I finally did some traveling outside of Paris! I spent the first weekend of November in Brussels and Amsterdam. It was a whirlwind tour full of odd-hour buses, confusing hotels, and food. So much food. Aside from a souvenir hat and some keychains, that’s where all my money went. Food.
The voyage began with a 6am bus from Paris to Brussels. I only allowed myself 3 hours of sleep before-hand. Bad plan. The bus left us in a fishy looking neighborhood but right in front of a shiny train center. After a little wandering we found the subway, bought tickets, and were on our way to the hotel. Hotel Manhattan actually resembled a seedy hotel I stayed at with my family in New York once… so… accurate representation! We dropped off our things (the rooms were ready despite being hours before check-in) and set off towards the city center.
Running on very little sleep, here.
We had no purpose or agenda. It was great. We had some moules frites and pasta… not bad but I definitely don’t recommend the restaurant. I could understand not offering a carafe of water (tap water) if the plumbing is sketchy or something, but 3 euros for a little bottle? No. Stop. I know it’s 60 cents for a liter at the grocery store. Don’t be a jerk. And when, at the end of the meal, one of us tried to give back the bottle unopened, the waiter refused it because the bill was already calculated. You’d recalculate really quickly if we wanted to buy drinks or dessert! Please. I digress. Also mom (if you’re reading this)- add mussels to the mild allergy list. Tried them twice now and got an upset tummy each time. Wah.
Do you get it though?
But then came the waffles. Real Belgian waffles with real belgian dark chocolate sauce all over them. Go to the Drug Opera in Brussels and eat some waffles before you die. The rest of the day was a bit of a blur. There was more wandering and eating. There were lots of chocolate shops with tons of tins. There were friendship sweaters. There was a peeing fountain and a discount book store. I wanted to buy so many holiday gifts for people but I couldn’t have carried them around for the rest of the weekend. Around 8pm I think we made our final stop at a falafel restaurant and then retreated to the hotel to eat, plan, and sleep.
Go to here. Do it.
Real Belgian Waffles… Ohh…
The next day came way too early. We checked out of the hotel at 2 am and started walking the long rainy trek to the bus stop. We finally made it to the circled spot on our map but… where was the street? After wandering around the area for about an hour things got really tense. The taxi drivers wouldn’t help us with directions- they’d insist it was very far and that we had to take a cab to get there. Shopkeepers and passerby had never heard of the street. A car kept looping around the neighborhood blasting music. The rain wouldn’t let up. I even had a drink thrown at me from a passing car (missed by about a foot). No idea why. Finally, just around boarding time, an older taxi driver pointed us towards a small side street we’d passed before entering the main square. There- shiny and rumbling- was our bus. Praise Jesus. We were off like a hooker’s panties!
So… Amsterdam in one word? Magical. It’s officially my second favorite city (after High Falls- Center of the Universe). It was like a german Venice. There were houseboats and bikes and tulips and foods. There were also prostitutes. That was kind of weird. But it was so pretty! And Dutch is so neat… it’s similar to German so I could figure out a few words, but really just hearing germanic sounds again felt so right. I can’t handle this French bunk all the time. When we arrived in the early morning the sky was purple and misty. We spent a while regrouping- buying tea and coffee, putting on extra layers- and figuring out our next step. Eventually we walked outside and found ourselves some reasonable english breakfast along the main drag. I ate mushrooms, yo. Trying new things every day. I mean normal mushrooms. Standard english breakfast ones.
Wandering and shopping was followed by the welcome presence of a guide. Yes, Victoria has friends in Amsterdam. Hallelujah. Lev and Phil marched us through neat streets and squares… after a trippy experience at the Anne Frank house we all sat down for dinner. I had my own hawaiian pizza. It was wonderful. The arduous trip to our hotel afterwards was made less so by my happy belly. Pizza heals all. Even preemptively.
To get to the Tulip Inn we had to take a train outside the city and then walk along a highway for 10 minutes. Not too terrible, but damn confusing for four sleep-starved young adults. After a quick check in and a long hallway we were finally in our rooms. Protip: the Dutch have magic blanket technology. They looked so thin but they were so very warm. It was a good night.
The next morning was the reverse routine. We checked out, walked back down the highway, and took the train back into the city. We took our time eating, strolling, and shopping through the city. Eventually we met up with Victoria’s friends again for a little more sightseeing and eating. Oh and a quick tour of the red light district. That was strange. We ended the day with some Dutch grocery shopping and a dash for the bus.
In conclusion I definitely need to thank Lev and Phil. We would’ve been pretty lost without them! They guided us and helped us get discounts and went through museums with us… This was all in all an amazing weekend. I can’t wait for my next trip!
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