Going solo – Brussels

I spent a lot of time trying to plan going somewhere during winter break, and both of my initial plans fell through. Warsaw and Copenhagen will have to wait (already got plans in the making for a trip around Poland). Instead though I ended up going to Brussels by myself, which rather than being super depressing and desperate was great. Definitely a convert to solo travelling – being able to go to whatever I want was great. I can fully realise that most people may not want to spend a full morning doing a tour of the European Parliament and going to the associated museum exhibition, but I did and loved every minute of it. Being able to eat exactly where and when I wanted was fantastic plus meant I had to achieve one of my New Year aims (as opposed to resolutions) which was taking myself out to dinner. I enjoy going for dinner and I enjoy good food, but being able to do it by yourself is hard. The first night I went to this great Art Noveau cafe that served incredible pitta breads and salad (Le Perroquet), and spent half the night concerned people thought I looked sad and desperate but soon settled into it. That said if solo dining is something you want to try, I would definitely recommend taking reading material – there is only so much people watching you can get away with and I didn’t even have the luxury of eaves dropping since it was all in French. The second night I went to a far more touristy restaurant mainly because of the deal they had going on – huge pot of mussels, beer, and frites for €15, I wasn’t going to pass that up. Here there were loads more solo diners and I got chatting to a French man intially about my book, but then about London and Utrecht. It’s odd how there is this shared kinship between people when they are alone. Whilst we are on the topic of food obviously I need to address the two most important food items I bought and ate there – of course waffles and chocolates (Vlamse frites get an honourable mention). I had heard people talk about Belgium waffles but never had I truly understood the magic until I bought one with strawberries, bananas, and dark chocolate. Heaven. It wouldn’t be a city break for me if I didn’t also try to tick off as many of the sights as possible and squeeze in all the culture, apparently my description of having been to museums as having “done them” says a lot about my family and our very organised trips (but enjoyable) everywhere. I did miss out two things I really wanted to see mainly due to the appalling weather and rain, favouring sitting in cafes reading and eating cake over trekking through a park. The atomium and the royal gardens will have to wait for a nicer day. Brussels is so nice, I will definitely be back. First stop when I arrived Wednesday evening was the Grand Place (which I returned to again and again) and the Manneken Pis which is disappointingly small. The Grand Place is so beautiful, particularly when it is all lit up at night. Just round the corner from here there were hundreds of chocolate shops where I selected my own box on 17 Belgian chocolates – after eating the entire box I think I made good choices. Also in the area was a beautiful shopping arcade which I had been to before last time I went to Brussels but this time explored a few of the shops a bit more – which, me being me, included going in every book shop I saw even though almost all the books were in French. I also went to the Royal Palace whilst wandering around – there was clearly some kind of event going on as expensive black cars were all the way down the drive and people in very fancy clothes were walking around. Very odd though how they have no proper fences between the road and the Palace so I wonder if maybe it is only used ceremonially, because I can not imagine Buckingham Palace with that little security. Looked very pretty from the outside, but I didn’t go inside because I was travelling on my own and to be honest I am not a huge fan of walking around palaces after the first 2 rooms – I don’t even know if you could go inside. Instead I walked over to the Mont Des Arts which has an incredible view over the whole city and is just a lovely place to sit I imagine (which I would have done were it not raining). Around here are loads of museums including the Musical Instrument Museum which looks so cool from the outside. However on good recommendations I went to Magritte Museum which was so good! As someone who isn’t hugely into art the fact I spent around 2 hours in this museum is a testament to how good it was. My prior knowledge of Magritte was limited to a book my Granny had at her house when I was younger, so it was interesting to see the huge amount of art he produced and some of it was so incredible. Would thoroughly recommend especially since I got in for €2 because of my age. The layout of the exhibition is slightly confusing though – I got mildly lost once. After dinner that day I decided that I would rather find somewhere to sit and have a drink than go back to the hostel, so after a quick flick through my guidebook to Europe I decided to try and find some of the bars/pubs/Bruin cafes that were recommended – I ended up having a beer in the pub where Magritte and the rest of his gang of surrealists used to hang out (La Fleur en Papier Doré / Het Goudblommeke in Papier) which was really cool especially because there was writing on the wall done by them. It did feel very much like a local pub though although it is very central – which was slightly alienating for me sat alone with my beer and book. I absolutely loved Brussels – it has incredible street art, food and is such an easy city to get around, only real shame is the weather. But here’s to challenging yourself, solo travelling, and the start of a semester where I really intend to make the most of my time on the continent.

Back on the continent and back to blogging: a review of Christmas

I’d like to first and foremostly apologise for my absence of blogging towards the end of last semester, and the somewhat sporadic nature of my posts before that. The truth is I didn’t feel like I had anything to write about and was too busy just getting on with the mundane day-to-day of life – a year abroad sounds so exciting, but a lot of the time, it is little different to life at home (except you don’t understand the language). This semester I have decided to be more proactive and take every opportunity (and hopefully, maybe, become better at blogging). We’ll see – but I do have a lot of plans in the making.

I got to spend 3.5 glorious weeks at home over the Christmas break, the perks of doing December exams meant I had so much free time to just relax – so I spent lots of time reading, sleeping and watching Netflix. I went to the ballet twice and fel;t very cultured, the Nutcracker (English National Ballet) and Matthew Bourne’s Edward Scissorhands (Sadler’s Wells, but a touring company). I much preferred the latter, but then generally I have a preference for more contemporary ballet and also Edward Scissorhands is one of my favourite films – really anything with Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder or directed by Tim Burton and you are onto a winner with me. It really was incredible though – so much to see you did not know where to look, I would happily go again. The set was fantastic and the music, really can’t fault it – plus got to go with my best friend Anna so the company was alright. Really just brilliant.

London with Anna

I had quite a few opportunities to go into London and completely reignited my love affair with that city – as a man in Brussels said “when you are bored with London, you are bored with life”. I spent a lot of time just wandering around – Spitalfields, the south bank, Covent Garden, never happier than when I am exploring a city by foot. I caught up with a few friends from Leeds and even more from home – one of my friends is doing an internship in Parliament so whilst waiting for her I got to take some touristy shots of Parliament and the London Eye. Obviously whilst doing this I pretended to be Dutch, because who wants to expose themselves as a (somewhat) local whilst engaging is such touristy behaviour – but being a tourist in your own city should definitely be encouraged and I intend to do that this year in Utrecht.

Currently the Wellcome Institute/Collection has an exhibition called the institute of sexology which I went to, and honestly I would say it is the best museum exhibition I have ever been to. This says something because I go to quite a lot of museums. Absolutely fascinating, engaging and thought-provoking. I must have spent about 2 hours in this reasonably small exhibition because I wanted to absorb everything – my only complaint would be is that I felt that it ended quite suddenly, but it would have been hard to top the documentary that was showing which almost everyone had stooped for and watched the entire 40 minutes of. Really made you question constructions of sexuality and dialogues about sex. It is open until September and I cannot urge you enough to go if you have even the slightest interest in the subject, and let’s face it, who isn’t at least somewhat interested in sex?

I got some really lovely gifts for Christmas (thank you if you are reading this) and ate an obscene, but impressive and delicious, amount of food and drank vats of Baileys. I think it is definitely good I am back in the Netherlands though, not riding your bike for 4 weeks really impacts your fitness – currently nursing some slightly sore thighs after getting back on my bike and braving the cold Dutch weather.

I’m glad to be back in Utrecht (after a short detour via Brussels), although I am very set on things being different this semester because looking back towards the end of the semester campus got a bit claustrophobic, so definitely going to do more stuff of campus and travel a bit more. I think doing an off-campus course will really help with this, especially since it looks so interesting.

This week is going to be a busy one, but plenty to write about as it will be Spring introweek and I am parenting, get to take all the new first years under my wing!