My travel group this weekend consisted of: Nathan (my roommate here in Maastricht), Jonathan, Greg, Brittany, Lauren, and Adi.
previous night. The paintings here were gorgeous, and not all by Van Gogh. Next we decided to walk across town to find a burger place an employee of the Van Gogh recommended to us (we never found it) so we ate a a bakery and headed to the Ann Frank House, however, because we had our backpacks, we had to split up into two groups, so someone could stay and watch the bags outside. Unfortunately, we judged when the best time to get back in line was, and the 2nd group entered before the 1st group was done, so I stayed outside with the bags, and took a nice nap in the sun (which made it's 1st appearance since arriving in the Netherlands). So I didn't get to do Anne Frank House, but I might go up for a day trip sometime to see it! After the Anne Frank House, it was time to go to the train station, via Dam Square, to get on the train to Rotterdam!
Rotterdam- I'm not sure whose idea it was to put Rotterdam on our itinerary, but it was a great idea! We found this great hostel operated by the backpackers information bureau in Rotterdam, and it actually was only 10 euro a night! (a bargain compared to the 26 euro I paid in Amsterdam!) What's funny though is that the hostel is a 126 bed dorm (which is HUGE!) normally dorms in hostels are like 8-12 people, not this one! But Rotterdam is really a very "American" feeling city, it had a big downtown area that feels very metropolitan, with pedestrian only streets that have bars, cafes, restaurants, and all kids of stuff! We went out to a couple of restaurants and bars that a very nice German lady we met on the train who lived outside of Rotterdam recommended to us! (Funny story: She knew about Baylor, because she lived in the states for 7 years working as a neuroscientist at Emory and University of Pittsburgh, and interviewed at UTHSC-SA!) The next morning we went out and explored the Museum van Boijmans Beuningen, a museum dedicated to mainly 15-18 century Dutch art. It was actually better than I thought it was going to be, not being a fan of the Dutch Masters... Then after the museum, we headed to the Euromast, which is the tallest tower in the Netherlands, at 185m tall. You actually could go rappelling off the side of the Euromast, however you had to have a reservation beforehand if you want to do it! But we rode the elevator up the Euromast, and it was an AMAZING view! You could see all the way to The Hague, 25km away! This also gave us a good view of the port of Rotterdam, which apparently is one of the busiest ports in the world! Brussels-
On to Brussels! I believe that I could move there, and be totally happy. In fact, I'd want to live in the place that we stayed in Brussels. We found a residence that rented apartments for 30 euro a person, and so we rented two apartments for the seven of us! It was so nice, the apartments were 2 minutes from St. Catherine's Cathedral and 10 minutes from Grand Place, the heart of "touristy Brussels."We had bought some wine while in Amsterdam, and decided to have some before venturing out to find dinner, so we opened up the wine, and had a lovely drink before dinner, with the windows open, and listening to Herbie Hancock Jazz on the stereo (it was the only CD that was in the room we agreed on, being we aren't a big fan of the top 30 US College Fight Songs, esp because Boomer Sooner and the UT fight songs were on there and not Baylors!) We all were feeling very continental relaxing in our apartment in Brussels, drinking wine, and listening to Jazz. We went out and had an AMAZING dinner, I sat down next to a man and struck up a nice conversation with him, because I heard his accent, and I asked him where he was from, he had us guess, and I guessed right! He was a New Zealander, who had been living in London for the past 18 years. What's even more amazing was that he mistook us for Canadians! When we told him that we were from Texas, he about fell out of his chair! So maybe my accent isn't that bad! We had a very interesting conversation about the healthcare systems in Europe, Austro-Asia, and the States, and the welfare structures of these countries, and also about the European Grand Prix Formula 1 car race that was the next day (the reason why he was in Brussels!). The next day we went to the Belgian Comic Strip Museum, which was interesting, but I was a little disappointed that it was mostly in French, and our translation book that we carried around didn't have much translated. But the exhibits on Tin Tin (the national hero of Belgium pretty sure!) and the Smurfs were cool! Then after that we headed to the Grand Place, and saw Mannikin Pis, a little fountain of a boy peeing three blocks from the Grand Place. It was really kind of funny, and smaller than I had imagined. But hey, when in Brussels, you have to go see Mannikin Pis...
Finally after all of this non-stop action, it was time to head back to Maastricht! We had to get ready for more classes, and adventures within the city that would go on during the week, since the Inkomen activities (new student welcome) were still going on!
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