Midterm trip - Belgium day one

So I just got back last night from a week abroad with the school, our week off. After writing my last blog I had a couple more fun nights with the girls, incluing another movie night with the twilight zone, but other than that not missing much from the week before the mid term break trip. I will start with last Sunday night. At around 10 or 11pm Kari, Katie, Heather and I gathered in my room to watch some Twilight zone (after a mad scramble on my behalf to clean my very messy room...I had had a busy week!). I packed while we watched and once it hit mid night Heather headed out and the three of us fell aslepp in my room. Our alarm went off around 3am because thats when we needed to load our luggage onto the coach busses. We then went down to breakfast and then got our seats on the bus. Katie and I sat together on Coach A, all the history students needed to be on coach A or B as we had a different timings and destinations in some cases. Katie and I gravolled up and pretty much passed out for the ride to Dover. Once in Dover guess what we got? Another ferry trip! I dont know if you all remember my last ferry trip, but it wasnt my best experience. This one wasnt so bad as I slept through the whole thing. Again on the coaches, not much happened other than Katie and I sleeping our way until our next destination.

This happened to be Sanctuary Woods. This is a memorial to the First World War. Dr. Scott (our history prof) gave us a small lecture before taking us up to Hill 62 which is a Canadian memorial. It was a beautiful setting. After that we went inside a small building which had world war 1 objects and pictures and eventually lead us to a trench area. It had preserved trenches from WW1 and allowed you to walk through them and on top of them and see what it was like. It had been really rainy the day before so it was really wet. Since I didnt have boots on and only shoes I didnt go into the tunnel system you could go through. But I did get pictures of other people doing it and it was still really interesting to explore around. Back in the store there was a Belgian cat, not that they are different from other cats. It was really cute and seemed to be their greeting cat to say hello to people as the came and went. Another feature of the place was a cemetary for many of the soldiers, very nice memorial for them. A few minute drive away was another cemetary that we got to explore for about an hour. Again I got some really good pics. Soon enough it was time to make our was to Brussels.

We arrived at our hotel afternoonish, just as it was getting dark. We struggled through the crowd of students but eventually got our room keys. Amanda and I were in a room. Once we got there we got our stuff ready for a gander around the city. Though not before checking out the bathroom, at which by first glance sent both Amanda and me into a state of squeeling excitment. It was a very nice bathroom, a hotel bathroom with all the qualities one would hope for on a vacation. We actually were jumping and hugging and giggling we were so excited. Hee, silly girls. Anywho, we then met a pooload of people downstairs, of which included Kari, Katie, Cameron and Amy and a bunch of other people. Cameron lead us to a waffle shop where we could get traditional Belgian waffles. They were soooo good! Seriously must have one. Mine had whipped cream and chocolate, intense! Others had fruit on theirs or white chocolate or sugar or a combination of random things. We went for a gander after that towards the main square. We first stopped at a choclate shop and I bought a bunch of different varieties of belgian choclate, they had so many amazing deals on the chocolate! We also got free tasting of some truffels, soo good again.

Once we got to the square we basically just took pictures and chatted and figured out what we wanted to do. We then explored that area which happened to have all the choclate shops and waffles places and stuff. We also went into a beer store and bought some Belgian beer for later that night. Dont remember what it was called, but they had some spunky strange beers there. We split up after that, Cameron, Katie, Kari, Amanda, Amy and I all decided to gander towards this one certain Cathedral. It was very lovely and pretty, especially at night. They also hada peace tribute in the shape of wooden mooses. People had written all over them, I guess it was a thing. I wrote on it too saying "I miss Canada, but I love the world". Weird I know but hey. We then kept walking and went through a garden to reach a palace. It wasnt the most grand palace, but it was beautiful. We gandered and got a little lost for another hour more before getting back to the hotel. We changed into our pajamas and all gathered in Katie and Kari's room. We drank the beer (of which I didnt really enjoy so I let them have the rest). But we chatted and watched TV (in French) for a while before heading to bed.

So I was going to try and do all of Belgium today but I think I will save it for later. I might try to do more tonight, but ifnot look for it later!