Day 3: January 21, 2018 - A Peeing Statue, a Stupid Train Station, and Dirty Chocolate

We got up around 8:00 the next morning. We packed up and got ready. We left our bags in the BnB and headed out to find Mannekin Pis. We stopped at a little bakery and got a croissant and a hot chocolate (it wasn't very good). We walked over to the Grand Place again. We wandered around trying to find the peeing little boy. We heard some bells so we went over to find where they were coming from. Turns out they were coming from St. Michael and St. Gudula's Cathedral. It was freaking huge. It reminded me a lot of Notre Dame. 

After wandering around a little longer, we finally decided to follow some Asians and they led us right to Mannekin Pis. If all else fails, follow the Asians. Mannekin Pis was a lot smaller than I thought. We fought the Asians and got some pictures. 

We went back to the Grand Place and took some pictures. Sam informed me that I had to be a good Instagram husband. Seeing as I got a Facebook only 5 years ago, I didn't know what an Instagram husband was. Apparently it just means that I have to be willing to lay on the ground and do random weird stuff to get good pictures of her. I think I did pretty good. 

I did pretty good on the jumping picture! My sisters should be very proud of me. 

We headed back to the BnB. On the way back, we found out that Van Gogh tried to be a Protestant pastor at Sainte Catherine's but couldn't handle it. Way to go man. Maybe that's why he cut off his ear? We got all our stuff and headed back to the train station. We were grateful we were only in Brussels for that short of a time, we saw all we wanted to see. 

There were old Christmas trees on the street everywhere. I thought they were funny. Christmas had been over for almost a month. Get it together Belgium people. 

Our BnB door. 

Finding the right train was a pain (that rhymed) and we almost missed it, or we thought we did. The train station was really confusing. We finally found it and headed to Bruges. We took a bus to our stop at Astrid (or Astird as Michael from The Office says it). We couldn't check into our BnB until 3:00 so we stopped and got some lunch at a burger place. 

Our BnB was just around the corner with a nice view of a canal. Our reservation said we were on the second floor. Lies. It was more like the third floor and up some super steep stairs. My life flashed before my eyes every time I had to walk up or down them. Our room was really weird. The bed and the toilet were on the bottom and then you had to climb a ladder to get to the sink and shower. The toilet was in a little closet where your knees touched the door when you were sitting on the toilet. It was really strange. It wasn't as nice as the one in Brussels. Oh well. It was cheap and we had a cute little view. 

We took a little nap until around 5:00 because we were so tired. We headed out on the town and discovered a lot of things were closed, either because it was dark or because of the time of year. We stopped by one of the many chocolate shops and got some chocolate. I have never seen so much chocolate, in so many different flavors and shapes. In the back of the store, they had some inappropriately shaped chocolate. I was dying. 

We walked around for a while and then found a place for dinner. I was really craving chicken and mashed potatoes and I got it. Bruges is pretty pricey - we spent like $60 on dinner. But it was good. We headed back to the BnB, played cards, and watched Netflix. 

Day 1-2: January 19-20, 2018 - Planes, Trains, and Waffles

Our flight on the 19th left at 11:30 in the morning. My parents took us up to the airport. I had my last Sodalicious for two weeks in the car. Sam had a lemon water (I questioned our friendship at that moment). When I asked my parents what they wanted me to bring them back, my dad requested brussels sprouts from Brussels. My bag got searched (are you shocked?) because of my baby powder. I just told the lady it is for all my chaffing needs. We flew to San Francisco first (why we had to fly west to fly east, I'll never know). We grabbed some food on our short layover. 

Our flight to London wasn't very full. I tried to find a row to myself but no luck. Sam and I at least had a row to ourselves though. I pretty much watched Luther and The Crown that I downloaded on Netflix the whole flight. There was an Asian movie on the plane screen called Let Me Eat Your Pancreas - what the heck? We had some lovely airplane food. It was like this Asian chicken. It was nasty and made me sick. I only got about an hour of sleep during the whole flight. The flight was like 9 or 10 hours. 

We landed in Heathrow and went through customs (the line was forever long). We caught the Piccadilly Line to St. Pancras Station. We past our old stomping ground South Ken. I really wanted to get off and go check it out but I just had to keep reminding myself we were going to come back. I did get to laugh at the tube stop Cockfosters because I'm a child. We got a sandwich at the grocery store at the train station (I had a little deja vu - it was the same little grocery store I had gone to back in 2012 with my sisters) and we went through security on the Eurostar. The Eurostar took a couple of hours to get to Brussels. 

Sam indulged me by taking stupid pictures like this. She's a good sport. 

We pretty much slept the whole time. Once we got to Brussels, we took the metro to the Sainte Catherine stop where our BnB was. While we were waiting for the metro, there was a protest going on and a bunch of military guys with huge guns - that's something you want to see on the metro. Our BnB was just down a little alley from the Sainte Catherine Cathedral. We met our host, Karina, and she let us into the house. She was super nice. It was a super cute place too. There was a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom downstairs with the bedroom upstairs. There was a creepy skylight thing that we were nervous to walk over. The bathroom was small but nice. We each took a quick shower to clean off 24 hours of travel and airplane on us. 

We headed out to explore the city a little bit. It was raining and pretty cold. We got a better look at the  Sainte Catherine Cathedral and walked over to the Grand Place. It was super cool. We stopped by an ATM to get some cash out to get a waffle. I got a caramel one, it was scrumptious. 

It was cold and we were tired so we went back to the BnB. We tried to stay awake as long as we could. Sammie entertained me with some dancing. We went to bed around 8:00 which was a mistake because we woke up around 2:00 in the morning for an hour or two. Gotta love the jet lag. 

The Adventures of Sammie and Chawch - Europe January 2018

Hello again! Life is good. Crazy, but good. Since graduation, I've just been working and hanging out. I got called to be the Relief Society President in my YSA Ward in September. It's definitely been a growing experience for me but it's been good. It keeps me busy. I debated changing the name of my blog to the traveling, swearing Relief Society President but I refrained. My brothers, CJ and Wes, both got married a couple of weeks ago. Wes and Diana got married on February 2nd, and CJ and Mikayla got married in Florida on February 17th. My nieces and nephews are still as cute as ever. I live with the best roommates ever and spend lots of time with family and friends. Like I said, life is good.

Now to the good stuff. Ever since I caught the travel bug about eight years ago, I can’t seem to stay in Utah for more than three months at a time. Not that I don’t love Utah, it’s a great place to live. I guess I just get sick of the monotony of it all. So one day back in the summer, my friend Sam (you’ll remember her from my study abroad days) and I bought a flight. We had been talking about going back to London for ages and finally decided we were going to make it happen. I had been getting emails from Scott’s Cheap Flights for a while but when London for $400 started popping up, we couldn’t pass that up. I believe my study abroad flight was either $1300 or $1700. Either way, $400 was much cheaper. So we booked. 

We decided on England, Amsterdam, and Belgium, leaving January 19th and coming home January 31st. Neither of us had done Europe in the winter so this was new. We also decided to go full AirBnb. I have never stayed in one but Sam had. They are cheaper than hotels but nicer than hostels, and more private too. The plan was to leave on the 19th, fly into London on the 20th, take the Eurostar to Brussels, stay the night of the 20th in Brussels, take a train to Bruges on the 21st, stay in Bruges until the 23rd, take a train from Bruges to Ghent on the 23rd, stay in Ghent until the 25th, take a train from Ghent to Amsterdam on the 25th, stay in Amsterdam until the 29th, fly from Amsterdam to London on the 29th, stay in London until the 31st, and fly home the 31st (wow, that was a mouthful). Including all of our flights, trains, and AirBnbs, we spent about $1260 for almost two weeks in Europe. That is not bad at all! 

Now packing was an ordeal. We decided going light was for the best. So I took a carry-on and a backpack. I have never packed that light in my life but I was so glad I did. We moved around a lot so I can't even imagine having more crap to lug around. I ended up packing two pair of pants, two pair of leggings, six shirts, two sweaters, two pair of boots, a pair of gym shoes, underwear (garments do not fold well, FYI), a hat, two scarves (two was a mistake, I should've just taken one), and a coat.  Thankfully, our BnB host in Amsterdam Margot had a washer and dryer so we were able to do laundry once. I'm sure Margot saw my G's and was like what the crap. Oh well. The coat I took was one of those packable coats that you can fit into a little bag. It was perfect! It kept me warm, was lightweight, and easily fit into a bag I attached to my backpack if I didn't want to wear it.

It was such a fun trip. It was different than every other trip I've taken to Europe. I think this was the first time that I had to really be responsible for myself. That sounds bad but it's true. When I went the first time, we were on a tour so everything was planned out. On study abroad, I had Jena, Rick, and Nate to tell me what to do. When I went with my family, my parents had planned it out and were running the show. This time, it was solely up to me and Sam to figure things out. And we are terrible at making decisions! But we figured it out and we didn't get taken or anything so it was good. It was tiring sometimes but it was also fun to figure things out for ourselves and learn from our mistakes. 

Some random things I did or learned on this trip: 
1) We had "I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes! Christmas is all around us and so the feeling shows!" from Love Actually stuck in our heads pretty much the whole trip.
2) I have never watched that much TLC in my entire life. Say Yes to the Dress Bridesmaid version is my new favorite thing. 
3) During winter in Europe, there isn't much to do at night. Things close at like 6:00. 
4) Dominos in Belgium isn't very good but it'll do when you're starving. 
5) Stairs are very steep in Europe. Like what is that about? Don't they have safety codes or something? 
6) Hot chocolate in Belgium is life changing. I will never drink that powder crap ever again. 
7) I'm a pretty good Instagram husband, whatever that means?
8) Chili lime chocolate is actually not that bad.  
9) If you haven't ridden a bike in years and you're forced to ride one in Amsterdam, your butt will hurt. 
10) If you want a bus to stop at your stop, you have to press the stop button (More details to come - we're special). 

I don't know if I'll ever go back to Belgium or Amsterdam but I got to cross things off my bucket list. London will always hold a special place in my heart. Anyway, stay tuned for the adventures of Sammie and Chawch!