I'm About to Become a Hermit. But First, Den Haag.

So I just enjoyed my last out-of-Belgium adventure: The Hague, Holland (or, more correctly, The Netherlands. However, writing "The Hague, The Netherlands" seemed to contain an unnecessary number of "the"s...but yet also led to an unnecessarily lengthy explanation in parentheses, so perhaps I should have just written it in the first place).

It was a great time! I went with my ISA group and we saw some neat things. I'm afraid I was quite a slacker on taking pictures this time around, and I apologize! And, as it's getting late, I won't be able to go into terrible and agonizing detail about the trip.

I hope bullet points suffice!

• The Mauritshuis: Our first stop was an art museum, the one where the famous painting "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is housed.
• But there were quite a few Rembrandts at this museum, as well, including this work that really got his career started (a gruesome start...but whatever). It is of a doctor dissecting a prisoner's body for the sake of science.
• Yet, strangely, this little piece, "The Goldfinch" by Carel Fabritus, was my favorite.
• In conclusion, I really, really like the Dutch painters! Not so much Van Gogh (saw his stuff in Amsterdam), but Rembrandt and the like. I'm not sure why it's so appealing to me, but that's the story and I'm sticking to it!
• The Biennenhof: A neat tour through the places where affairs of state happen (traditional stuff that I won't go into detail about), and later to the parliament building. Go legislation!
  
• Escher Museum: Okay, now THIS guy is neat! Find below a few of his works! He's a genius! The top two were designs carved into wood, after which point ink was rolled over the wood and the design stamped onto the paper to make a print, and the bottom three are...drawings, I think. Not sure which medium he used, but still - the talent!
  
  
  
  
• The Hotel! Not a hostel - it was so exciting to be in such a nice place for the night! There were chocolates on the pillows and there was a rubber ducky (which I adopted) in the bathroom! Not to mention "Welcome Drinks" (I got a nice dry white wine) and the best breakfast I've had in a long, long time!
• Dinner: Went to an Indonesian restaurant out by the coast - delicious! Afterward, those who wanted to headed out to gaze at the water at night. It was neat! Laura, one of my fellow travelers, described the beach as being made up of brown sugar. We played near the water (not it - too cold!).
  
• Mini-Holland: In a put-putt golf style set up, all of the highlights of the Netherlands were summed up into one - it was too much fun. Watch the following movie for proof.
  

• Delft: A wee little town that was made magical by snow falling! We visited another art museum - not very spectacular. I was art-ed out at this point and didn't give the place the attention it probably deserved. I was tired! Interesting thing about Delft, though - the blue and white porcelain that the Netherlands are famous for? Started here!

All in all, it was a very fun trip! It takes me a while to open up and be...well...me, and I feel like I finally arrived at that spot today! Just in time to...study for finals (upcoming).

So, my train-faring adventures have in all likelihood come to their conclusion. There's plenty to do around Brussels - the Christmas markets are up and running and they're awesome! But more on them later - time for this tired traveler to go to bed!

Humorous

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! :) I'm missing you all so so much today, especially you all in Virginia - I'm sorry I'm not there this year, but hope to see you all soon!

We actually had quite the celebration here tonight. My roommate's family came over from the States and cooked us dinner (almost as good as Uncle Kemp's dinner. almost). It was very nice! I tried to make chocolate mousse. It...kind of turned into fudge. That's the way it goes, though.

The humor my heading refers to, though, has to do with the detailed nature of google maps. For homesickness sake, I was looking at and around good old MI. Would you believe that a DRAINAGE DITCH behind my house was included on google maps? I got a chuckle out of this.

In other news, I'm going to the Netherlands this weekend, and that will be it for my out of the country experiences (as in...out of Belgium). Still have a few more weeks here.

So, good night, and again, Happy Thanksgiving!

My Final Solo Adventure

Date: Wednesday, 19 November

Location: Charleoi Airport

Destination: Dublin, Ireland!

Well, to put it lightly, I went out with a bang! My adventure to Dublin was quite unlike any of my other trips for so many reasons! Hang on!

I took a bus from the Brussels train station to the airport about an hour away, a small but clean building that Ryanair flies out of. Ryanair is a college students best friend - my round trip ticket cost me only 30 Euros, or maybe...$37. Not too shabby, huh?

Anyway, this is the point where my trip got interesting, but you all need some background. As a student staying here for more than three months, I needed to obtain a student visa, which doesn't expire until 1 January. As I am leaving well before my visa expires, my resident director advised me to not register at my commune and obtain a resident card, saying it would be a waste of my time and money and that as my visa is a multiple entry visa, I would be just fine to go back and forth out of the Schengen states (Belgium, etc.). This sounded like a good deal, and so I followed her advice.

That whole saying " be careful what you wish for " also comes into play here. See, I had recently been complaining (to myself, at least) about being ready to go back home. Well...read on.

I was going through border control, and I don't know if the guy was just grumpy or what, but he informed me in a very gruff way that I might be having problems on my way back into Belgium. This left me in an...unhappy state, letting my imagination run wild with thoughts of being exported back to the States without having been able to finish my exams, which would result in me failing my classes here and losing my scholarships. At the end of the night, I was living in a van down by the river a failure and disappointment to all.

I think I'm a bit of a worrier.

Anyway, the plane ride was uneventful. What was neat was that it was cloudy as we were flying over Belgium and the cities lit them from below, making a patchwork quilt of lights and clouds. Quite beautiful!

Arrived to my hostel - the Abraham house. In case you've been wondering what a hostel looks like from the inside, behold! A ten bed female dorm.

Actually, where the pile of stuff is on the floor is where I made a weepy phone call home - thanks for talking to me, mom, it helped! I had some good prayer time - funny how being in a bit of a pit helps open those communication lines to God, right? And then I went to bed.

Morning came as usual, and I enjoyed a complimentary meal. Ireland believes in peanut butter. I share this belief, but Belgium does not. Ireland also believes in toast. It was an exciting breakfast.

I spent the rest of the day inside Dublin. My first stop was the Trinity College library, where the Book of Kells is located. This book is a 1200 year old manuscript of the four gospels and some change. Neat to see - I guess it's made on vellum, meaning that 100+ calfs had to die for this book. Not too bad.

The best part of the library, though, was the library itself. It had over 200,000 volumes of their oldest volumes, was composed of two floors with ladders and marble busts of folks like Aristotle and Plato and Milton and Locke. I felt like Belle from Beauty and the Beast walking into that room - the smell of old books saturated the air. The only way that moment could have been better would have been if I could actually have selected a volume and read it.

After this, I continued walking down the main stretch and came across the castle. Since I was there, and since it was there, I figured I needed to go and tour it. Sooo cool! We first toured the apartments of the castle, which were not as elaborate as others I've seen, but were of course none too shabby.

Funny story for this table - it was made for Queen Victoria by prisoners. Their hope was that she would like it enough to let them out early. Unfortunately, they carved demonic figures into the wood...not a good move. As it turns out, she didn't like it, left the table in Ireland and the prisoners in prison.

And here's the ballroom where the presidential inaugurations are held every seven years (at least I think it's seven...). I was surprised to learn how young the country of Ireland is - things only started really shaking there after World War I! It's weird that a country with such an old heritage and rich history should be so young politically.

So after seeing the pretty part of the castle, we went down into the bowels.
Check out the underground river that once formed the moat around the place!
And, also - remnants of a viking wall! (The pile of rubble on the right of the picture - the guide said that the vikings weren't good with building walls as their mortar was made out of things like horse hair and eggs.)

I wandered around the city for a while, then headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral. The history of Saint Patrick is pretty cool - he was taken as a slave to Ireland, I think, and after he was freed felt he needed to go back.

I didn't know this until I got there, but Jonathan Swift served as a dean at St. Patrick's, and his remains are in the walls (a practice I still find...creepy). I actually want to read some more Irish literature when I get back to a place with an English library - starting with A Portrait of Dorian Grey, just for kicks.
That evening, I wandered through the shopping area, laughing at how much money people are willing to spend on jewelry and clothing. Too much. Way too much. I did find a book store, though, and contented myself with looking over some "coffee table books", including a marvelous collection of Ansel Adams photography! He was a pretty neat guy, took some incredible shots of the American West, and worked to preserve the natural beauty of places like Yosemite. Maybe some day I'll pick up one of his books.

Anyway, after my browsing, I went out for dinner to a place that performs live, traditional Irish music every night along with a step dancing show. It was pretty neat, although a three course meal by ones self is kind of lonely. While the dancing was neat and I'm glad I got to see it, I loved the music! The guy on the flutes and bodhran (the Irish drum) was more than a mere player of music, he was a musician, and it was cool to see.


Friday I decided to hop on a bus and get out to see the coast. I really didn't have much more than a rough idea of where I was going, I just knew that I needed to follow the coast line north until I got to the town of Howth where I could get a bus back to Dublin. I discovered a trail that went right along the edges of the cliffs and was even able to get down to the water at one point. For this part, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.








In a word: beautiful. I found myself talking to Ireland while I was out there, saying things like "you're so beautiful!" and "Oh, Ireland!", which in retrospect is a little peculiar, but oh well. Less strange was me commending God for His handywork - He did a pretty good job in designing the coastline, I think.


And so I'm now safe and sound back in Brussels (border control was no problem at all - no living in a van down by the river for me just yet), happily reflecting on the last of my solo adventures.

There are a few local things to report on, but that will have to wait for another day!
Love from Belgium!
Gracie

Some Cheeky Friends

So...there is a host of mice hanging out in the basement with us. They're pretty cheeky, too. Look at this picture of the trap.


Not only did they take the food off of the platform, they pooped all the trap.

Like I said...cheeky. And I laughed!

I'm going to Dublin today! I'm so excited to be going to an English speaking country for a few days! I think it will be a pretty neat visit! :)

Until my return,
Gracie

Luxurious Luxembourg

Well, so maybe Luxembourg isn't luxurious, but it sounds nice together, doesn't it?

There isn't that much to say about the City of Luxembourg, actually. It's very pretty, and the history behind it was interesting enough, and I definitely liked wandering around through the streets full of shops that had Christmas decorations in the window (no Thanksgiving here! I guess anytime in mid-November, it is fair game to start decorating for Christmas! Not to mention St. Nicholas comes on December 6. Remember to put your shoes out!). But other than that, there isn't a whole bunch to say! A few hours were definitely enough!

For whatever reason, I'm not able to upload any pictures right now, which is okay because there aren't too many.

I can't believe we're already half way through November! How did that happen? I'm pretty excited about this week - I only have two classes to go to and then I'm off to Ireland for a few days as a grand finale trip. School itself is starting to wind down - I'm almost finished with my last big paper of the semester. There was a point there (particularly after break when I came home to a stack of papers to do) where I didn't believe it would all get done, but it has! I love how that happens every single semester! That ought to be roughly completed before I leave on Wednesday, and from that point all I have to do really is start preparing for exams, which are still a ways off but it doesn't hurt to be prepared! I anticipate wandering Brussels daily for the next few weeks, actually, and finding different cafes to study in. Fun stuff!

I guess this has been an update for the sake of updating! I'm well, hope you are too!

Gracie

A Remembrance Day to Remember

Yesterday, I went on a field trip led by my history professor and his wife out to Ieper (Ypres), Belgium for Armistice Day.

What an amazing trip! To be here in Europe for the 90th anniversary of the day that the Armistice was signed, to be in a place that witnessed such death during the Great War to remember those who perished, is one of the best experiences I've had and something that I won't forget.

We started out the day at the "Flanders Fields" museum. There were a lot of great exhibits, but the most moving one to me was the section on Christmas. Read the same words that I did yesterday - words written down by soldiers over ninety years ago - words that illustrate the beauty of the Christmas spirit.

"The German Company-Commander asked ours if he would accept a couple of barrels of beer. They had plenty of it in the brewery. He accepted the offer with thanks and a couple of their men rolled the barrels over and we took them into our trench. The German officer sent one of his men back to the trench, who appeared shortly after carrying a tray with bottles and glasses on it. Officers of both sides clinked glasses and drank one another's health. Our Company-Commander had presented them with a plum pudding just before. the officers came to an understanding that the unofficial truce would end at midnight. At dusk we went back to our respetive trenches."

"One Englishman was playing on the harmonica of a German lad, some were dancing, while others were proud as peacocks to wear German helmets on their heads. The British burst into song with a carol, to which we replied with "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht." It was a very moving moment - hated and embittered enemies were singing carols around the Christmas tree. All my life I will never forget that sight. We saw that men carried on living, even when they are reduced to killing and butchery...Christmas 1914 will remain unforgettable for me."

There are more quotes, but there's also more to say about the day!

Following the museum, we went to eat a picnic lunch out at a smelly little pub/cafe get-up that agreed to have us eat under their roof (it's Belgium - every day is a rainy day) as long as we purchased a drink. I got my favorite kind of beer - a Kriek (cherry beer - yum!) and enjoyed eating sandwiches with the other customers of the pub/cafe looking on in wonder and amusement at we 54 freeloaders.

This cafe doubles as a museum and trench site, and so after eating our fill, we headed into the back room of this place which was full of artillery shells, barbed wire, photographs, guns, boots, saddles, bones (horse, I assume...I certainly hope they weren't human), airplane propellers - all of this the owner dug up in his back yard and shoved it into a shed for people to look at. Pretty cool, I think. The place had character!


Behind the pub/cafe were some preserved trenches surrounded by the pits left over from artillery fire so many years ago. The trenches were flooded and so I didn't go down into them, but I'm sure it was a miserable way to spend a war, down in the wet earth, which was rocked by the impact of artillery.



After this, we loaded onto the charter bus and headed to two cemeteries: one an English cemetery, and one a German cemetery. Many of the graves read only "Known Unto God" in the English cemetery, and I wonder who the person was that lies there now. Were they young? Old? Did they have a family? Was it their first battle that claimed their life, or their tenth?

(Top: English Graveyard, Bottom: German Graveyard)


Our last stop of the day was the Talbot house. This place had once been owned by a wealthy man who took care of hops (used in beer), but had had to flee to Normandy once the Germans took over poor Belgium (dare I say it, but I find Belgium to really be a plucky little country!). During the war, a Chaplain established a kind of haven in this house where soldiers could come into a wholesome environment (as opposed to going to the taverns and/or acquiring female companionship) with a beautiful, peaceful garden, canteen, library, and comedic performances. There was a chapel at the very top of the house, but the Chaplain didn't force the soldiers to go and visit it (only if they dared). It was without a doubt my favorite stop on the tour. The building is still an oasis today - we were offered coffee and tea, invited to sit around in the living rooms and dining rooms, play the piano, explore the house, use the restroom.

Out in the garden were posted a few poems, which I copied down to share with you all! They were written by soldiers who stayed to visit the Talbot house way back when.

"The sun's a red ball in the oak
and all the grass is grey with dew,
A while ago a blackbird spoke -
He didn't know the world's askew.

And yonder rifleman and I
Wait here behind the misty trees
to shoot the first man that goes by
our rifles at our knees.

Strange that this bird sits there and sings
while we must only sit and plan -
who are so much the higher things -
the murder of our fellow man."

A Listening Post
Robert E. Veinede

"A burst of sudden wings at dawn,
faint voices in a dreary noon,
evenings of mist and murmurings
and night with rainbows of the moon.

And through these things and wood way dim,
and waters dim, and slow sheep seen
on uphill paths that wind away
through summer sounds and harvest green.

This is a song a robin sang
this moring on a broken tree,
It was about the little fields
that call across the world to me."

Home
Francis E. Ledwidge

We were there to witness ceremonies at the end of the day, but the streets were too crowded to get up close, which was disappointing.

Anyway, it was a very special day and I'm very glad that I had the opportunity to remember with the Europeans this great day in history.

Fall Break Chapter 3: Munich

October 31st - at this point I was

• sad about leaving Salzburg
• growing increasingly stinky as I had few changes of clothing and was reusing excessively (but no worries - I had been showering!)
  

Actually, I wasn't smelling too bad. I was honestly just trying to gross you out. Did it work? No? Aww.

Anyway, the train ride was pretty short and uneventful, and I arrived to Munich before noon, and quickly found my hostel. My room wasn't ready yet, so I stashed my stuff in the luggage room and headed out to see what I could do until my room was ready. They had free maps at reception, and I saw an advertisement for a tour of Dachau on it, and so off I went to try and make it to the meeting spot on time.

I walked through the main strip of Munich and it is, honestly, not a very impressive city. It's a city, and that's about it. Sorry Munich, but I never loved thee.

The day was pretty cold, but I layered up well and didn't really have a problem. The tour guide was from Scotland, but had lived in New Zealand before moving to Germany. There were two Californians and three English folks. Dachau was everything one would expect a concentration camp to be. Here's a picture of the gate, but when I got inside, it didn't feel right to take any more pictures.

Afterwards, I was invited to dinner with the British lot. Imagine this: I was an American in Germany with three people from England eating dinner at a Mexican establishment where we were served by an Asian server. It was a fun night - they were travelling around Europe basically until they ran out of money and had to go back to work. One of the guys introduced himself as Kyle, but I have a feeling his real name is Terrence and that he goes by Mr. T. And Scott was just funny. The woman (whose name I unfortunately can't remember) worked with wildlife and had a nasty scar on her wrist where a marmoset bit her. They were very pleasant to be with!

The next day, I didn't really feel like doing anything but go back to Brussels. I tell you the truth, I flipped a coin to see if I would cut back my planned vacation and head back early or if I would push on and visit Neuschwanstein Castle. Thankfully, my 2 euro coin landed face up, and I gathered my belongings and headed out to Fussen, Germany - about a 2 hour train ride from Munich.

At first, Germany seemed gross and unspectacular, but when the train got far away from Munich and down into Bavaria, I was so glad I had made the trip out! The castle is situated just at the beginning of the Alps, and below it is sprawled the flat, green, German country side with small towns interrupting the fields.




The castle itself was neat - a lot of the decoration corresponded to German folklore and the rooms were beautiful and the technologies were pretty interesting (example - running water in Ludwig's bedroom and a type of telephone which he used to call down to the town to see what was going on).



I didn't take this picture - I coudn't get to the place where they got this shot. But it helps put in the perspective of how gorgeous it was!


However, my favorite part of the afternoon was playing billy-goat up on trails like this!
It was the perfect ending - something straight out of a fairytale!



That concludes my fall break! It was a time of stretching and excitment and relaxation and neat destinations and memory making.

My Love from Belgium!

Gracie

Fall Break Chapter 2: Salzburg

As I alluded to in my previous post, I was a bit grumpy after Rome, disenchanted with Europe in general, and kind of disappointed in my adventure to Italy. It was a great trip, of course, but I wasn't blown away by it, to be honest.

Anyway, I got on a train from Rome to Florence early in the morning. This might be a silly observation, but I noticed that people are much more talkative in Italy than in other places I've been to on the train. All the while there was a pleasant hum of conversation filling the car rather than the stiff silence I've experienced elsewhere.

Trains are very punctual here, and I was surprised to see that at the scheduled arrival time to Florence, the train was still rolling and there was no city in sight. Normally, I wouldn't mind this tardiness - it means less time hanging out in a train station, but I only had a fifteen minute break between that train and my connection to Innsbruck, Austria. Time crept on, and I started getting more and more anxious. In summary, had I not ran through the train station in Florence and or had the Rome train been only one minute later, I would have missed the train to Austria and would have been in quite the pickle.

Nothing bad happened, though, and I was safe on the train, which meandered through Italy for a while before turning north towards the beautiful Alps. Though it looked cold, miserable, and rainy, it was still amazing to look out the window and see walls of earth rising up around the train. Clouds looked as though they had gotten tangled on the wooded slopes, almost like garland on a Christmas tree. I was in a small cabin with a German couple, and aside from a few comments on where in Italy we were coming from, we sat in a comfortable silence (as opposed to the uncomfortable, awkward silence that exists in other situations).

By the time I got to Innsbruck, it was dark outside. The connecting train to Salzburg was uneventful other than making significant progress in finishing The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I found my way to the buses, took it to my hostel, and settled in for the night.

Salzburg was my first experience with a hostel, and I think I was a little spoiled! It was very clean, comfortable, and well run. If you didn't know this already, The Sound of Music was filmed in Salzburg and was shown every evening at 8, and so of course I watched it both nights I was there. But more than watching the movie where it was filmed, the following morning I went on a Sound of Music tour. The tour guide was a crazy, charismatic English woman and I had a complete blast!

Let the pictures begin!

Woman in the middle in the black hat was my tour guide - like I said, she was a hoot!

First stop: The Pavilion!

Something funny about the pavilion: people can no longer go inside it because an 82 year old woman was skipping around on the seats singing "I Am 16 Going on 17" and fell and seriously injured herself. Okay, so maybe that's funny in a terrible, ironic way.


Recognize the back of the Von Trapp home? :)

In the gardens where most of Do Re Mi was filmed.

The little gnome that they marched around.


The Do Re Mi steps.
I just felt like skipping for some reason.

On the tour, we also went outside of Salzburg and saw some of the beautiful mountain lakes!
A nice wall of rock that was seen in the movie. I know - these pictures are just becoming ridiculous!
See the red dome of the Abbey?


The Church in Mondsee where the wedding was filmed.


The bank where they skipped along the river, again in Do Re Mi.
The foot bridge they walked over!

That concluded my Sound of Music Adventures. I wandered around the city, ran into Mozart.

This wall is older than the United States of America.

I went up to see the fortress...



But entrance was pretty expensive and I had other plans to see castles later in my trip. I thus wandered down some new paths and found myself in the hills above the city!


It was so beautiful! The colors on the trees were pretty ripe and it was a nice fall day.


A bit of Salzburg for you!


In conclusion, Salzburg has been my favorite city so far! It wasn't a huge city like Rome or Paris, but was just about right for my tastes! And of course I am a fan of mountains. In fact, it has made me want to backpack through the Alps and first visit Switzerland, but then come back through Austria, and maybe on to Hungary.

I was sad to leave Salzburg, but my adventures weren't done yet. I still had Munich on my itinerary before heading home. But that's a story for another day.

Love from Belgium!
Gracie