Molly and I met in 2001 while studying in Spain. By studying, I mean laying out on the beach, going to internet cafes (a sign of the time!), being chased by Spanish gangs only to be rescued by our 'teachers' who protected their students by going out to the bars with us, and drinking sangria while locked up on the school's rooftop. All school approved functions if that tells you anything about the program. An experience of a lifetime where a lifelong friendship began.
Thanks to AOL instant messenger, our friendship is 11 years strong and we've brilliantly made it revolve around travel.
At the end of last summer, Molly sent me a Facebook message (we've moved on from IM) to tell me she quit her job and was moving to Seoul to teach English. My reply was that I also quit my job and was moving to Oslo. This is why we’re friends.
Molly had some time before moving to South Korea, so naturally planned a several month long trip to wander around eastern Europe. Unfortunately, our move did not coincide with this awesomeness, so I could not tag along.
Thankfully, she just can’t seem to stay stateside for too long and squeezed in one more week in between returning home and finally moving to Seoul. She asked if I wanted to meet up somewhere in Europe. Um, yes.
And so here we have a trip to Brussels, Brugge, and Amsterdam in which we kept a steady rotation of sweets, fried food from the Christmas markets, and beer. Sugar, batter, beer. Repeat. Accompanied by cold, soggy weather.
Brussels
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| We enjoyed the
Christmas market in Brussels, but not much of anything else. Other than waffles and beer. |
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| This year's Christmas tree in Grand Place was a collection of giant steel-framed boxes. Failure comes to mind at first glance, but then the music starts to play and it starts to feel like Christmas. Sort of. | |
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| They were even tastier than they look. |
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| Dutch fries, not to be confused with French fries. Yep, that's mayonnaise. It's what they do. |
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| Kwak, a Belgian beer |
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| Cheers! |
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| Fish soup for lunch ... after having a waffle for breakfast. |
Brugge
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| While I didn't love Brussels, I fell head over heels for Brugge. |
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| Drying out after a walk around the beautiful city. We put our cold feet right on that heater! |
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| The Christmas market in Brugge where we continued to indulge in sugar, batter, and beer. |
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| More Belgian beer |
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| We threw some escargot into the mix. Delish! |
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| A fairytale city |
Amsterdam
I don’t have many pictures from this part of the trip because I was too cold and wet to take out my camera -- not because we spent our time in the coffee shops and the Red Light District. Ok, fine. We did take a guided walking tour of the Red Light District.
Overall, it was nice to learn that there is more to this city than the seedy aspect of tourism. I'll have to give it another chance when the weather is more enjoyable.
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| Our 'houseboat' accommodations that was really just a boat. |
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| So many bikes |
Molly, see you Seoul and I can’t wait for you and Katie to visit Oslo!
