Here we are. The second to last Monday blog-day! Woah! It's absolutely absurd to thing that in less that two weeks I'll be back on American soil. Who's excited?! Anywhoooo... This Monday is dedicated to recapping my weekend in Brussels with my boyfriend John. Yes, you read that correctly. I have been dating an Irishman. His name is John and we met at Blackbird, the local bar, where he's a bartender. But this isn't about that story.
As an early Christmas present he flew me out to Belgium with him for a weekend of exploring the sites and shopping. We left on Friday morning, or was it Thursday night? Who knows because neither of us had slept. Both of us were absolutely wrecked (Irish for exhausted) but off we went. It was actually ballin to watch the sunrise from above the clouds. Check out my insta! When we got to Brussels we decided to take the train to the B&B that we were staying in. It was only one stop away so we figured it couldn't be that hard. After roaming the streets with a flimsy map for a little we finally found the place. We tried the door code several times but it didn't work! We later realized that we weren't supposed to check in until 2, but a lovely cleaning lady let us in. It was grand! It seems to just be my luck that every place I stay in is a fifth floor freakin walk up, so up we hiked. It was well worth the walk though. It was essentially a mini apartment. I loved it. After a quick nap we decided to go grab some food. This is where my trouble started. Most of you probably don't know but I have ridiculously low blood pressure and sometimes it acts up making me really sick. Of course it happened on this vacation. After almost passing out at dinner we decided it would probably be best to just go back to the apartment. I tried sleeping it off and we wound up watching Total Recall and Mean Girls. Overall not a totallll waste of a day but I was still annoyed with myself for being sick. John, as always, was very supportive and told me not to worry about it. The next morning we woke up to breakfast in bed! The B&B people even emailed us saying sorry for not being able to get in the day before. I was still feeling hella sick but didn't want to waste another day of our vacation. I put on my toughest face and off to the train station we went. We wanted to go to Brugge which is about an hour outside Brussels to visit the famous Christmas markets! I slept most of the train ride but even once we got to Brugge I thought I might pass out. Luckily just as we were trying to make a decision about whether or not we should just go home I finally perked up. John thought I was lying just to make him happy but I swear I was reborn! Hahah. Anyway we spent some time shopping and taking in the beautiful architecture. I grabbed some Christmas ornaments for some of the girls back in Dublin and of course my signature post cards. Instead of climbing the tall bell tower we elected to take in the views of the cities from the giant Christmas Ferris Wheel. I nearly died laughing while John clung on for dear life and just kept freakingg out that he wasn't strapped in. Amidst all that nonsense we really were surrounded by spectacular views of Brugge. We got back on the train shortly after. When we got back to Brussels we ended up stumbling upon the biggest tourist attractions by accident! While looking for somewhere to eat dinner we wandered by the Mannequin Pis, which has become the city's adopted mascot. I think it's a little creepy because it's literally just this little boy peeing into a fountain. The original statue is housed in the King's rooms of one of the two castles in Brussels. Yes two. One for living and one for showing off. Way to go Belgian Royal Family. Then we came upon the Grand Place and saw a breathtaking light show. Even though we were absolutely freezing we had a great time. John stopped at this Belgian beer shop to pick up a few new ones to try. Believe it or not I stayed absolutely sober this weekend! I didn't want to mess with the blood pressure any more than needed. We headed back to the apartment and took turns trying the big box of Belgian chocolates we bought in Brugge. We had told the chocolatier to jus give us an assortment of milk chocolate so we had no idea what we were getting into. Kinda like the movie The Vow if you've seen that haha. After absolutely stuffing ourselves with chocolate we watched a few British game shows on TV and a comedy special. Great Craic. John and I had a hilarious FaceTime session with my best friend at home, Bri. She said John passes the test so don't worry family! We turned in early to be rested for our last day on vacation. After another breakfast in bed we grabbed our bags and headed out to do everything we hadn't seen yet. Luckily I was feeling better. Neither of us were prepared for how arctic cold it would be! It was about freezing air and the wind was brutal. After blundering blindly for a while we finally found the hop-on hop-off tour and got on. We headed out to the Atomium first. It's a huge building that is modeled after an atom of iron magnified billions of times. Each orb on it is to commemorate a Belgian scientist who made some sort of significant contribution to the scientific community. After shaking and shivering for a while we got back on the bus and saw some crazy monuments and churches. On the second half of the tour we drove by the European Parliament and I got some interesting and helpful information for my final next week on the EU! John was bored to tears but knew I was into it hahah he's not big on political science. After the tour was over we grabbed some lunch and headed to the airport. Poor john lost his phone in the last few hours of the trip and was pretty pissed off but we successfully got on the plane and made it home to Dublin (even with some wicked turbulence) It's so sad for me to think that the next time I'll be in the airport I'll be going home! I am beyond excited to see everyone though.
Overall it was a hot mess of a weekend but me and john both agreed that it was just nice to have a vacation before I go home. I can't thank him enough ( I know he's reading this) for everything he's done for me over the past few months. He's kept me sane and safe and taken very good care of me. I'm gonna miss him a lot but that's why I'm booking a trip back here over spring break! Woohoo!
Anyway, enough blogging. I have three papers to write and a turkey to cook for friendsgiving tonight!
From Dublin with Love
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