Volume 14 No. 4

March, 2005

by Lauren Weiner

        Brussels was wonderful. There were trees, it was green, and there was rain. It reminded me of Eugene.    Carnival in Binche was lots of fun. We got hit by lots of oranges and actually ended up being part of the parade. There were tons of people crammed together - for the UOers it was like when we tried to get Pit Crew shirts. After the parades there were lots of fireworks and on the ride home, the bus driver played French disco music, flashed the lights on the bus, and kids were dancing in the aisles. Way more excitement than our trip to Cordoba when everyone was sleeping on the bus.
        Thursday I took the train to Gent and explored a castle and Friday we took the train to Namur. Namur was great. We climbed the citadel and had the most amazing hot chocolate ever.
        Saturday we explored downtown Brussels and bought chocolate at Pierre Marcolini. Chocolate shops in Brussels look like jewelry stores. They put on white gloves before they handle the chocolate. It was DELICIOUS. Violet chocolate and chocolate with cinnamon were my favorites. Saturday night we went to a football (soccer game). Our team lost 1-0 but it was still fun. Football fans are crazy!
      You can find my pictures here: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/laurengurl5/my_photos

¡Hola! from Spain.

        For reference, El Campo Principe is a plaza near my house, Albaycin is the oldest neighborhood in Granada and you can see the Alhambra from there, and Generalife is the summer house (the carmen) where the royals would go when they lived in the Alhambra.
        One of my first trips was to Cordoba. We took a tour of the mezquita turned church, which was awesome. I put pictures up of Cordoba if you want to check them out.
        OK, Belguim waffles are AMAZING.  So delicious. I also had frites - basically french fries. You eat them with this tiny little plastic fork. Today we are going to some sort of Mardi Gras thing in Binche, a city southwest of Brussels. Apparently all the guys dress up in ridiculous costumes and throw oranges at people and if you get hit by an orange it's good luck. I don't know. . . we'll see.