Belgium

Ghent

We left Prague at 8am and had an 8 hour drive to Koblenz. Koblenz is a quiet German town at the intersection of two major rivers. It was once a stronghold in WWII as an anti-aircraft defense fort. Some blown out buildings and old military forts still stand today. There wasn’t much to do so we just went to beer garden for dinner and got caught up on some homework. The hotel was very oddly decorated but we actually got suites here, which was nice because the rooms in Europe are usually tiny. We left Koblenz at 8am the next morning to go to Ghent.

On the way to Ghent, we stopped at Antwerp, Belgium for two hours. We went into the famous church, Cathedral of Our Lady, for about 30 minutes with our art teacher. It was very impressive, and we saw the “Raising of the Cross Altarpiece.” It looked like we came in just after they had finished Mass because there was thick, overwhelming incense everywhere. After the church, we had lunch and each tried a Belgian beer. The weakest beer of our five was 8.5%. Belgium definitely has the strongest beer in Europe, much more so than Germany. Apparently they have over 400 types of beer in Belgium. After lunch, Ryan got his first bag of Belgium chocolate which he blindly ordered. It turned out to be nasty, filled with some kind of grape goo so he gave them away. We got back on the bus and headed to Ghent.

When we got to Ghent, we worked on our papers for a while then had a delicious welcome dinner of Belgian French fries, chicken, and salad. The fries here are the best in Europe. After dinner, we went to a strip of bars that looked a lot like UGA in Athens. Tanner and I played pool for a few hours then we all tried to walk around but found out most of the bars were homosexual…so most of us went back to the hotel pretty quickly.

On the second day, we went to the St. Bavo’s Cathedral by our hotel. Here, we saw the massive Ghent Altarpiece and a few other works. Then we took the bus to Brussels. After the hour drive, our bus driver gave us a quick tour because that’s his home town. We stopped by the atomium, which was built for the 1958 Universe Exhibition. It’s nine balls totaling 1.4 billion times the size of an iron atom. The balls are connected with escalators and the fastest elevator in the world, and there’s a restaurant in the top ball.

Then we went to a modern instrument museum which was cool. It had orchestra instruments and pianos all the way back from 1500s along with some ancient instruments. Then we went to the top floor where one of the workers gave us a private tour or some restored pianos that Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, etc. used to play. Our teacher and the guide played a small concert for us on different pianos. Then we had 2 hours to explore the city.

We first stopped to get delicious chocolate covered Belgian waffles. Then Jimmy and I got meat keishe for lunch which was one of the best meals I’ve had. Next we searched and found a bar/brewery called Delirium that we had heard of from other groups. All 50 kids in or group showed up, and we got 2 liter beers that were about 10%. The beer was really good, and the glasses were massive. However, some people couldn’t really handle the Belgian beer so the chaperones were pissed with how loud we were on the bus ride back.

I really liked Brussels – it seemed like a clean, interesting city. There was lots of good food and it wasn’t too crowded. I would have rather stayed there than Ghent. When we came back, Ryan and I intended on taking a nap at 6pm then waking up for dinner, but we ended up not waking up until 2am…I couldn’t really go back to sleep so I stayed up reading and studying some.

The next morning, we had 4 hours of review for our final exams then took the bus to Brugge. Here, we got lunch at a really good café and I picked up a variety pack of chocolates. Some of the chocolate is really good here, but there too many varieties to choose from. We went to the Groeninge Museum, which has many Northern works that I liked. Afterward, we wandered around Brugge until it started raining and we stopped off to get a beer and wait it out. We barely made it back to the bus on time. I liked Brugge – it was a really quiet, pretty town but there wasn’t much to do. I prefer Brussels in Belgium. When we got back, Ryan and I walked 30 minutes to find dinner because everything closes so early in Ghent. When we found a place, it was all in Dutch so we accidentally ordered a meal of a pound of French fries each with a ton of mayonnaise…we just picked something random on the menu. The fries were good, but we had way too many. I also got a Bicky burger – some kind of fried patty of beef and sausage meat with ketchup and honey mustard. It was actually pretty good, but the fries were too much. We should have known we were wrong when the guy gave a funny look when Ryan ordered “frieten with fries.”

We had our art final exam on Thursday morning then spent most of Friday studying for the music test. We got lunch and got sushi for dinner, but that’s all we did besides studying on Friday. Then we had our music final exam at 8am Saturday morning and we were on the bus going to Oxford by 10:15am.

Going to Oxford, we went through customs and entered the “chunnel.” It’s a huge tunnel built on the floor of the English Channel. The bus driver drove the bus into a huge train that closed up and transported everyone through the tunnel. We just stayed in park while the train sent us under the water to Britain – it was pretty cool. We got into Oxford Saturday around 6 or 7pm then had a great dinner and had to go to orientation. The Worcester campus is beautiful, apparently about half of their budget goes to gardening.

On Sunday, I woke up early and walked around campus for a while. Then I went into town in the afternoon and got a bunch of groceries. Later, Matt, Clay, and I went for a 45 minute run along the canal that felt great. I really enjoy being with my friends from FIJI again; I was getting tired of being with the same people in my group every day. Tonight we are probably going to a local pub to watch the England soccer game.

You know you’re in Belgium when:

• You hear 3 different languages in one city.
• There are tons of road side waffle stands.
• Every store claims to have the finest chocolate in Belgium.
• The wind never stops blowing.
• The lightest beer is 7% alcohol content.