Sledding in Austria

January 28, 2020January 28, 2020Leave a comment

This was by far the most fun trip we’ve been on while living in Europe. If you’re looking for adventure, laughs, and beautiful scenery, this is a must do.

Over Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Thu –Mon), we went to Wildkogel Arena, a ski resort in Neukirchen am Großvenediger, Austria. This was our biggest travel group yet, going with 10 people, and luckily a trip where the more the merrier. We flew out of Manchester around noon, had a layover in Frankfurt, and arrived at Salzburg Airport shortly after 1700. The resort was an hour forty five minutes away, so we rented two cars (you could catch a shuttle to the resort, but it was €40 per person each way). We stayed at the Wildkogel Resorts – DAS Bramberg which had a spa, indoor pool, plenty of restaurants, was right in front of the lift, and was extremely nice. When we arrived, I struggled a bit because I don’t speak German and I didn’t know where to meet the receptionist since the check-in area was closed. It took about 30 minutes, but we eventually made it inside our 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath apartment. Overall, the apartment and car cost us about €280 per person which I consider a pretty sweet deal.

During the trip we actually didn’t ski, but instead went tobogganing down the world’s longest floodlit toboggan run! It was 8.5 miles long and took about 45-60 minutes to complete. I think I completed my fastest run in about 35 minutes when I leaned all the way back on my sled, left everyone, and didn’t stop at a beer garden.. Did you catch that? Beer gardens on the track! We also went on a Friday, so we got to experience nighttime tobogganing. More on that later. If you go on Tuesday or Friday, the lift runs until 1830 and you have until 2200 to get down the mountain.

Friday morning we ate breakfast at a restaurant in the resort which I wouldn’t recommend, although I would suggest eating at them for lunch and/or dinner. It was €13 for a breakfast buffet, but the options were extremely limited and we were better off making our own breakfast (which we did for the rest of the trip). Afterwards, we picked up our €8 sled rentals which we reserved, but I don’t think was necessary, and bought our €32 day pass lift tickets. The lift took about 7 minutes to get 2100 meters above sea level, and the views from it were amazing. The sky was beautifully blue and the air was cold and crisp. You could see the snow covering the mountains and houses and the sunlight reflecting ever so brightly off of it. When we got off the lift, you could tell everyone was really nervous. We took some pictures, got to the edge of the mountain and basically dropped. You could go ridiculously fast on the sleds and had to be careful on the turns because you could literally end up falling off the side of a mountain. Luckily for us, no one tumbled down the side.

There were two beer gardens on the run, one about 5 minutes in, and another about half way down. All 10 of us met at the halfway mark, coming in at various times, and exchanged funny stories about getting there. Some sleds left their owners, some riders crashed into walls or each other, and some had no issues at all (points to self). The real fun came during the second half of the run because the slopes increased and you picked up some real speed. You know it’s about to get crazy when you see a sign reminding you to “slow down,” though no one paid that any attention. We did the trail another three times during the day, stopping to get lunch and run to the store before the night time run.

I thought we were nervous before, but when we were going up in the dark, our lift was completely silent. It was actually quite terrifying to go down at night! The trail was all ice by that time, so you went even faster than before and stopping became more difficult. We all hit some pretty deep bumps that hurled us off the sleds, but no one was severely injured. It was wild, but one heck of an experience. If you decide to go, definitely give the nighttime run a go if you’re up for a challenge.

The next day everyone woke up all kinds of sore. Back, abs, legs, arms – you name it, it was sore. I guess that means we had a really great workout! We cooked up some breakfast, threw on our snow clothes, and decided that we would go snow tubing. It was about a 5 minute drive from the resort which was perfect. Luckily I stopped in the visitor center and picked up a map because it wasn’t on google maps. We got a group discount from €4 an hour down to €3 for tubing. Unfortunately there was no “lift” for us to take, so we had to walk it up the hill after going down every time, but it was still amazing! We tried all kinds of combos: one by one, two by two, all 10 of us at once, and we had a blast. It snowed while we were out there so we had the perfect snow for a snowball fight. We tired out pretty quickly and made “David” the snowman. He got destroyed by snowballs and someone tackling him.

Sunday was our chill day. We wanted to go to the spa, but it turns out it was closed on Sunday. Also found out it required you to be naked, but I saw people have towels on so that would have been fine (for me anyways). Some went swimming in the indoor pool and others went for a walk. Afterwards we met up at the resort’s pizzeria which had some BOMB pizza. Who know Austrian’s could make a bangin’ pizza.

During the down time we played quite a bit of games. I brought with me Weird Things Humans Search For, Dos (the next Uno), Phase 10, and just a regular pack of playing cards. I introduced the group (some already heard of it or played) to a game called Mafia. Everyone is dealt a card and you have to figure out who is in the mafia and get rid of them before all of you are killed. There’s a narrator who makes up stories about each death and everyone seemed to really enjoy that game. We played it for HOURS. It’s a really good game to play with a lot of people because you can have one of five roles, work in teams, and come up with pretty clever stories. I’m really glad everyone had a great time.

#LessonsLearned – If you’re traveling in a large group, have a plan for dividing up food and stuff. For future trips, downloaded the app splitwise. Everyone in the party puts in what they pay for and it’ll separate who owes who and take care of that. I hate when people don’t contribute but take just as much as if they did.

Long Time No Blog. 2019 Recap

January 28, 2020Leave a comment

Wow. I can’t believe the last time I wrote a blog entry was in August. So much travel has happened since then, but I was in a sort of depression so I really didn’t feel like doing much reading, writing, drawing, or illustrating. Gian and I made a vision board this year, and one of the things I put on there is to utilize my blog again, so I better get at least one entry in during January! I’m going to cheat by making this a separate post too.

Last year we traveled to quite a few countries. I haven’t blogged about them all, and I really need to get back to it. I’ll finish the four country tour sooner or later…But until then, enjoy! Here’s where we traveled to in 2019:

Italy (should I include the Vatican since it’s its own country?)
Vatican City (yes, I will)
Portugal
Wales (more than once)
Malta
Switzerland
France
Ireland
Northern Ireland
Germany (A few times actually)
Czech Republic
Hungary
Poland
Netherlands
England
United States

I blogged about one of those places last year. Eek. Oh well, stay tuned!

Berlin, Germany

August 1, 2019Leave a comment

We started off our Eastern European tour in Berlin, Germany. Berlin is the most historic, yet artsy city I’ve ever been to. I had recently traveled to Berlin on a conference for work, so I did a few more things than the rest of the group. We were in Berlin from 3-5 July which worked well for us, but there’s so much art and history in the city, you could easily spend an entire week there.

As I mentioned in the last blog post, we flew out of Manchester airport to Berlin Schönefeld Airport (SXF) at 1145 and landed at 1440. We took a train and a trolley to get to the hotel, and thankfully a person was at the train station letting everyone know to go on a different train than the one google told us to take. I’m not sure if some of the platforms were broken and that screwed up google, but she got us (and everyone else) on the right train. The trolley was from the center of town and we were only on it for about 15 minutes. A seven minute walk later and we were at the hotel, Hotel Transit Loft. It sounds like it was far, but it really wasn’t. The hotel kind of reminded me of a hostel more than a hotel. We had our own room and bathroom and all, but the vibe like a hostel. Breakfast was included in our stay, which is always a plus, and it was full of teenagers and young adults. We dropped our stuff off in the room and headed out.

Cool cats standing
Group photo
Pretty cool train station
Bradenburg Gate
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Like I said, the hotel wasn’t too far from the center of town. We decide to walk to Fernsehturm (Berlin’s TV Tower), a little over a mile away, and it only took us 30 minutes to get there. We stopped at Momotaro Tavern, a Japanese burger restaurant that I ate at when I first went to Berlin. I got the chicken teriyaki and I couldn’t believe how amazing it was. I love chicken teriyaki and this one tasted ridiculously good. Actually, everyone’s dish tasted really good and there were no complaints at all.

After eating, we strolled around the center getting a closer look at the Fernsehturm (I actually went inside and to the top floor the first time I went), marveled at some statues and monuments, searched for souvenirs (we didn’t find any because the shops were closing by that time), and just enjoyed the 80 degree weather we don’t get too often in England. We ended up at a waffle shop, Waffel oder Becher, which is right next to the Berlin Dungeon where we ate dessert. Surprisingly, it took us less time to get back to the Hotel, but that time it felt like forever because we were so tired!

Where Hitler’s bunker was
Image where they wanted everyone to look “happy”
Berlin Wall
Bus driving by
Checkpoint Charlie
Gendarmenmarkt
Gendarmenmarkt

The 4^th of July was the day we started all of our festivities. After fighting off a school of kids and eating an included breakfast, we took an Uber to the Bradenburg Gate, the meeting point of the SANDEMANs NEW Europe – Berlin free walking tour. If you ever go to a large popular city, inside or outside of Europe, make sure you check to see if there is a free walking tour. The tour guides really only make money by you tipping, and you decide how much you want to tip. I check how much other tours of the city are and give around that price. They know their stuff and keep it very entertaining!

After leaving the Bradenburg Gate we discussed much of Berlin’s history. I’m not a big history person, but the tour guide was very knowledgeable and kept us all entertained. The first major stop on the tour was to the “Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.” It is a beautiful and mysterious piece in the middle of the city that imposes a place of remembrance and warning. You could easily and unintentionally get lost wandering through the 2711 concrete slabs. It is believed that this was purposely done to show you a person could be gone in the blink of an eye. We walked some distance and stood on top of the filled in bunker where Hitler committed suicide. It’s crazy how it’s just right out in the open (well, I guess it is?), but you could walk or drive by, never knowing. The next big stop was to the Topography of Terror (or Kreuzberg..not entirely sure). We were only here for a few minutes because it was the stop before getting drinks and a snack, but essentially it’s an outdoor but sort of indoor history museum. We saw the exhibition trench at the site and saw what remained of the Berlin Wall. We enjoyed our well needed break because after walking and standing for two hours your legs are kind of dead. I got some currywurst and it was much better than the currywurst I had in Nuremberg at the Christmas market.

Bebelplatz?
Bebelplatz
Book Burning Memorial
Saw a pride flag
Berlin’s Bear
TV Tower

After our snack, we walked over to Checkpoint Charlie in the former American sector. Two points about Checkpoint Charlie. 1. It’s really not that exciting. It’s a tiny area with a man on a sign who actually isn’t “Charlie.” Charlie just means checkpoint C. 2. It was super American in that area. There were tons of fast food joints that I haven’t seen or been to in quite some time! The most intriguing part about Checkpoint Charlie was that we had someone in our group actually use the gate to enter East Berlin when the wall was up. He informed us how much of a different time it was and how even though it was horrible for those living in Berlin, the guards were very casual towards the visitors.

Honestly, at this point in the tour I started to check out. It was really good and informative, but my brain started to hurt ha! We went through the Gendarmenmarkt, a beautiful square in the city. The final part of the tour was viewing the Book Burning Memorial at Bebelplatz. It’s a glass plate on the ground, but below it there is an underground room with empty bookshelves called “The Sunken Library.” According to visitberlin.de “The memorial shows what is missing…What was lost and burnt were the books by those who the Nazis ostracised and persecuted, who had to leave the country and whose stories were no longer allowed to be told. Symbolically, the underground bookshelves have space for around 20,000 books, as a reminder of the 20,000 books that went up in flames here on 10 May 1933 at the behest of the Nazis.”

After the tour, we graciously tipped the guide, and took off for the Berlin Dungeon, a reenactment of Berlin’s darkest history. I actually did this experience the first time I came to Berlin, but wanted everyone else to jump and be as spooked as I was. Unfortunately, the actors weren’t as into it as when I went the first time, but it was still entertaining. I found out that they have them in several cities, so I’m looking forward to trying them elsewhere. There’s one in York so that may have to be the next stop!

Hipster Area
Hipster Area Enterance
Street Art
Megs and Street Art
Holes in the Wall
Famous Graffiti in Berlin
Graffiti woman

We then started to walk to the East Berlin Gallery. We walked along the river for as long as we could, but were hungry, so we stopped to get some grub. We stopped at the same location I stopped at when I was on the conference. There were several little shops/bars and it was a very hipster-like environment. We paid too much for tacos, enjoyed some cheap beer, and set on to the gallery. Of course the street art was extremely beautiful. Each piece told its own story: some dark, others hopeful; some about love, pieces on politics. We stayed here for quite some time admiring all of the artwork. It’s amazing how many stories are told down this mile long walk. We ate dinner at this hole in the wall schnitzel place under a bridge next to a cool looking train station. It tasted good, and it was cheap so I was happy. Shortly after we went to a mall and were so tired we had to Uber home (would have been over an hour walk!).

The next day, we said our farewells to Berlin. We headed to the train before noon to grab some lunch for the ride. It’s a good thing we got there early because the train station was huge! We struggled finding out which was actually our platform, but we eventually made it. We decided to ride first class for each train ride because we’d be on them for so long. I thought that meant the company would check our tickets, it would be nice, quiet, and enjoyable but I was quickly put in place. We got on the train and some young adults were in our seats. I told them those were our seats and one of them questioned if we had all four of them… Why?. We sat down and they moved to the isle. I was super disappointed because there were so many of them just lying around in the first class isles. They made it hard to get to the bathroom, and one guy even complained that I should use a different bathroom because they had to keep moving for people. Dude, if you knew you were going to be on a 4.5 hour train, you should have booked a seat. It was annoying, but at least we had comfortable seats and air condition. We arrived in Prague just after 1745 where our next adventure began.

4 Countries in 10 Days

July 18, 2019Leave a comment

We had a lovely experience when traveling to four cities/countries in Eastern Europe: Berlin, Germany; Prague, Czech Republic; Krakow, Poland; and Budapest, Hungary. Each place was extraordinary and beautiful, full of culture yet charming, and both historic and modern at the same time.

Because the trip was so long and jam packed, I’m going to have to break it into different posts on each city/country. They will probably be a little longer than my usual posts, but filled with tons of memories. As for this post, it’ll be a nice introduction to what’s to come and the planning that went into it.

I started planning this trip around February or so, and I’m glad I started early because it took so much effort to put together. I used the website www.gadventures.com for the skeleton of our journey. This website is really amazing…for single travelers, but when you’re in a group and you’re sharing rooms and getting group discounts, it’s just cheaper (but way more work) to do it yourself.

The trip was from 3-12 July, the flights and trains were all extremely reasonable, kids were in school so it wasn’t overly crowded, and the weather was perfect nearly every day. Our first flight was to Berlin at 1145 and it was a little under 2 hours. We stayed until the 5^th, caught a 4.5 hour first class train to Prague, and arrived around 1730. On the 8^thwe set off to Krakow on our longest day journey. The train was a little under 4 hours and then we immediately got on a bus for another 2.5 hours. We paid extra and got this business class as well. If you’re doing a trip like this, I would highly recommend it since you’ll be stationary for so long. We stayed two full days in Krakow and took an overnight train to Budapest. If you’ve never taken an overnight bunker train before, I’d suggest you not! More into it when I post about Budapest, but it was quite an interesting ride. We ended up having a long delay causing us to arrive around 1030 instead of the intended 0830 (which really messed up our schedule!). Because of a schedule oversight, we only stayed in Budapest for a night, but it was still a lovely time in a beautiful city.

In my next post, I’ll go into detail about how our time was in Berlin. I’ve been to the city before (in May), so I may add pieces of what I did the first time as well.

Tenerife Part 2

April 4, 2019April 4, 2019Leave a comment

Here’s part 2 to the Tenerife trip! There are tons of pictures, so I hope you enjoy.

Monday – Island Tour

On Monday we decided to take the Mt. Teide and Masca Valley Tour in Tenerife, which was my favorite part of the trip. It was just over 30 pounds and the tour lasted about 9 hours. If you’re going to Tenerife, staying in the south, and have a day available, I highly recommend you take a tour to see the entire island. The south looks kind of like the planet Mars, but the more north you go, the greener it gets.

Pool created from molten
view of the city
rainbow
houses in trees
beautiful view
tight traffic
Rainbow over city

The tour started pretty early in the morning. We were the first stop, so we were on the bus before the sun was even up. After everyone loaded up, we hit the road to go to Mount Teide (an active volcano!). On the way to Mt. Teide, we stopped at this little hole in the wall restaurant so everyone could use the bathroom. The tour guide mentioned this drink that’s, for the most part, only served in Tenerife. It’s called Barraquito, and is a liqueur coffee that uses Licor 43. We continued our travels to the volcano and made it past the clouds. We were literally above the clouds! When we finally made it to the volcano, we got out and took plenty of pictures. The tour gives you a little while at each section, so you don’t get to do too much. If you want to do any of these places for long periods of time, I’d suggest renting a car or something. It was really cool being next to it and I kept thinking to myself, if this thing were to erupt right now, we’d be goners. Luckily for us, it hasn’t erupted since 1909.

landscape above the clouds
next to the volcano
Shaun and Gian
view of the covered city
beautiful landscape

We then went to a town called Garachico. This town was hit badly by an eruption hundreds of years ago, but that created a whole new culture for it. Everything looks like volcanic debris, so it’s a charcoal-like colored area. The eruption created some really cool natural rock pools that people swim in. We didn’t get to dive in because the tour was short, and because it was raining. Not like we would have anyways – no one wants to be wet on a bus.

The bus stopped at a little restaurant where we had lunch for pretty cheap. I want to say we ordered beef or something, but I can’t remember. The island is also known for its bananas, so they passed them out for dessert. I would have preferred them a little riper, but hey, it was an experience. Also, we got extra food thanks to Gian and Davoo speaking Spanish! The tour guide was extremely happy to hear they were from Puerto Rico and wanted them to have a good impression of Spain. It stuck!

Masca
#selfie
winding road
greenery at the volcano
us a little scared

We briefly stopped at Vilaflor, a small little town, but only to go to a souvenir shop. We didn’t buy anything there, but they did have tons of samples that we tried. All kinds of salsa made from exotic fruit. Afterwards, we went to El Drago (the Dragon Tree), a really..really old tree (looked more like a bush). Apparently it’s somewhere between 650-3000 years old. That’s a really big difference though ha. It was raining and I think we were behind on time, so we only saw it from the road. We got out and took pictures though (yes, on the road while cars were in motion.)

The coolest part of the trip was going to Masca Valley. It’s by far the most beautiful part of the island with stunning sceneries, rainbows everywhere, and one heck of a drive to get there. There is one road up and down, and typically, the locals go up one way and down another. When you have tourist that aren’t familiar, they go the wrong way causing messy traffic. There were plenty of people who couldn’t maneuver their cars, so they had to get out and let the bus drive move the car out of the way for them. It was a lot of work!

megs trying to not fall
linds posing
volcano baby
group photo!
street pic
covered city

Anyways, we made it to the top and it was gorgeous. You can see out to the ocean from certain angles and the sun shines so brightly up there. We went to a gift shop at the top which wasn’t too ridiculously priced, so I was happy about that. Check out the photos because they were awesome.

Tuesday – Check out

By Tuesday we were worn out. We really took the time to relax, catch up on sleep, and stuff our faces with the remaining food we had left over. We really lucked out because the Airbnb host was super nice. She allowed us to keep our stuff at the place after checkout while we searched for a printer. There were no stores that could print our boarding passes and the local library had closed down. Fortunately for us the host offered to take Gian and Davoo to a store that printed. It wasn’t walking distance, so we were grateful.

#Lessonslearned – If the country is safe, try not to stay in the touristy areas. Vacation spots aren’t as authentic, and you may not get the full experience and culture of the country.

Tenerife Part 1

March 28, 2019Leave a comment

I decided to split this into two separate posts because it ended up being longer than expected!

Our second trip outside of the United Kingdom was to Tenerife over U.S. Veterans Day weekend (10 – 13 Nov). Tenerife is the largest of the seven Canary Islands and the most populated. We flew into the Tenerife South Airport because it was cheaper and touristy. The original flight was from 0640 to 1120 but we had a schedule change to 0830 instead. We then had another schedule change which ended up being 0930-1410. I’m glad that we had the change because no one wants to be at the airport at 0400 in the morning. I heard that RyanAir does this often, so be aware if you book with them.

View of Tenerife from the plane
Food from the restaurant
Red Mountain

Saturday – Touchdown

When we landed, we headed straight to the Airbnb which was in El Medano, about 10-15 minutes from the airport. It was beautiful and spacious: right outside of the beach, four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and not too far from the center of town. We were starving so we walked down the street to this restaurant called “The Metro King” that sold these humongous burgers! I wish I had a picture of it because they were gigantic.

After eating, we roamed the town to find some things to do later on. It was getting kind of late so we picked up some food from a local grocery store and headed back to the Airbnb. We sat on the patio, had a few drinks and laughed, and enjoyed the warm weather. We played some games (in Spanish!) that the Airbnb host had around the house (Pictionary, taboo, etc.). Surprisingly we did better than expected. During Pictionary we ended up in a heated discussion about some of the verbs which was hilarious because the arguers were on the same team. We lost.

Sunday – Nature

We were outside for the majority of Sunday – hence the subtitle. We hit the beach for a few hours which was amazing, but let me tell you, that water was FREEZING. Anyone who knows me knows I hate the cold and I don’t really like water, so cold water just doesn’t do. I got in to about my ankles and gave up. Instead, I bathed in the sun while everyone else bobbed up and down in the water like ice cubes. While they froze their booties off, I just did what I do best and people watched. There was a topless lady not far from me, an older gentleman dating someone way younger than he was, and a family that let their kids run across the beach naked.

After everyone decided that the water was finally cold enough, they joined me on the beach and we started to play random beach games. Tons of sand pictures were drawn and cartwheels were flipped. Davoo and I got into some Olympic challenge (as usual) where we crab walked, handstood, and other simple things. Somehow Gian and Davoo got to wresting on a beach and Megs drew a circle around them as a ring. Gian should have easily defeated him but I think he was just scared to try. I wrestled Davoo and was also scared, but only because I almost body slammed him to the ground which would have basically ended his life. I played gently instead. I won, of course.

Flavored Icees!
No Turning back
Handsome fellas
view climbing up

After going back to the house and probably eating, we decided to hike up Red Mountain. While on the way there, we stopped on the boardwalk and got some snacks (liquor icees) which were pretty good. Now, before I go on about this mountain, let me tell you that these pictures do not do it justice. We thought this was going to be a small little hike up and down a hill, but boy were we wrong.

When we were walking to Red Mountain, I thought it wouldn’t be that bad because there were people running the trail, breathing like it was no big deal. They clearly had been training for that mountain for months because we couldn’t walk it without gasping for breath every few minutes. Okay, I’m exaggerating, but there were definitely parts of the mountain that you basically had to climb up. Half of our party decided that they wouldn’t continue to the peak. It was absolutely beautiful at the top of the mountain though. It was surrounded by beaches, but we were so high up that the people on them looked like little specs. Gian, Davoo and I were chilling on the top (because after you climb a mountain for 45 minutes that’s what you do!) when then Megs and Linds joined us! I was happy that they continued because we were so close to the top and the view was spectacular.

I thought going up the mountain was bad, but going down was even worse! The path was nothing but rocks, dirt, and sand, so the slightest moves and you were sliding down the hill. There was a moment when I slid, and as I ungracefully glided down the mountain, runners continued to move like it was nothing! My pride was hurt.

view from up high
Tripleta
Paella

In total, from the Airbnb to the mountain and back, Google says it took a little over 3 hours. That was one heck of a hike.

I’d like to say we ended the day at a restaurant on the water where we ordered Paella. We were in Spain, so obviously we were going to have Paella. It was good, but it wasn’t as amazing as I wanted it to be. It was probably that the service sucked.

#Lessonslearned – If you’re traveling with a group and you see tickets are cheap, buy them. We paid nearly half for our tickets than some others on the trip.

Brussels, Belgium

February 28, 2019Leave a comment

This is a continuation of our first holiday to Belgium while living in the UK. This is all about Brussels!

It’s the last one in the Belgium series.

Before traveling to Ghent on Sunday (2 September), we had registered for a “make your own chocolate workshop” in Brussels. The meet up spot was in Town Hall, and it was crowded, as expected. Many of the buildings had trimmings of gold, and the sun hitting the building made it a lovely view. Our tour guide finally came for us and we began the class.

If you go to Brussels, this is definitely something I would recommend. It takes a few hours, but you get to learn how chocolate is made and actually make your own. It was so much fun, and we ate so much chocolate that we kind of got turned off of chocolate for the remainder of the trip! As you can see from the picture, we really had a blast. We made truffles, or chocolates that have a hard shell but a softer inside. We did have one scary moment when the wall started to fall apart, but I swear we had nothing to do with that haha.

We went back to Brussels on Monday (3 September), but by train this time! We traveled the city and tried to hit as many touristy spots as possible. We saw all three of the peeing statues: The Manneken Pis statue (the little boy), Jeanneke-Pis (the little girl), and the Zinneke Pis (the dog). I think I can speak for everyone when I say I was disappointed with the famous little boy. All the statues in the store and references made it seem like it was such a large statue! It was all of 1.5 feet tall, and it was dressed up in clothes for the weekend. What a drag.

We also took another class, the “Waffle Workshop”! Everyone knows that Belgium is known for waffles and chocolate, and we had a ton. We (Gian, Davoo, and I) ate like 6 waffles each. I even got the recipe for them, so I hope you guys enjoy it!

The last day we had some extra time, so we went to the Atomium which I wasn’t too impressed by. I will admit that we didn’t go inside, but it just didn’t seem too appealing. We took some photos outside of it and then walked a nearby trail. We got some cool pictures on the trail including me doing a handstand on some very wet grass on a timed camera.

Ghent, Belgium

February 21, 2019February 28, 2019Leave a comment

This is a continuation of our first holiday to Belgium while living in the UK. This is all about Ghent!

Don’t worry, it’s only one more Belgium post (Brussels is up next!)

The plan for Sunday (2 September) was to drive into Brussels and enjoy a “make your own chocolate workshop,” then train to Ghent to check out the city. We were lucky because it turns out parking is free on Sundays, so that saved us from paying for parking! We took the train from Belgium to Ghent, which was a little over an hour, but it was a smooth fun ride. If you’re interested in the chocolate workshop, you’ll have to see my next post (Brussels baby!).

We walked many miles to visit the City Center. I have never seen a town that had as many bikes as Ghent – it seemed like everyone had two bikes and just left them on the street for anyone to take. We went to Saint Nicholas Church, some other nearby buildings, and we also tried to go into this castle, but it closed early and we missed the entering time. It worked out because none of us were too thrilled about paying because it wasn’t the largest of castles.

One of my favorite parts of Ghent was Graffiti Street. Many urban towns have them and they are also so fascinating to see. It’s just something about local (and not local) artist tagging an alley with their own flare that’s amazing.

On the way back to the train station, we walked by some really creepy caves. We had an awesome photoshoot with Davoo looking like some kind of cave dweller, and Meggie and Gian resting under some vined columns.

Street Art
Belgium Church
Belgium Church
Creepy Davoo
Gian and Meggie

Bruges, Belgium

February 12, 20192 Comments

This is a continuation of our first holiday to Belgium while living in the UK (Check out the first blog post here). This one is all about Bruges!

On Saturday (1 September), we went to Bruges and what a beautiful city it was! It was nice and sunny out, so we really took advantage of walking around the town. We found parking, which was actually pretty cool because you could add money to your meter from any other meter in the city. You just had to enter your license plate number and boom – Paid! We first strolled through the Historic Centre of Bruges seeing different architectural buildings such as the Belfort, the Markt, and a church which I can’t remember the name of (but I have pictures!). We hopped on a cheap little touristy boat and cruised through the city while the guide informed us about the town in three languages: English, French, and I want to say the third was Dutch, but I’m not too sure. We saw some of the different structures in the town, but my favorite thing on the boat tour was the huge whale made of recycling material.

Gian enjoying the boat cruise
Belgium beer taster
Buildings on the tour
church i don’t remember the name of
Inside the church
church
structure in belgium
recycled whale

We were quite hungry during this journey, but the food was so expensive! We ended up at Café Cambrinus (at least that’s what google tells me) where we got a meat sampler and tried out some Belgium Beer. I’d say 6/8 beers we had were amazing, which is pretty good because I don’t like many beers (Yes, you’ll see my drink beers quite often, but that doesn’t mean it’s my preferred drink!). After eating a little grub, we began our hunt for the best chocolate in town. We were super touristy and just followed google and trip advisor, so we ended up in this shop called “The Chocolate Line” which was good, but obviously expensive. We stopped by another shop around the corner which was smaller and cheaper, and honestly, I think their chocolate tasted much better. Unfortunately, I don’t have the name of the shop we went to. Either way, I loved the chocolate in Belgium…until we had too much chocolate which I’ll also cover later. We probably would have benefited from asking a local where we should get some really good chocolate. Lessons learned.

Davoo was interested in seeing the “Windmills of Bruges,” so we headed that way. We walked for quite some time, but as I mentioned earlier, the weather was beautiful, so it was a journey well spent. We traveled along a little stream (or river?) and took some cool pictures while there. We got to the windmills and had such a great time there. There was a family of five seeing the windmills as well who offered to take our picture. The parents were super laidback with their kids and let them run around and have the time of their lives. They jumped off the windmill and the parents strongly suggested “keeping their knees together” when they landed so they wouldn’t hurt themselves. The son decided he’d roll down the steep hill to have some fun and then busted his head on the street. He was so confused he practically had birds flying around his head, but he obviously knew he was being dumb because he didn’t complain or say anything. He just put his hand on his head and stopped playing. It was funny, but I know his head hurt the next day!

Selfie at the windmills
Shaun sitting on the windmill
Chocolate Horse
butts and windmills
group windmill photo
More Chocolate!

It took us forever to walk back and by the time we got to the car we were starving. The restaurants weren’t really open because it was Sunday, and the places that were open were too expensive, so we decided to grab food on the way home. We went to this Asian buffet which was an experience itself. We were so thirsty the whole time we were out that we kept ordering waters. When the bill came, we quickly learned that in Europe, you are charged for water, even if it’s tap water. We all had like six glasses and they were like $2 each! Learned that lesson fast.

#Lessonslearned – Water in Europe is not free.

Belgium – Our First “Real” Holiday

February 6, 2019February 6, 2019Leave a comment

The first “real” trip/holiday/vacation we took while living in England was to Belgium over U.S Labor Day weekend (31 Aug – 4 Sept). I say “real” because I’m not counting our trip in July to Gian’s hometown, Caguas, Puerto Rico, for our niece’s quinceañera. I’ll blog about that beautiful experience another day. Anyways, Belgium was an amazing first stop for our adventures!

The trip was originally supposed to be early August, but as we waited for people to commit, the plane tickets crept up and I felt it wasn’t worth going for 60 bucks more per person than originally planned for. We rescheduled the trip, got everyone on board, and finally booked it. The entire group couldn’t go because of other arrangements, but that happens when you travel in numbers.

With it being our first real trip and all, we were excited, nervous, and didn’t really know what to expect. We booked a RyanAir night flight 2155-2220 to the CRL Airport in Brussels and rented a car. Good thing because it was a 45 minute drive from the airport to our Airbnb! When we finally arrived, we could not find the apartment for the life of us. Turns out the keys were cleverly hidden in a bush, under a rock…but hey, I’m not judging. It was a nice Airbnb in Watermael-Boitsfort, Brussels, which is about a 15 minute drive to town.

When you book a car online for European countries, make sure you check how many miles/kilometers you are given. If you go over, of course you get a big fat charge at the end. Luckily we knew exactly how many miles we had, so we had to take this into consideration for the trip. While we were in Belgium, we went to three cities: Brussels, Bruges, and Ghent. We decided that we would drive to Bruges and Brussels, and take the train to Ghent to effectively use our mileage.

I broke down the trip into separate blog posts because it was about four pages on Microsoft Word, and no one wants to read four pages of text in a blog. Stay tuned for future posts about the cities of Belgium!

#Lessonslearned – A big thing I took away from this vacation is know your companions’ travel styles. I would highly suggest talking about it when you’re planning your trip, even before booking the flight, because in all honesty, that can make or break your trip. You may want to see everything while someone else may want to sit and relax. Both are fine, but just know what you’re getting into. Luckily for us, our typical travel group is about the same. We’re not cheap, maybe just frugal, but we do want to see the city and what’s in it. It’s all about the balance.

Es Kay Johns

a collection of spontaneous thoughts

Category: Travel