Birthplace of the French Fry

Contrary to what most believe, the French Fry was birthed in Belgium, not France. But they speak French in Belgium, so there you go. So, my last trip was to Bruges, Belgium. It was fuhreeking cold but really pretty. Our travel group started out being 4 but poor Stephen was puking the whole train ride and by the time we got to Luxembourg we decided we needed to insist he go back for his own good. He reluctantly agreed from his pale-faced fetal-position on the train station floor. Poor guy. We were all going to turn around and go back and maybe take a small day trip but at the last minute Mary and I decided to go on to Bruges by ourselves. To get to our hostel room we had to walk through this restaurant-bar that served really good Flemish stew and cherry beer (my new favorite!). There were arty-looking sacred hearts all over the place as decoration. Mary and I got up early the next day and walked ALL over Bruges. I'm pretty sure we walked about 20 miles that day. We saw the entire town and took a million pictures. There were huge old windmills along the outside of the town and a river that ran alongside them. There were canals all over the town and during the warmer seasons you can take a boat ride in them. We went into an old cathedral and saw a sculpture by Michelangelo. We of course, ate fries and Belgian chocolate. When we walked into a particularly cute chocolate shop the lady at the counter got really excited when she found out we were American and started asking us if we knew Rick Steves. Then she pulled out her own copy of his travel guide book, which was tabbed to the page that had her store in it, and showed us in writing, Rick's personal approval. I must admit, Rick's got some good taste. Those chocolates were amazing. We tried to find the World's Best Hot Chocolate that our friends had told us about but no matter how hard we looked we couldn't find it and instead ended up getting some disappointing (but cheap!) watery hot chocolate to go from a quick place. Then we went to these 2 fry stands that stand about 20 feet apart from each other and compete for the best pommes frites (Europeans really like to put mayonaise on their fries which I find disgusting, so I opted for the curry ketchup). French fries are my favorite food but I have to say I've had better. They were good though. Then since Belgium is supposed to be known for its lace Mary and I stopped in this tiny little house-turned-lace-shop run by these elderly women who made all the lace by hand themselves! It was really impressive.. Not to mention really expensive. One night Mary and I decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner (well nicer than the fries and waffels we'd been eating all weekend). She got salmon and I decided to try mussels since they were advertised all over Bruges. I was sorely disappointed. They tasted like mushy ocean. Gross. Next time I'll get salmon too. I took a million pictures on this trip! It was great but good to leave the northern cold and get back home to Heidelberg.

Home Sweet Heidelhome

It's 3:30am here in Heidelberg but as I'm currently suffering from severe jet lag and wide awake I decided to catch up on this here blog.

Christmas break was wonderfully eventful. I spent the first 2 weeks traveling and the other 3 back home in the states. I traveled with my friends, Lisa and Chelsey. Our first stop was Paris and it was gorgeous. I have to say while the Eiffel Tower photographs well, it's really not all that pretty in person. It's conspicuous and brown and skeletal. But at night they light it up with blue lights and due to some French anniversary they've added a circle of yellow stars for the year. Then every hour from 7pm-midnight the whole thing sparkles with flashing white lights. Boy, those French really know how to fancify things. We hit all the tourist stops-- The Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay, the Champs de l'Elysee, Sacre Coeur, the Arc de Triumph, and the La Fayette Galleries. I liked the Musee d'Orsay better than the Louvre because it had more impressionist art which is my favorite genre of paintings, but it was cool seeing the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. We also stuffed ourselves full of the 'Best Crepes in Paris!' We actually believed it though because we chose the place at random and the French woman standing in line in front of us was raving about them. My favorite was nutella, banana, and coconut. SO good. It snowed the last day we were in Paris and it was a nice little farewell before we set off for Barcelona.
Barcelona has been my favorite city visited so far! I absolutely LOVED it! It was colorful and friendly and inviting and warm, and best of all, the people speak SPANISH! For 2 of the 5 days we were in Paris we had a friend with us who could speak French enough to get us by, but once he had left we were a lost cause. There's no even guessing with French since there are so many silent letters, but once in Spain I took over the communicating job of our trio. I felt right at home. haha. My favorite part of Barcelona was La Boqueria which was this huge produce market on Las Ramblas. It had these amazing fresh fruit juices for one euro a cup and we probably drank 10 of them the first day we were there. Then one night we went to a shot bar called El Gato Negro and had a couple fun shots (all involving fire!) and fresh made sangria. My favorite shot was the Boyscout where the bartender lights your shot on fire and then gives you a marshmallow on a stick to roast. Then you dip it in the shot and eat it. Delish!
Our next stop was Malaga, which is located at the southern tip of Spain (we could see Africa from the coast!). Getting there was quite an adventure as we ended up spending the night outside on a bench in a bus depot, then later on the steps of the resort in the (literally) freezing cold as we waited for the lobby to open, but we survived and it makes for a good story now. ha. Malaga was beautiful and the Mediterranean Sea was gorgeous! The water was so clear and blue.
From Malaga we began what ended up being a 60 hour journey back home. We first trained from Malaga to Barcelona, where we found out our hostel we'd booked for the night was full, got sent to a different hostel, slept 4 hours, then continued on to Paris. From Paris we trained to Frankfurt airport. The airport was like a 5 star hotel after having slept outside and on trains! It was heated and had lounge chairs and a 24-hour Starbucks. Glorious! Then we parted ways and got on our separate planes home (Lisa and I to CA, Chels to Idaho).

Being home with the fam was tons of fun. The 3 weeks I spent in CA were super busy but it was so good to see everyone again. Christmas Eve at our house and Christmas weekend in the mountains. However, I did recieve the sad news that Doug Panter, the husband to my babysitter who watched me for 8 years, passed away. I've kept them in my thoughts and prayers. I love you both.

Overall it was an incredibly amazing, adventurous, and blessed vacation!