Au Revoir, Brussels!

Before you read this, I have to warn you. It is around midnight in Belgium, and I have been speaking Franglais for the past few days. So, please forgive any odd words/weird grammar. I know I am quite behind in my blog posts but free "Wi-Fi" (Wee-Fee according to Mauricette) is very difficult to find in Belgium. I will try to post more in the morning! Also, Facebook friends please tell me if I am overloading you with pictures. It is hard to decide what to put up- I have so many because I figure that if I take tons some will be okay. Any feedback on this blog or my pictures are greatly appreciated, mais soyez gentil!

On Monday we were scheduled to leave Brussels and head to Liege, where we would meet up with Dad's cousin, Mauricette. She is one of his many family members within Belgium. Unfortunately, we slept in quite late which did not help jet lag. To start the day off, Dad and I headed downtown to a cafe we had snacked at the day before. Dad had not heard of a croque monsieur, which I explained was a grilled ham and cheese. For brunch we ordered a slightly different version of this sandwich, a "croque madame". It is essentially a croque monsieur with an egg on top.

Dad's coffee, avec a piece of chocolat of course

Words cannot describe how good this is, so the picture will have to do!

While sitting at the cafe, Dad and I noticed a man heading by in a wheelchair. I know I probably did a rather comical double take. Dad and I almost simultaneously asked each other if the man we saw was Stephen Hawking. Dad said that he saw some sort of mathematical graph on the folder one of the men was carrying, and come on... how likely is it Stephen Hawking to have a body double with people who follow him carrying graphs? So, we managed to sneak a photo by going down the street. He entered a very fancy looking hotel so we figured he was there for a conference.

Stephen Hawking photobomb!!

How crazy is that? According to my research:

"Stephen Hawking, emeritus Lucasian professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and one of the most brilliant physicists of our time, is visiting the International Solvay Institutes for Physics and Chemistry in Brussels from May 28 till June 1, 2012."

So, there you go. It's true. Stephen Hawking was in Brussels, and I just happened to see him.

We then headed back to the hotel to check out (and of course I had to Tweet about Stephen Hawking) and tried to get out of Brussels. I say tried because it was unbelievably hard to leave the city! I am quickly realizing just how attached I am to my iPhone, especially having it hooked up to the 3G/4G network. Navigating without the iPhone or a GPS or even a map with all the road names is quite difficult! We have found the best way to do it is to take pictures of Google map routes on our phones and go from there. A lot of the maps we have been given do not actually have all the road names on them, and even worse lots of roads have multiple names. For instance, some of the highways have both an old name (such as A3) but also a new name (E40). Also, in Belgium they speak both French and Flemish so you must know the names of your towns in both languages. For Liege, it is Liege et aussi Luik.

Dad and I gave ourselves enough time to head to Liege with a stop first in Aachen, Germany. I hadn't heard of Aachen outside of them hosting the World Equestrian Games in 2006, but I figured hey, why not stop in Germany!

On our way to Aachen, we saw one of these:

BMW 118d!

Due to the high price of gas in Europe, a lot of people have gone for smaller hatchback cars. I absolutely love the 1 series BMWs since I think they look so compact yet beefy. It's like there is a lot of power stored in a tiny body (huh, anthropomorphize much? wow, can't believe I'm using that word this late haha). Also, most of the cars seem to be diesels since diesel is actually cheaper over here. There are also a lot of scooters, bicycles, and pedestrians. People do whatever they can to avoid gas prices, but also everything is located much more closely together.

Aachen is a very pretty little town. It was quite interesting to be in a place where I had absolutely no concept of the language. At least in Belgium et France I can speak enough of the language that with gestures I can usually get people to understand me, especially if they are semi-fluent in English. Germany, not so much. Luckily my father has an excellent memory from spending time in Germany for Siemens! It was very helpful as I had no idea what was going on. We wandered around for a while, and really enjoyed seeing all of the churches. I certainly appreciated all of the beautiful architecture and paintings. It makes me so glad that I took Art History in college, as I have some idea of what to look for.

After building up an appetite with lots of walking, we sat down at a cafe for some Konig Pilsner and a snack.

Continuing to eat our way through Europe: Apfelstrudel with vanilleeis

As usual, Dad and I passed the time by playing our favorite game: people watching. While we were chatting and eating, we saw another interesting sight... two young guys with skateboards.

Tell me, how does this work??? Skateboards on cobblestone??

It is so confusing. That can't possibly be fun. Anyways, we wandered some, and of course needed more photos for the strange things...

689 Euro for a model of a crane!

We ate again...

Schnitzel weiner art with some pommes (fries)

A quick word before I wrap up for tonight- do not say french fries!! Fries were created in Belgium. They should just be "fries" or "frites".

Unfortunately, I have a lot going on tomorrow so I must stop here. I think I need to start writing blog entries in Word so that I don't have so much to catch up on when I finally get Wi-Fi access. Tomorrow hopefully I will talk about Liege, and then our journey here to Poperinge. Noel was kind enough to take the day off tomorrow to show us around, and we are starting the morning at the boulangerie (bakery) where Bert works. I am definitely looking forward to seeing more of Poperinge.

Dort bien!

-A

Day One

I am currently writing this post from a sweet hotel in Brussels, Belgium. That's right, I made it! Please excuse any spelling or grammatical errors in the following post, I am quite tired.

My day on Friday started out with trying to get my bag down to the 50 lb weight limit. Thank goodness we had a scale at home! Otherwise I would have been in  a lot of trouble. My driver arrived at 11:30, and that was a pretty interesting experience... I think he may have stayed up way too late the night before because he kept leaning on the steering wheel and drinking straight from a bottle of Mio Energy. Sassy gay friend would not approve- you add a little or a lot, not just drink straight from the bottle!

What, what, what are you doing??

I got to JFK really early and was through check-in and security in all of ten minutes. So, I hung out and read since unfortunately you had to pay for Wi-Fi access. I managed to find a power station that was next to some chairs, which was surprisingly hard to do. For some reason they put the stations just far enough from the chairs that you have to stand while waiting for your phone to charge. 

It was not really fun to wait around for three hours, but luckily the time passed and soon we were boarding our flight! The flight ended up getting delayed on the runway however, and this caused me (along with customs) to miss my flight from Frankfurt to Belgium.

The highlight of my plane ride to Frankfurt by far involved both delicious food and the movie selection. I watched Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, The Muppets Movie, Erin Brokovitch, and an episode each of 30 Rock and Modern Family (<3). I grew up absolutely loving the Muppets thanks to my dad's influence. I wish the show would come back for real. Everything from Jack Black to Neil Patrick Harris and of course Manah Manah was just awesome.

Once I got to Frankfurt I got stuck in customs and therefore missed my first flight. I had to stop at the Lufthansa desk and luckily found that another flight was boarding in a half hour, but the lady told me not to waste any time since it takes a half hour to get to the gate! It was a very large airport. The flight was rather uneventful except for two young French guys sitting next to me that didn't realize I understood some of what they were saying. ;) For instance, they joked about how I had my eyes closed and they were never going to fall asleep, but go figure 10 minutes later I was reading and they were fast asleep for the rest of the flight! The one guy also thought he was quite the ladies man but from what I understood of what he was saying, I think that may be debatable. I headed off the plane, and while headed to pick up my bags saw a pretty car... there was a BMW M550 in the terminal!

We finally made it to Brussels airport and I met Dad at the baggage claim. We were hooked up with a diesel Citroen, and headed off to the city. Probably my favorite comment of the day was when Dad compared driving the Citroen to driving a lawn mower. :) Dad and I wandered the city for a while trying to find parking, and ended up exploring the Grand Place. We had a great lunch at a German restaurant, wandered some more, found our hotel, stopped at a brasserie, and then finally were able to get into the hotel to take a nap. Unfortunately, we napped for four hours instead of two so that may mess up our sleep systems but I'm sure we'll sync up soon.

Dad and I finished the evening off with dinner at a great restaurant called La Petite Provence. We originally ate at this restaurant with the family in our 2005 Europe trip. Just as last time, the service was absolutely amazing and so was the food. We started with mussels in a garlic and cream sauce, then had a chicken cordon bleu of sorts, and finished off with creme brulee. It was so incredibly delicious. The food here is just completely unreal.

For more pictures, check out my album Europe 2012 album on Facebook! Unfortunately the Wi-Fi here is pretty slow so I haven't been able to add lots of pictures. I promise to continue taking a bunch so hopefully a few will come out decently. :)

I can't believe I am still awake, so I think it is probably time for bed. Although it's 7:30 my normal east coast time, it's already 1:36 Belgium time, yikes! Bonne nuit mes amis!

Last Night in the US

Soo. I leave for Brussels tomorrow. I probably should finish packing. Meh, totally overrated- that's what tomorrow morning is for! I have to say, it is really unfair to ask a girl to pack one suitcase for five weeks of clothing that is both casual and business casual that works for either class or company visits. Rawr. I have quickly realized that I cannot bring as many pairs of shoes as I desire.

I have way too many clothes!! :(

On a travel-related note, this morning I met Dan and Jake in the city to see the beginning of the Gumball 3000. It was quite fun to see all of the pretty cars. They are following the rally for fun so check their journey out at http://teambalthazar.com/live/.

This custom built car was my favorite!

After seeing the two of them off I ran back up to see the start of the rally, and just missed seeing Hasselhoff at the start. However, it was pretty cool to see everyone heading out. Unfortunately, I was unable to convince anyone to give me a ride, which is probably a good thing considering I am supposed to be leaving tomorrow.

Anyways, it's amazing I am up this late considering I need to get up early to take care of a few last things aka cramming my suitcase shut. As stated on Facebook, I will not really be able to use my phone overseas so please keep in touch via Facebook, Skype, and e-mail!

Bon soir!

T-minus Two Days!

Hi everyone! So this will be my journal over the next few weeks while I am traveling (aka scrambling) all around Europe. Hopefully I will actually keep this updated- I think that is more of a concern than finding Wi-Fi to post with! Yes, I know the name is a terrible pun... but what else do you call the adventures of a redhead in Europe?

The breakdown:
May 26th to June 10th: traveling with Dad
June 11th to June 22nd: classes in Reims (week one- strategy, week two- luxury brand management)
June 23rd  to June 30th: traveling with Mom and Grandma

As of right now, I am keeping busy by attempting to pack for the trip. I have to say, it is really frustrating to try and condense five weeks worth of clothes into a suitcase. This is especially rough because I have to have casual and business casual clothes! And let's not forget the shoes...

This is how I feel right now:

After all, I should obviously be concerned about bringing stairs. I went to Europe several years ago, but what if they got rid of stairs since then??

But, amidst all of the panicking about packing I am really excited because this is what is picking me up on Saturday...

BMW 745Li!

No, there wasn't an extra charge for having one of those. Yes, I know I am obsessed. What can I say, I was raised to love them. Blame it all on my dad for having good taste!

Anyways, time to get back to packing, boo. Hopefully I don't forget too many things...