Sit down and take 10 minutes out of your day. This is going to be a long one. This weekend I traveled to Belgium to see a concert called Sensation. Let me tell you, it was quite the experience. We basically were dropped off in a random country where they speak Dutch and French (neither of which I have any idea how to speak) with no instructions of how to do anything and we had to figure everything out on our own. Everything. And the whole weekend we were surrounded by American students because everyone was going to the concert.
Basically I get off the plane on Friday (6am flight mind you) and YOU CAN'T SEE A THING. I have never seen fog like this. Like you couldn't see the other planes at the airport, or the person in front of you. It was CRAZY. And I was so tired on the plane, like delirious, so my crazy brain decides to ask who Ryan of Ryanair was. I still haven't gotten an answer.
So then we have to take a 45 minute bus shuttle from the airport to Brussels, which was fine. But we were dropped off on the side of the road at this train station. We walked around it for a while, but there were only platforms for the trains and then we walked down this corridor and found the main train station. We had to buy tickets to Hasselt (where the concert was), which was confusing. We had to ask the Information desk twice for help. But thank god a young cute boy was working there, with whom we decided to flirt with for a while and create a line behind us of angry travelers (his name is Tom and he's our best friend). Then we had to find the metro (Tom directed us). We bought tickets and asked the man selling them how we get to our station because we didn't know which line to take, and he basically responded to us in Arabic or Dutch or whatever foreign language he spoke and we were so so confused. Thank god the man behind us put up three fingers at us, so we figured we had to take the #3 line (which was right).
So we took the metro and got off at our stop and then had to walk to our hostel. We went to check in (it was 11am) and they told us that we couldn't check in until 4pm (even though on our reservation it said we could check in at 11am) sooo Carissa and Ariel (Katie met us there later) put their stuff in a luggage storage room they had, but I was too scared that someone would steal my stuff so I took my backpack with me. We had 5 hours to waste so we wandered around, had lunch in this CUTE sandwich place where the woman owner was SO SO nice to us. We sat for a while and then walked to this center called Grand Place in Brussels' old town, which is the cutest, prettiest thing ever. It was a square and the buildings on the 4 sides were all gorgeous. Gorgeous Baroque church and baroque buildings. YUM. And since we were in Belgium, we HAD to get belgian waffles!! So we went to a waffle store and got our first of our three waffles of the weekend. Fresh whipped cream and strawberries on a belgian waffle. UM HEAVEN.
And look! They had so so many options of toppings! We took them and sat on the ground in the middle of the square and stuffed our faces and talked about pidgeons (don't ask- they were crazy).
So at 3 we were exhausted and bored and went back to the hostel to hang out until we could check in. But when we got there, they said we weren't allowed in because they were closed form 1-4. OH THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE TO KNOW. Soooo since we were locked out of our own hostel, we walked the opposite way from the square (cause it was a 15 minute walk) and found an industrial park and sat on benches. Well, I sat on a bench on the lookout while Ariel and Carissa napped on them and a homeless man sat nearby screaming for the entire hour. Finally at 4pm we went to the hostel and checked in. Okay. I know we were staying in a cheap youth hostel for only 30€ a night, but listen to this. The room was tiny with only 2 bunk beds in it and a sink. The bathrooms were broken so only one was open (which was co-ed and in a basement...we were on the 3rd floor). We got paper-quality sheets (a fitted sheet, a pillowcase, and a cover to put around a down blanket). Ariel's had stains on hers. We looked like we were staying in a jail. Oh well, it was only one night...we'll survive. My mother would have walked in there, turned right around, and demanded that we stay somewhere else. Well, anyways, we napped, Katie (our 4th friend) showed up, and we went out for dinner. We ate in that square outside and had pizza and cherry beer. yum yum. Our waiter was a crazy crazy man and when he gave Ariel and Katie their wine, he said, "Tomorrow morning. Goodbye" hahahha as in a hangover. We were dying. And for dessert, duh, we got waffles (2 of 3).
Saturday we woke up and had to check out by 11am. We went to the square, yet again, and what was breakfast? can you guess? hmmm...waffles! (3 of 3). People, I'm telling you. You wouldn't normally think that Belgium is a touristy place or anything like that, but everyone needs to take a trip to Brussels for these waffles. They're unreal. And Belgium produces over 1100 varieties of beer. And chocolate stores there are like McDonalds in America or like Dunkin Donuts in Boston. They're on every corner. People need to take a trip there. And the city is a cool mix of modern and old architecture.
Anyways, we had breakfast, and then went on the metro to the train station. Asked the information desk again where to go, and got on the train. Got off the train in Hasselt in the middle of nowhere. We had lunch at this random snack place, but everything on the menu was in dutch so we picked random things and hoped for the best. We ordered something called the Bicky Burger, which apparently is a brand in Belgium because there was Bicky flavored Lays chips and a Bicky stand at Sensation, but it was hilarious. Then we got a cab with this really nice driver named Hitom (like Hi Tom! or Hey Tom!) and we chatted the whole way to the hotel. This hotel was paradise compared to the hostel in Brussels. It was super nice and in the middle ofthe woods and overlooked this race car track where they were having a race. It was so cool so we watched for a while from our room.
We got ready and then went to Sensation!! It's actually called Sensation White because everyone wears all white, so that's what we wore! The ticket said that doors opened at 8pm and it started at 9 so we planned on getting there at 7:45 so get good spots. WELLL it was like 40 degrees out and we didn't bring coats so we were standing in tank tops. And we found out the doors opened at 9 and the concert started at 10...AFTER we got there. So we stood outside in the cold for 75 minutes and then stood inside for an hour. greaaat. While we were outside we met these funny German girls who were au pairs in America!! Small world.
Sensation was so fun...the music was great (I want to be Afrojack) and the arena was cool. There was a giant lotus flower thing in the middle and the DJ was went in a circle around it so everyone could see him. There were 6 different DJ's throughout the night. Then in the 4 corners there were littler lotuses that had water fountains and fireworks. These giant balls that lit up went up and down from the ceiling too. And the lights were awesome. There were people there from so many countries: Sweden, USA, Spain, Denmark, Germany, Italy, and Egypt were just some of the people we met. The floor got SO dirty, our white shoes were like black when we left, so we just threw them out. RIP 9€ white boots. You can see more pictures from the night here on their website: http://sensation.com/world/en/photos/index/belgium.
I also met up with some WashU people there which was nice to see familiar faces!
Then today, we took a taxi, then train, got off at the wrong stop so we took the metro, then the bus, and a plane, and another metro to get home. When we went to find the bus, we had to walk alll around the train station to ask where to buy tickets when we eventually found out we could buy them from the bus driver after we had already been there...and then they stuffed us in a taxi with some other Americans to go to the airport. Stressful to say the least.
Anyways! I'm finally finally home after a long, stressful, fun weekend of transportation, house music, and waffles. I feel like I could be dropped off in any random country now and I could figure out what to do. I'm invincible.
P.S. sorry this is so long...it was such an experience this weekend I just had to get it all out!
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