BELGIUM + PARIS

OK, I haven't blogged in forever (oh, the difficulties of traveling so often...) so this is gonna be a long one!

The weekend after Barcelona nothing significant happened, other than me spending the week sick in bed (possibly with the swine flu? I'm not too sure..) I'm not surprised though, after partying until 6 AM in Barcelona I think I needed a weekend to re cooperate! Note: That was the first weekend since I've been here where I didn't leave Aix at all!

So now that brings us to the third week of November, which is when I went to Belgium, land of french fries, fruit flavoured beer, waffles and CHOCOLATE! (Lots and LOTS of chocolate) We arrived in Brussels Friday evening. We got settled into our hostel (a building where Van Gogh apparently spend some time in once upon a time) and then did some walking around in the tourist section of town. Saturday we got up and enjoyed the complementary "petit dejeuner" from our hostel (toast, cereal, orange juice, hot chocolate, and all the jam/nutella you could want.. so good) and set out to see Brussels! We went to:
- Probably 10 different chocolateries (Belgium is just packed with them!), trying to get as many free "degustations" (AKA, samples) as possible.
- The Grand Place, the main town square with beautiful old buildings (also really pretty at night!) - they even had a Christmas tree in the center!
- "Manneken Pis", a really famous statue of a little boy peeing (why it's as famous as it is, we're not sure) - it was pretty funny to see a whole group of photo-crazy tourists gathered around this tiny (urinating) statue!
- Major public European institutions, ie. The European Commission and European Parliament! (Brussels is known as the capital of Europe) Since it was a Saturday there wasn't too much going on but it was still really cool to see!
- The movies to see "New Moon" (I absolutely hate the books but don't mind the movies - you just have to see it knowing it's going to be ridiculous) and it was such chaos! I know it was opening weekend and all but there was no organized line up or anything, it was just a free for all, see who can get there first kinda thing. So crazy.
- To a super cute little bar with wooden chairs called "Les gens que j'aime" ("The people I love") where I tried apple, cherry, and raspberry beer - delicious!!!
Then on Sunday, we took the train (about a 45 minute ride and only 13 euro round trip!) to Bruges. It was in the northern region of Belgium and therefore everything was in Flemish, the Belgian version of Dutch! Luckily most people spoke either English and/or French, but all of the signs were only in Dutch. Bruges was a lovely town, so charming... tons of canals running throughout the city, a beautiful town square with a great Christmas market, and they even had an outdoor ice rink, AKA Alex's idea of Heaven! Unfortunately the rental skates were so brutal I could barely skate backwards but it was still soo nice. I actually had a really special moment where I just stopped and really thought about where I was and what I was doing: I was in Europe studying for a year, travelling with great friends from all over the world, in a cute little down, on an outdoor rink, surrounded by a Christmas market and Christmas decorations... whenever I am feeling frustrated at French inefficiency (don't even get me started about the exam process) I am going to think of that moment.
Monday wasn't too busy, we walked around Brussels a bit more but it was raining that day (although I can't complain, we were so lucky the rest of the weekend) so we tried to stay indoors as much as possible, and before we knew it we were back on the plane to Aix! All in all I really liked Belgium, I actually wasn't expecting too much out of it but it was really nice, especially Bruges!

Then I had only three days (where I meant to write my blog, but didn't) before leaving for Paris early Friday morning. We arrived pretty early, checked into our hostel and seeing how the weather was good we decided to see the Eiffel Tower and Montparnasse, because it was supposed to rain the rest of the weekend. It was so exciting stepping off the metro (note: Paris has 14 metro lines) and seeing the top of the Eiffel Tower behind one of the buildings! Even though I've seen it a million times in pictures and movies, it was still really impressive in real life. Unfortunately, there were a ton of male immigrants (and when I say a ton, I mean probably about 100) trying to sell you tacky little Eiffel Tower keychains all chanting "1 euro, 1 euro!" I tried not to let it bug me but they were just EVERYWHERE and so persistent! It definitely detracted from the experience a little bit. We didn't end up going up the Eiffel Tower because the line was super long and we decided it would be better to go to "Montparnasse", a skyscraper with a terrace at the top, because from there you can actually SEE the Eiffel Tower! So we headed over there and went up to the top where we had an absolutely gorgeous 360 degree view of the city. You could see everything, and it was so clear! The sun was peeking out of the clouds in such a beautiful way you almost felt like (this will sound super cheesy, I know) you were in Heaven. It was really nice... however, it was also ridiculously windy and cold so we could only stay up there so long. After Montparnasse, we went to Notre Dame, which actually looks prettier at night than in the day, I think! We walked around for a bit more then headed back to our hostel.
Saturday we started off at Sacre Coeur, a really amazing cathedral that I actually liked better than the Notre Dame because it has really impressive steps leading up to it AND it overlooks a park, not to mention has another great view of the city. From there we walked around the Montmartre area, which was so charming! It's kind of on a hill so you feel a bit isolated, but in a good way, like you're in a small area of Paris that's not all "hustle and bustle". Then we saw the Montmartre cemetery, which had some pretty impressive graves dating back to the 1800s! We also saw the Moulin Rouge, which was maybe the biggest letdown of the weekend - I thought it was going to be so pretty but the real thing is nothing like it is in the movie! That night we went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe (which I didn't even know you could do) and got a really beautiful view the Eiffel Tower and of the Champs d'Elysee all lit up! Also got an awesome view of the insane traffic in Paris... complete anarchy. Sunday we went to an impressionist Museum, the "Musee d'Orsay". It didn't have very much I was familiar with BUT it did have one thing that made it all worth it: a sculpture of Degas called "The Little Dancer", which I knew from a book my Grandma Angie bought me when I was a kid! It was really cool to see it in real life. We also visited the Jardin de Luxembourg, where you'll also find the Senat. The Jardin was nice but I think it would really be something to see more in the spring. That evening we went to the "Defense" area, which has all these modern buildings... nothing too special for me since we have plenty of skyscrapers in Vancouver! Monday we went to the Louvre. Luckily there was barely any line up (hence why we wanted to go on Monday) but man is it big! You definitely can't see it all in a day. Or even three days. I of course had to go see the Mona Lisa, and also saw Napoleon's apartments (where he used to work) which were really nice! Then on the way to the train station we saw where the Bastille used to be (there's nothing there now) but it was cool to think what might have happened on that same ground a couple hundred years ago.

Overall I liked Paris but not as much as I thought I would. I think that my expectations were too high, considering how much you hear about it in movies and everything! So maybe that was the problem. But I did really like walking by the Seine, that was really nice! It was also not as expensive as I thought: I was able to show my French student card and lie, saying I was from England, and get in free to both museums and the Arc de Triomphe. So that was nice, because I was expecting it to be super pricey!

NOW, onto exams, which are coming up so fast it's crazy... then will be seeing my family in 17 days! CAN'T WAIT!