Belgium Top Five

So, I'm back after being gone traveling for the last few weeks. I'm going to be 'rally-blogging' here to catch you up with everything I've been doing...Amsterdam, Poland and Italy! Check back often, as hopefully they'll be lots of blogs posted in the next 24 hours...

So, back where I left off - the bus trip with exchange students through Belgium! This trip was pretty short, and there were so many cities that we visited, that there wasn't as much material for a Top Five...but are the highlights:

1) Soundtrack. So, our ESN leaders had certain songs on repeat for the duration of the weekend. Most were part of the European pop/disco genre and got to be QUITE irritating. When all the students would pile on the bus, music would start blasting. Cool if you're in the mood, VERY uncool when all you want to do it nap. Take a wild guess which one I was! If you're curious about these ridiculous songs and want to get annoyed by your own free will, here are some you can YouTube: (warning, all songs are rated PG-13)
Memories - David Guetta (the unofficial of exchange students in Maastricht.)
Bonkers - Dizzee Rascal (just plain obnoxious...but is played in every Maastricht bar. On repeat.)
Stereo Love - Edward Maya & Vika Jigulina (not THAT bad)
Narcotic - Liquido (quite catchy...song will be in your head for days. :) )

2) SMOKE. Belgium, unlike most countries in Europe, doesn't ban smoking in restaurants and bars. Needless to say, our pub crawl was of a different nature, and required a few breaks to go outside to get fresh air. It made me realize how NICE smoke-free places are, so enjoy those people! We had a great time on the pub crawl, but all left smelling like ash trays.

3) Crazy Belgians. Our first pub was already packed when we arrived. There was a man dressed up as Borat (yes, with the green thong) and a bunch of his buddies all wearing matching shirts. It was discovered this poor man was at his Bachelor Party, and his friends dressed him up this way. He was getting people in the bar to sign his body in permenant marker - and we left a little "U-S-A" message on his right shoulder. He was one of the many interesting Belgians we ran into that evening...but a nice summary of these people would be: consumed copious amounts of alcohol, dance maniacs, and enjoy being quite loud. It made for an entertaining evening, nonetheless.

4) Flea Markets. We went through quite a few on our trip, and found success! I bought that plate, mentioned previously, in Leuven and also found some neat jewelry pieces in Bruge. That's something I'll miss when I go home! Many of the cities I've been to in Europe have these out daily, and sometimes they're larger on the weekends. The jewelry is always my favorite to look through, 90% of the time it's homemade - which I really love.

5) Free Time. Super funny to be back on a schedule where my 'free time' was told to me. You start to appreciate the freedom to go on trips and no whatever you'd like, and have no one or group to report to. We did have a fun time, but we had very little time to explore the different cities and have relaxing lunches...which is something I really like doing on trips. Ah well, I was a good girl and used only the free time I was allotted. More than I can say for some guy who got lost in Brussels and didn't report at the time that was expressed. No worries...he eventually caught up with the group via an expensive cab ride. :)

That pretty much sums up the trip, fun but also prefer trips with a smaller group of people. Next up...Amsterdam!