Everybody arrived on Monday March 12, except for Mary, who had already been there for a weekend and make lots of Amsterdam friends for us ahead of time. Thanks Mary! It's always important to have non-sketchy, reliable friends in different places. I tried to control my giddiness waiting for those kids to walk out of the gate at the airport, which was difficult because I had been looking forward to that day for almost 2 months. I'll spare you the details and just let you know that everyone got there in one piece, ready to hit the town.
The girls and Tom spent Tuesday with me in Delft. I introduced them to riding two on one bike, which went much smoother than expected. That must have something to do with MJ's Texas 4000 experience and Stephanie's giggling. You need the perfect mix of athletic ability and a sense of humor for this kind of activity!
We went to Bebop, a Jazz bar in Delft. Not too much happens on a Tuesday night in my little town, but we actually had live music this time. The music was great, and we had some delicious beer.
I convinced Stephanie to get Kwak, simply because it comes in the coolest glass.
Sorry for using you for cool pictures!
Kwak
Two of my favs
We like this picture... mainly because Tom's eyes are open :)
Okay not too many pics from Delft, but we traveled to Brugge, Belgium on Wednesday and I have a bit more documented from that trip. We decided to go to Brugge because it's known for its excellent beer selection, delicious chocolate, quaint scenery, and because I wanted to go. Very strategic, I know.
From Delft, Mj, Steph, Tom, & I took 3 trains (successfully!)
We almost had a problem when he tried getting on the train leaving from platform 9 3/4.
Antwerp is a beautiful station.
In fact, most of the major train stations over here have such gorgeous architecture.
Something useful can also be beautiful; what do you think about that, UT Engineering buildings?
We all stayed together at Lybeer Travelers' Hostel in Brugge. Since boys came separately from Amsterdam, Tom was very eager to know when they would arrive.
I think I heard cowboy boots! Grady?! Mike!?
(Meanwhile...MJ, Steph, & me giggle uncontrollably)
Pam and Brett met us in Brugge by some crazy coincidence that they got a ride from a friend in Den Haag (The Hague) who was also going to Brugge on the same day. Brett's mom, Melanie, is my Dutch momma while I'm over here since she and her husband just moved to The Hague for a 3 year posting with Shell. Brett is their son, visiting for spring break, and Pam is my arranged-best-friend thanks to Melanie. Good thing we have 100000 things in common and and getting to hang out for 3 months while she's living in The Hague! I'm so glad they both joined us for this trip.
We found this pretty neat fountain on our first, sunny day.
Left to right: Pam, me, Steph, MJ, Mary
Shout out to Melanie Mays!
Brett, Pam, & me
Drinking on the street is legal. That's why nobody does it except for American tourists! Oh well, at least we made the most of it.
So we went to the grocery store to try some new beer.
And drank in front of the church.
Brugs beer, my favorite from Brugge.
Just so that this blog is somewhat educational, here's some wiki facts about Brugs:
Brugs is a white beer from Bruges, Belgium, based on a traditional Brabant brew. The name comes from Dutch "Brugs tarwebier", which means "wheat beer of Bruges". Brugs was first brewed in Bruges, capital of West-Flanders. Every bottle of Brugs bears the "Golden Tree" (Gouden Boom), harking back to the trophy traditionally awarded to the knights that won the tournaments held in the city back in the Middle Ages. The beer is pale yellow, slightly cloudy beer with a refreshing tartness. It's made from wheat and hops and is seasoned with bitter orange and coriander. The beer is unfiltered, as with all beers on lees, which allows it to keep the natural cloudiness given by its yeast. Often served with a slice of lemon, the beer has very low bitterness and a dense, creamy head.
Giggles
Praying for good beer
Picnic in the plaza.
Surely two sandwiches will be filling!
Designated bottle opener
Rocking the sock hat
We're the three best friends that anyone could have.
The happy couple
Postin' up!
Searching for the bar
Mary found it!
No wonder we could find it, it's below eye level.
Pretty cool set up inside...
...because there's foosball!
When in Beligum...
try beers
and beers
and beers
and beers
and beers
and candles
and Belgian/Dutch fast food
(frikandel, french fries, fried cheese, fried everything)
and more late night snacks!
On Thursday, Steph, MJ, Tom, & I went to the chocolate museum. Our main reason was the see chocolate Obama, which was a such a dissapointment that I didn't take a picture. In reality, my main reason to go was to see how much free sample chocolate I could get. To our dismay, 80% of the museum was about the history of chocolate, the Aztecs, drinking coco, how beans are harvested, and all kinds of educational things. Where are the chocolate samples?!
Captain Morgan says "That way!"
A mustache cup! Tom's 6 euro admission just paid off!
After learning at least one thing in each room (good idea Steph), we did ended up at a chocolate making demonstration and got our reward.
Various levels of enjoyment
Stephanie's admission just paid off!
Paid off twice, thanks to chocolate sculptures.
Half of my admission's worth found here.
The rest were the free samples in the gift shop which I walked past six times.
It was a gorgeous day in Brugge, the school kids were eating their lunches in the plaza.
So we posed in front of them.
Pretty Brugge church
Sorry I don't have more details, I wasn't allowed to be a nerd this trip.
Our late night snack place during the day time
Since it was a gorgeous day and we are big park people, we found a nice one to soak up lay in and some rays. I could really use some sun these days, Texas would be ashamed at my pastiness.
Mary and MJ gave up rolling down the hill
because the grass wasn't as dry as it looked.
Steph looking for a dry spot to sit.
Oh! And that statue is King Albert 1 of Belgium.
Albert Leopold Clement Marie Meinrad
In case you're interested, that's what he looked like.
Ruled Belgium from 1909-1934.
Steph gave up looking for dry grass even though I swore
I found some, so she chilled on the bench for a while.
Until she saw how happy we were!
That was quick.
How you know Steph is happy....
Okay sorry Steph I'll stop picking on you now.
The King of Relaxation
Sometimes it's fun being 10 again.
I'm not going to say the name of "flower necklace"
on this blog for fear of being urbandictionary'd.
:)
When in nature, I think of headstands.
Time to head back to the train station. Here's a pretty Belgian sight.
How nice would it be to have a canal in your back yard?
Ok I'll stop talking about how much I like canals!
Where's the hotel again? All the streets look similar.
Found it
Brugge train station decor
Finding our platform
Antwerpen Centraal, that's us!
But, Mary wants to go to platform 9 3/4.
I'm curious, how are you pronouncing Brugge in your head? English speakers say "broo-shhh", Dutch speakers say "broo-Guh" (hawk that loogie on the G), and our special group says "bruh-gie" as in Dougie.
So, naturally, we had a theme song and dance.
We spent Friday in Amsterdam. Here's some sights.
Iamsterdam monument.
No other letter will suffice!
Oh no they didn't.
"Coach, put me in!"
I need Grady's pictures for the rest of this, but we did play 4 on 4 with some Dutch kids.
Grady and I played in boots, which limited how quickly we could change directions without
totally eating it, but we managed.
MJ the cycling pro. I rode on the back for a while, until it became life-threatening.
While everyone else went to London for a couple days, Tom & got to hang out in Delft some more. We went to water polo Friday night, which was a lot of fun. Water polo is water polo, no matter what language you speak. We stayed at the pool bar til 2am, as usual!
Back in Delft, Tom became good friends with Florence the Fiets (bike is fiets in Dutch)
If you look at that reflection you can kind of see
that's me on the back while Tom cycles, yeah buddy!
Here's a lovely place where we had lunch on Saturday.
Yes, there's a canal out that window by the street.
Standing on a bridge over the canal,
on our way home from the Saturday Market in Delft.
Saturday night we celebrated St. Patty's Day in Rotterdam with some of my girlfriends here.
Who's the honorary exchange girl?! Poor guy put up with a lot of talk about haircuts and hair dying.
Left to right: Tom, me, Johanna, Rhianna, Lisa
M'girls!
Finland <3 Texas
According to Paddy Murphy's
A little bit of jigging
As you can tell, I had one awesome week. I'm very grateful for my friends from home and my friends here. It's been fun to share my life here with these guys. Now that it's almost 10pm, time to go to water polo practice!
Remember, stay posted for a guest blog. Tot ziens!
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