In Which We Visit Antwerp and Ghent...And Zele

Belgium, where the streets smell like waffles and people consume more french fries than could be thought possible even by the most successful potato farmer.

Antwerp and Ghent (Gent? Ghent? The "h" in G(h)ent is arguably the most confusing aspect of the entire town) were amazing. We saw a lot of big impressive buildings.

(This is The Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, a building that is both big and impressive - and unfinished! The second tower was never completed, which makes me feel better about the fact that I have never finished a jigsaw puzzle in my life.)

We went into the former house of Baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens and saw a tiny, tiny, bed that mimicked what he may have slept in.

(People in the late 1500s thought that it was better to sleep sitting up, which is why their beds were so small. Idiots!)

I ate a really expensive waffle. 

I took too many pictures of said waffle. 

We saw a man in a bear suit being addressed inside his suit by a man in normal, not-bear-suit, street attire. 

These things were all great and fun and took place inside cities that we had planned to visit. Yet, thanks to some miscommunication on the Airbnb website, we were forced into spending about 14 hours in the city of Zele. 

Maybe we visited Zele at the wrong time, or on the wrong day. Maybe it's usually bustling with life and it smells like a town and not like an abandoned sulfur dispensary. 

At this point you may have come to the conclusion that our Zele experience was not a good one and you would be right in that assumption. It was mostly due to our own incompetence that we landed ourselves in the middle of a sleepy rural Belgian town, but it's much easier to blame the town and not the people who ended up in the town, considering towns can't defend themselves because they are not animate beings capable of speech. Sorry, Zele. 

That being said - the Zele that we entered was a maze of scarily similar brick houses that looked like they were inhabited by ghosts. The kind of town where the only people who pass on the street are solo grandmas on bicycles and middle-aged men in vans. The kind of town where people have topiaries that look like this:

However, the people we talked to in Zele were some of the kindest I have ever met. I guess if you live in a place that looks like the real life set of Edward Scissorhands you just gotta have a positive outlook. 

Instead of kicking us out of her home after realizing us nasty millennials had tried to sneak two extra people into her Airbnb, our host kindly offered to let the extras stay in their camper van. This was the first (and hopefully, last) time I was excited to hear that I would be sleeping in a camper van. 

The van looked like this:

(Truly a vision with the pale blue color scheme and tasteful dolphin imagery)

It also had this sign on the window:

(This translates to "I watch for my boss," a surprisingly threatening thing for a Scottish Terrier to proclaim.)

If you can't eat gluten in the town of Zele and you arrive at a late night burger and fries restaurant that doesn't serve anything that hasn't touched gluten (this wasn't my personal situation but the situation of one of our group members) the owner of the restaurant will feel so bad she will offer you the paté that SHE was going to have for DINNER. She will offer you this FOR FREE. That is how nice the people of Zele are. 

In all, the trip was great even given the confusing 14 hours in Zele. I'll leave you with a picture I took of a portrait in the Rubens museum. This is probably a really important historical figure and all things considered I probably should have figured out, at the very least, his name. If I'm being honest I only took this picture because I thought his mustache looked funny. 

In Which A Blog Post Can Be A List If I Want It To Be

I have been living in The Hague for about two weeks. In that span of time there have been many surprises. Here is a list of most of them:

1. It is possible to become desensitized to the sight of a gorgeous canal. Two weeks ago I gasped when I saw my first canal. Now I barely acknowledge their existence, as if they're a fire hydrant or a pigeon. I miss the wondrously exciting days of my youth (two weeks ago). What a time (two (2) weeks prior to now) that was.

2. I knew in Europe it was custom to serve bottled water as opposed to free tap water in restaurants. I did not know that at some restaurants, even if you ask for tap water they will deny it. I know they have it. I know they have to clean those dishes somehow. Let me drink your free water. I will clean the glass if I have to. I will bring my own glass and fill it in the bathroom sink when you're not looking. I am not above bathroom sink water.

3. You can ride a moped in the bike lane, or the car lane, or the sidewalk, or seemingly anywhere your heart desires. This is a rule specific to mopeds.

4. Dogs can hangout in the bike lane if being walked by someone riding a bike.

5. Dogs being walked in the bike lane gotta run though, it's no place for walking.

5. People cannot walk or run in the bike lane.

6. People can and should run in the bike lane if they wander into it by mistake and are about to be hit by a bike.

7. If you are 20 years old (2 years above the legal drinking age) but you look like a middle school athlete, bartenders will ask for your ID. Often, when going out with a group of people, they will ask only you for your ID. This does not get any less embarrassing each time it happens.

8. There are no squirrels here.

9. People here love American music. At orientation two men on giant platforms made to look like they were wearing enourmous red coats sang "American Pie" as all of the international students exited the building. The existence of these men was never explained by any tour guide or faculty member.

(a picture I stole from Ben - thanks Ben!)

10. Cold stroopwafel is good, hot fresh stroopwafel is even better, hot fresh stroopwafel covered in chocolate is the best, and hot fresh stroopwafel covered in chocolate served to you by an old man wearing a jaunty neckerchief is just the pinnacle (this happened yesterday in Amsterdam).

On a more serious note - people here are ten times more environmentally friendly than in the US, cities are all beautiful and clean, transportation is easy to use and always on time, giant trucks and SUVs are virtually nonexistent, everyone brings re-usable bags to grocery stores, almost everyone is bilingual and I've met people here that know more about US politics and the current election than I do.

The Hague has been very kind to me so far, aside from all the people who have almost hit me with their bikes, but I probably had it coming.