Home Sweet Belgium

Oh hey, Blogosphere. Haven't seen you in a while. You see, I've been busy. Between travelling, getting stitches (no details will be given), eating chocolate and drinking beer, there just hasn't been any room for you and me time. But today is a national holiday in Belgium so everything is closed. It's time for Olivia-Blog bonding.


As you can imagine, over the last few weeks I've settled into a routine at UCL. I figured out my class schedule, stopped getting lost and mixing up the times for each course. More importantly, I spent weekends discovering my host country.


I travelled to Gent on a Saturday with five other exchange students. In fact, it wasn't until asked by a waiter where we were from that we realized we represented six different nationalities. Exchange at its finest. Generally, Gent was pretty much as expected. It covered my favorite three C's of any quaint European city: Churches, Cathedrals (no, they are not the same thing) and Castle. When I travelled to Europe as a kid with my family I can specifically remember visiting these magnificent structures and loving it. The architecture is so impressive and bonus, churches and cathedrals tend to be free. So Gent had a whole bunch to keep me happy all day. Cherry on the cake, the top of the castle offered us a fantastic view of the city and had exhibited medieval torture devices. Awesome!

 The next day, Lauren and I travelled to Brussels to meet with Ola and Elaine from Queen's. We had so much to catch up and talk about, mostly comparing our experiences abroad. Surprisingly, despite being barely a three-hour train ride away from each other, they were completely different. Paris seems to be the complete opposite of Louvain-la-Neuve. Ola is so pleased with her temporary home, I won't be surprised to find her living their permanently one day. This was my second visit to Brussels so I knew what I wanted to do: 1) Grand-Place 2) Waffle 3) Palace (palace, castle... it's a theme) 4) Park 5) Delirium! 6) Waffle. Did I mention I love waffles?

The following weekend, I signed up for an organized trip to Bruges and Antwerp for the exchange students. After travelling a few hours in a herd of 60 students, once we got to Bruges, I went on my own way. And this is when I fell head over heels in love with it. I had heard it was beautiful, charming and a tad fake. It was all these things and more and I couldn't get enough. I walked along canals lined with trees and gorgeous home, snapping pictures of ducks. I ate a enormous plate a delicious €3 spaghetti and enjoyed hot chocolate at the oldest bar in Bruges. While I was walking solo, something miraculous happened. Come to think of it, I'm not all that surprised, I had been feeling something change. But this was the ultimate proof. I was mistaken for a local. Ooooh ya, got asked for directions. By other Belgians.  Big win, big win. At night, pretty Bruges turned into party Bruges which made morning Bruges alot harder to take it. Next day. First impression of Antwerp: Woah. Nice train station. Spent the rest of the day walking the streets, eating the Most Delicious Belgian Fries (see picture), visiting Europe's second largest port and of course, the Fashion Museum (totally worth the €1).

Oldest bar in Bruges



Antwerp Station



Best fries around

I arrived back in Louvain-la-Neuve with just enough time to catch up on some sleep and get geared up for the 24h vélo on Wednesday. The best way we have found to describe what this event entails is: Oktoberfest meets Tour de France. Indeed, this two-day festival is the largest drinking after the German party and revolves (somewhat) around a bike race. Over 20 000 people come to Louvain-la-Neuve for this. This is such a big deal, classes are cancelled. Some participants are serious about cycling, while others (more notably) are groups who build... well, here are some pictures.

Then they ride all night. Everyone else, they party. Aaah, Belgium :)