Bruxelles, Land of the Waffles and Home of the Pommes Frites

When I think of Belgium, I think of Dr. Evil in Goldmember and his Belgian heritage. So imagine my surprise when I arrived in Brussels with no roller discos or gold tracksuits to be found.

What I did find was much better. In case you haven’t picked up on this, I like food. I also have the taste preferences of a 4-year-old, but I’m improving. Enter Liege waffles and pommes frites. I pretty much struck gold. (Eh? Eh?)

A tradition Belgian waffle served with mango/orange and strawberry jelly, Earl Grey tea and a Belgian chocolate

I won’t lie to you, I don’t have a photo of the pommes frites because I got too excited to eat them. I’m not that sorry about it.

In the 36 hours we spent in Belgium, I made it my goal to visit the Grand Place, which is an open square in the middle of town surrounded by shops and restaurants.

It’s hard to say whether the square was more beautiful in the evening or at sunset. Either way, I’m grateful to have seen it every light.

Thanks for reading! Until next time.

xoxo,
Julia

 

33 days until peanut and sis take europe!

hi, everyone!

i hope you all had a fun-filled holiday and new year. i have very exciting news today! my sister, jessica, and i have just booked our flights and trains for the two and a half weeks we are spending together in europe next month!

we found some great hacker fares on Kayak for the flights, and booked through RailEurope for the Thalys trains. i’m so excited to have concrete plans (finally!), but it still feels so surreal! here’s our itinerary:

in case you’re not a visual spreadsheet-loving psychopath like me, here’s our itinerary again, but with less going on:

• London, U.K. – Feb. 6-9
• Dublin, Ireland – Feb. 9-11
• Paris, France – Feb. 11-14
• Brussels, Belgium – Feb. 14-15
• Amsterdam, Netherlands – Feb. 15-17
• Munich, Germany – Feb. 17-20

we also got matching patagonia backpacks (because we are extra, don’t ask) and i bought a 35mm film slr camera to document my trip. a lot of people seem genuinely worried that my sister (aka sis) and i (aka peanut) are backpacking through europe together, but i assure you, she will make it home…i cannot guarantee that i won’t fall in love with deutschland and stay forever.

just kidding, mom! i’ll be back to finish my degree, but who knows after graduation??? lol

there are 33 DAYS LEFT UNTIL WE LEAVE FOR LONDON, and i cannot wrap my head around it. i promise much more scintillating content in the coming weeks, such as how to pack everything you would need for five months in europe into a 28L backpack and carry on-sized luggage (spoiler alert: it probably cannot be done, but i digress), or how to encourage your sister that she doesn’t really need to bring those extra 16 pairs of shoes “just in case.”

don’t forget that i will also be publishing content for the SDSU Be International Blog starting in February! i’ll announce it all here, of course.

until next time & thanks for reading!

xoxo,
julia