Back to my roots, then eastern-bound!

This past week has been such a blur.. so much frustration, so much excitement.. I think I've felt almost every emotion since leaving Winchester, and that's probably why travelling is so thrilling! By the end of this month, I'll be well on my way to being an expert traveller, mostly from learning the hard way. I still love public transportation, and hostels are a lot of fun. But everything has worked out perfectly so far, and I'm really fortunate to have someone watching over us.

Sorry I haven't been doing a good job of getting in touch with you individually. I have exactly 44 minutes left of Internet time at our hostel in Brussels, and I'm blogging as fast as I can. The computer is slow though, so typing is frustrating. Bear with me. :)

I spent the first week visiting family, which was incredible. I could write pages, so I'll stick to a brief overview for now. That country grows on me more and more each time I go. It was so great to see the family again, even if I didn't get to see everyone; I really wish I didn't have to miss so much of their lives. (I'm going back in May for my grandmother's 75th birthday!) On March 13 I flew to Amsterdam and then stayed with my aunt Aly in Hoorn, then a few days in Marum with the Boschmas, and then I met up with Katie (my roommate from Eau Claire who's studying in Ireland this semester) in Utrecht, where we stayed with Peter and Nieske (family friends, and Mom's roommate from their nursing days). We took the train back to Fryslan, where we stayed with my Pake and Beppe (grandparents) in Drachten, and then were in Amsterdam on Friday and Saturday for the Van Gogh Museum, the Anne Frank house and a canal tour. It was a lot of fun -- Katie and I are used to seeing each other every day and I hadn't seen her since December! So catching up was absolutely essential. From there, Katie went back to Utrecht and then to Ireland and I went to Brussels to meet up with Danielle and Jenny, who I'll travel with for the next three weeks. They're from Eau Claire too. :)

Brussels is quite possibly one of the ugliest cities I have ever seen. I think our hostel is in the ghetto, but it's hard to tell because most of the city looks the same. An ex-marine from San Francisco, who I met at the hostel last night, says he loves it because it's so "real." It's very ethnic, and there are so many homeless people. It's just so sad; I want to help them, but I can never tell who really needs money and who needs a fix. I might just make a donation to an organization at the end of the trip to make up for everyone I've turned down. Danielle (my travel partner) grew up in California and said right away Brussels reminded her somewhat of San Fran, so I guess this reminds the ex-marine of home. We spent the day here yesterday but ran out of things to do fairly soon, and took the train to Brugge today. I did take a picture of Manneken Piss, the famous statue of a urinating boy, for Mom!

Brugge is so beautiful and charming, and naturally drew a large touristy crowd, even though a lot of things were closed for Easter and despite sporadic hail. We stopped by a beautiful daffodil park, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site (which means it's funded through the United Nations) because feminist nuns formed a commune there years ago to hide from the Catholic church and its death threats. A really sweet French man took pictures for us after watching me try to balance my camera on a post for the self-timer. I'll post those later. :) We also ate delicious pancakes (just like Mom's! They're actually more like crepes), Belgian waffles and lots of chocolate. Belgium is also famous for lace making, and there are shops all over the city. We watched a lady making lace and I have no idea how she has the patience! It's absolutely beautiful. We were hoping to rent bikes, but the weather was too cold, so we went by foot instead. We spent most of the day literally sight-seeing, stopping by random shops and just breathing in the city. You'll understand what I mean when you see the pictures, but I can't hook up a USB cable in the Internet cafe to upload.

Belgium is a really interesting country; most things are printed in Dutch, French, German and English, which is incredibly helpful. Understanding spoken Dutch is much harder though, because it's a really strong dialect. I was trying to pick up some at the pannekoeken house (pancake house) today, but I only caught the gist of it. It could have been west-Flemish, a popular language here, though I'm not sure exactly what that is. Most people seem to speak French primarily though, especially in Brussels. Dutch is on the signs everywhere in Brugge, which might be part of why I liked it so much.

Tomorrow morning we're going to wake up early and spend what will probably be most of the day travelling by train to Prague! This has been a childhood dream of mine for years, so I'm really excited... as long as I'm not pick-pocketed. My aunt Aly says the city is infamous for slick thieves.