Waffles and Déjà Vu

Hello again! Surprise, it’s only been only a couple of days since I last posted something, which is much more than I can say for the last post. Heh. But anyways. I said at the end of the last one that we’d actually done quite a bit since I wrote that, and I didn’t want to add all of that onto the already novel-length post, so here we go!

After Munich, we headed up to Cologne, planning to stay for two days. However, we got there in the early afternoon, checked into our hostel, and then walked around for the rest of the day and did pretty much all there is to do in Cologne! Well- maybe that’s not quite true, but in any case, we figured we didn’t need a whole extra day there, so when we got back to the hostel later on that night (after going to a Sunday night mass at the Cologne cathedral), we got them to refund us the second night and planned to head to Brussels one day early. What we did get up to that day was that we saw the chocolate museum, and bought a tonne of chocolate at the store, even though we did not go into the museum, unfortunately- bit too pricy for our liking. And we got to walk along the river and listen to a sweet jazz band that was there that made both of us want to swing dance really bad! But alas, we did not.

Such cute buildings.

The (massive) cologne cathedral.

THAT. LIGHT.

And the next day, after stopping and buying several Milka (German brand of chocolate that is both heavenly and affordable and comes in many many different flavours) bars, we headed off to Brussels, Belgium- country number 9, and the last “new” place we’d be going to on this trip! I’ll admit, when we got there and the directions to the hostel were not too great, and when we asked the police for directions and they warned us to watch out with our bags because it was not a nice area of town, I was slightly nervous. But we made it, and truly even though the neighborhood did not have a fantastic vibe, we didn’t have any issues at all, so it was fine once we found our way around. And the people in our room in the hostel were super nice! A guy from China who is an “open concept developer,” a girl from Paris, and 2 young guys from Turkey! We stayed up for several hours talking with them about our respective countries and different school systems, visas, passports, etc. It was really cool!

Adventure in Brussels. :)

Aaand then we went and did something adventurous. Prior to the trip, TJ had looked up a bunch of ruined/abandoned castles in Europe, and there was one very near us in Brussels. So we took a day trip out to that the first day! After stopping for a couple hours in the delightful little town of Dinant, we kept going to the stop nearest the castle, and got off to find- nothing. Literally in the middle of nowhere. One parked car sort of near the station, the restaurant near it was closed down, and it was about a 2k walk to the actual castle down a road with little-to-no side to walk on. Goooood times.

Dinant has this thing with saxophones idk?? Can anybody explain?

Dinant is super cute.

Literally the middle of nowhere.

So we scaled the mountain (really a hill, but it was quite steep) to the castle! The building was actually used as an orphanage and summer home during the war for kids in the cites to go get some fresh air, but it was rumoured to have shut down after a little girl jumped out of a window on the top floor. AND as a bonus, it’s supposed to be super haunted. And we did hear voices while we were inside the main halls, and walking around the outside, but that might have just been people living the house. Heh. You never know. Anyways, we spent a while there taking photos and exploring a little bit, and then left, because we were feeling supremely creeped out, and wanted to get back to the train station in time for the train.

Looming above us.

The front of the castle.

And inside! Actually falling apart.

So many colours. Imagining it in it's prime is so cool.

And another castle we saw along the road as well! This one intact.

Just poking out on top of the hill.

The next day in Brussels, we went to the Royal Art Museum to go to the René Magritte section. I saw the travelling Magritte exposition when I was in New York in October, so seeing the rest of his work and getting more of a story of his life was quite cool! Beth, if you’re reading this, I think you would enjoy it a lot if you ever get the chance to go! Unfortunately no photos were allowed in there, so no proof. Except for one single souvenir that I bought in the gift shop. Hehe. Oh! And before we went into the museum, we sat on the steps just down the road from it overlooking a park and with a bit of a view of Bussels, and had Belgian waffles from a food truck that was there! SO. GOOD. MMMM I love waffles.

A view with waffles on the side.

City hall and main town square. Such cool buildings.

 After the museum, we walked down towards the metro stop and then decided to walk around a bit, because it looked really pretty. Also, we were getting hungry, so we scoped out a place to eat. And after seeing the wonderful city hall and main town square, we headed back to a restaurant that we had seen on the way to have- what else?- WAFFLES. (Yes, we did have waffles twice in a row. No, we don’t regret it one bit.) And we also had Belgian fries and milkshakes.

And another cool building in the town square.

After supper, we headed via metro towards an antique car museum, but when we got there we found that it was closed. Sad times. But the park around it was pretty nice looking, so we wandered around there for a bit before hopping back on the metro to escape the freak rainstorm that cropped up and headed up to the Atomium which is a museum, and also closed, but it looks cool just from the outside as well! And that sums up Brussels! It’s quite a nice city, and fret not- before I left I definitely bought some Belgian chocolate. Mmmmmmmmmmm.

Kinda looks like the Brandenburg gate in Berlin. But it's not.

Atomium at night.

From Brussels we headed south to Paris! Ah, Paris. Something familiar(crazy to be able to say that)! And we even got the same hostel as we had the first time round because it was super nice. So that is fantastic. Today we went to the Gare de Lyon train station, thinking that there was a clocktower window thing that you could climb up in, only to find that that is, in fact, somewhere else. So we decided to head once again down to Notre Dame to the crepe place that we ate at like four different times when we were here at the beginning of the trip. And then we walked along the Seine under the gorgeous sun towards the Musee d’Orsay, which was where we found the actual clock tower. As well as a really quite nice Impressionist art section, and an exhibit on Van Gogh, which I enjoyed thoroughly. And after that we went to the Eiffel tower to climb the steps! And, unlike when I was in Paris last March, the top was open, so we took the elevator to the very very top as well! SUCH a beautiful view, even if it was as cold and windy as humanly possible up there. Fully worth it.

Deja-vu.

The clock tower!

And inside. So cool. And such a cool view.

Atop la Tour Eiffel...

... at sunset!

That view.

Mmmmmm, Paris, j'adore.

The number of steps we walked up to the second floor. That's a lot.

And that leads me to now, when I am writing this in a Laundromat in Monmartre, Paris, and counting down the days until we return home- 6! I think I truly am going to miss travelling and seeing new things, but I am also ecstatic to be going home and getting to something of more routine and home-feeling, haha. Even if I am actually moving up to Penticton after only 2 days at home! Yes. For those who don’t know, I am moving there for 6 months because I landed a job up there! So definitely look me up if you’re ever there, I can hook you up with a place to stay (my couch), and we can hang out!

Thanks for keeping up with my adventures, I know my posts can be long and wordy, but it’s super cool to know that people are reading it and watching the page views go up and up and up! I will post at least once more before I get home, so you’ll hear from me then, I guess!

See you in a couple days!
(note that I am posting this 3 days after I actually wrote it, due to technical difficulties, so we now only have 3 days left and are flying to London this evening!)