Beer, Chocolate, and Waffles

Goose
Oct 29, 2017
4 min read

I apologize for my blog post about the most recent Euro-trip being a little late, I have been working quite a bit since our return. But nonetheless, here it is!

Jake and I have known for quite some time that we would be heading up to Vermont the beginning of October for his sister Melissa and Sean's wedding. Congrats again you two! So this past July, I was scrolling through my favorite travel apps just checking out flight prices for the fall and winter time frame into just about anywhere in Europe. Then a little idea popped in my head. I remembered that for some reason, flying out of Boston into certain cities in Europe is relatively cheap. I figured hey, we'd be up in Vermont, Boston isn't terribly far, maybe we could hitch a ride to Boston and fly from there. And we did just that. I found tickets from Boston in to Brussels for $385 ROUNDTRIP! That is nuts when generally it costs about that much one way. I told Jake my general idea for the plan and he said seriously "let's do it, buy them right now". I bought them and there followed the rest of my planning.

We caught a bus from downtown Burlington to Boston, stayed the night there, then flew out the next day. Now, if you are the type of person that would rather spend the money for convenience then by all means do that! We were okay with riding the bus for 4 hours to get to Boston for the cheaper flight to Belgium. Some people just can't stand sitting on a bus for that long especially when they're going to be sitting on a plane even longer. But I digress. We flew out of Boston, into Canada for a layover, then into Brussels. I bought us train tickets ahead of time (you can buy at the station) to get us from Brussels to Bruges. We figured we would explore Brussels the last two days of the trip since we would be flying out of there. Anywho, about two trains later, we finally got to Bruges. We were so exhausted from the buses, flights, and trains, we NEEDED a nap when we got to our hotel, Hostel 28. Say what you will about hostels but if you read the reviews carefully, you can find some really good ones. I would consider this a good one, especially for the location. We napped then went foraging for food. The next day though, we did SO much in Bruges and it was worth it. We visited museums, the Historium, drank beer, ate at a restaurant called De Hobbit (huge LOTR nerd here), canal tour, and just enjoyed that wonderful little city. The next day, we took a bus to Paris. Paris will get a blog post of its own because this was my third time going and I will seriously need a whole new thread to cover all the new things I have learned each time I go, stay tuned... Then back to Brussels we went. We stayed at the Nekotel Concept Art Hotel which was really nice. We went to the Delirium Cafe which has over 2,000 beers and just walked around the Grand Place. The next day we went in search of Belgian waffles and the shop we picked ended up being right in front of the world famous Manneken-Pis. Interesting little statue of a boy urinating but it is said to be the symbol of the rebellious spirit of Brussels. And by the way, the waffles were fantastic. After that, we went walking around at the Grand Place again (absolutely beautiful buildings) then caught the metro to head over to the Atomium . It was built in 1958 for the World Fair. You are able to walk through the spheres. Needless to say, it is a very unique architectural structure. We rented bikes to get back to our hotel's area and that was an adventure itself because of traffic. But the weather was perfect and we just wanted to be outside. Later for dinner, Jake made us reservations at this little place called Cafe Des Spores where everything on the menu has something to do with mushrooms. The food was fantastic. We went back to our hotel to prep for the next day's travels back to the States.

Overall, we had a great time exploring the different historical buildings, great food and drinks, and just being tourists. Things of note for next time and for all you wanting to travel, if you are willing to spend the money more for convenience, I would say do it. If you are okay with taking lots of buses or trains to stretch your dollar then do it. We opted not to take a train to Paris and back because it was pretty costly, but the trade-off was riding a bus for 3-4 hours. Also, be mindful of your luggage. Unfortunately, mine was really heavy because I had to bring clothes for the Vermont trip before hand and it was annoying carting it around on the different means of transportation. BRING COMFORTABLE SHOES. I got some pretty severe blisters even from shoes that I thought were relatively comfy before all the walking. Get familiar with the different metro systems, it will save you a lot of time and money versus taxis or Uber.

As always, if you have any questions, need advice on your next trip, or want help planning a general itinerary, please do not hesitate to ask! I added pictures at the end of the Eurotrip gallery and I will include some here. View the underlined words for their direct links. Thanks for tuning in!

Tot ziens! (see you later in Dutch!)

Goose, out.