The Trappists: Drinking for Charity

I mentioned the Braderie in my previous post when I was talking about the weekly Sunday market at Wazemmes, but it really doesn’t compare. To illustrate, just imagine going shopping at dawn on Black Friday but multiplied by a lot. The whole city is filled with vendors trying to sell anything and everything. I walked down one of the main streets today and it took me about 20 minutes just to go one block! It was a lot worse at night because everyone is just so excited about the festival.

a lot of candy

Along with the Braderie comes the tradition of eating the famous dish of the northern region: moules frites (mussels and fries). Needless to say they were tasty, like everything else I have eaten here in France. Restaurants throughout the city compete to see who can make the biggest pile of mussel shells, and there were some pretty large piles throughout the city.

Rows and rows of olives

One large pile of mussel shells after the Braderie

My trip to BELGIUM

It would be unfair of me to post something without mentioning my trip to Belgium. I guess my favorite part of the trip was the fact that Molly, Ryan, and myself went on a whim. It wasn’t methodically planned out but the trip was more than a success. We first went to Bruges, which I had never heard about until I got to the train station. When we first arrived, however, I immediately fell in love with this place. It was a mix of the medieval architecture, the small size, the extraordinary beer, and just the overall culture. I didn’t care that it’s a huge tourist attraction because there was obviously more to see than just all the touristy things. I think it all starts with the awesome hostel where we stayed. We got great tips from the people that worked there as well as the people that we met at the hostel. To me this was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. We met so many people from different countries—the middle aged Australian couple enjoying Europe for a couple of months, our roommates Nick (from London) and Tom (from Brazil) who are traveling on their own, our amazing tour guide/beer connoisseur who moved to Bruges spontaneously because he fell in love with the country—and they just made the overall experience that much better. 

The "rarest" beer in Belgium

Before I got to Belgium I knew that the Belgians were big on a few things: fries, waffles, and beer. Until you go to Belgium you really can’t fathom how important each of these things are. You eat waffles and fries for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You drink beer with every meal and when you have nothing better to do. After the amount of beer I drank in Belgium (of course in moderation), I feel like a connoisseur. I tried a lot of rare beers as well as four of the six Belgian made Trappist beers (there are seven Trappist monasteries that produce beer, the last of which can be found in Holland). For those who aren’t familiar with Trappist beers, I’m here to educate you with my newfound knowledge. Trappist beers are produced by Trappist monastery monks (yes, religious ones). They do not receive profit for the beer, rather, they use the money to make more beer and the rest goes to charity! That’s right, charity. One of my goals for the rest of my time in Europe is to try the other Trappist beers, except Westvleteren may be the hardest one to try because it’s pretty rare and it takes five years for a bottle to ferment to the ideal level that the monks recommend.

There’s so many other amazing things about Bruges that I wish I could post, but I feel like it’s time to shower Brussels with a little bit of love, well… Here are a few quotes from our little map made my the locals:

“Brussels is ugly, and we love it. And if we don’t love it, we live with it. So don’t be surprised that we built a terrible apartment block next to an Art Nouveau jewel, or a pseudo-classical monster in front of the Central Station.”

THE postcard shot of Bruges (Brugge)

“The ‘eurocrats’ who work for the EU in Brussels are a community on their own, with their own habits, bars, restaurants,…They all hate Brussels when they first arrive, then slowly fall in love with the place, and in the end they never want to leave.”

In a sense, Brussels is an acquired taste, but still a great city.

Labyrinth in the park

Brussels was quite the change from Bruges. It was a lot larger than Bruges and there were so many people. One of the most intriguing things that I found is immense diversity. It seems like Brussels is a city that’s confused about its roots. For example, street signs in Brussels are in two languages: Dutch and French. There are so many languages and cultures that people change languages mid sentence. I guess that’s what makes Brussels so unique, though. Perhaps the memorable (worst) part of Brussels was our hostel. To be honest, it would be a nice room had it not been broken in every possible way. It was spacious (AND THERE WAS A TV) but the shower didn’t train, light fixtures were coming apart, paint peeling off the wall, and, of course, stains on the bed.

Secret garden?

I know that I may not be talking as positively about Brussels as I am about Bruges, but I really loved it and wish I had more time to spend there. I could honestly see myself working there in the future.

Final thoughts:

-French education system is confusing the hell out of me, but I’m not complaining about only having one class this week.

-This post is already really long and I should end it here.

Home is never far away...