Day 68 - (Fri) Back across the border
Started the day with a leisurely ride in the rain (Note to self: MUST buy raincoat or, at the least, an old lady poncho!). Tried a bi of Dutch out at the markets before another enlightening poetry class in which I TOTALLY missed the point of a poem - I thought it was cute, turns out it was about hidden domestic violence ... oops. Not to worry, off to Belgium at night (with Nakita, Katie, Andra and Kathleen) for a weekend of ... well food really. Caught the train from Maastricht, via Liege where we just caught the connection to Bruges (via Brussels). Interestingly, after being around European accents and foreign languages for so long, the Aussie and kiwi girls sitting next to us on the train sounded SO annoying!!! Arrived late at night - raining, just for something different - and found our hostel "Charlie Rockets". First things first, we headed straight to the nearest cafe and ordered real Belgian waffles with the works - strawberries, melted chocolate, cream and ice cream. And boy did we pay for it ... but a little splurge every now and again is alright if its to knock something off the list right? So, Belgian waffles in Belgium - tick. Back at the hostel bar we gave reading the beer menu our best shot before giving up and ordering the weirdest sounding beverages in sight.
Day 69 - (Sat) High fashion, low prices
This morning's breakfast was quite possibly the best I've had in quite some time. Thanks to a hostel tourist map we found a butcher who sold pancakes by the kilo - take away. Random, but delicious. And right next door was a shop selling the Belgian equivalent of Nutella. Result? 12 pancakes, smothered in chocolate spread, rolled in hand as we walked to the train station! Off to Antwerp (bout 1.5 hours by train) for the avo. First stip MoMu fashion musem (just 1 eur entry - woohoo) where we stared at hats for about an hour. The imagination of this exhibition is hard to describe but some of our favourites were a "finding nemo" inspired bucket hat, a pan filled with bacon and eggs perched on someone's head and a mowkawk-hat made of uturned Barbie doll legs! From browsing to buying, we found a vintage shop which solved my shoe problem (remember my broken boots?). Picked up two pairs for 80 euro - bargain! Stopped at the self-proclaimed "world's smallest waffle shop" on the way back to the station and spent almost 3 hours on a oft delayed train back to Bruges. Was worth the wait though as we headed to another tourist-map gem for dinner. A cosy little restaurant down a non-descript alley, called The Goose, which served authentic Belgian fare. For less than 10 euro we scored home-made veggie soup (but I dared not "feel it doing me good" Mum), a choice of fish with cream sauce, meatloaf in tomato sauce or melt-in your mouth pork and red wine sauce (as you can imagine, we ordered at least one of all 3 and shared) with potatoes and a side salad involving pickeld cabbage that was bright purple but surprisingly tasty. Back at "Charlie Rocket's" we washed it all down with another game of 'musical beers' - orderin 4 we'd never heard of and passing them round the table. (Editor's note: beer mixed with Coca Cola is apparently socially acceptable to order in a bar here!) Also discovered a delicious but dangerously easy to drink raspberry beer and one they sell in test-tube shaped glasses.
Day 70 - (Sun) Museums of the best kind
After a very Euro brekkie of bread, ham, cheese, croissants and tea we hit the museum trail, gastronome-style. First up, Choco-story - a museum about the history of chocolate, including a demonstration (given in Dutch, French and English, one sentence at a time, in that order!) and tastings! Lessons learned from Choco-story's wealth of knowledge - apparently chocolate doesn't make you fat, and it can be good for diabetics... who knew? Next up, Fries Museum. From the moment you walk in the door you're hit with the smell of warm, crispy potatoes mmmmm. Lessons learned: "French" fries were first made by Belgian soldiers, speaking French, who were mitaken as French soldiers. Belgians cook their fries twice for the perfect taste and texture. And it is possible to make a musical instrument out of a potatoe! After the brief interlude from the brown-drug, it was back to chocolates with a self-guided chocolate-shop crawl. At about 70c each
(AU) I tried a couple from each store - including kiwi fruit!!, a cherry liquer that would prohibit you from driving a car for some time, and a disappointing pineapple one (nothing on the Haighs pineapple fruit dark chocolate from home I must admit). Now vergin on a diabetic coma, it was time to get back on the train and settle in for 3 hours of history homework homewardbound. Slight hiccup - missed the Maastricht connection by THAT much and had to kill an hour in the Belgian equivalet of Maccas waiting for the next one.
On a side note, I returned home just before midnight on Sunday to a tale of woe. Our guesthouse had been terrorised by little punk kids who cycle around our neighbourhood bored and looking for trouble. They'd broken the main glass door at the entrance, jumped a 'security' fence and trashed lights inside our hallways, stolen my housemate's bike and thrown a wine bottle at our door! Several students reported it to police and the Guesthouse management but if it happens again I'll be using my mop for more than just housework if you catch my drift!
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