One thing about Luxembourg that I definitely did not anticipate was the endless rain. Even if the weather forecast doesn't predict it, there is still a 99% chance that at some point during the day it will downpour. If there is a 20% chance of rain, then that means that it will most likely rain 20% of the day.
Some general updates on life include that I switched host families and am now living in Bettembourg (30 min from Differdange) instead of Lux City (which was 1 hr away). We traveled with our MUDEC group to the Chateau de Vianden, a winery, a Lux City carnival, and took a lift up to the castle that we visited. Classes have started and the homework keeps piling on and this past weekend we went to Belgium. Here are 10 lessons (and stories) that I've learned thus far:
1) Ask people for directions/help, you never know who you're going to meet
Pretty much at every train station/bus station we desperately tried to figure out what times and at what platform the train/bus came. We would finally just give up and ask around, lucking out and finding helpful travelers or the attendants working at the station. At the Brussels train station we arrived already knowing that there was a train into Brugge at about 5.30pm, but had no idea as to if that was still accurate or at which platform it would come to. There was a woman, about 25, who we bumped into that was also going to Brugge and she happened to be from Spain. Her name was Giselle and she was originally from Peru and had studied in Spain and was now working there. During her studies she had met a friend who now lived in Brugge and was on the way to visit her for the weekend. She kept asking us questions about our studies, life in the US, different cities we were planning to visit, and also about "American boys". When we arrived at the train station in Brugge, her friend helped us find the right but (and even got us a cheaper deal to travel) and took us right to our hostel, all the while chatting about her experiences abroad. Giselle ended up staying in our hostel room and we exchanged e-mail information, facebook account names and phone numbers. Hopefully when we visit Spain for Toussaints break, we can go visit her in Madrid and she can show us around!
2)Hole in the wall places might turn out to be amazing restaurants
When we arrived in Brussels it was pretty late and it took us a very long time to find the right bus to get to our hotel. We then decided to ask the front desk if there was anything still open so we could get some food and maybe some wine to hang out in the hotel. We ended up walking 15 minutes with maps (which totally make us look like freshmen (first-years) again) and found a restaurant that looked like it would be absolutely disgusting inside. What it ended up being was an amazing (and cheap!) Greek restaurant where the waiters were extremely friendly and the food was really good! We then found a convenience store nearby and got some more snacks before heading back to the hotel.
3)Just because you think it's cheap, doesn't mean it actually is
When arriving in Brugge, we wandered around for about an hour before finally deciding that the restaurant next door to the other 5 that were too expensive, was going to be the cheaper option. We ordered our food and drinks and then came to realize that the meal really wasn't going to be that cheap. However, the restaurant was located in the main square and we could sit outside while enjoying our food. We also had the fortune of trying some Belgian beer, which indeed is a lot better than beer in the states. The food was actually amazing as well, being an upper scale restaurant, so we took on the mentality of "when else are we going to eat at a restaurant like this in Brugge together". Alls well that ends well. =)
4)Before struggling through 5 minutes of french, ask if they speak English
When exploring Brussels, we self-navigated through the main tourist attractions depicted on our "walking-tour of Brussels" map. We kept turning the map around and trying to figure out which landmark and street pointed where. Finally, we headed in the direction that our hotel was supposedly in, since the hotel was located off of the map (how convenient). We finally wandered off of the map and decided to try our French and ask 2 police men where the street of our hotel is. I had packed my French phrase book and was struggling through forming a string of comprehensive sentences before going up to the policemen. Finally, when I felt confident enough I went up and said: "Bonjour, excuse moi. Pourriez-vous m'aider? Ou se trouve rue de (street name of our hotel)?" The police officer looked at me and made a few motions and called over another police officer in French. From this interaction I took that he did not speak English, but was willing to help. When the second officer came up, the two exchanged a few sentences in French and then the first looked at me and in perfect English said, "do you ladies have a car? the street is pretty far from here and you'll have to use either a bus or a cab." So future advice is, if you don't really have time to improve your language skills...a simple "Bonjour. Parlez-vous anglais?" would work. Oh, and our hotel ended up being 15 minutes away by cab, which turned out to only be a 9 euro cab-ride for the 4 of us.
5)If you're standing on a bench and dancing in a group of 20, you don't look as dumb. Ok, maybe you do...
In Brugge, after dinner, we decided to try our luck at the bars. We were a huge group from MUDEC, only made bigger by random groups of people all congregating in one location. We found our way to Snuffy's, which was a hostel where most other students were staying, and hung out there for a few hours before heading out to explore more of the streets of Brugge. We came across a discotheque (or maybe it wasn't one and we just made into one) where they were handing out really cool green glasses and apparently had a happy hour. So, being college students, we stayed there and danced to the music and the locals stared. It was overall a really fun night since we were all together and talking and singing and just enjoying a night out in Brugge. Let the locals stare, "we no speak americano"!
6)Europe has better beer (and stronger), and happy hour still exists.
Apparently it was Belgium beer weekend (lucky us!) and there was a huge tent set up in the Grand Place with different companies that let you try their beers. We each had one, but proceeded to take a coaster (or 3) from every place as a souvenir. The best beer that we tried was a cherry flavored one that tasted more like sparkling juice. We also came across a happy hour in Brugge (who knew?) where a lot of Miami kids were hanging out. It was a lot of fun to have everyone together and chatting and enjoying our first night out on a weekend trip out of Luxembourg.
7)There are guided tourist maps everywhere, you just have to find them
Arriving at the hostel in Brugge was an interesting experience since it used to be an old movie theater, but it was still really nice. The hostel offered really nice maps of the entire city that were made by locals for tourists and students traveling through the city. They had some walking routes outlines and descriptions of noteworthy places to visit in the city. In Brussels we asked for maps everywhere and ended up seeing the King's Palace, the Academia building, the EU, and Grand Place where the beer festival was taking place. In Brugge we visited the Belfry, some cathedrals (and saw the Basilica of the Holy Blood), and also Michaelangelo's depiction of Madonna with child. The maps we found also pointed out some local spots for food and we found a delicious (and cheap!) local restaurant serving food.
8)Traveling in smaller groups is better; you don't need to bring all of MUDEC with you on trips
So the past few weekends we have ended up traveling with most of the people that came to MUDEC. It's not that we plan our trips together, it's just that different groups overhear others planning trips and think that it would be a fun place to go. Then we search online for hostel recommendations and come up with the same ones, and lo and behold...we're taking up 2 whole compartments on a train traveling together. We're loud and obnoxious and clearly American and traveling in large groups doesn't help that stereotype. When we end up with a lot of other MUDEC students, it's nice to pick a group of 3-8 people to go visit different sites and plan the day out with. With smaller groups it's easier to travel and hit what everyone wants to see. Sidenote though: it's nice to have a group of 30 people to party and dance with that you know really well so that locals won't think you're a complete idiot dancing if there are a lot of people with you. =)
9)Bring clothes for every type of weather; but recycle outfits
When we traveled to Brugge, there were some people with backpacks that were literally 3/4 of their size. Most of the hostel rooms are small and you don't spend time there unless you're sleeping. SO, instead of packing individualized outfits for every day, try to recycle what you wear. Chances are you'll come back and dump everything in the laundry anyway, so it's better to take less. Plus it's less straining on your back. However, if you act like a mom on the trip and bring ibuprofen, other medicine, bandaids, lotion, hairbrushes, and other such things...others might be very grateful for it.
10) If there's free stuff, take it (it's better than buying souvenirs)
After our trip to Brugge and Brussels we all came back with super awesome green sunglasses and beer mugs (that may or may not have been free....). We found in a pamphlet that only tourists take beer glasses and mugs from the festival, but we kind of fell into that category so it was ok. Right? It makes for great stories, great experiences, and turns out cheaper.
P.S. I know that I've been horrible about updating this blog, but I'm going to try to be better about it. I have yet to talk about my trip to Interlaken, Switzerland where we went canyoning and climbed the swiss alps. And I should talk about my new host mom who is absolutely amazing. And day to day life in Differdange and the places we've been exploring and places we plan on going. I promise there's more to come. If you want to contact me, either find me on facebook or e-mail me at manevia@muohio.edu. Also, my address at the Chateau is:
Anna Manevich
c/o M.U. Dolibois European Center
Chateau de Differdange
1, Impasse du Chateau
L-4524 Differdange
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
Europe
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