On our first free weekend studying here in Olomouc, Czech Republic, my friends and I didn’t know where we wanted to go! Since we truly were open to anything, we started plugging in random cities to see where flights would be the cheapest. That’s how we decided on going to Brussels, Belgium!
The hardest part of our journey was getting there. We thought we had allotted enough time to train to Prague and travel from the train station to the airport and everything would be fine. Narrator voice, *Everything would not be fine.* Our initial issue stemmed from thinking the train to Prague was 2 hours, not a solid 2 and a half. With this already setting us back, we realized we were not on track to get to the airport with any more than an hour to spare before our flight. Our second issue I discovered on the Uber in between the train station and the airport (we did NOT have time to bus). As we are sitting in the car I take out my ticket, and to my dismay the ticket said boarding closes at 6:55 p.m. I pull out my phone and low and behold it is 6:56 p.m. Somehow we got the idea in our heads that the flight time was a half hour later than it actually was. With a heavy heart I informed the gals and we decided we had to at least try!
We SPRINTED through the airport and through security, which thankfully had no queue. We glanced at a board to see which gate we were leaving from without even stopping, and ran to the opposite side of the airport. We made it to the gate in the knick of time!! Worst case scenario if we had missed the flight would be to stay in Prague for the weekend, which would have been a major bummer because we would lose out on what we paid for our hostel and flight. I’m lucky to travel with such amazing gals that keep a positive attitude and go with the flow!
By the time we made it to our hostel and got checked in it was around 11:30 p.m. We decided to stay and attend our hostel’s jam session and try some Belgian beers! The music was really entertaining as different groups took turns going up to sing, rap, play instruments, and there was even a vocal percussionist.
The next morning, we had plans to try Belgian Waffles and tour the chocolate factory. But since this is travel and things often don’t go as planned, we decided to do the chocolate factory the next day and walk to the city center for Belgian Waffles. We chose to walk instead of taking the subway so that we could see more of the city in our limited time frame. Mary and Tiffany both got sweet waffles with chocolate, Nutella, strawberries, and cookie butter. I stayed true to character and got a savory waffle sandwich with chicken, bacon, cheddar, ranch, and barbecue!
After waffles, we still had a few hours to kill before our walking tour so we decided to go Delirium! Delirium is a 3 story bar that holds the world record for the most beers available. In 2004, they had 2004 beers. Each floor has a different selection available, it’s a beer drinkers paradise! While switching floors, we walked passed a man drinking lime green beer out of a giant boot glass. I couldn’t help myself so I had to ask what it was, and he even let me try it! Apparently, it was called cactus beer and we all wanted one of our own!
I was almost certain that the walking tour started at 4:30. Mary thought that it maybe said 4:00, but she wasn’t sure at all so for some reason we went with what I thought. At 4:30 we showed up to the square we were supposed to meet in and our tour group was no where to be found! We found the Spanish speaking tour group and asked him where we might be able to catch up to them and luckily we did! Our tour guide Peter was lively and animated and we walked around and he told us the story of Brussels’ history!
For our final day in Brussels, we decided to tour the chocolate factory near our hostel. We didn’t really know what to expect, but it was a really awesome experience! There were giant chocolate sculptures and old poster advertisements. My favorite part was this cool screen that displayed old chocolate commercials. We also got to watch a demonstration on how chocolate is made and try some! Yum!
After the chocolate factory we killed some time in a cafe before taking the shuttle bus to the airport and flying back to Prague. We stayed the night in Prague with our professor and Griffin and went out to celebrate St. Patrick’s day. We found an Irish pub that we could dance in and had a great time. All in all I would say our trip to Brussels was a success. For us, it was mostly a city for eating and drinking. We definitely learned a lot about time management and being sure to double check the times of things. I think that as a whole this trip made us better travelers for future situations.
Traveling Rays 