Spring! Oh yeah…studying

Finally, some of Belgium’s nastier weather has passed and for once we’ve been getting warm weather and sunshine all week! Warm weather for us equal being in the 50s and 60s (˚F).  It has been absolutely glorious. I’m convinced my Dad brought the good weather with him. It was wonderful to have him here for a bit, and having a visitor of my own let me get to see even more of Bruxelles.

Meeting up with my Dad for dinner meant that I was out in the city center in the evening now, and Bruxelles comes to life. Especially because of the nice weather, restaurants have their tables and chairs outside filled with people having a drink or eating, chatting away and watching the world pass by. I love the atmosphere. If you go to la Grand Place, ancient, soaring buildings surround the large square, lit up with a variety of greens and yellows. People are everywhere, taking pictures, playing guitar, eating or admiring artwork. This is the heart of Bruxelles; turn down a seemingly small street called Rue de la Bouchers, all of a sudden every building becomes a bustling restaurant. Light and music spill out onto the cobblestoned streets, as dinning couples laugh and waiters attempt to beckon you in using five different languages. “Espagnol?? No? Français? English?”

Suffice to say I had some pretty nice meals that week, making me feel like I not only saw more of Brussels, but tasted it too! (try the Flemish beef stew. It’s delicious) Moules, or mussels are also an extremely famous Belgian dish, but they aren’t really in season yet, so I’m waiting on that.

In addition to going to Bruges and meeting up for tasty meals, my Dad and I also explored the city a bit on Sunday morning. Apparently all morning, everyday, there is a massive flea market close to Porte D’Halle. Essentially, you can buy anything and everything ever created by man there, from paintings to old keys, clothes and Africa carvings. A fun fact that my Dad told me- if any of you saw the new Tintin movie, this is the market scene from the very beginning of the film! A tribute to Hergé, the Belgian creator of Tintin. It was fun to walk around an explore, stop a grab a coffee in one of the tens of little brasseries and meander more in Brussels.

Porte D'Halle- yes we have a random castle in the middle of Brussels

The market!

Apparently, Brussels is market central on Sundays, and everywhere  we went we discovered more and more stalls. Plus, I got to show my Dad some of the cool sites- le Grand Sablon a beautiful church, MIM, and the view of the city from Place Royal. I have also discovered where to get an amazing fruit smoothie in Brussels- right next to MIM (Musée d’Instruments Musicales). My Dad left after that lovely afternoon, but it was great to see him for a while!

More markets!

Inside le Grand Sablon- absolutely beautiful building

Since the warm weather has finally arrived, we've been taking full advantage and eating outside in out little courtyard and soaking up some sunshine in Parc Cinquantnaire. The entire city has come out, shopping, eating ice cream, going to the park as well to play frisbee or just lay on the grass with friends and chat. In the last two weeks, I feel like I'm getting more of an appreciation for Brussels. I am also realizing how much work I have to do, and have been ramping up my studying portion as well!

In other fun news, my laptop has decided, all on its own, to become more energy efficient. This translates as no longer back-lighting my screen. Which has led to me getting very creative in trying to see the screen (hint: the perfect angle of sunlight is the key here). All this means that I have to take my poor computer into the Apple Store here, and hopefully communicate what my problem is in French, and that I shouldn’t have to pay for it since I have Apple Care!! Luckily, I’ve conveniently planned this so I’ll be in Amsterdam whilst they are working on my computer, so I won’t need it. Wish me luck!

Romantic Pandas? Bruges

Not so very far from Brussels, in the Flemish portion of Belgium lies a small town called Bruges. If you have heard of any other city in Belgium besides Brussels, it was probably this one: ancient and picturesque Bruges dates back to the 9^th century. Buildings are still standing from dates as ancient as the 12^th century, and the entire town is interlaced with several rings of canals all criss-crossed by  tens of low stone bridges.

While Bruges is definitely beautiful, the day was made even better due to the fact that my Dad was with me! He happened to have a business trip to Brussels, and we got to spend all of Saturday together. Thus, the plan for our day: go to Bruges! We took the train in, the easiest way to get around in Belgium, and definitely started off the day right with a delicious hot chocolate. (I think I’m going to start a new policy that every time I go somewhere new by train in Belgium, I will get a hot chocolate. Always delicious in train stations for some reason…)

While we didn’t have the most beautiful of days, it being cloudy and gray, it was still a decent temperature and it didn’t rain all day! Our plan for the day was essentially to wander around the city at will, exploring whatever we stumbled upon. Since the train station brought us close to a park, we started there! Minnewater, or the Lake of Love, is a beautiful lake framed by trees on all sides, and a beautiful bridge and random medieval tower. I was a big fan of the tower and bridge, but unfortunately I couldn’t climb up inside it.  Follow the water and you reach Begijnhof. Within that name you discover what Begijnhof used to be- a monastery for women of the Béguine order. Béguines were women who had been widowed, but preferred to respect and maintain their marital vows living a peaceful, single and protect life in a community of other women. No Béguines live there now, but a few nuns do- thus the quiet nature of the monastery is maintained amongst the whitewashed buildings surrounding a courtyard full of slanted trees and yellow daffodils.

Fun fact about Bruges- not only are there swans everywhere (four of which can eat a grown man in 10 minutes according to our tour guide), but there are horses everywhere! No, not just galloping loose all over the city, but drawing carriages over the cobblestones. A very popular way to tour the city, touristy as it may be. The other fun way to tour the city? By boat! Bruges is kind of like a northern-European version of Venice (though I haven’t been to Venice yet), so I convinced my Dad to go on a boat tour with me! It was really cool to see the city by boat, gliding underneath centuries old bridges only four feet high and see the buildings meeting the water up close. We were a bit chilly after the boat tour, and set off in search of a café.

Never, fear, Bruges is also bursting with food. There are literally hundreds of pubs, waterside restaurants, tearooms and cafés. The trick is finding one not close to the main tourist centers where things get real expensive, real fast. True to being a Belgian town, there were friteries (fries-shops), waffle-shops and chocolateries everywhere. Literally everywhere. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much chocolate in such a small area in such a short amount of time. Chocolate chickens, bunnies and eggs for Easter anyone?

The best part about Bruges was just exploring- coming across an antiques market along the canal, finding beautiful courtyards and a tower that looked like it belonged to Rapunzel. There are quite a few art museums, but we weren’t really in the museum mood, and so checked out the cool architecture and then moved on. There is also a super-famous Michelangelo sculpture in Bruges- the Madonna with Child, housed inside the Church of Our Lady, a building with extremely eclectic architecture since is took 200 years to build!

Looked like Rapunzel's tower to me!

We also visited the Choco-Story Museum, which is supposed to tell the story of chocolate since the Mayans. Complete with Lego dioramas.  While they have a lot of cool artifacts, and I loved watching the demonstration of how to make pralines, the famous filled Belgian chocolates, it’s really not worth it. Go watch ‘Chocolat’ instead and then do some research. It’ll be a lot more entertaining and cheaper!

The main square in Bruges is crowned by the Belfort, an extremely tall bell tower, which you can climb if you’re up for 366 steps. It over looks the Markt, the main square, full of restaurants and shops, just like the Burg and Vismarkt (fish market that still sell some fish in the mornings).  

Belfort

The Markt

We also visited the city brewery on our way out of the city- unfortunately the last tour was at 5pm, so we didn’t get to tour the brewery. When my Dad asked the ticket guy what he recommended to do instead, his reply was, “Have a beer. That’s fun.” So we did, going to the brewery tavern and trying the local beer.

All in all, an extremely beautiful little town, full of restaurants, museums and chocolateries! Being in Flanders, our French didn’t really help a whole lot that day, and English was our communication language of choice. Two last random facts before finishing off:

1.     1. Dragon Benches! Take a look at the benches in the city if you ever go to Bruges. The railings holding up the seats are actually all swirly dragons. I enjoyed it.

2.     2. You’re probably wondering why I called the post Romantic Pandas. While Bruges is a very romantic city… the real reason is that we discovered this sign:

My Dad promptly said, “Look! The romantic panda hotel!” I laughed so hard I cried. So there’s Bruges for you! Home of the Romantic pandas- and some very beautiful canals!

Me in front of one of the many canals!

Berlin!

In lieu of not being able to come up with a catchy title, here's my intro:

So 3 Canadians, a French guy and an American walked into a bar. True story. Although we would make a brilliant joke (if somebody can think of one starting like that, more power to ya), this was also the fun jumble of people I went to Berlin with this weekend! Which, ironically, meant that despite being in Germany, I spoke French more often than I might do in Brussels. It was actually great practice for me, plus I finally managed to convince them that I wasn't offended when they corrected me, but that they should in fact do it more. I know I make mistakes, so better to fix them now than after a year of saying something wrong!

I never really planned on going to Germany, and Berlin certainly wasn't on my radar, but when some friends said they were going and did I want to come- why not? Suddenly everyone I met started telling me how cool Berlin was, and I started to get excited about our trip! 

We stayed for a total of three whole days (four nights), and I could have easily spent a week there, most of it just in the museums. Berlin has some incredible, world-class museums, some worthy of a day each! Pergamon had to be my favorite- it contained entire building! Walk in, and you are immediately confronted with the grand Pergamon Alter, transported all the way from Turkey to Berlin in its entirety. All of a sudden I was in ancient Greece, climbing the alter steps and seeing friezes with the battle of the gods and giants. In the next room I traveled to the Roman Empire with this incredible three-story market gate, which in turn lead to Babylon through the lapis lazuli blue Ishtar Gate. There were numerous artifacts and several other structures transported to the museum. It was incredible and I highly recommend going if you're ever in Berlin.

Pergamon Alter! 

Market Gate, Pergamon Museum

Ishtar Gate from Babylon! (also Pergamon Museum)

Next we stopped in another amazing museum that is part of Berlin’s ‘Museum Island,’ quite literally, an island in the middle of the city full of museums. The Neues Museum- also known as the Egyptian Museum for me, because it was full of Egyptian art and artifacts, plus the extremely famous bust of Nefertiti, and an incredible papyrus library. My obsession with hieroglyphics may have come out quite a bit…

Bridges leading to Museum Island

To understand Berlin, know that it is a pretty massive city, divided into multiple districts, each with their own center. While we did an impressive amount of walking, the metro and train system was essential to getting around the city quickly. Fun fact about Berlin: everybody walks around with an open bottle of beer. On the street, on the metro, and at any time of day whether it is 4am or 10am. Seemed like a substitute for water!

Over the course of the three days that we were there, we explored and visited quite a bit, so I’m just going to give you some of the highlights and impressions of the city. Berlin is absolutely full of history, from its creation up until modern day after the Cold War. So I decided to take a free walking tour of the city and learn all of that first hand. The tour was incredible (Sandeman’s newEurope if you’re interested, they’re in other cities too), in the space of some three and a half or four hours, I got a few hundred years of really interesting history that suddenly gave meaning to all the buildings, plazas and monuments around me. Things like the fact that Berlin was (and still is) a swamp, never meant to be a big city, and thus big pink and blue pipes are still all over the city today, carrying out water and natural gas from underground. This is also why Berlin doesn’t smell all that great.

In fact, we learned that most of Berlin is less than 60 years old- over 90% of its buildings were destroyed around WWII. And going along with the after effects of WWII, you naturally come to the Cold War and the Berlin Wall. Let me tell you, the Berlin Wall is actually rather small. It wasn’t the size that mattered as much as the fact that it went up overnight, cutting off access to West Berlin, and also the creation of the ‘death strip’ just around the wall. The Death strip was essentially the expanse between the Berlin wall, and another wall put up by the Soviets, full of guards, lights, sand and wire- all essentially screaming “You can’t get through!” I won’t bore you with all the history details; suffice to say that I saw where Einstein gave lectures, where the famous Nazi book burning took place and the Holocaust memorial plus a great deal more.

Berlin Wall East Side Gallery- a long stretch of the wall that artists from all over have painted

Proof that I was in Berlin- in front of the Wall

The Holocaust memorial, or the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe is a very unique creation. A massive square full of concrete columns raised to various heights that look eerily like coffins. Perhaps the most striking aspect for me was that it had rained earlier that day. Water droplets clung to the sides of the columns, sparking like diamonds or tears. That’s the image that stuck with me- the glistening tears of those murdered in the Holocaust.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Standing inside the memorial

Raindrops or Tears?

Both underneath that memorial, at also at the Jewish Museum in the city, you get an emotionally heavy, but extremely worthwhile experience, making the lives of those swept up in the Holocaust vivid and no longer a nameless number.

Jewish Museum- really cool architecture as well

To move on to a lighter subject, I also saw the only château in Berlin! Charlottenburg Palace, built for King Friedrich Wilhelm I. While we couldn’t actually go inside by the time we arrived, the castle grounds are home to some incredibly beautiful gardens, plus small lake with swans. Definitely worth a walk through if you are there.

Charlottenburg Palace

Palace Gardens- Swans! 

We did try both the famous Berlin currywurst and a pretzel while we were there; both were pretty good, though I’m not a big fan of curry. The food I much preferred was rather this incredible Vietnamese place that we ate at- very limited menu where everything was delicious! I also tried a Spezzi, a mix of orange Fanta and Coke, which is actually a lot better than it sounds.

At night, the city comes to life even more. The weather happened to be beautiful while we were there, making the evening perfect for strolling along outside and people watching from an outdoor terrace. Everything in the city is lit up, and people meander from shops to restaurants and bars. I’m pretty sure the city never sleeps- the metro doesn’t anyway!

There’s Berlin for you, in a manner that doesn’t do the city justice because there is so much more to see and do! A city full of history, people and brilliant museums.

Brandenburger Tor, one of the most distinct landmarks in Berlin in the background- plus a free rose that we all got that day!

Museum Night Fever!!

Since I'm now into my second month of living in Brussels, I'm starting to love the city more. These past few days have been fantastic: the weather has gotten warmer (in the 50˚s F now guys! Minus Monday, when it snowed all morning.), the feeling of spring is in the air, I've eaten some really delicious food that my fellow Erasmus students have made from their countries, watched a 6 Nations Rugby match in a lovely Irish pub and... went to Museum Night Fever!

Yes it was actually called that. Last Saturday night, nearly all the museums in Brussels- 24 of them- stayed open until 2am! It only cost 9€, and we got to visit all the museums we could manage, with free bus transportation between them. All in all, a pretty sweet deal. The atmosphere of the night was incredible. We had seen posters for quite a few weeks now, bright splashes of green advertising the event. Suddenly the city just sprang to life- hundreds of people were out and about, milling around Place Royale, inside the museums, and on the buses. It was a mix of every kind of person- international students like us (we heard plenty of English), parents with their kids, and loads of Belgians just out for the night. It was a warm and clear night, the kind that we haven’t had in quite a while, filling everybody with energy and excitement.

I should also mention that while the museums were incredible, they went one step further and had live concerts, dances and artwork all over the place! Much of this live artwork involved people posing or being ancient characters- more on that in a second.

We managed to squeeze in five museums total, and didn’t have nearly enough time in some of them. First up was Jardin Botanique, right next to where we live. With this first stop we noticed this tall illuminated cone that changed colors, marking the location as participating in Museum Night Fever. From that first cone on, it became our quest to take a picture with every cone we saw. Jardin Botanique doesn’t really have a whole lot of the ‘Botanical Garden’ bit going on, it’s more often used as a concert venue (every night actually) and exhibition room. We passed a few palm trees, and some adorable gold fish, and then saw a photo and painting exhibition with theme of “desert.” The paintings were pretty cool, especially since they were painted on glass fiber, which I’ve never seen as a medium before. There was also this artsy performance by a group of school kids, making desert sounds, acting things out and speaking a bit of desert poetry. It was…interesting.

Our first light cone 

Jardin Botanique, all lit up

After we finally found out where the bus left from, our next stop was BOZAR, a museum playing with the French name for Fine arts “Beaux arts.” Only we couldn’t find the entrance. So we ended up underground instead. Logical eh?

We found the Coudenberg! This underground museum, if it can be called that, explored the ancient Palais de Bruxelles, the old Royal Palace. It was an incredible walk under the city through these ruins of a forgotten palace. And this particular night, they had placed actors all throughout the chambers. Some were story tellers (and exceedingly creepy with finger puppets), others read monologues, impersonating the castle’s ancient inhabitants and I even came across three guys at a birthday party, one eloquently explaining the merits of plastic cups. One of the funniest and weirdest things in the ruins however, had to be the swimmer-ducks. We were just walking along some ancient underground passage way when these two people, in a tight, red jumpsuit, wearing yellow flippers, goggles and a swim cap waddled in, arms in wing position and occasionally quacking. All the while with the most neutral of expressions on their faces. I still have no idea what that was about… more live art perhaps?

in the Coudenberg!

There also happened to be a Red Bull car, giving away free Red Bull? This mean it was time for a group photo

From the Codenberg, we went back and found BOZAR, which was playing host to concerts and dance performances throughout the night. We only caught the tail end of one of the concerts, but there were groups from all over the world. Instead, we saw a photography exhibit by CY Twombly and a really neat painting exhibit by Per Kirkeby. I’m not usually a fan of modern art, but this guy was very interesting. The more you looked at a piece, the more images you picked out.

Main hall of BOZAR, filled with band equipment

Natural History Museum was next up, and while the dinos were very exciting, I was far more fascinated by the dancing. For amongst the dinos, music soared, followed perfectly by a group of tango dancers. I’ve never seen people tango right in front of me before- and these guys were incredible. It’s amazing how the man can lead with the subtlest of movements or pressures and the woman can follow with ease. It looked like they were reading each others’ minds. Now I really want to learn how to tango.

Last museum: MIM- Musical Instruments Museum. After a quick and exceedingly delicious brownie snack (Green Kitchen, Place Royale, get a brownie!), we got in the fast-moving queue for MIM. After a mandatory coat check, we were given headphones and let loose to explore the museum! Inside were loads of really cool instruments from all over the world and all different periods of history. Plus, you could plug in your headphones near each display and hear what they sound like! MIM is also just a gorgeous building- Art Nouveau style, with an incredible view of the Brussels from the top floor.

As we walked back home that night, my friends and I concluded that we had had a fantastic night out. Museums, brownies and a warm night, what more could we want?