glories of fries bathing in ketchup... |
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| A proper Belgian meal with entree and two sides... |
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| Basically lost my mind-- I blame the carbs. |
Yes, it's all fun and games and yummy fried food until someone's jeans don't close. That, my friends, is the genetic pool I must live with. If you experience this addiction for fried goods, I invite you to sit down and draft a plan to fight back as you eat a basket of delicious mozzarella sticks, onion rings and----NO, NO, NO, DON'T GIVE IN! *says she as she dips her last fry in the little cup of ketchup*
3. AND CHOCOLATE, CHOCOLATE EVERYWHERE.
Belgium, the land of indulgence. If I ever wanted to get to heaven, I would have to avoid setting a foot in Belgium again to prevent myself from gluttonously eating my life away. You know Godiva chocolate is from Belgium right? Okay, so imagine having like one hundred Godiva stores in a 3 mile radius---that's what Belgium is like. Here's a picture of me wrestling a chocolate elephant outside "Chocoholic":
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| Melts in your mouth, not your hand. |
5. Luckily, we walked a lot
Mostly because my companion had little understanding of cartography (I still love you, Betty Jo!). But this was good because it made me feel less guilty about eating waffles that were dripping with oil. Also, because we got to see lots of nice things and that, I guess. I saw four different cities in four days, so you could say I practically saw all of Belgium (have you seen the size of the thing? It's adorable). Leuven, Brussels, Brugge, and Spa. Here, have a look:
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| tomb of St. Damian |
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| SHSU helped rebuild University of Leuven's library after WWI. What a small world. |
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| I was tempted... but no space in my luggage... |
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| Brussels Cathedral |
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| The Belgian equivalent to Buckingham Palace |
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| Brugge |
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| holding the subs in Brugge |
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| Chocolaton |
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| more Brugge loveliness |
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| Architectural talk: love those thingies.... |
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| This is Spa. It's a real place in this planet. Yes, there are spas in Spa. |
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| "The hills are alive..." |
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| more beauty in Brugges |
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| Spa from above |
Excuse me for spamming you with photos, but words sometimes don't make the place justice.
6. Then we go to Spa, world famous for its waters... which taste like drinking rain water that has been sitting on a rusty old radiator for 20 years. I'm sure it's great for you, with all those minerals (there was an orange built-up residue on the basin where the water was running.... EWW), but you won't catch me drinking that stuff. Sorry, I'll take English tap water any day over that--hell, I'll even take American tap water over that stuff.
7. But the best part was...
Definitely spending time with my favourite Belgian in the whole wide world, eating cheap pizza, drinking unpleasant beer (disclaimer: I am not a beer person. I am sure the beer was great, by normal people standards, but to me it just tastes like what I imagine pee to taste), and watching the Great British Bake Off (we are the best GBBO commentators).
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| She's going to hate me for posting this... |
After four wonderful days, I hopped on a train to Paris-- more to come soon!!
xx
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