Trois jours en Belgique!
Drinking a glass of 1664 or Fosters just doesn’t match up to some of the fantastic beers Belgium has to offer. I set my self a goal of trying 20 of them but I only made it to 12. They’re super tasty but really kick you in the head. After drinking the first one I felt like I’d just had a giant margarita at an American Mexican restaurant!
I caught the TGV from Gare du Nord to Brussells. It was fast and painless, better than flying. My friend David met me at Brussells-midi, a few taps on the GPS and we were off to drop my bags off. I’ve known David for about eight years over the internet but this was the first time we’d met IRL (In Real Life)…
Little did I know at the time, we would visit four cities in the three days I was there!
Leuven was our first stop, David lives there, it’s the home of Stella Artois! Though in Belgium Stella is the standard tap beer just as Tui or Export are in New Zealand. In Belgium if you want the standar house beer in a pub you hold up your pinky finger (or two pinkies for two) which I thought was a little random – it’s true though, lots of people do it!
Belgium’s made up of Dutch Speaking regions (Flanders) and French speaking regions. David and Stephen (my other friend) both speak French but they don’t like to. As I found out, most people in the Flanders regions would rather speak English than French!
That evening we met up with Stephen (another friend of mine) and his girlfriend for some drinks. It turned out that weekend was a big one for Belgium, their national holiday was on the Saturday and there were festivals going on in every city. One of them was a 10 day job!
I saw castles and magnificiant gothic buildings (extreme detail), David gave me a good rolling commentry on all of the history and also some impressive ‘on the fly’ real time translations of Dutch songs played in a night club.
The next day we were on the road by 11am heading for Bruges (a.k.a The Venice of the north). I had said the word ‘brilliant’ at least 50 times by now. Because I tell you, holy moly! The buildings there just blew me over they were so fantastic (yes it’s common for me to say brilliant in Paris too).
Bruges was a little more low key on the festival side but you could tell they were getting ready for a big night in the town square. We jumped in the car again about 5pm and drove to Gent (Ghent). Gent was my favourite place out of the four cities (Leuven, Brussells, Bruges, Gent). There were at least eight stages setup in various spots around the city centre, amoungst buildings from the middle ages including a castle. At night everything was lit up, I didn’t really know what to say, I was totally blown away. You have to see if for yourself, even the photos I have don’t do it justice!
Back in Paris, big days! starting at 7am, off to school for a couple of hours then I’m on the métro to work until 8pm. I have a new job now and will post a blog on that soon. I’m loving it, learning heaps of new stuff and using prior knowledge too.
What I hate: The fact that I wasn’t able to go to school for a month, it’s okay though as I’m back now. That’s the only hate for now!
What’s brilliant: Ratatouille (movie), Belgian beer, Restaurants near my office, I can stay in the apartment I’m in now! All of my new friends here, new experiences and challenges EVERYDAY! 
What’s coming up? I’m going to Amsterdam and London, I’ll be catching up with some friends from AU and NZ who are in Europe!
More photos: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/lachouettevie/Belgium
Belgium looks so AWESOME!!
I cant wait to get over to Europe, mmmm real beer.
Hey dude. Looks like you’re making the most of it and having a wikid awesome time over there. My folks are heading your way in a couple of months to travel around Europe for 8 weeks. I’m hoping to head over at some stage, but will need to get a bit of dosh in the bank first.
Keep living the dream.