the land of chocolates

Okay super unproductive today and doesn't help that my nose has been running pretty much the entire day (okay, excuses, excuses) -it's just a vicious cycle -cough, nose runs, cough, nose runs etc. Damn Ear-Nose-Throat connections (but I guess it keeps me alive by allowing me to breathe so I had better not curse it too much).

Moral of the story: Try NOT to stay up all night doing last minute work because immunity plunges after that. And it doesn't help when sleep is delayed by missing a bus and having to wait 7 hours more for another (leaving me desperately short of sleep for the next 4 days at least, one of the consequences of which is being able to fall asleep just reading the dinner menu)...

And that was the start to my exciting travels! Some travel tips and potential consequences:

1. Always read your ticket thoroughly. Sometimes prints are very small and some people just don't bother reading, and so some people might actually reach the station about 15 min before the bus leaves when they are supposed to check in an hour before -and unluckily meet a horrible man who refuses to let them board the bus even though everyone else (e.g. bus driver and check-in lady) might have let them. And these people might have to end up buying tickets for a bus that leaves 7 hours later. Even if there is no fine print on the ticket go check the website!

2. Even if you are really 80% asleep and all, if you hear a mumble on the not-very-clear announcement system on the bus that sounds vaguely like your destination, do NOT go back to sleep! Check if it is your destination. Or hope the bus driver is clever enough to notice 2 bleary looking girls and ask where they were headed to, and then announcing very clearly in their faces "This IS Brussels." -very unglam for the girls to quickly gather their belongings, put on their coats and rush off the bus.

3. Another sleep-related danger on trains, be alert if the train stops really really long at a station. And when the destination on the board seems to have changed to a place you came from. Don't go back to sleep again! Then again, how would you know that delayed trains will turn backwards just because they can't reach their destinations in time?

Ahh I'm really tired to do a recount of every place. So it's going to be short and sweet! And just Belgium for now. And no pictures to show for it I'm sorry, was camera-less and just decided to soak the places in (:

Brussels

Destination #1! Apparently, nobody pays to take the metro here. Hahaha. Mich and I only found out AFTER we dutifully bought our (luckily) single-trip ticket. Also, people speak French here (yes I didn't do my research and didn't know that)! Brussels is a nice place (not terribly exciting but it has its merits), with a very pretty old city centre (the Grand Place) -it's very interesting to see how the streets change and become a lot more modern as you walk out from the city centre.

And the FOOD OMG! Chocolate, waffles, chocolate, waffles, mussels, chocolate! -dies and goes to heaven- So many chocolate shops! We had this wonderful concoction which involves melting a block of chocolate attached to a spoon (pick your choice of flavours from the many many) into a cup of hot milk -good for a cold day! :D Chocolate shops were amazing, with such intricate designs which look too good to be eaten -even chocolate in the shape of shoes designed in conjunction with LV. Whoaa. And it was Vday so this chain of shops just launched a new line of macaroons -which are a shimmery pink colour (they REALLY glitter, I'm not kidding) and what's best was that they gave free samples (not tiny pieces, like a WHOLE macaroon). That was my first macaroon ever and apparently according to my friends it's the best ever. Heh. We then visited another outlet, and when the person asked if we had tasted it, we just replied with an evasive "Can we try some?" (: teehee.

And also friendly slightly strange people such as the man at one of the restaurants who calls JY his girlfriend and tries to hug/get a kiss from her everytime we walk past. Oh and I've never seen so many rainbow-coloured flags hanging outside establishments before! Closet spaces somewhat open here!

What I also liked about Brussels was the comic paintings on the walls of buildings, literally painted from the ground right to the top of a 4-5 storey building. Every turn you make in the streets could provide a pleasant surprise in the form of a nice wall, and the walls seem to sometimes incorporate parts of the real street into them (wires, landmarks) so that was nicee.

The pissing statue of the boy also lives here (the Mannekin Pis) -and he has 804 different costumes housed in a museum! The day we were there he had on a colourful costume that resembled a South-EastAsian/Taoist deity of some sorts (imagine lion-dance coloured costume with Javanese shadow puppet sort of face), which is just weird because he is still able to piss through all that costume (even his face was obscured by a mask).

Oh and the hostel we stayed in was the Van Gogh Youth Hostel which apparently was where Van Gogh stayed for a while when he was in Brussels (In Amsterdam, we realised that Van Gogh is not pronounced "Van - Goff" or "Van - Goh" but "Van -Gog [insert choking sound]h" )

Antwerp

I liked the train ride to Brussels -my first encounter with the pastoral in Europe (Argh damn geographical concepts of the airy fairy pastoral, the counter-pastoral and urban pastoral kept running through my head thanks to my module and I really got a bit annoyed by myself hahaha -other geographical concepts I don't mind at all)! It was cloudy and the grass was a very faded green colour and from far away it would actually look like water surfaces if not for a tree sticking out of it. The sky was really pretty too, with pinkish and yellowish hues streaking horizontally across the sky amidst the clouds (:

Yet another lesson to learn, have the exact address of your hostel! This hostel was so nondescript and tucked away (basically the sign was written in such an unobstentious way and you would only be able to see it if you walked from one direction) we took forever to find it (okay JY and friend Eugene found it while we sat around in a pub)! The hostel itself is amazing though, it's those sort of old-looking houses. When you walk in you are greeted with a loooong staircase. Take the door to the left and you enter a carvenous living room with a ceiling at least 2 storeys high (and the storeys/stairs per storey are very looong) and with chandeliers covered in sheets hanging from it, the whole place darkened and smokey, with some random guys sprawled across the sofas, and near the counter are tables and shelves covered in random knick-knacks. I'm so glad for FS and Cambodia for teaching me the usefulness of backpacking (of course they had to put us right on the top floor -3rd storey which is an attic)!

Well the good thing about the hostel was that it contained these quirky little maps for young people, with tons of recommendations of what to do in Antwerp ("You probably thought of Antwerp as a short pitstop between Brussels and Amsterdam and planned to stay just long enough to do your laundry. Pardon us if we're a bit insulted" -the map). And they really were quite interesting, Antwerp (thanks to the map) is full of little interesting random stuffs to see, e.g. the Ugliest Building in Antwerp (the hotel Park Plaza Astrid), the legendary organ (you put in 0.50 euros and watch it play -accordians, cymbals, drums), the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwe Kathedraal (which took like 200 years to build -I was quite disappointed that it required an entrance fee to get in) etc etc. Thanks to Ryl for efficiently delegating all the different parts of the maps for us to read and highlighting all the interesting stuffs. Hee.

I do wonder how 'local' Antwerp is though (cos the guide said that for one of the squares, the Grote Markt, "Real Antwerpians never come here, unless there is a protest march"). I wonder when this change occured hmm. Oh in Grote Markt is a statue of a man who has cut off the head and the hand of some other person, and he is posing in way that shows him throwing the hand. and somewhere on the Meir (the shopping street) is where a giant hand lies, which is apparently the location where the hand was flung to. Hahaha.

Oh Antwerp is famous for its artist Ruben. Unfortunately I don't know much about him cos we didn't get to visit his house, but some of his paintings are in the (privatised) Cathedral. ):

Well since I was without a camera one of the memories of Antwerp that ring most clearly are the bells from the Cathedral, they chime really beautifully and the sound just reverberates across the squares. (:

[Note: Thank you to JaredWong for the notebook or I wouldn't be able to remember little stuffs and some things would eventually become one big blur mix-up in my head!]

Okieee that's all for now gotta wake up super early tmr for COASTAL FIELD TRIP in Brighton! Wahaha. I don't even take the module but who can resist crashing such stuffs. :D