Brussels

After Dublin, I landed in Brussels and quickly met up with my friend Lauren (a fellow CEA-er), and her friend from her home University, Jessica. Lauren and Jessica both attend Marietta College in Ohio. Lauren is from Buffalo, New York, and Jessica is a fellow Ohioan! Lauren has a family member who is a former Marine. She and her husband, a current Colonel in the Marine Corps, live in Brussels as he works for NATO. They so kindly let us stay at their home for about 4 days. It was a nice little trip to America as well. We were able to get provisions from the US store on the local army base and meet with a few American Families.


That fist day I rented a locker in the train station for my bags, and we set off to explore town. I had been told by many people that Brussels wasn't interesting there wasn't much to do, and I really disagree. We were able to fill the whole day walking around seeing beautiful buildings and monuments in the old town without going in to a single museum, seeing any of the new EU buildings, or even seeing all of the “must-see” old attractions. We could have done so much more, and I'm sad we weren't able to. However, I loved what we did see. We saw the Grand Place, Rue de Bouchers, Mannekin Pis, Janneken Pis, the Royal Palace, the Cathedral, and more. I also was able to hunt for as many Speculoos specimens as possible throughout the day, as this is the birth place of my favorite spread.

Grand Place Panorama

Mannekin Pis

The Royal Palace

Cathedral

Belgian Waffle

That night we headed to the Marine household and I met Tricia and Duffy for the first time. They were so welcoming and had all kinds of American snacks waiting for us – Cheese-its, tostitos with salsa, REAL COFFEE, etc. We talked with them for a bit and I got to learn how awesome Colonel Duffy White is. He used to be the personal Marine liaison to Bill Clinton. HOW COOL IS THAT??? That means that he and the other delegates from the different branches of the armed forces would go ahead of President Clinton and secure wherever it was he was heading. So, he's been in the Situation room, Air Force One, etc, and was close with the Clinton family. REALLY JEALOUS.

Tricia, Duffy, and I

Holding a photo of Duffy meeting the Pope with Bill Clinton in the middle!!!!!

His former business card

The next day was Easter. In the morning we attended an Easter Mass, and in the afternoon a Easter luncheon at the home of another military family. Before the mass Lauren and I scurried downstairs in the morning (so I could get my fill of real coffee) and were greeted by baskets from the Easter Bunny! They were filled with American magazine (Cosmo, Glamour, etc) wine, Belgian Beer, Reeses, a large chocolate bunny, etc. We were elated, probably more so than the kids who had been finding eggs hidden by the Easter bunny. We then got dressed and headed to my first ever Catholic mass, which was “enlightening.” The luncheon was very interesting because I got to talk to many people who work in the Foreign Service, with NATO, the EU, the military, the wives, etc.

Later that day the woman that hosted the luncheon and Tricia took us to the college town of Leuven near Brussels to look around and have a late afternoon coffee. One of the main draws in town is the large library of one of the Universities. The library was destroyed during WWII and after the war had ended dozens of Universities from the United States chipped in to rebuild it and there are commemorative bricks inlaid on the building from each donor school.

The Library

Around Town

Easter Lattes

At 6am the next morning we bussed off to Amsterdam!