Luck of the Irish: March 2011

Two weekends ago, our apartment (plus Amanda's friend Will) went on another weekend excursion - this time to Belgium and the Netherlands. There are five girls in our apartment in Galway - Amanda, Andrea, Christy, Katie...and me.

We left early Friday morning - took our usual route (bus from Galway to Dublin airport) - and then flew from Dublin to Brussels. From the airport, we took an hour bus into the city of Brussels, then took a train to Bruges. We spent the rest of the day exploring Bruges.

We got lucky once again, and had perfect weather. It was even warm enough in Bruges that I was able to shed my trusty, puffy Northface jacket for the afternoon and get by with just a raincoat and scarf. Bruges was delightful. Highly recommended by Rick Steeves, this small town in Belgium was the perfect place to spend the day wandering and eating. We did a lot of both - maybe even a little more eating than wandering. But who could blame us...with Belgium being a country famous for it's chocolate, waffles, and french fries, we had to take full advantage and sample the local fare...multiple times.

We checked into our lovely little hostel called the Snuffle Backpacker Hostel, dropped our bags, and set out. We picked up some gelato as our first snack on our way out.

First food diary entry - gelato = delicious. Since there's no ColdStone ANYWHERE in Ireland or Europe so far that I've found, I'm beginning to look for suitable substitutes. Gelato might just be the answer.

After gelato, we visited the Bell Tower, where we climbed all 366 stairs to the very top. Then, we wandered around town. We stumbled upon a church, went inside, and found the 'Madonna and Child' - a sculpture from Michaelanglo. It is said to be one of the only pieces by him ever to leave Italy. We mosied along some more after that, visited a few local parks, marveled at the many canals, and then decided it was snack time, again.

This time, we found a chocolate shop. We bought some divine chocolate truffles, and savored every bite.

Second food diary entry - I think Belgian chocolate might be unmatched in this world.

Still hungry, we then found a great place to try some french fries. We ordered the biggest size, some mystery sauces, and dug in.

Third food diary entry - french fries were lovely. The guys running the restaurant were friendly, they recommended some mysterious sauces for us to try, and we oblidged. We ate our fries with the little tiny baby forks that came with the fries.

By this time, it was getting dark, and most of the stores had closed. We were leaving early the next morning, but we still had to find a place to try the waffles. On our way back to the hostel, we found a waffle stand (lucky us). I ordered the chocolate waffle.

Fourth food diary entry - chocolate waffle was probably the best life decision I've made thus far.

From there, we wandered back to our hostel. We played some board games, drank a few Belgian beers, toasted to Christy's 21st birthday, and went to bed.

The next morning, we took the train from Bruges back to Brussels (a little over an hour) then hopped on another train from Brussels to Amsterdam (around three hours). We spent the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday exploring Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is...unlike any place I've ever been. I'm sure everyone has heard the crazy stories about Amsterdam, but really, it isn't that crazy. Our first day, we explored a bit of the city on our own, visited the Anne Frank house, and experienced a local coffee shop. We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant, and then went back to our hostel.

The next morning, we woke up, and went down to the complimentary breakfast provided by the hostel.

Fifth food diary entry of the weekend - this breakfast was ridiculous! The hostel had everything you could possible think of: bread, jam, butter, meat and cheese for sandwiches, oranges, granola, yogurt, hard boiled eggs, and an espresso machine. The best part though: the free chocolate bars for breakfast! I'd say I got my money's worth for the hostel in chocolate bars alone.

After breakfast, we went down to the main square in town, and took the free walking tour of Amsterdam. We had a fantastic tour guide name Jo, and we even got free cheese on our tour. She told us all about the history of Amsterdam, the Red Light District, the legalization of marijuana and prostitution, Amsterdam's involvement in WWII, and anything else we might want to know.

Following our tour, Amanda, Will and I went to the Heineken factory and took the Heineken Experience (tour and free beers at the end). We enjoyed learning about the history of Heineken and seeing how it's made. I think this tour was better than the Guinness Storehouse tour we took in Dublin. Then, the three of us went back to the city center of Amsterdam and took the night tour of the Red Light District. This was very interesting. Jo was our tour guide again, and we learned more about the history of prostitution in Amsterdam, and how the Red Light District came to be what it is today.

Then, Monday morning, we took the train from Amsterdam back to Brussels, took the bus to the Brussels airport, flew to Dublin, took the bus from Dublin to Galway, and walked our exhausted selves home around 1:30 AM Tuesday morning. Another successful trip!

Here's some pictures from Bruges in Belgium, and then Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Bruges: