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! 

America is Pretty Cool Too, I Guess

Apparently I haven't posted in about two years. It is crazy how time flies. So much has changed in my life, yet I don't think I've changed much at all. Probably the biggest change for me personally was that I graduated from college in May 2017. It hasn't really hit me yet. It'll probably hit when everyone goes back later this month or has homework to do and I don't. Going to school has been my life for the last 18 years or so. It's definitely strange to be done. I might go back for my MBA but I'm not even going to think about it for a while. I went through the temple and got my endowments out on August 3, 2016. It was an amazing experience and I'm so grateful I did it. I also moved out last year. I live about two minutes away from my parents but it still counts. I live with my best friend Amanda and another awesome girl Danielle who has become a great friend as well. Moving out has helped me become more independent and really help me discover who I am. Plus I have a killer closet so that's cool.

In the meantime, my family has gone through a lot of changes. My sister Jessica has two kids - an almost two year old named Darcy Rae (named after me, suck it Amanda!) and a four month old named Arden James (we call him AJ for short). They are super cute. My other sister Alex married a man named Johan who has two kids, Kaiya and Kyson. Al is also pregnant with a baby girl, she is due in September. So I will have five nieces and nephews within two years, which is pretty awesome. My brothers CJ and Wes returned home from their LDS missions. They always keep things fun. My parents are still the same wonderful people who I appreciate more and more every day. Family is everything.

So in the last couple of years, I've traveled a lot in the United States. It's funny, I've traveled to more places out of the country than I have in the States. But I've discovered America is pretty cool too. In March of 2016, before my sister got married and started having kids and crap, my parents took us to Florida to visit Disney World and Universal Studios. As you know, Disney holds a special place in my heart and I will always love it. It was fun to visit another Disney park and see the similarities and differences. Dad ate an excessive amount of tiramisu from the Lady and the Tramp Tony's restaurant. I really liked the Aninal Kingdom, the Everest ride is the freaking best! The Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Mine ride was super cute.

Universal Studios was awesome - if I could live in Harry Potter world and drink Butterbeer all day, I would. We went to Ollivander's for the wand choosing ceremony. Since there was no children in our group and I was standing in the front row with a huge smile on my face, wide eyes, and practically bouncing up and down, naturally they picked me. It was a dream come true. After trying a few different wands, I found the perfect one. And by perfect, I mean there was a gust of wind, a light shining down on me, and the sweet sounds of John Williams music serenading me. I geeked out very hard in that moment. The wand that chose me is a 13 1/8 inch ivy wood wand with unicorn hair, strong and resilient. Al and I ran around performing spells, riding the Hogwarts Express, and drinking Butterbeer while Mom and Dad just followed us, laughing at how ridiculous we are. I spent way too much money on Extendable Ears, Howlers, Chocolate Frogs, and Hufflepuff garb (we are particularly good finders!) but it was totally worth it. The Dr. Suess land in Universal Studios is also super cute.

In November, my crazy sister Al decided to elope with Johan in Las Vegas. I've driven through Vegas a million times on the way to Disneyland but I haven't stayed there and gone down the Strip for a long time. They did the whole Vegas elope thing with Elvis marrying them in front of the Bellagio fountains. It was hilarious and one of the strangest things we've ever done but it's a cool story. People walking down the Strip kept stopping and taking pictures of us. We took Bree, an eleven year old girl who has been part of the family since she was six months old, with us which probably wasn't the best idea. My mom was walking down the Strip covering CJ and Bree's eyes to shelter them from the pasties. Vegas isn't my favorite place but it was a fun weekend trip.

Because my sister can't just be a normal person and get married down the street, we also went to Cancun, Mexico so she could have her beach wedding. Really, it was just a family vacation but Al has to make everything about her (just kidding Al... hehe). Cancun is a paradise and I was able to escape a very busy and stressful last semester of college for a week and get super sunburnt on the beach. I went parasailing for the first time and it was awesome! We also swam with some dolphins. I also discovered a new drink called Miami Vice - it's a Pina Colada and Strawberry Daquiri mixed. It's so good! Unfortunately, I discovered it 30 minutes before we left. But you better believe I downed five of those suckers before we left. And yes, Al did walk down the aisle to the same song Bella did to in Twilight. I will never let her live that one down.

Because I have the best parents in the world, my next trip was in May of 2017. We went to New York to celebrate my graduation. It's been a lifelong dream of mine to go to New York and it definitely didn't disappoint. Traveling with my parents is very interesting. Don't get me wrong, it is very nice, especially since my mom refuses to stay in a hotel with less than four stars. But my parents like the things they like and don't really like to try new things. I mean, we ate at Applebee's. Twice. Granted, my mom does have a lot of food allergies so she has to be careful but still. We stayed in Time Square which was awesome. It reminded me a lot of Vegas. My dad is so freaking cool and took me to see Hamilton. It was absolutely amazing. We went to a Yankee game which was another dream of mine. I held a very drunk girl's beer and foam finger while she went to the bathroom. We did the Top of the Rock, got lost on our way to Little Italy, got harassed by little Chinese women in China Town, checked out Alexander Hamilton's grave at Trinity Church, did an Endowment session at the Manhattan LDS temple, went to the 9/11 Museum and Memorial, and saw the naked cowboy in Times Square. It was an awesome trip.

And last but not least, I just got back from a trip to Yellowstone with my roommates Amanda and Danielle. I went when I was really little with my family but I don't remember it at all. We left on Thursday afternoon and got back Sunday afternoon. We stayed in West Yellowstone at the Evergreen Motel. I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous about the motel. It was pretty cheap and well, it's a motel. But I was pleasantly surprised! It was actually pretty nice. We got there on Thursday night around 10:30. While we were getting stuff out of the car, a fox ran across the street with garbage in its mouth and ran into the trees. Amanda's face could not have been more priceless. She was like well I've seen all I need to see, we might as well go home now! It was hilarious. We hit up several different hot spots, drove through the beautiful forests while rocking out to Hamilton and Disney, saw Old Faithful finally go off after waiting an hour and a half (it was really anti-climatic), hammocked by the lake for a few hours (which is my new favorite thing), and stopped by the canyon and saw the falls, it was beautiful! We also saw a bear, deer, a wolf, and a few buffalo. We went to the Bear and Wolf Discovery Center and we also stopped by Bear World on the way home. It was a super fun and relaxing trip. It really was beautiful. Plus, the trip cost $240 which is a steal!

So I have discovered that America is pretty cool too. It definitely has its perks while traveling too - you don't have to pay for extra cell service, you understand the language (for the most part), and you use the same currency. It's been a fun few years and I'm so grateful for all the experiences I have had and the people I have met. I am heading to Europe again in January with my good friend and travel buddy Sam. We will be hitting up London (of course), Belgium, and the Netherlands. Stay tuned!