from holland with love

I just realized today marks three months. I still can't believe how quickly time is flying by. And it's only beginning to feel like Christmas, with exactly two weeks left. I gotta say, this year just won't be the same...

BUT, what I really came here to blog about was another amazing weekend in Belgium. So, let's start at the beginning!

Friday afternoon I left for Antwerp with intentions of spending a few hours there before heading to Gent. I made plans with my friend Emily to meet at Antwerp station, as she lives about an hour from me, in Zeist.

My train kept stopping after Rotterdam due to technical difficulties, and after realizing I was going to be pretty late, I grabbed my cell phone to let Emily know. When I checked my phone, there was a text waiting for me from her letting me know her train was having problems as well. So I called her, and I hear a phone ringing somewhere behind me. Turns out, she's sitting just a few seats back, and I didn't even know it!

Anyway, at the station we met a pretty cool guy, Jeff, after he approached us and asked if we were Canadian (Emily is a fellow Canadian, for the record). He was only in Antwerp for the night, and we all had a bit of time to spare, so naturally we went for a drink and some eats at a nearby pub.

We didn't really have a whole lot of time to explore Antwerp, so we took a mini tour of the area around the station. Seeing Antwerp all decorated at night was just absolutely gorgeous. It was the first time it really felt like Christmas was coming.

And then we continued our journey to Gent, where we met Jeroen, our host for the weekend.

After dropping our stuff off, we headed to the center for some drinks. We went to a few places, most notably the Damberd (a jazz bar Jeroen took me to last time I visited that I've grown to really like), and this really chill lounge that I can't remember the name of. But I also really liked the lounge because it was really atmospheric with the lighting and music, and there were tons of bean bag chairs to chill out on. Once I sat my butt down with a cocktail in hand, I just didn't want to get up!

Saturday was spent lounging around, mostly - had some good laughs, picked up some groceries for homemade breakfast (eggs, cheese, toast, wine, and lekker lekker speculoos pasta... the breakfast of champions!), checked out a flea market next to the grocery store (I always love poking my nose in those places... I always come across the weirdest things!) - until the evening when we did a bit of shopping in the center.

(Just a side note: "pasta" is the Dutch word for spread. And speculoos pasta is this absolutely delicious, and very sweet spread flavored like speculaas cookies, that at the moment can only be found in Belgium.We managed to go through an entire jar of it in one day).

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Once all the stores closed, we took a bit of a tour before heading back to Jeroen's. I didn't think Gent could be any more gorgeous than when I saw it the first time, but the city became even more picturesque with all the Christmas lights:

There was also an ice rink set up in the center, near the carousel, which was about 100x more pretty than any outdoor skating rink I've seen with all the medieval buildings and churches surrounding. And of course, leave it to the Belgians to have an alcohol tent set up for such an occasion!

Later, we went to an 80s and 90s party Jeroen's friends were putting on. It was in this warehouse, and it was kind of a mix between a rave and a cocktail party, with 80s and 90s dance hits. I had so much fun rippin' it up to all the dance mix 90s tracks! I could've danced all night, but we opted to leave after a couple hours to head back to the Damberd where we had some more drinks and good laughs.

Aside from the fact that we had two really late nights, I was up pretty early on Sunday, so I took advantage of it by going to Brugge for the day while Jeroen and Emily slept in. I went there with having done almost no research on the city, so I basically just wandered around for a few hours. Nothing too exciting, but worth every minute. Brugge is equally as gorgeous as Gent, maybe even a little more so. And there were SO many people everywhere. Normally a lot of cities here completely close down on Sundays, but with Christmas approaching, the stores were open and there were Christmas markets set up in the center.

There were chocolate shops EVERYWHERE in Brugge. It seemed as if every other store was a chocolate shop. Some even had people lined up around the corner... I'm not sure if because it was a world famous shop, or because it was right in the center. But I definitely didn't intend on standing in line that long, even if it was the world's best chocolate.

I'd really like to go back on a Saturday so I can check out the interiors of some of the churches, and take a peak at the Salvador Dali museum.

So, yes, that's my weekend in a nutshell!

I always thought Belgium would just be the country that I had to visit because it's right next door. You know, to put it on the list of places I've seen. I never really had that much interest in seeing Belgium... I knew practically nothing about the country or culture, but I figure it's so damn close there's no reason NOT to go. I certainly didn't expect to love it there as much as I do. But I also don't think I would have had such an amazing weekend without the company I had.

Anyway, this Saturday I start my vacation! My host family is off to Switzerland for holidays, which means I get two weeks to myself! I've been so kindly invited to spend Christmas with my friend Melissa's host family (on the 25th in Rotterdam, and on the 26th here in Den Haag), and New Years will be spent in Köln, Germany! I'll be sure to give an update after the holidays, if not during. Until then, I hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday season! I'll be missing you guys more than ever this month.

xxx