Waffles & Frietes

After only an hour, I found myself standing in the Brussells Midi train station! Glad to be out of Paris... but oh shit! I speak ZERO dutch! Good thing EVERYONE in Belgium speaks English! Brilliant! So, I found the right platform, and within 30 minuten, I was on my way to Bruges.... speeding past the rather dull Belgium countryside! An hour later, I was in Bruges! The very first thing I saw when exiting the building was the hundreds, if not thousands, of bicycles!! They had an entire LOT filled with them!! And all the bikes look like they should be driven by Miss Gulch aka the Wicked Witch of the West! It was GREAT! As I rode the bus into the town center, I loved the Medieval city! It's beautiful! The hostel was pretty cool, no real complaints. Especially after the shitholer in Paris! So, I stashed my bags and went for a walk! I walked all around the Markt and the Bourg and headed down "Feet Street" it's a shopping corrider. Lots of Belgium chocolates and shoes! Oh, and I finally found a "health & beauty" store!! Soap!! I forgot to mention that I could not find ANY soap in Paris??!!?? To this day, I have no idea where they buy their soap??! Maybe that's why they stink so bad.... Anyway, I found a lovely coconut soap, although I did have to ask 3 different people to verify that it was indeed shower body wash. It's called Creme Douche in Belgium.... makes a girl pause! Don't want to use that to wash... well, not my body anyway. I aslo tried a real Belgium waffle in BELGIUM!! It was fresh off the iron and topped with chocolate ice cream and whipped cream! Yum!!! The entire day was spent enjoying the very cool vibe that eminates from Bruges!! The people here are wonderful!! They are the nicest people as a whole that I have encountered thus far!! They always smile and nod when they pass you! And if you are eating a meal outside, they say "spose lick" which means "enjoy your meal! How nice is that??!!?? Random, but too cool! And that is a phonetic spelling. I'm not even going to attempt to really spell it!!

This morning, I was feeling a bit better, but I decided to take it easy. I will be leaving for Amsterdam tomorrow morning, and I DO NOT want to be sick for Amsterdam!!! So, I attempted to do laundry, but all the launderttes in town are closed for "Modernization." So, I wear my stinky clothes for a bit longer! Oh well... I have soap now! At least my body will be clean. Your standards of cleanliness certainly go south when backpacking! Anyway, I hung out and rested a bit before taking a nice walk through the town. I stopped and got some real Belgium Frietes (fries). They were ok.... I prefer British chips! And the rest of the afternoon was devoted to enjoying a couple of ridiculously cheap Belgium beers. I simply sat there at the cafe table set up outside and really enjoyed people watching and having nearly everyone say hello or nod in my direction! I am generally not a beer person, but I enjoyed these. A Lot...

So that brings us to right now! I know.... I really slacked the past 1 1/2 weeks! But I have been busy AND internet has been REALLY expensive, so I only hopped on for a few minutes for this and that. There is free internet in Amsterdam, but it might be the ridiculous kiosk kind and I won't use those for anything other than checking email. Of course, I might be having too much fun and enjoying too much... coffee.... to be bothered with silly little things such as email and blogs! I will definitley be able to in Berlin next week! Wow! My adventure is certainly in full swing!

So, here is the epiphany I had in Paris: I have had the most fun and been the happiest doing nothing significant! In Paris, my FAVORITE things were not the L;ouvre, Eiffel Tower, or any other monument. It was sitting in the park with new friends, drinking wine, and seeing the Eiffel Tower twinkle. It was randomly running into Emma and having a travel buddy for a few hours and a fabulous picnic in the park. It was sitting outside drinking belgium beer in Bruges and window shopping in Salisbury & chester! So.... I realized that I was going about things in the wrong way. I was getting stressed about seeing & doing things! But, I was missing the best part! I was missing just being... Sooo... I have decided to not push myself anymore. No more passes! I feel compelled to "get my money's worth" which really means me racing all over the city, fighting my way through crowds, and missing what is really happening! Don't get me wrong.... I will go to the important stuff! In fact I look forward to it, although I will probably be disappointed again in the future. But for as annoying as the Louvre was, in the end, it was worth it just to be able to stand in front of Da Vinci's Virgin of the Rocks, the Mona Lisa, and Michelangelo's Death of a Slave. And I suspect that will be the case with any disappointment to come. And other than that, I'm going to go with the flow! Experience the city! Enjoy be right there, right now! I have always worried too damn much but a lot of things.... for once, I'm going to relax....

Any-hoo.... I'm off to Amsterdam in the morning! I'm SO excited!It should be CRAZY fun! I'll update this blog again as soon as I'm able! Oh, and make sure you read below! I'm completely caught up! From Chester up until now! I'm going to enjoy last Belgium beer and hit the hay.... Amsterdam awaits!