Living on Purpose: I Could Live Off Belgium Chocolates and Waffles!!

So there was supposed to be a german train strike on Friday so we had to leave a day early and a trip that was supposed to only take 5 hours was now going to take us 12. Of course I’m setting off again forgetting something because it really wouldn’t be a trip if I didn’t and this time I had grabbed a visa gift card instead of my debit card so when I went to get cash out of the machine for the trip it wouldn’t let me. But my lovely lifesaver alex said don’t worry about it and pulled out money from her account for me!! I’m so retarded!! Good thing I have such amazing people in my life!

So we meet alex’s friend megan (from Switzerland) at the Heidelberg haupbonhof and set out on our journey to bruge, Belgium. I was so excited because I really didn’t have an opinion of going there at first I was just going to go but I didn’t even know where it was or anything about it and then I started hearing all these amazing things about it and how it was so wonderful and like they’re favorite place they went to by far while they were here so I started getting super excited about it!!

No Losing our Eurails on this trip!!

Watching the Office =)

One of our connecting trains was at like 12 in the morning and it was to get on a sleeper train so I was excited about that cuz it was my first time on a sleeper train. Well anyways we were waiting on the platform forever and like no one was around and I was freezing and tired so me and my friend jon sat on the ledge of the platform and dangled our feet over the edge (its kinda hard to explain) well no trains are coming or anything so we’re just sitting there and then after a while this speaker comes on and someone says something in german but we didn’t know and I said “I wonder what they just said” and jon goes, “they were yelling at us to get up off of here and to get away from the tracks” and I was like oh really and started getting up and he goes, “no I’m just jokin I don’t know what they said” and I was like you’re dumb and then we sat there for like 5 minutes more and these security guards come out and start speaking to us kind of angrily in german and are like motioning us to get up and I’m like what is going on?? And then we get up and they’re still talking to us in German and I said “sprechen sie englisch?” and then they started telling us “you aren’t allowed to sit there that’s a crime we need to see your passport. And I’m like what the heck?? I don’t feel comfortable giving anyone my passport even ppl in uniform. And jon goes, “why?” and he said that it is dangerous to sit where we were sitting and that they announced to us to get up and when we didn’t get up this was purposefully committing a crime and intentionally ignoring authority and he needed to see our passports so we get them out and give them to the guy and he walks away and gets out his walkie talkie and starts talking to someone and then the other guy tells us that they’re checking our backgrounds to make sure we have no other offenses and I’m like about to laugh because I am so blown away that this is really happening to me right now. And then we explained to him that we didn’t understand what they were saying and that’s why we didn’t get up and we didn’t know we weren’t allowed to sit there. So then he tells us that since we didn’t have anything on our records this can be a warning but next time we’ll have to pay a fee for committing the crime!!! It was crazy!!! So I now have a record in Germany!!

We have a permanent record in Gernany now! Don't sit on the train railings!!

The sleeper train wasn’t that bad. We made sure we had a guy in both of the rooms and I got to sleep up on the very top across from my friend geoff and lex was underneath him so I couldn’t even see anyone I didn’t know. But it was so dark and cramped that I couldn’t put my sheets on the bed and you know how I freak out over stuff like that so I was like thank goodness it’s dark because otherwise I would be totally grossed out right now and not be able to sleep. But I definitely slept in my clothes and used the money belt my mom made me buy and I slept with my backpack like a teddy bear with the zippers facing my stomach. I slept pretty good and was woken up by some german lady staring right in my face and saying something to me in German and I was so disoriented I had no idea what was going on so I just sat there and stared at her and she kept repeating herself and then lex was like Shannon she’s telling you this is our stop it’s time to get up. But alex, karston, and megan had a worse experience with like a fat naked man in there sleeper room and poor Jon didn’t have a reservation so he had to sleep in the restaurant =(

So we finally get to bruge and it is gorgeous! I’m obsessed with it!! All of the buildings look so entirely different but are right next to each other sharing the same wall!! And a river flows all through the town and it’s just too pretty to describe!! And there’s chocolate stores everywhere with the most amazing chocolate that you could ever imagine! All of us were still in the same outfits from the day before so we pulled a quick change in the middle of the street (were so pro at it too) threw on some deodorant and went to the chocolate museum which was completely disappointing but we did get to see a chocolate demonstration at the end and get one free piece of chocolate wooh!

I'm like a kid in a candy store!!!

Yes, that gorilla IS made out of chocolate!

umMMMm??? Yeah... haha!!
Layla Says: "Are those chocolate tae tahs??? why didn't I get a pair in the mail?!"
Me: "Yeah they totall are. I was like oh my word!!! We have to take a picture with those! Haha! Sorry there were a little too pricey for me but I definitely thought of you!"

This picture is so intense!
Jill McMillan Says: "Whoa. I'm overwhelmed."

The girls tried too but it wasn't as good...
Megan Says: "Um I look 11 TOPS in this picture... maybe younger"

Satan's Juice!! Haha!
Alex Says: "Omg. That sounds dirty. But funny at the same time. I am okay with it. It was really gross, I won't lie."

Not good!
Alex Says: "HAHAHAHA"

Bruge! So pretty!
Shane Says: "I went to see if I saw any of your pictures were in the movie "In Bruge" and I totally saw that tower thingy!!"

Witnessing an intense bathroom fight...

Chocolate museum... so not worth it!

Cocoa plants!

Old fashioned chocolate!

Yup, that's solid chocolate!

He smelt it to tell if it was made out of chocolate or not!

Chocolate heads...

Then we went on a boat tour of the town and our tour guide was so funny!! He was like picking on my the whole time and told me to sit in the magic seat right behind him but I made jon!! It looked like we were riding a toy train it was so funny! And he kept saying things like that’s where the naughty girls go, and would like turn around and look at me and I was like I’m a good girl and he goes oh ok you go to the convent up here and pointed it out and he goes this is where blondies going. What’s you’re name? and I was like Shannon, and then he kept calling me sister Shannon. And then we went by the torture chamber and he told me that’s where I would go if I was naughty It was hilarious and then we passed by his sons resturaunt and he kept looking at me and saying what a good cook his son was and how handsome he was and that he would make a perfect date and silly stuff like that and he told me he would show me a picture of him after the tour and I was like oh ok!! Haha! And then he kept saying stuff about romantic things because bruge is one of the most romantic cities and he said women like everything big, big windows, big bridges, big houses, the bigger the better and he goes to jon, “this guys big how many girls do you have?” and jon said zero, and then he goes but you’re big women like everything big and jon goes, “well I’m just not big enough!!” it was so funny!! The guy was hilarious I wish I could remember everything he said!! But I took a picture with him when we were done cuz I loved him so much! Oh and he said the water was so romantic it was like American viagra and me and alex just turned and stared at each other with awkward faces and then just burst out laughing so hard!!! Oh man!! He was funny!!

Roomies!
Alex Says: "I love this picture!! It makes me happy."

It looked like we were on a toy train. Jon was in the "magic seat"!

The tour of Bruge by boat! So awesome!
Shane Says: "This river was in the movie too!! This is soooo exciting!!"
Me: "The river runs through the whole town, it's kinda like Venice, but not as watery!"
Lex: "The river is not as watery?"
Me: "haha, no the town, like it's not sinking! Haha!!"

A very old bridge! I thought the pic was cool though with Jon's eyes in the mirror

The boat tour guide was so funny and he said that this was a romantic spot and that you could just call the water "Belgium Viagra" cuz it's so romantic!! It was so funny! So I took a picture of the water!

Here's our tour guide! He was making fun of me the whole time! And told me naughty girls go to the convent and kept calling me Sister Shannon! And then we went by a torture chamber place and he looked at me and said that's where I was going to go, it was so funny! And then he said he would show me a picture of his son!
Layla Says: "I told you boys love you!"

After the boat ride we went to the chocolate bar!! Oh… my… goodness it was the most amazing place of my life!! Like anything chocolate you could ever imaging just name it and it was yours!! I got the most amazing desert of my life and I enjoyed every single bite of it!! It was pretty much awesome!!

The Chocolate Bar!! Mmmmmmmm!!!

My desert!
Caitlin Johnson Says: "Shannon, that looks amazing and I wish I could have some.

Eating it!

Devoured it!

So then everyone’s tired and wants to go back to the hotel n take a nap but me n jon are like no way we can sleep whenever when else are we going to be in Belgium??? And plus when we first got on one of the buses we got on the wrong one and the guy said it was going to Holland and so we were like whoah this is not right and had him let us off somewhere so me n jon were like lets go to Holland I mean why not?? So we go to the main train station to catch the bus that was going there and then we were like hey, why don’t we just take a train?? So we did and then it ended up dead ending in this random town called knokke and the next train didn’t leave for an hour so we were like hey lets go check out the town and then come back so we walk outside and are like oh my gosh we think this town is on the coast so we go back inside and get a map and it totally was so we set off to walk to the beach!! It was the longest walk EVER but it was totally worth it!! And we found the cheapest most amazing Belgium chocolate store ever and we got a box with one of every chocolate in the store in it for 8 euro so me and jon would take one and eat half and then pass it cuz we wanted to try them all and they were all A-mazing!!

Pretty much the most amazing Belgium chocolates you're going to ever eat!! One of every kind! There's more underneath that!
Sister Says: "Ummmm I think I need some of those"

So good!

So anyway we finally get to the beach and it has like the coolest playground I’ve ever seen in my life!! Like a teator totter and this orbit spinning cage thing and an old school marry go round it was pretty much awesome!! And the beach was the most gorgeous beach I’ve ever seen!! It had seashells everywhere and there were these marbel docks that went out into the sea from the beach and they had moss growing in between the cracks so it was absolutely gorgeous! We hung out there for a little bit put or feet in the water and then tried to find this volcanic activity thing we found on a map of the town and we were so stocked about it and then realized that it was an adverstisement for a film festival and it was just one of the pictures entered in the contest but since we didn’t understand the language we thought it mean there was volcanic activity… anyways long story short we almost walked a very long way to be extremely disappointed but figured it out before we made it all the way there!! Thank goodness!! It was the best random trip of my life! I think those are the best kinds of trips!

Our train dead ended when we tried to go to Holland and we ended up on the coast! It was awesome!

For the Deltas!!
Layla Says: "A Delta in the sky!! I have never seen anything more beautiful!"

Heck yeah we got in the water!

Jon takes pictures and tells you he hasn't taken it yet. This is me realizing he's taken a million pictures and told me he hasn't even taken one yet
Alex H. Says: "You are darling."

This beach was pretty much the most amazing beach I've ever been to!

There were seashells everywhere!
Sister Says: "Owwwww, I think that would hurt your feet!"
Me: "Ok, so there weren't seashells ALL over but they were like that in this like like that went all the way across the beach!"

So then we try and go back to bruge and we arrive at the train station at 8:30 and it says the bus to the hostel doesn’t come till 50 so I’m like freezing and we’re waiting for…ever!! And then our bus gets cancelled and that was the last one running for the night so we’re stranded there like what the heck do we do now?? We were gonna meet up with everyone at 9 and go out in town and so there were night buses running to the center of the city and that’s it and so we were like well we can just take one there and then wait for them to call us and tell us where they’re at, and Jon had been wanting these French fries we heard about that for over 50 years there had been rival stands next to each other with the best fries in all of Belgium. So we decide to go into the city and we walked around for like an hour and a half trying to find these fry stores and once we finally found them they were right where we had been dropped off at the very beginning and they were just these little like carnival stands but we bought them and they were pretty much a-mazing!!!

Apparently Belgium's famous for their fries as well as chocolate and waffles! Let's just say they know how to do everything right!
Layla Says: "What's on the fries?"
Me: "It's this like meat stuff which sounds really gross but I don't really even like meat and I liked it. But actually I didn't really eat all that much of the meat it was just like the sauce stuff!"

So then by now it’s been like two hours and the group hasn’t called us so we figure they didn’t do anything so we go back to the hostel and the bus driver drops us off in this shady ally and I was so scared thank the Lord jon was with me or I would’ve died I was so scared!! And so we get back to the hostel and they’re not there and we didn’t have a key so we had to follow some girl in and jon had seen a restraunt like 100 ft away that he figured they were at so he was gonna leave me in the loby of the hostel and go see if they were there and I was like you beter not leave me jon I’ll hate you forever if you leave me in here!! (I had to stay there or we would be locked out of the main lobby again) and he was like I don’t see what the big deal is look I’ll run and I’ll be gone for like 5 minutes you’ll be fine. And I was freaking out I was like I’m not even kidding I’m so scared to be left alone you better not leave me if you walk out that door I’m following you!! And he was laughing at me and being like you’re being ridiculous it’s not that big of a deal your locked in here and I was like yeah who knows whats locked in here with me they give anyone keys to hostels as long as they have money and he’s like oh my gosh Shannon!!! And sighing at me and stuff and I’m in the middle of freaking out on him for even thinking about leaving me and I see him looking to the side of me and kinda smiling and so I look to the right and screamed bloody murder and shot up out of my chair because stupid karston had his face right up in the window that was next to me and I freaked out and they were laughing so hard at me and he came in and I went to hit him and he just hugged me until I calmed down cuz I was freaking out!! Oh it was awful and they thought it was so funny!!! Stupid boys!

So then we walk around town and find this place that has music coming out of it so we go in there and there’s like this dance floor and music and birthday decorations up so we go in there and are all excited and start dancing (ppl in Europe don’t really dance) and we’re the only ones dancing and then the DJ keeps changing it to techno music so then we sit down and we kept requesting R&B and he wouldn’t play it and we were like look we’re the only ones dancing!! Can you just play what we want??? We didn’t really say that but we did keep bugging him so it was getting late and we decided we would stay and dance to two more songs and then he finally started playing all R&B so we were like dangit!!! But we left and went back to the hostel, which I can’t remember if I said already but it was like super nice and cute and the mattresses didn’t have weird stains on them so that was exciting, the only thing was my blanket had a little weird stuff on it but I just put it on the floor and used my sheets!!

We woke up and were made our way to Brussels the capital of Belgium. When we got out of the train station we were severely disappointed and me and alex were like, um, ok so lets go back to Heidelberg… but we got a map and made our way to walk to where it looked like the cultural part of town was. We walked for….EVER and it was super sketchy looking and not cute at all, and then we finally found the cute slash old part of town and it was well worth the walk. There were these buildings that looked so incredibly old and were amazing!! And there was a scarecrow festival going on?? Yeah I don’t know what that was all about!! Oh and I got to try on a 6,000 euro ring cuz I was admiring it and the guy was like do you want to try it on?? Come on!! And I was like “ok!” it was awesome!! And I ate a belgium waffle with Belgium chocolate poured over the top of it!! *sigh* it was wonderful!!! Mmmmm!!! And there was a radom marching band that just came through town!! That was cool!! I love the randomness of Europe!

These buildings were so old slash amazing!

Alex H. Says: "HAHAHAHAHA. I LOVE THIS PICTURE."
Jill Says: "^agreed!! hahahaha, oh shannon."
Layla Says: "Ooh my heck, look out Tyra!! YOU ARE FIERCE!"

I love them!
Layla Says: "Chubbles and Shanny in one picture!!! Pure joy that is the only word that can describe this picture, pure joy!

They're so hardcore!

That lady!
Sister Says: "What is that lady wearing behind you?"
Me: "I know that's why I didn't delete this picture because that lady is so A mazing!!"

Brussels and old buildings!

Oh my goodness!! I was obsessed with this ring and I was about to leave and he told me to try it on!!! 6,000 Euros on my hand right there!!"
Layla Says: "Do you like this one better than the one you already picked out? Bc then I will remember this one too!"
Me: "haha! No I still like the other one better!! Even though this one's way more fancy for some reason I'm just obsessed with that other one!"

The mall!!

Oops, no pictures please!! My bad!!

I love random marching bands!

So fun!

Haha!! Delta Delta Delta! Lex was the only one unafilliated and I had no other Delta's with me so she did it too!! Quite a process to get him to make a Delta though!! haha!
Layla Says: "oooh my!! You silly silly Delta!"

Belgium waffles!!!!!!!

Oh and then we found this really cool hooka place and I had hooka for the first time. Now don’t freak out its like this smoke stuff but it’s not addictive and it like tastes good, its basically just fun cuz you get to act like the catipillar from alice in wonderland!! Haha!! But apparently my friend carston lied to me cuz since it’s smoke you know I didn’t want to do it if it was bad for my lungs and so I kept asking like a million times are you sure this isn’t bad for you?? And they all kept saying no its not bad for you at all!! And then later I found out that it is bad for your lungs so I was like jerk you lied to me, but it’s ok cuz I’m never going to do it again but it was just fun to do once and I didn’t know it wasn’t good for your lungs, but there’s pictures and they’re funny cuz I was like trying to do the frenchie from Greece n stuff!! But yeah I just had to write this in and warn you that it’s just hooka coming out of my mouth and not anything bad (well I guess it is bad for you but I dint’ know that when we did it!)

Hooka place!! My first time EVER!!

I learned how to make rings like the Caterpillar off Alice in Wonderland and Karston told me I wouldn't be able to on my first few times! I love proving people wrong!!

Haha! I tried to do the Frenchie from Greece!! Oh man this is hilarious! I'm embarrassed!!
Alex H. Says: "Love it. Glorious."
Layla Says: "haa haa haa haaaaa haaa haa I am peeing!"
Lexi Pooh Says: "HAHAHAHAHAHA I LOVE YOU!!!!!! you are such a gangsta!

So then we took a cab back and that’s about it….

First taxi ride EVER!!! It was a weekend of firsts!
Lexi Pooh Says: "Oh my gosh this picture makes me want to cry because I miss you both so incredibly much"

oh wait no its not I forgot… so It was just me, alex, and lex on the way back cuz the boys were going to Switzerland cuz that’s where geoffs family lives and megan lives there too she was just visiting alex. So we get on this train and all the sudden alex tells me she thinks that it just said we need reservations to be on the train and we’re like what??? So we start to get up (for some reason the three seats we picked to sit in were the only ones no one had reserved) and get all our stuff to get off cuz you can get fined for being on a train w/o reservations, and then the train starts moving so we’re like oh no!!! so then we decide to sit with the luggage and we sat with the luggage for like 40 min and the conductor came by and told us that our eurails didn’t work on that type of train so then he was nice though and just made us pay for a reservation to sit with the luggage and we had to get off at the next stop which was some Podunk town in the middle of nowhere and the station was a portable!!!