For Christmas two years ago, all I wanted was a scratch off map of the United States so I could document the states that I had visited. This may seem like a very random anecdote to put on a blog about a semester abroad, but stick with me.
I have always loved visiting new places and imagining what it would have been like to live in that place. Naive as it might be, it’s strange for me to think about how there are people grow up in Chicago and Atlanta and Boston, and that the suburbs of Philly are not the place everyone calls home. It’s fascinating to me to imagine how different it would have been to have grown up in every different place I visit.
In general, it’s an interesting thought experiment to me because I feel like I can get an idea of what that would be like, since in the end, these cities are all American, and so while there are differences in culture, at their root, they’re all fairly familiar to me. Even since getting to London, I feel like there’s enough similarities between our two countries that it’s not too hard to picture what it would be like to grow up in an English suburb.
This weekend, though, we hopped on the Eurostar and crossed the English Channel to visit Brussels and Bruges (or Brugge if you prefer, we’re still not exactly sure of the difference). We spent the day Friday in Brussels, where we went to a cafe that had lots of gluten free options (including waffles!!), and even more importantly, they had iced coffee, which London is tragically lacking.
While Brussels was beautiful and I really enjoyed getting to walk around and visit the EU complex and some waffle shops, the best part of the trip was definitely the next stop, Bruges.
Bruges was much smaller than Brussels, and when we arrived late Friday afternoon, we could hardly believe how beautiful it was. We laughed at Daphne, who was exclaiming every five minutes, “It’s just so pretty!”, but she was right! I don’t think I had ever seen such a beautiful town. It was all brick buildings and cobblestone streets, and there were more horse-drawn carriages and bikes than there were cars, so we spent much of the time just walking right through the middle of the streets. This was a refreshing change from central London, where the bus drivers have no qualms about running you down if you get in their way. There were also canals cutting throughout the city, and I never got tired of climbing over bridges and looking down at the running water.
We had a great time on Friday night and Saturday, eating a nice meal at an Italian restaurant and visiting the Chocostory (where we had plenty of free samples) and the Frietmuseum. Unfortunately, the Frietmuseum didn’t offer free samples, but we did get a discount in their shop at the end, where we split a pack of fries. They were gone before I could get a picture, so here is a picture of the aftermath, as well as some other snippets of the Frietmuseum experience:
At this point, you may be asking, “Eileen, what does this have to do with a scratch off map of the US? What a random story to start this blog.” Well, dear reader, I’ll tell you.
As fun as the museums and chocolate shops were, my favorite part of the trip was just walking around the little winding alleys and canals. I was in complete awe of the beauty of the city the whole time; I had never seen anything like it before.
Walking around, my brain was desperately trying to process what it was seeing and make sense of the gorgeous city around me. Like I normally do when I go to a new place, I tried to picture what it would be like to live there, and I just couldn’t do it. It was so unlike any place I had ever gone that it was so strange to think about this beautiful little town being everyday reality to someone.
As we walked down the narrow cobblestone streets, we saw little boys speeding along on their bikes and elderly couples carrying grocery bags. It was amazing to me that for these people, this was home. I have to say, I’m pretty jealous that so many people have such easy access to those gorgeous canals and the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had.
I wish I could have another week to spend just walking around the city and getting to explore every side street and every chocolate shop. Hopefully one day, I’ll be able to go back and do that. For now, though, I’m happy to sit on this Eurostar back to London and daydream about moving to Bruges and opening my own coffee/book shop, where I’ll be able to drink all the hot chocolate I want.
Eileen's London Semester 