Brussels

well, wow. i don't even know where to start. so this may be a long post. you are warned. it has been a crazy 2 days. i'm currently in my hotel lobby using their complimentary internet services, all while listening to "eye of the tiger". i love america.

so, my adventure thus far. yesterday morning, madeline, molly, and i woke up at 4:45 and took a train from tours to paris (6:30-9). once arriving in paris, molly met up with alex (her fiancee), and madeline and i took the metro to the next train station we had to be at for the train leg to brussels. along the way, we made a friend, joe. joe goes to the institute with us and was on his way through brussels to amsterdam, so joe joined our group. we got to gare de nord with plenty of time to kill, so our trio went to mcdonalds for some breakfast. sadly, they didn't have sausage biscuits like i was hoping for. but (!) we did make another friend. for the second time in 2 days, i was ordering food and someone said "so, where in america are you from?". this time, it was brad. brad stiles. we all started talking (as americans bond in a foreign country), and he is a christian recording artist from nashville. after talking up one of our music major friends who is in nashville looking for work, we started talking to brad about his life on the road. he has just left africa, senegal to be exact. he was leading worship for a school in dakar. pretty sure i'm gonna try to get a job there. anyway, so he was really awesome. yes, he is another prime example of God sending the right people at the right time. he gave us business cards, cds, and got our phone numbers. for the record, i know him. i met him at a mcdonalds in paris once.
after our mcdonalds muffins (no biscuits), maddie, brad, and i boarded the thalys for brussels. let me say, they are really nice trains. after a quick ride (like 1 1/2 hours), we were in brussels. since we have adapted to a walking lifestyle, we decided to walk to our hotel instead of taking a metro. 3 hours later, we reached our hotel. but along the way, we did make stops--the grand place, la madeleine church (for madeleine), a waffle (bananas, nutella, and whipped cream. yes, belgian waffles are amazing), and a few turn-arounds (we had a really bad map). but, our hotel is awesome. if you are ever in the brussels area, stay here. i had been wanting to stay here for a while. so check. it is the hotel bloom next to the botanical gardens. http://www.hotelbloom.com/
each room has a handpainted fresco. our room is 321 if you want to see our pretty picture.
upon reaching our hotel, we took a nap. after all, we were going off 4 hours of sleep. we pressed snooze...quite a few times. but we woke up with empty bellies, and what better way to fill that hunger than with PIZZA HUT. let me say, it has never tasted so good. yum. maddie and i ate an entire pizza. yes, we were sick. no, we don't regret it. after eating, we met up with joe (our new random friend from georgia) and some of his friends from school that go to the institute as well. such a small world, right? we went to see the manekken-pis (i probably misspelled it, but i don't care). it's basically brussels'statue of liberty. sadly. you can google-pic it, but i don't care to talk about it. so we saw that, then went to eat. but maddie and i had just eaten an entire pizza (such americans), so we split the fries. and yes, belgian fries are so good. seriously, belgium has the best food, you can't go wrong. after dinner, we went to a gift shop. and seriously, belgium has the coolest souvenirs. i bought lace, magnets, ornaments, etc. after we got yet another waffle, this time just sugar. it was tasty, of course. madeleine and i, b/c of our extensive adventures that day, were tired, so we took the metro back to our hotel (saved ourselves from a 3 hour walk again), and went to bed, at like 10.

this morning, well rested because of our early bedtime, we woke up ready to go. we took the metro to the train station, ate breakfast (pain au chocolat with powdered sugar, it's a good thing we walked so much), and took the train to brugges, belgium. so, my words will not give it justice. but it is so amazing. it is the "venice of the north" and has lots of little canals going through the city. this medieval city has lots of fun museums (which we did not go in, but sounded interesting?)---frites (fries), chocolate, beer, comic books, and they even had a vial of jesus' blood (?). sounds a little branson for my taste, but. the chocolate was so amazing. we got to climb to the top of a windmill. it truly was a magical day.
at about 5-ish, we decided we wanted to go to somewhere else for dinner. so we went to ghent. we are so adventurous. we took the train to ghent and proceded to walk for another hour. we are champion walkers. we finally (i was about to give up) found the square. and it was so worth it. similar to brugges, it had canals through the city. we ate in a little restaurant by the main canal. we requested a seat by the window upstairs, because we are americans and like to be difficult.
i will say that tonight was my time to feel discriminated against because i was american. maybe it was her personality or was having a bad day, but our waitress was r-u-d-e. she wouldn't put us by the window, but the other waiter told her to, again. she didn't bring us our check. she flipped because we put our napkins in our bowls. and was just not nice. but hey, i did get to eat some super tasty food---macoroni with ham and cheese. ah. and a coca cola light, a treat to myself.

i warned you this post would be long. tomorrow i will try to put up some pictures, i can't right now because i am on a public computer. only 1 more hour (belgium time) until my 21st birthday. AHHH.
i kind of miss home, because i am kind of realizing i will be alone on my birthday. not alone, just without my family, seth, and other close friends. but i am thankful God gave me friends here to be with. and i know when i get home, it will still be exciting. just kinda sad right now. but it's all good.
holler at yáll tomorrow!