janvier 27, 2005

8 janvier :: Antwerp, Belgium

I cannot think of a more pointless city we could have stopped in (they didn't even have good waffles). We were in Anterwerp for not even a day and only to take a quiz.. so what did we do? Sat our asses in a café for 3 hours and "studied". (btw, looking at these pictures could be the biggest waste of your time today)

Things I like to refer to as art...

btw, this is Ted

hmm..

alright, enough.

and on top of this worthless city, the hotel we stayed at gave us towels that barely covered our bodies..

and yes, those are all the pictures that I took in Antwerp..
ps: you're not missing anything.

Posted by katie at 09:19 PM | Comments (1)

7 janvier :: Brugge, Belgium

With difficulty recouping from the previous nights episode, ending with the wild night Anna and I had in our honeymoon suite, we woke up bright and early to tour Brugge with an old man whose spit got you more soaked than if you were standing next to Niagra Falls...

The bell tower in the middle of town. 600 some odd stairs to the top... which we later climbed.

Some important building in the center of town, that probably has some important person living in there.
ps: at this point during our tour, our guide tried to convince us that under this building there's a river that they built over. Who's going to believe that crap, old man?

We visited this old church that was over 900 years old.. which I'll admit, was pretty intersting. This is a sculpture made from a townsman some 900 years ago and is suppost to be an image of Jesus' baptism. Boy am I happy I don't have an arm the size of that guys.

And now begins the series of canals...

... canal...

.. Jenia and I by a canal...

The Lake of Love... not to be confused with the previous canals.

David's scuplture of Mary (?). I guess it was stolen by some country during WWI (?) and brought back to Brugge by Americans (?)
(Example 1 of why you don't update your website 3 weeks later...)

Well... after the exciting (cough) tour of Brugge, we headed to the tower to conqure the 600+ stairs. Here's an idea of what it was like the entire way up...

It was worth the view..

Another view

From the top.
Mark, Crystal, Jenny, Jenia (hiding), Brian, Christine, and Jon.

Glancing in a bakery window while walking back to the hotel, something caught my eye.. who would have thought, flying saucers (lower right hand corner) in Belgium? Mom's favorite...

Before heading out for the night, Jenia, Anna and I stopped at the hotel bar for a drink. Not speaking any french.. I ordered "une petite bière" ... and this is what I got. The bigger glass gives you a good idea of the size...

So what am I to do with this petite bière?

Give it to Anna, of course!

We met up with Ramses (from the night before) only to find ourselves at a slamin' hip hop dance party in the middle of Brugge and with the need to show up the bad european dancers... so what did the little Americans do?

.... dance on tables, to say the least... USA! USA!

Posted by katie at 07:59 PM | Comments (1)

janvier 18, 2005

6 janvier :: Ieper, Belgium & a night in Brugge

Leaving Paris for the small town of Ieper was a sad, sad story... but we were only there for a few, yet very boring, hours...

Ieper is a small town surrounded by tons of WWI history. This monument was constructed in the memory of British men who fought to keep Ieper from being invaded by Germany.

Inside the monument ... names of soldiers that fought in Ieper.

To give you an idea of the number of names etched into this monument.

After checking that out we needed some lunch. Here is Vanessa, Jenia and Anna sipping on some fine Belgian beer after tasting a fabulous Belgian waffle.

The Ieper cathedral right outside of the WW1 Museum we visited.

We took a bus tour around Flanders (the area Ieper is located) and visited the grave sights of men who fought here. This is the German cemetary.

Statues of college student found at the back of the cemtary. This symbolizes the mourning of the young soldiers.

We then headed to the British cemetary, a huge difference from the German cemetary. This place was gigantic compared to the pervious cemetary.

The pictures do not even give a good idea of the size.

After the tour of the gravesites we headed to Brugge where we had a fantastic group dinner at this amazing hotel. Anna was my roommate and we were thrown in the honeymoon suite ... sorry no pictures.

After dinner we headed out to see what this little town could do for us. During our loud complaining session that Brugge was a stooopid town with no night life, a Belgium boy decided to help out the annoying americans and brought us to a little bar. Here's Anna dancing with Ramses.

Meet my first european boyfriend, Steve. Steve claimed he was a cop.. but I just though it was a pick up line..

.. Obviously I was wrong when I received an e-mail from Steve-o with this picture attached.

And to prove to you all that all european guys are not good looking..
(yes, i took a shower when I got home)

And an end to the night with a photo in the center of town... Anna, Jenia, Vanessa and me.
(with Anna's signature head tilt)

Posted by katie at 02:48 PM | Comments (3)