Brussels, Cologne, Bruges

  From December 20th to January 6th, Gilwell Park shut down for Christmas holidays, meaning we were all given time off without having to use any of our own holidays, which is a pretty good deal. It is things like this that make me realize how lucky I was to end up here and not somewhere else for my Gap year.
  My adventures began on our first day off when I was supposed to catch a bus from London to Sheffield at 11am. Gustavo and Allan had a bus in the same station at the same time so we got a cab together from Gilwell. Unfortunately we just missed the train, meaning we were sprinting through the tube stations and London trying to make our buses. The boys managed to make it on time, but I had the wrong gate and ended up missing my bus. It cost me another twenty pounds and a three hour wait in Victoria Coach Station. I was not happy, but three hours gave me enough time to stop being angry with myself and remember that it wasn't that bad. I didn't have any other connections to make, all I needed to do was get to Emily's home outside of Sheffield.
  It was past 7pm by time I got to Sheffield and took the very short train ride to Dore where Emily met me. Emily and I spent the evening packing and re-packing, taking only the bare essentials. In the end we each just brought a back pack. Then we got dragged to the local pub for the Christmas party with Emily's colleagues. It ended up being a bit of a late night and an early morning, walking to the train station in the dark and rain.

I felt the need to take a picture of these sheep. Even after living in England for 4 months, seeing sheep still makes me smile.

   The train ride from Sheffield to Manchester was really beautiful and we were in lots of time for our flight. From Chaleroi airport we took the shuttle bus into Brussels which dropped us at the train station. We had a couple hours to wait before out train to Cologne but that was preferable to another sprint or missed connection. We stepped out of the train station in Cologne and into the shadow of the Dom, Cologne's famous cathedral.

Our hostel was only a three minute walk away and the staff spoke English, which made it very easy. The room was very clean and there were no bunk beds, always a bonus.

  Emily and I went out again almost immediately to find the Christmas market at the Cathedral, even though it was pouring rain, just as it had been all day, wherever we went. The market was full of amazing smells and all sorts of crafts and clothing, chocolate and sweets, and of course, German sausages.

 We went to bed quite early, completely exhausted from our full day of traveling but feeling quite proud of ourselves for successfully getting to Germany.

  December 23rd was spent navigating Cologne finding all the Christmas markets. We ended up visiting four out of six, including the one under the Cathedral. There was the Gnome Market, the Angel Market and the Fairy Tale Market. The Gnome Market was our favourite. It was a lot of walking but unlike most of England, Cologne had well marked streets and we managed not to get lost. We bought a few souvenirs and some gifts for Emily's family in the markets.

  In the afternoon we visited the Dom and its treasury which was full of all kinds of ornate religious artifacts and relics. The Dom itself is spectacular inside as well as out, though it was freezing inside! Outside, the weather was quite mild.
  Once again we were asleep fairly early, worn out from all our wandering during the day.

 On Christmas Eve we slept in and then ate a breakfast made from the contents of the hostel's free cupboard. We took a walk over the Rhine, across this bridge which is covered in locks. I think there are quite a few cities in Europe where couples inscribe their initials on locks, attach them to a bridge and throw the key into the river. Paris is the most famous city for this, but the bridge in Cologne is absolutely astounding, covered in thousands of locks of every shape and size. We must have taken thirty minutes to walk across the bridge, just reading the names and taking pictures.

  We walked around Cologne some more, though all the markets were closed, ate lunch in a bakery, and then took the train back to Brussels at 4pm. Emily's cousin, Christie, met us at the train station and took us back to her place by metro and tram. She very generously gave us tickets which enabled us to use Brussels public transport while we were there. At her place we met her husband, who is Japanese, and her two kids. Elise is four and Zane is two. There are very cute and we had a very good dinner, with Zane chattering about how he wanted to go on the "old tram". Elise was excited for Santa to come but she was a little confused because Father Christmas had already come earlier in the month, as he does for children in parts of Europe.
  After dinner we read 'The Night Before Christmas", which I think I enjoyed more than the kids because it's such a tradition at home. The kids went to bed and then Emily and I took turns using Christine's computer and phone. She had free long distance calling after 5pm so for the first time since I left home I called my family. That was really great, especially as they were so surprised to hear from me, though it did make me miss home a little more I think. It was harder than I thought it would be to be away from home at Christmas.
  I woke up at 9:30 on Christmas morning, probably the latest I have ever slept in on Christmas. Everyone else was already up, Zane was playing with his new train set and had no interest in opening any other gifts. Elise had two new dolls and a tea set. It was good to spend Christmas with a family with kids.

     After breakfast all of us went out to the Grand Place where they showed us where to get a waffle for 1 euro. They were delicious! Emily's family went off with the kids and she and I went to find the Christmas market. The markets in Cologne were better but the Grand Place of Brussels was amazing and we walked around the Chinatown area as well.

Apparently the lace shop next to 1 Euro waffles does not appreciate loiterers.

  The one thing that we loved about the Christmas Market was the carousel. This was no ordinary carousel. It was strangely industrial and whimsical, very steam-punk. I had to take a video of it.

  We also managed to find the big cathedral of Brussels and looked around there for awhile, just to warm up a bit.

We went back to Christie's fairly early for dinner because they had an event to go out to.
  We spent the evening calling home again, watching a movie and organizing ourselves a bit. It was definitely a different Christmas for us and in some ways it didn't feel like Christmas at all, which was maybe a good thing.

  On Boxing Day we explored the upper part of the city which included the Palace of Justice, which was the largest building in Europe for a long time.

    We wanted to go into the the Palace Royal but it is closed during the winter. So we went to the BelleVue Museum next door which had a deatiled, 200 year history of Belgium. I liked it and found it very interestingk, especially the section on each of the Belgian monarchs. Emily found it incredibly boring and said she would visit no other museums during this trip. I agreed that this was fair since I had made her stay in the museum for almost three hours.
   We went back to the Grand Place for another waffle (I love Liege waffles so much!) and I bought a slightly ridiculous toque. Afterwards we went back to Christie's, feeling very smug with ourselves for navigating the trams, metro and streets of a strange city and cogratualting ourselves on how awesome we were.

   The next day we finished packing and thanked Christie and her family for their hospitatlity. Then we made our way back to Brussels' central station and took a double decker train to Bruges (the idea of a double decker train great amused both of us). We arrived in Bruges in the pouring rain. The information we had said our hostel was a twenty minute walk. It took us an hour and a half. We got very lost amongst Bruges cobblestoned streets and medieval buildings. We no longer felt so smug about our navigation skills. Luckily, when we arrived at the hostel (called the Snuffel) they gave us a very good map of Bruges that included lots of things to do.
  We braved the rain to go out walking to the central square where there was, of course, a Christmas market and quickly scouted out the cheapest waffle booth. Then we walked the side streets which were filled mostly with chocolate and lace shops.

This was the best the chocolate shop with the best display and prices.

      That evening in the hostel I actually managed to strike up a conversation with some fellow hostel-ers for the first time. There were three guys at our table who were, not surprisingly, Australian. The Auzzies are everywhere in Europe! We had a good chat and found out two of them were going to Edinburgh for New Year's as well, though they had booked through Contiki Tours and had paid some exorbitant price. They been traveling Europe for the past couple months and one of the guys explained that he was so low on funds he hadn't eaten in the last 24 hours. He said this as Emily sat down with a bowl of cereal from the hostel free cupboard. 'The hostel has a free cupboard!?' he asked in surprise. We just shook our heads and laughed.
   It was another early night for us, that seemed to be a theme of our trip because we always packed so much into each day by 10pm we were beat. On December 28th we had chocolate cereal for breakfast in the hostel (only in Belgium) and then went right out to climb the Belfry Tower in the square because we knew it would get buys later.

      366 winding stairs later we stepped out onto a pretty great view of the city.

 We had decided quite quickly that we liked Bruges more than Brussels, it was such a beautiful, old city with canals winding through it and windmills at the edge. The atmosphere is made even better by the numerous old-fashioned horse carriages that trot through the streets, clattering over the cobblestones.

   We then began doing things that our tourist map suggested, such as going to the Bascilica of the Holy Blood, seeing old ruins in the basement of the Plaza hotel, and finding the little bronze frog at the foot of a statue which you're apparently supposed to kiss.

     We really wanted to go on a canal tour but was informed that they are closed during the winter, especially in the dreay down pour that day. We thought about doing a carriage ride but they were too expensive for a couple of girls who ate ramen noodles for dinner both nights in Bruges.

   We went to a Flemish painting museum (Emily relented and we didn't spend too long there) and browsed the endless chocolate shops, fishing for free samples. We of course ate waffles and got lost quite a bit. Something about those winding streets that we couldn't get the hang of navigating. We bought eachother a Christmas gift in the market and then went back to the hostel. We must of been very tired and full of sugar because the night descended into mad laughter over me trying to figure out how much money I could spend on chocolate.

  The next morning, after another breakfast of chocolate cereal, we managed to re-find two chocolate shops that we knew had good prices and I loaded up with as much chocolate as my wallet and ancient back pack would allow. Then we went to the Church of Our Lady to see the Michaelangelo sculpture of the Mandonna and Child.

   Then we bought more chocolate, ate lunch and went and sat on a bench by a canal, watching the horses go past and the swans waddle about. I commented on the fact that swans must be the only animal which can look both majestic and menacing while waddling.

  We found the nun cloister where there was a sign saying to not talk or take pictures within the grounds. We looked around and went in the church. I sat down with the bags while Emily went to look around. All of a sudden someone walked up to and said, 'Maggie?' in disbelief. I did a double take and my mouth dropped open as I saw SuJin standing there. I got up and we silently hugged and jumped up and down, wanting to talk but not wanting to make any noise in the church. We found Emily and went outside, laughing at the odds of finding one's roommate in a random church in a strange city. I had known she was going to be in Brussels and Bruges around the time we were but I thought out itineraries didn't match up enough to meet. We talked and took some photos and walked a bit before parting ways, she had more to see and we needed to go to the train station.

  We took the train back to Brussels, at dinner in the train station and at 7:20 took the shuttle back to the airport. Our flight was not until the next morning but it would have been difficult to get to the airport in time in the morning, so we hunkered down on the seats for the next 11 hours. I began recording how many hours we had left:
    10 hours to go: finished 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' - out of reading material.
     9 hours 47 minutes to go: finsihed knitting the foot of my sock, realized I hadn't eaten a waffle that day and became sad.
     9 hours 18 minutes to go: listened to all songs on my ipod starting with 'M'
     8 hours 53 minutes to go: grafted the toe of my sock - out of knitting projects
     7 hours to go (3am): Emily slept while I wrote down notes about our travels. I also slept for a time.
     1 hours to go: went through security, had a bit of problem when Emily was informed that it looked like there was a bomb in her bag. The security guard said this quite calmly. In reality it was the cuckoo clock she had bought in Cologne, surrounded by various ipod and cellphone cables.
   We were very glad throughout the trip that we had taken only one small backpack each. It would have been a nightmare to lug a suitcase around the cities. My poor backpack, which if I think may have been to Europe with my mum in the '80s, was slowly dying, bursting with chocolate, souvenirs and a few clothes and literally coming apart at the seams.

   Emily and I had to do some careful re-packing in the airport, wearing all our coats in order to have only one bag each on our Ryanair flight.
   By 10am GMT on December 30th, we were back in Manchester but had to wait almost two hours for a train back to Dore. I put some laundry and fell asleep until 7pm. I sluggisly organized myself for Edinburgh the next day. Poor Emily was sick by this point and I was beginning to feel the same way. I almost wished I could just go home instead of going to Edinburgh but I knew New Year's was going to be fun.
   Reflecting back, it was an amzing trip and great to travel with Emily, not least because she was so organized and always had the maps, tickets and hostel information! It was a great way to spend Christmas and see more of Europe, while proving to ourselves that we were capable of traveling.