Bruxelles, Barcelona and Paris

Bruxelles,

Friday, Melanie and I left for Bruxelles. Leaving Paris Nord, cake. It was my first trip with a friend to another country, super excited. We stayed with Melanie's step family, step-sis, her boyfriend and their infant. They really made us feel at home, and went well out of their way to make sure we had a good time. It was nice seeing this city. People were more laid back, they didn't judge you at first glance, no one cared what you wore- a total change from Paris. I think Bruxelles is a place I could retire, they speak French/English/Dutch and they are very hospitible. I found very interesting the usage of English. Niether the french nor the dutch want to speak each others language so they communicate through English, and different parts of Belgium is either dutch, french or german influenced. Somehow, they all find unity under the Belgian flag. My complaints, however, is that there is not much history. I beleive 1850 was the creation of the Belgian state, and only so many things can happen in 160ish years.
Leaving Belgium was a little bit of a nightmare. I arrived at the trainstation early, 2 hours in advance, but miraculously I missed my train. After a frantic hot second, a very kind lady at the trainstation switched me to the next train to Paris free of charge. Very grateful, I would have still payed out-the-behind to return home. I got home late, and had to be up in 3 hours for my flight to Barcelona.


Barcelona (barthelona)

Lack of sleep from the night before, the morning was a bit torturous. I needed to get to line a 1 metro station as the first or second train left to catch the bus to the airport. My only means were to walk and run to one of these stations. Somehow, I started off going south in the right direction, but ended up north of where I started from in the completely opposite direction and a very shady neighborhood. Anywho, I took the closest metro and transfered where I could. All of us ended up at the Airport in time. Ryan Air sucks and it's great at the same time. The flight was cheap but the location of the airports is lame. In the Airport I realized why Americans are so attrative to Europeans-it's the passport. We flew through the security lines, Matt didn't even have his bag checked. Everyone else had a much more difficult time/interrogation process. Sometimes I'm not to happy to be American, but I would never give up this passport, it is solid gold.
Barthelona, hmmm. It dawned on me as we arrived that Spanish was going to be our primary means of conversation. Me and Vicky were the only two that were remotely proficient. I was impressed, 1 semester in college and 1 year in middle school proved to be extremely useful. I don't know what I would have done otherwise.
In sumation, everyone ended up having a problem in Barcelona. I had awful stomach pains, Laura's foot got swollen, and Meggie had migraines. Vicky escaped malady somehow and Matt flew back to Chigago the next day. I can say, despite malady, Barcelona isn't my favorite city. There are a lot of cars, hence a lot of pollution. The air is noticably heavy. The asthetic value is not so high in my book either. However, Las Ramblas and the Gaudi Parc are incredible. Endless shopping and endless Mosaics by Gaudi is what this city is about. Not to mention the food was very very cheap. We saw pretty much everything, and we had a good time walking around, but we were too tired to experience the nightlife, which is what the city is known for, and I think the beaches would be incredible in the summer. Even still, Paris is better with it's hautain attitude. I'm not going to go into detail about the return flight, that whole process was .... exhausting.
Paris

I'm glad to be home. Paris isn't perfect, but I feel comfortable here. I can speak the language, I can walk the walk, and the Parisian-metro face is childs play. There's always something to do here, 2000 years of history is at our doorstep. And asthetically, Paris is mindblowing (and the people are a lot cleaner/cuter)

I'm glad to be home.


Paris, Je t'aime bien.