Christina and I were running late after class so we had to take a taxi to Fiumicino Airport. We told our taxi driver to go fast and he did! He took a really interesting shortcut (read: off-road) and we got there within 20 minutes.
So we go to the airport and flew to Brussels!
Brussels, Belgium
We got to Brussels fairly late (10 PM after checking in our hostel), and we were hungry! So we walked around Brussels to find a place to eat, but the area our hostel was in was kind of out of the way from places so it took a while to find a place.
After finding many closed restaurants, we finally found one called La Rotunda. It felt very French and the waiter was from France but apparently lived in Hollywood for 3 months. He was very nice and the food was sooooo good!
The next morning we set off very early to get to the train station to Louvain-la-Neuve, a university town outside Brussels. What stands there was my main reason going to Belgium: Musée Hergé. I am a big fan of the Belgian comic Tintin which is really famous in Europe amongst French speakers. Hergé is the author and artist of this comic. And the museum did not disappoint (other than the standard "no photos allowed"). Even Christina, who didn't really know about Tintin, enjoyed the museum. It was very contemporary and interactive. And the fact we got student discounts, which I didn't expect, and there were virtually nobody there other than a few stragglers. It was so amazing. I did not want to leave. After the museum, we ate at the museum restaurant - very fancy! And delicious.
I got souviners! A t-shirt and a post-card. I'm excited about them.
We returned to Brussels and decided to get off at Central station rather than Noord, so we could get right in the middle of the city and then walk back to our hostel. It was a good idea: we saw a cathedral and the sunset over the city skyline.
For dinner we grabbed a quick panini and had Belgian waffles for
dessert (checkpoint checked!). Mine had strawberries and powered sugar -
yum!
Afterwards, I wanted to go to a bar to grab a small glass of Belgian beer. Because of my brother-in-law, Matt, kept mentioning for me to try some and stuff, so I wanted to have some in his name!
I saw this bar that had rainbow pride flag and wanted to check it out. Turns out it was a gay bar, which I expected. But when I mean that, I mean there were literally no women in there. I was ecstatic because I never had a chance to drink at a gay bar yet and I have been meaning to while in Rome. Why not in Brussels, then? After a bit of deliberation and talking to one of the patrons who encouraged us to come in (he said that everyone was very friendly and it's enjoyable), we decided to try it out. So we went and we ended up having the best night of our lives. We got two different types of Belgian beer, each paid by two different people! The beers were Jupiler and Leffer. Free beer, thanks! We met two men named James and Guy who were Irish and British respectively. They were the ones who bought one of our beers. Apparently they were in Brussels after a long day/night for a friend's bachelor party. Not sure how realistic that story was though ahaha. Either way, nobody cared and we just hung out and talked about football, beer, cultural differences and everyone's travel plans or travel history. Other patrons joined our conversations as the night went on. A lot of them spoke French and Dutch. And English, too! We spent a longer time there than I originally intended! Best night ever, honestly. Who else can say that they spent an evening in a gay bar in Brussels, Belgium? Not many others, I'd say!
Great beer with great people makes a great night.
The next day we slept in a bit and got breakfast again in the hostel. We checked out and went to the Nord station an hour before we had to depart to Amsterdam. Turns out were were at the wrong station so we rushed to get tickets and get to Midi station (10 mins ride). We got there and rushed to our platform and made it. We thought we made it and relaxed. But little did we know that it wasn't even the worst bit of it.
When the train arrived, the ticket manager rejected our printed tickets from our emails, because he saw it was "ticketless", meaning it was supposed to be on our email but the email we printed didn't show the correct information. He said we had 3 minutes to fix this so we rushed back to information desk, but we missed the train. I was so stressed out!! So this guy at the information desk wrote a handwritten letter explaining our situation and hope we can get on the next train. Okay, not so bad.
We went to a cafe to get coffee and relax after that stressful ordeal. Went to our platform thinking we still had 40 minutes......... turns out we missed the next train! UGH. Military time screwed us up, so we got the wrong train time. We went back to the information desk and a different man was there. He was more experienced and put a sticker on our printed email tickets, for "authorization of change" and said he'd meet us at the platform. Now it was more official and we had much more of a chance getting on that dumb train! Turns out, there were 16 other people going through the same thing - all had pink stickers of authorization on their tickets. When we all realized this, we laughed, when we were in a group behind the information guy who was telling the ticket manager to let us all on! It was crazy.
Downside of this ordeal: we got to Amsterdam 5 hours later than we wanted to.
Upside of this ordeal: we technically upgraded to first class because of the seats we found. Yay free wifi!
During the train we were sitting next to two men from Albania and Bulgaria (they were friends). They were friendly and despite language barriers, we chatted a bit. Christina mentioned I could draw and they insisted on me drawing them! Oy.
So then we were finally at Amsterdam...
Quote at the Brussels station which I really liked.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
We checked into our hostel. First impression of the place was really not that good. The stairs were scary (we later found out this was normal for Amsterdam). But we eventually got used to it.
We looked around to see what was open to see what we can do for that evening. We decided to go to the Anne Frank House! It was an interesting museum to see how Anne lived. Unfortunately, I couldn't take any pictures inside. But it was definitely one of the tops spots to visit in Amsterdam.
Afterwards we ended up eating at this Argentinean restaurant which ended up being really good. I got grilled salmon for dinner.
The next morning we got up early to go to the I Amsterdam letters before the crowds hit it. We left later than I wanted to, but we were there by 10 AM. There luckily wasn't a lot of people! We got lots of great photos with the letters.
After that we headed to the Museumplein, which is a large park that consisted of many museums, where the I Amsterdam were located in front of Rijksmuseum (does spelling Dutch correctly all the time mean I have a propinquity for the language?!). We ate at one of this outdoor stall for breakfast since it was such a nice day.
We headed to the Van Gogh museum soon after and yikes - another line. There were security checks at this museum and once again, no photos were allowed to be taken.
After that, we decided to forgo lunch, thinking we'd get it afterwards, to go to the Heineken Experience. We ended up being inside there for four hours. It's not a museum that you can just zoom around and briefly look at stuff. This is 100% interactive from history to being able to draught your own beer. It's completely in English, even guide points spoke English only. For some reason, I was kind of expecting it to be in Dutch but I guess this is a major tourist scene and English is the "international language" for here. This was also where I took the most photos, probably making up for all the museums I couldn't take photos beforehand!
After the Heineken Experience, we were a little tipsy because we didn't have a lot of food to absorb the alcohol well. So we went straight to get a late lunch early dinner after that. We ended up eating at this restaurant that was relatively near our hostel that had a variety of food but we got traditional Dutch meatdish (I forget what it was called. Hashee, maybe?).
We turned in for the night and got up early for the last day on Monday. We checked out of our room and stored our luggage in the reception area. We wanted to do something before leaving, so we decided to squeeze in a canal tour! We spotted a cheap tour on a dock on the way to the Museumplein. It was nice and since we caught the first tour at 10 AM, we were the only ones along with a few Taiwanese tourists.
Amsterdam
is the city of bikes, basically. And they mentioned this on the canal
tour, there's a LOT of bikes in the canal! So much they must have to do
cleaning regularly, apparently.
We stopped by this really contemporary cafe-restaurant. And I had this amazzzziiinnnggg steak and cheese sandwich (I was stuck between a cold chicken and avocado and hot steak and cheese sandwiches, and since it was cold, I opted for the warmer sandwich. Christina and I got "breakfast" drinks haha. For me, APPLE JUICE!!!
We still had a little more time to kill before going to the central station. We walked down a street we hadn't been on and ended up inside this cheese store. I got a slice of chocolate cheesecake to share while Christina bought brie, her favorite cheese.
After that, it was time to go back to Rome. Christina was actually heading back to Brussels to meet with friends that were traveling there. I was headed back to Rome on my own. We stayed together at the central station before I left to take the train to Schiphol Airport. I was really nervous about traveling on my own because of the the stressful mishaps with the trains beforehand.
But luckily, it was the smoothest trip I ever rode. I already had my tickets, I only had my backpack and I was in the plane. And the touchdown back in Rome was the smoothest landing I ever experienced - you barely felt it - and everyone on the plane clapped and cheered.
The moment I stepped off the train into the airport terminal, all I could read is Italian everywhere and it felt familiar - words I can actually fully recognize! It felt REALLY good to be back. I took the train from Fiumicino to Trastevere and met a Canadian lady who lives in LA, who was on my plane (I actually saw her on my plane because she was the last one, so she was very late - and recognizable haha!). When I realized she was asking other train riders if they spoke english and talked with them, I sort of introduced myself. She and I chatted for a while until my stop.
After getting to Trastevere, I took the tram to the usual stop and walking down the street to my apartment, I passed by the American Cinema movie theater (now usually used for clubs or screenings) and there was a football game happening. The doors were open and the large screen was displaying the game and loud cheering emitted from inside. I also passed by a man leaning out of a Turkish kebab shop smoking a cigar, and his t-shirt simply said "HOME". I really liked that.
For the past three months so far, Rome has truly been my home.
Casa dolce casa.
When I arrived back in my apartment, I got my package from home! It was brought over by Brittany's mom who met with my parents. Goldfish (two packs), a large bag of Reese's, two 3-pack trident gum, my new cellphone case, cellphone cover, and replacement lens cap which I lost my original in Pompeii! And two nice shirts. Thanks Mom and Dad!
Today, Tuesday, I am relaxing in Rome. I am going to hang out with Taylor all day today because I haven't seen him since last Tuesday so I kind of missed him a bit! We have a bit to catch up on. :)
Tomorrow I am going to Venice for an overnight with Brittany, her mom and her mom's friend. I'm really grateful for them letting me tag along. I probably would have never gotten this chance to go to Venice if it weren't for them!
After Venice, I am going to beautiful Stromboli and Catania in Sicily with the one and only Taylor. ♡ Southern Italy, I am coming for you! My excitement knows no boundaries.
I am always so grateful for all the experiences I have throughout this trip. Of all the people I met, all the food and drinks I consumed, all the languages I tried to learn and talk with, all the history I've discovered and learned again... it's just something I'll never get over with.
There is this quote I found somewhere in Italian that really resonates through me: Viaggiare è vivere.
Amo la vita, amo la vita, amo la vita.