What'd you do yesterday? I went to Milan. YEAH. So Europe you have these airlines that are very inexpensive that lets you fly for less than €50. Ryan Air par example is the carrier that my host family and I used . And since the u.s dollar is so weak i was all for traveling on the cheap. Here's how it works. You can fly to a cornucopia of cities in Europe and Northern Africa but the catch is that its' not really the city . Normally what they do is fly to a city not far from the destination and then you take a bus to the city. For example we left from BEAUTIFUL Charleroi ( Brussels-sud) and landed in Bergamo Italy and then took a bus to Milan which was like 45 minutes. I mean its not terrible to do it this way but its just a little less convenient .I want to use ryanair again for more trips but its hard because they only allow you one small bag so you either have to be really good at packing or not go on long trips.
Anyways Milan, RAINY :( but still awesome. We saw the Duomo and the Grand Place I guess is what its called. There were so many people though. I felt like a salmon trying to swim upstream getting through the duomo except in place of water there were swarms of Korean tourists. but the best part was that i got to meet up with my friend Sarah !!(We couldn't do everything in one day and plus we were kind of there for the shopping too.) She was an exchange student in my district last year in NY (D 7190 represent!) It's funny because this was only the second time we'd met but she's like " I feel like we've known each other for a long time" .. but this is because Exchange Students have different friendships. You don't have to know a fellow exchange student for a long time to figure out that you understand each other more than a non-exchanger . The world seems smaller and less scary when you know that there are people all over the world that care about how you are and know what you're going through. I remember my rotary orientation weekend back in New York and every inbound I met told me to look them up if I was ever in their country or city . It's the connections that you make and they'll last forever . The weather may have been terrible in Milan but the fact that i got to see a good friend made up for it immensely .I think i have other things to say but as of right now I can't remember them because i was up for 25 hours and It wasn't for the 24h festival in Louvain La Neuve . But i can sleep in America or when i'm dead. whichever comes first.
ONE OTHER THING ABOUT RYANAIR. They say that they're on time 90% of the time . Yeah my plane was delayed for 3 hours.
Fun blog !
ReplyDeleteI stumbled upon your blog by accident while googling and just continued reading it.
It's intriguing to see someone write about my country (Belgium) from an American perspective. Usually we get to see a lot of America through movies and media and thereby have your culture impact us, but this time , while reading this it's the other way around, which I find fascinating.
I saw you mention you were looking for places to buy books written in English. On a student budget I would recommend a shop called De Slegte. It's a second hand bookshop which has outlets in a lot of cities in Flanders. If you're in the neighborhood you can look them up.
http://www.deslegte.com/onze-winkels/ (click on the Belgium tab) The fnac also has a decent English section (Top level of city2 if you go to Brussels again) http://tinyurl.com/5shq43c
You said you wanted a good radio station.. for that I would definitely recommend "Studio Brussel" (frequency depending on location) If you have wireless networking at your host's place you can install the free app radio.be on your ipod . you can also listen live on www.stubru.be
As a reaction to your last entry ,here's a fun ryan air song : http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HPyl2tOaKxM
There's also a few things you need to sample while in Belgium you will probably not get a chance to later on. Less cliché than the chocolate , beer and waffles..
real Cuberdons , the ones you get at a bakery or the better candy store , your host parent will surely know where to get them.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuberdon
"Spa Citron" lemonade. Probably one of the better clear lemonades out there !
http://www.joebob.nl/files/LF%2097%20SPA%20citron.jpg
If you go to the coast again , Tomate aux crevettes from a good restaurant where they use freshly peeled shrimp , croquettes aux crevettes.
Cola flavoured mentos .
http://www.techory.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/colaroll.jpg
lots more that I can't think of off the top of my head right now....
I hope you have a nice stay , I had fun reading your blog and will def check it again for updates.
Greetings
Seto.