Good Food and Even Better Friends - Week 13

Bonn, Germany

April 10th - 13th

I can't remember what all happened during this week honestly because my mind was so caught on going to Belgium for the four day Easter weekend.

Brussels, Belgium

April 14th - 15th

Dorkism in Brussels

Belgium here we come! My friends and I took a 5 hour bus ride to Brussels at 9:20 in the morning on Friday. The bus ended up coming late and we ended up arriving in Brussels late but that's okay. We still had plenty of daylight to discover what Brussels had to offer us. We went the hostel and deposited our belongings before using public transportation to get the city center. I'm starting to see just how convenient public transportation is and really wish they would implement this in America. It would definitely make getting around a whole lot easier. Anyway, Brussels had a beautiful center square full of amazing breathtaking architecture. The attention to detail was stunning. Gold accents were found all throughout the buildings and in the evening, the buildings were lit up to where it looked like diamonds were twinkling from within the architecture. By the time we made it to city center it was dinner time and we decided upon trying the combination of mussels and fries. Let me tell you, never would I ever have though to pair these two foods together, but I'm glad it's a thing. Granted the mussels tasted like plain Jane mussels and the fries like fires but combining the two made for an interesting pair that I enjoyed. After dinner we went and got ice-cream and waffles. I had ice-cream while some of my friends had waffles since I wanted to wait till we got to Bruges to eat the waffles. The ice-cream I had was out of this world. I thought I was eating a delicious sweet cloud. We had gone to one of the chocolate shops called Leonidas to get the ice-cream and what they did was drench the inside of the cone with warm melted chocolate and allowed it to harden before pouring in the white fluffy ice-cream. On top they added chocolate sprinkles. I was in heaven. This was hands down the best ice-cream I have had on this trip and may even beat gelato for me.

Mussels and Fi

Our second day in Brussels was spent trying to see all of the major tourist attractions like the Atomium, Manneken Pis, Jeanneke Pis, the Comic Book Museum, the Musical Instrument Museum, and a Japanese Garden. We were only able to complete four of these because we went to the Atomium we found a park and played in the park for a good portion of the day before heading back into the city.This was fine with me because we all had fun acting like kids. There were monkey bars we played on, we tried balancing on bars, climbed trees, and found exercise equipment to mess with. The park was a nice change of scenery compared to the typical city viewing. The Atomium we saw was a giant structure made of metal that was supposed to represent an atom. I have to saw, the park beat the Atomium. After wondering around the park for hours we made our way to the Japanese garden where we stopped for waffles beforehand. The waffle I had was smothered in chocolate and was very sweet. I think I would have been fine without the chocolate sauce and that is saying a lot since I am a freak for chocolate. The Japanese building was beautiful and unlike anything I have ever seen. The geometry they incorporate into their architecture makes the Japanese style so unique. The last thing we saw was Manneken Piss and his sister Jeanneke Pis. These were simply two statues, one a boy and the other a girl, of children who look to be three or four taking a piss. What is the significance of these you may ask? I couldn't even begin to tell you. They were just on the list of things one must see while in Brussels. We didn't get to see the museums because the closed by the time we made it into town but that's okay. We had an extremely fun day playing in the forest.

The Atomium

Japanese Garden

Belgium Waffle

Park Shenanigans

Bruges, Belgium
April 16th - 17th

This was by far one of the best places I have ever been to. If we weren't studying abroad in Bonn I would have loved to study in Bruges. We arrived after an hour long train ride and took our suitcase of food to the first green place we saw and enjoyed a picnic in the sun. After our stomachs were replenished, we made our way to the hostel and dropped off all of our stuff before renting bikes and riding around Bruges. This was by far one of my absolute favorite things. We got to see the windmills of Bruges and all of the other sights of Bruges in a short amount of time. Having the bikes made this trip so much more enjoyable and fun. I loved the little town of Bruges because everything was conveniently located and it had a little town feel even though it wasn't that small of a town. While in Bruges we got to try typical Belgium fries. Mine were smothered in a curry mayonnaise and topped with onions. They were delicious. For future reference, I would suggest not getting a large unless you are planning to split them...

Hot Chocolate to

They next in Bruges was all about chocolate. We went to a chocolate shop that I kid you not had the best hot chocolate I had ever tasted. This was a whole experience. You chose what kind of chocolate you want and the waiter brings it out in the form of chips in a chocolate bowl. I got Belgium milk chocolate while some of my friends got more exotic flavors like Vietnamese chocolate. I ended up adding cinnamon to mine as well because I love cinnamon in my hot chocolate. After you order, the waiter brings out a giant cup that resembles a bowl full of steaming hot milk where you then drop in the chocolate cup or if you don't like your hot chocolate too sweet you dump as many chips as you want into it. After the chocolate is place in it, you take the whisk that is provided and begin stirring until all of the chocolate is melted. From there you drink. I was drinking a liquid chocolate bar is what it felt like. The hot chocolate was to die for. That was single handily the best hot chocolate I have ever had in  my whole life. After the hot chocolate experience we went to another chocolate shop and purchased assorted chocolates to take back to our family.

Overall this weekend was my favorite excursion. The food was amazing but the friends I have made were even better!