Easter Weekend in Belgium

Apologies, but I'm going to back track for a moment - I just don't want to forget anything that happened when I look back on this blog later! 

Two weeks ago, Easter weekend, Michelene and Lauren made the trek up to Belgium to see me and spend Easter in the land of chocolate and beer!

To briefly recap the craziness that was that weekend:

Friday night: 

• Spent an hour trying desperately to track down our air bnb in the suburbs of Brussels, to find that it was right under our noses the entire time, if only we had had proper directions from our host or phones with google maps. 
• Wandered around the center of Brussels trying to find a fun bar, only to find ourselves being ushered into a club in the bottom of an art gallery by friends we had just met on the side of the road. 
• Found a fast food place that was open past 11 pm (which may not sound all that exciting to you, but never successfully happened in France).

Saturday:

• Woke up, got coffee, went back to the center of Brussels to see the Grand Place and Manneken Pis, and get waffles and fries.

• Took the train to Bruges, ate delicious beer&cheese soup, took a tour of the oldest sixth generation family owned brewery in Bruges, went to the town square, ate more french fries, drank more beer. 

• Went back to Brussels, found an Irish Pub, hung out with a team of English rugby players until 2 in the morning. 

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Sunday: 

• Decided to try to go to Amsterdam, got to the central train station on time despite the 4 hours of sleep, realized all the trains and buses to Amsterdam were full for the day.
• Went back to our original plan which was to go to the city of Gent, Belgium instead.  Took the train to Gent, wandered through the beautiful city center, drank more beer, saw canals and cathedrals, ate chocolate, ate escargot, tried to understand the flemish language, failed miserably at trying to understand the flemish language.

• Went back to Brussels, had dinner at a mexican restaurant (with free chips and salsa...also something that never happened in France), made the relatively short but slightly complicated journey back to the grandparents house where I was staying.

Mich and Lauren, I love you two so much for wanting to and successfully (although stressfully) making it to Belgium to spend the weekend with me! Always an adventure with you two. Until the next one. 

London!

Well, it's official. 

I. Love. England. 

I think I could live in this town forever.  I won't, but I could.

My host family has relocated to a suburb of London called Richmond.  It's the last stop on the green line of the tube, so it's a little far out here, but it is amazing.  All i've done during my free time in the short amount of time I've been here so far is walk around and explore this fantastic place.  Within walking distance are coffee shops, pubs, a couple movie theaters, restaurants galore (hello sushi, thai, indian, and mexican!), the Thames River, Richmond Park, other outdoor garden spaces, and the  friendliest people with the most wonderful accents I have ever met.  (Does anyone ever get tired of listening to the English accent?  I don't think so.)

Everywhere I go, people are open and active and smiling and enjoying themselves and the day.  The vibe from this town is just so good, so different from the french, or any other place I've called home.  This is the type of place I need to be permanently. 

Pictured here is my new backyard. (Okay fine, its a 3 minute walk up the road.)

The Thames River, just beyond my backyard garden.  

This beer all over the place. 

And those telephone booths.  They are real. 

I really don't want to leave.

Except for the fact that we are living in a tiny apartment.  It's a 3 bedroom, so I still have my own space, but other than the bedrooms and a small living room and a kitchen, that's really it.  It's really well located, which helps, and once I get out of here, I think they will be okay.  And speaking of, I am out of here in just two weeks. 

I don't know how that happened.

But two weeks from today, my mom flies in, and 8 days after that, I am America bound!

My schedule is crazy and unpredictable right now, mais c'est pas grave.  (Yep, still speaking french.  It was/is actually still weird to be surrounded by english again and not have to concentrate to understand what people are saying!)  Yesterday, Sophie and I went to the zoo with the boys, which I'm sure you can imagine how that went with two 4 year olds.  They're cute and enjoying themselves...until they're not.  Long day for all of us.  But a really well done zoo!  Expensive, as is everything here, but easy to navigate and lots of shows and presentations all day long. 

Tuesday, I had the afternoon off, so I had some solo sushi and shopping time.  Well, not too much shopping, as my bank account right now is not equipped for that, but so many shops and stores to wander in and out of.  This morning I had some time off as well, so I rented a bike and explored Richmond Park, a huge nature reserve area right near by.  It was bustling with people exercising or strolling with their kids and dogs.  Everyone smiles at you, everyone is happy to give directions or offer suggestions, I just can't say enough good things about this area.  When I was in a smoothie shop this morning, a woman recognized my accent (still weird to think I am the one with an accent, because my voice is just so normal and boring to me) and invited me to happy hour with her and a group of American ladies all living in this area next week!  How nice was that?

Also in this park...deers roam free!  They're not scared of people, and there are literally dozens of them just hangin' out and enjoying the sunshine.

Speaking of sunshine...don't people always say that it rains a lot in London?  Because I haven't seen any yet, and the weather has been in the 60's and 70's since I've been here, and it's not supposed to change any time soon.  Either I've got good luck, or everyone is wrong.  Doesn't matter to me. 

If anyone has suggestions on things to do and see while here, I'd love to hear them!  I'm planning on getting out to do the touristy things (Big Ben, London Eye, Buckingham Palace, etc) when my mom is here, but will have time this weekend and next to adventure and see what else this city holds.  I know there is so much and I can't possibly see it all in 3 weeks, but I'm willing to give it a good shot.  

I have recently discovered that there is nothing worse then packing up and moving.

Unless you're doing it with someone else's family.

I am writing this post from Brussels, where we finally arrived last Friday night (March 27th) to spend a week or so before we move on to London, but it took a lot to get here.  

I don't want to get too ahead though, since I still haven't talked about my amazing last weekend in the south of France!  So quickly, lets do that.

It seems as though we probably picked one out of like 3 weekends that the south of france gets rain.  So, weather wise, it was a little disappointing.  I definitely looked, and sort of felt, pretty stupid walking around in sandals half the weekend.  I had high hopes.

We (Lauren, Michelene, and I) left bright and early Saturday morning and were in the mediterranean coastal town of Cassis by lunch time!  It was an amazing little port city right on the water, about 20 minutes south of Marseille, which was our ultimate destination.  But Cassis was better.  We had an amazing seafood lunch, walked along the beach, and strolled the cobblestone streets.  Then we took an amazing scenic drive from Cassis to Marseille, with some of the most unreal views I have ever seen. 

After Cassis we drove to Marseille, and fought traffic and an incompetent GPS for a good hour before finally deciding to call it quits and just find our air bnb.  We should have expected that, knowing that Marseille is the second biggest city in France, and all cities come with traffic and headaches, but some of these streets we accidentally took barely even fit Michelene's Twingo, maybe the smallest car that Europe produces.  We finally checked into our air bnb (a tiny but tidy apartment), made some dinner, got ourselves cleaned up, and headed out to find two Irish pubs that were recommended to us.  Can't go wrong with a decent irish pub. 

(I left France 5 days ago and I already miss these girls!  Thank God they are coming to Brussels this weekend!!!)

The next morning we attempted to try and sight see around Marseille, but again got frustrated and ending up just heading to our third and final destination, Aix-en-Provence.  About 30 minutes north of Marseille, a smaller, more manageable, picturesque city.  The weather still kind of sucked, but we had the best time just wandering all around, trying pastries and coffees and ice cream all day long.  Aix is also known as the city of fountains, claiming to have about 100 different ones throughout the whole city.  Here's the most impressive one I saw:

I wish it had been better weather, and already spring, because I can just tell how wonderful this place would be in warmer weather.  Lots of trees and cobblestone streets and an overall easy going vibe.  Next time!

Now in Brussels, everything is well.  The boys and I are staying with my host dads parents, who are so pleasant and wonderful to me.  I had been carrying around a bag of dunkin' donuts coffee with me (Thanks Ms. Faith!) since I arrived, but have been using a keurig like machine for coffee since I've been here.  This morning I finally had the chance to brew everyone some American coffee and they loved it!  The boys have been mostly good, they love being in Brussels with all their family and love the idea of London because that's where Peter Pan and Harry Potter live, of course.  We're all pretty excited about London in fact, and it looks like we will finally be there this coming Monday (April 6th)!

Packing up the house was nothing short of a nightmare, but thankfully a nightmare that is now behind us.  The movers were there for two straight days, two solo guys packing up this entire house.  They were frustrated because they wished there were more of them, we were frustrated because we wished there were more of them, and the boys were running wild among all of this.  Talk about a headache.  

Pictured here: my last night in France, complete with boxes, a taped up couch, and wine out of a plastic cup.  Going out in style.  

Next stop: Becoming best friends with the royal family!