Well it's been over a month since I wrote my last blog post I guess, so it's about time for an update. I'll give a day by day account of my trip again and then write about Adam's visit. (How's that for an introduction? I can sure tell I haven't written a paper in a while.)
December 22nd
I started my day by doing this "covoiturage" thing to get to Montpellier where my flight was leaving from. So there's a site online where people post where they're going and a price to carpool with them. There's other details, like if they're travelling with animals, accept baggage, talking in the car, etc. I was a little bit nervous about this, but it turned out to be great. It was way cheaper and faster than taking a train and he dropped me off at the airport. I took a plane from Montpellier to Charleroi airport and then a shuttle bus from Charleroi to Brussels. I sent Greg a text saying I'd be at the hotel in about an hour.
Once I got off the shuttle, I looked at my google maps directions. The problem with these directions is that they always start by telling you to walk North or South, East or West on a street. The problem is that I never know where N, S, E, W is. So anyways, I probably spent half an hour wandering around this train station area carrying a backpack on my back and front with an umbrella since it was raining. My second problem arose because I forgot a very vital asking for directions tip, ask for a main place that everyone knows about that is on the way to where you want to go. I met some very friendly Flemish speaking people who told me I had to take a bus to get to where I wanted to go. Yeah, they had no idea what I was asking. :P Anyways in the end, I found our hotel and went upstairs to greet Greg. We walked around a bit that night and had supper.
December 23rd
We went to Mass first thing in the morning (which ended up being 11am I think :P). Then we saw the sights of Belgium- the Mannekin Pis for example. The Mannekin Pis is really small, like I saw replicas of the statue made of chocolate that were bigger. We also went chocolate shopping and boy did we get chocolate. I think overall what I experienced in Belgium was waffles, chocolate, and beer. There's a reason Belgium is known for these things.
December 24th
We headed to the Brontforts (a family that adopted Greg when he was in Belgium). They live in the countryside of Belgium. That night we had a Christmas Eve dinner like I've never experienced before. There was always lots to drink. Then, at least 3 appetizers, soup, main course, and 3 desserts. We were eating for over 4 hours I think. The table was so fancy too, it was like it was for a wedding.
December 25th- Christ's birthday
We woke up at noon and headed to another family's house. I met a lot of people that were all either related or friends and it's far too complicated to explain. We had more appetizer-like things there and lunch. Some of the things I tried include: foie gras (this is disgusting, in my opinion, both the idea of it and how it tastes), an oyster that was still alive (They told me to chew it and then swallow. After, they told me I had to chew it to kill it. I wasn't a fan of this either.), and blood sausage soup (this was really good, but I was too cowardly to try blood sausage on it's own).
The countryside there is beautiful and I went for a little walk in the afternoon.
That evening we went to a different family's house for supper. Supper consisted of a couple appetizers and then bread and cheese. However, it was a feast because there was like 25 kinds of cheese and 10 kinds of bread or something. We also had dessert of course. Then, we played this fun game that was sort of like charades and taboo with some memory game together. It was super fun.
December 26th
We headed to Liege where Greg used to live. We walked around the city, stopping for some Peket- a liqueur from Belgium.
December 27th
We went to Brugges. There's this Sacred Blood Basilica there with a relic of Christ's blood from when Joseph of Arimathea cleaned Christ's body before laying him in the tomb.
We went to the Cathedral that holds Michelangelo's "Madonna and Child." Other than that, we saw what there was to see, it was raining a lot. This city is super touristy, apparently there's more tourists than locals there in general.
December 28th- Aachen
Aachen is a very nice city, there's a lot of green space for a European city. We saw the Cathedral which is covered in mosaics on the inside, really beautiful. This Cathedral apparently holds the relics of the swaddling clothes of Christ, Mary's garments, and a cloth that held John the Baptist's head. I was skeptical. They only take these relics out every seven years to show to the public.
Aachen is Charlemagne's city.
We finished out stay off by having a large ice cream dessert.
December 29th
It was a day of travelling to get to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.
December 30th
The sun was shining today. Greg's friend from Spain joined us which made going around the city much easier. We went around the old city and walked along the beach and I swam in the ocean.
December 31st
We went for a drive into the mountains of the islands and it's really beautiful there. We had a nap before midnight and then got up to eat our 12 grapes. I didn't manage to eat mine on time with the donging of the clock, partly because I was laughing too hard. We then walked along the beach while random fireworks were going off everywhere. We went back to our hotel where there was a little dance going on in the lounge, and then went to bed.
January 2nd
We explored the Bandama volcano today. It was really beautiful and I had never been to a volcano before. We also went to the beach. Greg sat on the beach with a sweater on and my towel wrapped around him while I swam. It's a good thing I'm Canadian and undaunted by cold water and weather.
January 3rd
We went to Playa del Ingles- the Southern and touristy part of the island. I ordered a hamburger with onions and Greg ordered one without, when they brought the burgers out they gave the one with onions to Greg. Geez way to stereotype eh? hehe
The sun was shining and we both quite enjoyed our time there. We went to the beach which has huge sand dunes, it looks like a desert.
January 4th
My last day in Las Palmas and it was sunny and glorious so we spent the day on the beach, laying in the sun and swimming.
January 5th
I started the long trek home, I left the hotel slightly before 5am and got to my place in Rodez at 10pm. I was really happy I made all my connections that day.
January 6th
Adam was supposed to arrive at 1:25 pm and I was so excited, but he missed his flight :(. He ended up getting here the next day in the morning.
The rest of the week...
Adam and I had a lovely time together. He came to two of my schools and watched me teach. On Tuesday we went to Millau which is in a regional park to go for a hike. The weather forecast was for 15 and sunny. Well it was a lot colder, cloudy, and foggy. We still went for a hike though and probably checked out the majority of the bakeries in town. Every time we passed a bakery Adam wanted to go in.
Monday evening we had gone to daily Mass and the priest who arranged Adam's accommodation said Mass. Afterwards he told us to keep Wednesday afternoon open so he could take us to Conques. So Wednesday we went out for lunch with Father Bernard and then drove to Conques. Father took us up to a couple look outs but it was foggy again so we didn't get to see too much. I was thinking, "You know you're in a Catholic relationship when a priest takes you and your boyfriend on a date." :P During this afternoon I got to practice my translating skills as Adam doesn't speak French and this priest doesn't speak English, yup lots of work.
Other than that we stayed in Rodez, I showed him the churches and the park and we cooked multi-course meals. :)
So that's me update... (Great conclusion eh?)
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