Coming home from Belgium

 Hi, 

I came home from Belgium yesterday, it was amazing.

But first things first. (I wrote this at Tuesday, now it´s Wednesday.)

Thursday

Our way started at Thursday, after my return from a doctor. My cholesterol got lower, hooray! It´s because of pills, not hard work, but it´s still cool.
After little waiting at Prague we got into bus. For this trip I downloaded a lot of literature, but ended up reading only in two last days. 
Surprisingly, they showed terribble film, again. Me and dad agreed that bus drivers compete at this, trying to pick worst flick. In our trip to Italy we probably got the winner - Waterloo po Česku, second worst film on ČSFD. Like, the second worst of all time. 

Friday

 

I love foreign gas shops, but what don´t I love abroad? I enjoy seeing all those strange products, even if it is just from Germany, comparing prices and listening conversations I don´t understand. Even if those shops are often pricey.

After the morning hygiene stop we arrived to Waterloo. At this time it was sure that our master guide Milda will be walking encyclopedia. He was an old man and you had to wonder how will he hold all those long days. He did handle it better than me, let me tell you. On the other hand, I had flu. (But I really wanted to see this. It was our fifth attempt, they canceled four of our trips before.) 

Waterloo was deserted, but number of closed museums (it was very early) made it clear that normally is this place filled with people. 

I liked it, even if I could only walk around. I held Tiger, as I knew I will feel like runned over hedgehog after the night ride. More of runned over hedgehog with greasy hair, as I forgot dry shampoo. 

Brussel followed, and it was good too it's such a beautiful place full of gothic architecture, full of pubs, bars and museums. Sadly, I got only to one, the Old Masters exhibition. I saw Marats death, painting we have at our final school exam. 

It's a giant gallery, so big I got lost in one exhibition. I wondered around totally wrong pavilion, feeling like a bozo with my English. I can write in it, but talking? I am basically Pavel Čechov. 
Is Stáza Sulu then? This belongs somewhere else. 

Since morning we crossed the comics trail, which contains of few houses painted with belgian cartoon heroes, like Tintin and the Smurfs. We even saw a gigantic Smurf jumping over big mushroom, which are words I never even dreamed of writing. 
I ended day with GIANT meringue.

 I won´t talk much about hotel, but we had one bed with dad. It was giant, but still, I am going to write "daughter" after my name every time after this.
 We joked that the best thing on TV will be probably Murder she wrote, but I catched some English speaking western.

Saturday

This day was parted into two halves, Antwerps and Gent. 
 Antwerps were like the peak of urbanism. Full functional place where nothing feels out of place. This is where the House of Rubens is located. Our first steps led here. With dad we were the only ones to forgot audio guide, or at least a booklet, but we still enjoyed it. There was room for our fantasies. 

It's funny or strange, depends on you, how technical Belgium is. At a lot of places you can pay only with the card, even some small shops. 

We spent rest of the day by strolling all over the centre.

Gent was packed with action, we went to market after round with master guide. Dad choose octopus, more exactly octo-cube, and it was suprisingly tasty. At this point we tried everything - classic fries, waffle, chocolate and now even seafood. Only things remaining were gent nose and coffee.
After coffee house we had another tour with guide and another sitting session, this time at Comic Sans pub. It´s great place for most nerds, even me, because it´ 's thematic (comics, mostly superheroes), there is a pinball and okay prices. I would welcome something like this at Ostrava.
Gent was full of gothic architecture and we could see that from Belfry tower. We confused it with another tower, but when we payed, we did took a look at the city. And it was really looong look, as couple before us was very slow and we could not go back. It took us about fifteen minutes. 

 Second hotel had two beds, which was great, and I really managed to catch Murder she wrote, so I watched it.

Sunday

Sunday was reserved for Bruges and it was a great choice. There was a lot to look at, even though the rain. It's the most beautiful place at Belgium, at least at my opinion. Swans, ducks and coots were everywhere. I watched family of coots, and one of them was very aggressive at her non-family members. It was cute. 

I found out who Beguines are, we were at their castle. Their houses were all around, white buildings so pretty that one really start thinking about it as a plan B if that someone messed finals. 

Bruges are under UNESCO, so not even one brick was changed at the historical centre. Brick gables and buildings are good enough reason for visit. Twice as good if you add pubs, they even have more than 600 types of beer at one. I picked fruit beer here, and I enjoyed it even as a person of no taste for such a thing. Dad was very happy with it and he even bought some bottles for grandpa. 

And don't let me start about all the kitschy stores, full of Christmas, toys and lace. 

When you get tired from spending money, you can visit the Castle of Our Lady, containing the only Michelangelo outside of Italy. It's breathtaking piece of work, typically smooth and full of textures, but it's not the only artwork under the roof. This place is great cut through history of art, from early middle age to barocco. 

After admiring this town we had to come back to our bus, and on our way I bought bubble tea and a waffle, totally amazing one. It was covered in whipped cream and marshmallows.
 Road back was tiring, as always, and we had to take two trains. By three PM we stood before our house, both silent and unhappy. Try to compare concrete jungle to lanf of goth, renesance and art nouveau (with bits of other styles). Then sisters´s dog ran to us, with my sister and mom behind him and wasn´t so bad.
I like those euro weekends.

And this weekend? I am going to My Chemical Romance concert! It just like a dream, I even dreamed about this night. Me and Gerard had long, but very important eye contact.