Rainy days in Brussels & Amsterdam.

Last week I took a little holiday to Brussels, Belgium and Amsterdam, Netherlands to mark the end of my second semester of grad school/completion of term papers and the start of my dreaded dissertation. I took the MegaBus all the way from Edinburgh, and while it was a long 24 hours of less-than-luxurious travel each way, it did allow me to experience crossing the English Channel from Dover, England to France which was kind of neat. On the outward trip we drove the bus right onto a ferry and crossed the Channel in an hour and a half or so. Unfortunately this was at one in the morning so it was too dark to see anything! On the return trip we drove the bus onto an extra large train and that method only took around 40 minutes. 

The city of Brussels was beautiful despite the dreary rain and bitter cold. I was especially impressed by the Grand Place which is a city square of 17th century buildings decked out in gold and fancy architecture. At night the buildings are all lit up and are even a bit magical - like scenery out of a Disney movie. I also managed to eat a Belgian waffle smothered in Nutella so that made the trip feel like more of a success despite the miserable weather which caused me to skip out on some site-seeing. Other than the fancy buildings and the waffle there was quite a bit of graffiti around the city that I enjoyed stumbling upon. It made for a unique combination - the upscale, posh buildings with their French doors and balconies that then had artistic graffiti covering a good part of their exterior. 

My two days in Amsterdam were a rainy, dreary mess as well! I definitely did not luck out with weather. I spent the majority of my first day at the Tropics Museum trying to stay dry. It ended up being the best museum I had ever been to because it had an anthropological but interactive focus on former colonial territories such as India, Suriname, parts of the Caribbean, and parts of Africa. Not everyone would get excited about this but I enjoyed it! On day two I wandered around despite the rain and cold to see the tulip vendors, canals, bridges, and crooked 17th century Dutch gables the city is known for. They apparently call Amsterdam the 'Venice of the North' because of all the canals which were dug to give the city more land to build on. In addition to this I saw lots and lots of bikes. Bikes covered just about every tree, pole, or fence you could chain something up to. On my final evening, I visited the Anne Frank House - apparently on the same day as celebrity Justin Bieber no joke! - but somehow never saw him.