This past week I've been on a little holiday as a treat for the end of work. After only 6 months teaching English, I felt that I needed a break. I chose Belgium and Paris for my one week adventure.
I left the apartment at around 4:30am on a Sunday morning. It was evil. Way too early for my liking. I caught a taxi to Barajas, which cost me something like 21 Euros. Ugh. What a rip off! But it was unfortunately the only way for me to get to the airport at that time of the morning. I went through security and went to the gate and sat down to watch some tv on my ipad. I had pre purchased priority boarding with Ryanair, which meant I could just sit down and go to the line when called. Everyone else was standing for over an hour in the normal queue. Ha! When the flight was called for boarding, I just walked straight up to the gate. Only about 10 other people had priority boarding. WIN!
Ryanair isn't exactly my favourite airline, but it's super cheap. Pretty much all they try to do through the whole flight is sell you stuff. The flight was only an hour and fifty minutes so I managed to sleep through a majority of it.
I arrived at Charleroi airport before 9am and was pretty much the first person to walk off the plane. My friend Gwennily hadnt arrived yet, so I just sat down and waited till she arrived. Gwennily and I have been friends for around 10 years and funnily enough, I didn't meet her for the first time until this year when I went to London. We only had about an hour, as she had a break from work on the Eurostar until she had to head back to Belgium. THIS time though, we had a full 3 days to hang out!
Gwennily arrived at the airport and I was super excited to see her! We then headed for the bus to take us into the city of Charleroi. We arrived at the station and had a quick breakfast of chocotwists (YUM) before heading to her car to go to her apartment. At the apartment I met her gorgeous dogs Cappuccino and Stitch! They are both sooooo cute! So little!! I then took a small siesta, and then we headed to a shopping centre. For lunch we had amazing hot chips with two different sauces which is super popular in Belgium. So tasty! the chips tasted so much better than normal ones. I have no idea what they do to them. After that we headed to some shops, mainly to escape the heat. I didn't expect it to be so hot in belgium, but it was as hot as Madrid, but just a bit more humid. I think it was something like 37 degrees!
After, we visited her mother's house where I met her brother and sister and mother. I took a small siesta again (I've adopted this Spanish custom very nicely). We quickly went to the supermarket to get some chocolate chips for the cheesecake that was to be made later, then headed back to the apartment. AGAIN I took about a 2 hour siesta (I was really tired, clearly) while Gwennily made dinner and a bailey's cheesecake which were both done once I was awake (man I'm lazy). We then watched some episodes of The Nanny on her brand new Plasma TV and then it was time for bed. What a day!
The following day we woke up early-ish to head into Brussels. We took the train which I think was around 40 minutes maybe? Perhaps less. I can't quite remember. We arrived in the city and decided to get lunch. We went to one of those Eco/take-away/green/you are eating healthy type places (lol). It was actually super tasty. I had a cous cous salad with smoked salmon, raisin bread with butter, greek yoghurt with raspberries and a water. Yum! Totally worth the 9 euros it cost me lol. Afterwards we walked around the city a little bit. I saw the main square and other such pretty things. So many chocolate shops. We looked in some clothes shops and walked around some more. Again, it was super hot that day, and we were pretty much dying from the heat, so any excuse to go into shops really. Not that shopping wasn't enough...but anyway we had a lovely time just walking around and finally getting to hang out after 10 years! Amazing! After that we went to Haagen daaz to get some BELGIAN WAFFLES lol! I had a waffle with green tea and hibiscus ice cream (AMAZING FLAVOUR) with whipped cream. It was sooooo good! ohhh yes! Totally worth it! In fact I'm craving on right now! Mmmmmmmmm! We then headed back to Charleroi.
That afternoon a massive storm swept through. Lots of thunder and lightning. Something I haven't seen in Melbourne very often! It was very cool! But Gwennily didn't like them. We had to go and pick up one of her sisters, and so we had to drive through the storm. Scary! It hadn't quite hit at that stage so it was ok but it was still epic! After we picked up Alizee we went out for chinese food, which actually turned out to be lovely and very tasty (those of you who know me know that I hate eating chinese food). Once we got back we watched Date Night (lol funny movie but very stupid) and headed to bed.
On the Wednesday we headed to a theme park in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium called Bobbejaanland for Gwenny's birthday! At the start of the day it was raining and miserable, but luckily the sun then came out and it was a gorgeous day! All together I think there were 9 of us. It was so much fun! We went on lots of rides. There was this on roller coaster that went vertical and then down vertically. It was pretty scary but totally awesome! We also went on some water rides in which some of us ended up drenched! The whole day was full of food, fun and lovely company! We left the park at closing time and ended up back at the apartment at around 9pm-ish.
I left Belgium the following morning just before 8am on a train to Paris. It was so sad to say goodbye to my lovely friend Gwennily! I still can't believe after years of chatting, we FINALLY found a time to catch up and really hang out! I can't wait to see her again! Hopefully next time it will be in Australia, so I can show her lots of awesome things we have in our country!
I left the apartment at around 4:30am on a Sunday morning. It was evil. Way too early for my liking. I caught a taxi to Barajas, which cost me something like 21 Euros. Ugh. What a rip off! But it was unfortunately the only way for me to get to the airport at that time of the morning. I went through security and went to the gate and sat down to watch some tv on my ipad. I had pre purchased priority boarding with Ryanair, which meant I could just sit down and go to the line when called. Everyone else was standing for over an hour in the normal queue. Ha! When the flight was called for boarding, I just walked straight up to the gate. Only about 10 other people had priority boarding. WIN!
Ryanair isn't exactly my favourite airline, but it's super cheap. Pretty much all they try to do through the whole flight is sell you stuff. The flight was only an hour and fifty minutes so I managed to sleep through a majority of it.
I arrived at Charleroi airport before 9am and was pretty much the first person to walk off the plane. My friend Gwennily hadnt arrived yet, so I just sat down and waited till she arrived. Gwennily and I have been friends for around 10 years and funnily enough, I didn't meet her for the first time until this year when I went to London. We only had about an hour, as she had a break from work on the Eurostar until she had to head back to Belgium. THIS time though, we had a full 3 days to hang out!
Gwennily arrived at the airport and I was super excited to see her! We then headed for the bus to take us into the city of Charleroi. We arrived at the station and had a quick breakfast of chocotwists (YUM) before heading to her car to go to her apartment. At the apartment I met her gorgeous dogs Cappuccino and Stitch! They are both sooooo cute! So little!! I then took a small siesta, and then we headed to a shopping centre. For lunch we had amazing hot chips with two different sauces which is super popular in Belgium. So tasty! the chips tasted so much better than normal ones. I have no idea what they do to them. After that we headed to some shops, mainly to escape the heat. I didn't expect it to be so hot in belgium, but it was as hot as Madrid, but just a bit more humid. I think it was something like 37 degrees!
After, we visited her mother's house where I met her brother and sister and mother. I took a small siesta again (I've adopted this Spanish custom very nicely). We quickly went to the supermarket to get some chocolate chips for the cheesecake that was to be made later, then headed back to the apartment. AGAIN I took about a 2 hour siesta (I was really tired, clearly) while Gwennily made dinner and a bailey's cheesecake which were both done once I was awake (man I'm lazy). We then watched some episodes of The Nanny on her brand new Plasma TV and then it was time for bed. What a day!
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| My delicious waffle! |
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| Lunch! |
That afternoon a massive storm swept through. Lots of thunder and lightning. Something I haven't seen in Melbourne very often! It was very cool! But Gwennily didn't like them. We had to go and pick up one of her sisters, and so we had to drive through the storm. Scary! It hadn't quite hit at that stage so it was ok but it was still epic! After we picked up Alizee we went out for chinese food, which actually turned out to be lovely and very tasty (those of you who know me know that I hate eating chinese food). Once we got back we watched Date Night (lol funny movie but very stupid) and headed to bed.
On the Wednesday we headed to a theme park in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium called Bobbejaanland for Gwenny's birthday! At the start of the day it was raining and miserable, but luckily the sun then came out and it was a gorgeous day! All together I think there were 9 of us. It was so much fun! We went on lots of rides. There was this on roller coaster that went vertical and then down vertically. It was pretty scary but totally awesome! We also went on some water rides in which some of us ended up drenched! The whole day was full of food, fun and lovely company! We left the park at closing time and ended up back at the apartment at around 9pm-ish.
I left Belgium the following morning just before 8am on a train to Paris. It was so sad to say goodbye to my lovely friend Gwennily! I still can't believe after years of chatting, we FINALLY found a time to catch up and really hang out! I can't wait to see her again! Hopefully next time it will be in Australia, so I can show her lots of awesome things we have in our country!
