Weekend #1: Luxembourg and Belgium

The first week of classes was uneventful. I only actually had one class, since the rest were canceled. So the first week didn't really feel like school at all. It was spent meeting people, having parties in the dorm, and exploring Metz.

I didn't travel anywhere until the weekend after classes started. We were planning on going to Luxembourg for two days. I went to Luxembourg Friday morning, and we discovered that there is not a whole lot to do there. We walked around, and it was a pretty place, but the one thing we were actually going to do, tour a castle, didn't happen because it was closed. So we ended up heading back to Metz Friday night.

While on the train back to Metz, I made plans with some other people to go to Belgium the next day. So on Saturday we left bright and early for Bruges. One of our trains on the way was delayed an hour, so we had to figure out the train system very quickly and find a new way there, but we eventually made it, just a little later than planned.

Bruges is gorgeous. It's a city full of canals, beautiful architecture, and fun shops. One thing to note: In Bruges, everything is in Dutch. When we arrived, we thought the signs were in German, and it took us a while to figure out that it was really Dutch. But most people spoke English, which was nice.

While in Bruges, we decided we were only allowed to eat/drink 4 things:

• Waffles
• Chocolate
• Beer
• Fries

And we did eat all of those at some point. And they were incredible. I have to put up a picture of the waffle because it was the most amazing creation on Earth -

So in Bruges, we stayed at a hostel (my first!) called Bauhaus, which had a bar in it. While there, we had plans to:

• Climb the 366 steps of the Belfort, a clock tower
• Go on a canal tour
• Visit the chocolate museum

Out of those, we were only able to climb the tower, since they only do canal tours when it's warmer and the chocolate museum was closed that week for renovations. The Belfort was cool though. When we finally reached the top, we were treated to an incredible view -

After that, we just walked around the city and bought some chocolate and headed home Sunday night. I love Bruges! It was a great weekend. I might need to go back sometime to buy more chocolate; I'm almost out. :)