Week Two in Belgium

Well, only 4 days has gone by and I have so much to say! Last week, after 4 late nights in both Brussels and Amsterdam, I ended up with a cold - not surprising since I JUST got over brichitis b4 leaving for Europe. So, I had a couple nights of going to bed at 8 as well as a nice sleep-in on Friday (I was willing to skip a class in order to be ready for Paris!)I wasn't willing to miss out on a Thursday excursion, however. As many people already know, I had been planning on going to a small city in Germany for the day Thursday called Eupen (Aix-la Chapelle en Français). It's a VERY long story, but that fell through and I managed to get hold of a ticket for one of the ULB excusions to two Belgian towns called Tournai and Lessines. Both were very nice! The GPS made an error on the way to Tournai so we had a beautiful drive through the Belgian countryside (which reminded me of PEI other than the OLD red-roofed homes and narrow roads no wider than our bus, at best).

Tournai featured a 70m high belltower from the 11th century with 258 stairs, which we climbed. It also had a BEAUTIFUL and huge Cathedral from the 11-13th Century. It is the onlyChurch of it's kind in the world as it was Constructed in 2 different styles: Roman AND Gothic! *For those who don't know the difference, gothic has lower ceilings and rounded arches and gothic has much higher cielings with arches which come to a point at the top - apparetly each reflect the different spititualities of their times periods. Gothic = introspective and more me+Jesus whereas the gothic period had more of a communal heavenly-directed stlye if worship (says our prof). Anyway, they built half the Church in one style during the 11th Century, but then gothic was more in so they changed half way through building it! In Tournai we also had our first real Belgain meal: mussels and fries (with a Belgian beer we see EVERYWHERE called Jupiler, which was gross). Our only stop in Lessines was an old Hospital/Convent started in the 11th but Augustian sisters (which is now a museum). It was SUPER interesting learning about the methods of healthcare of that time and how they progressed. I really liked that tour!
Friday, almost immediately after class, Anne-Marie and I took off for the train station. Note: class ends at 4, and our Train didn't leave until 815 --> we were too excited to sit at the school so we sat in the train station instead! Eventually we boarded our very cool high-speed train and, after an hour, arrived in PARIS! :)

Paris was everything I had imagined and more... well, almost. Haha, for some reason I had this image in my head of walking through a long field just behind the Eiffle Tower, turning the corner (to the right) and finding a busy street lined with little outdoor cafes. These ficticious cafés all had thin French men in striped shirts and red berets serving lattés to stylish women with puppies in their handbags. Alas, no such street existed - but that field/park did, I did see one girl (who very well could have been a tourist) wearing a beret, and there were MANY stylish women with little dogs and cute handbags, but no dogs IN handbags...

If you would like to hear about my FABULOUS weekend in Paris, you'll have to wait a day or two - I'm far too exhausted to type any more tonight!

(*Photo: Me at the top of the Belfry with the Gothic/Roman Church behind me)