I Am A Jelly Donut

First, let me say that this is not how my trip to Berlin went:

Hamburglar in Hamburg

*A pre-post note* I recently handed in a edited collection of these blogs for a class project. In order to do so, I reread many of my posts for the first time and just want to issue an apology. There were so many grammatical mistakes it was cringeworthy. That plus the fact that my sentences just didn't make any sense half the time just made it all sound really dumb in hindsight. So if you've made it this far, thanks for sticking it out. I promise, I'll try to do a better job from here on out. Okay, now onto what I have to say this time around.

After a quick two days back in Brussels that consisted mostly of homework and applications, as well as stalking the results for UR at the quidditch World Cup, I set off on the second journey of my spring break. I had arranged a week long tour of Germany that would include stops in 4 different cities: Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, and Cologne. Why Germany? I have wanted to visit Berlin and Munich for sometime now. With Germany being just a short train ride from Brussels, I decided to extend the trip to include a few more cities, as let's be honest when will I ever get the chance to go to Hamburg again? I had also heard good things about Cologne from other students in my program, and just like that  I had a trip planned. I had acquired a Benelux Germany Eurail pass, that allowed me to hop on any DB train for 4 dates of my choosing. This gave me more flexibility in my travel schedule that made the whole process a lot less stressful than it otherwise would have been.

Take Me Home, United Road

AGHGHGHGJGHFHGHGHFJGHHFHHGJG

The Tuesday of my trip to England, I had the opportunity to do something I've dreamt of doing for a while now: visit Old Trafford, home of the worlds greatest football club Manchester United. United are my team. I follow the team and its players daily and try to watch as many games as I possibly can. I know some more staunch or traditional football fans will criticize me for supporting United, saying I'm a bandwagon and that I didn't "grow up" with them as my team. Well that's just wrong, ever since I've followed European football, United has been my team. I owe that to my brother Rory as he definitely had the most influence in my fandom. Having been a United supporter himself since childhood, his interest in the sport and team introduced me to the culture that I ultimately fell in love with. Much like how a son is groomed to follow their fathers team, Rory led me to support United. Thanks bro.

London. Yeah, Baby, Yeah!

At Vesalius, we are given two full weeks off in April for spring break. I used the opportunity to do quite a bit of traveling, because Europe. I split the break into two parts, spending the first week in London before coming back to Brussels for 2 nights and then traveling around Germany for the second week.

Living the Poncho Life in Bruges

The day following the Belgium match, we had a CIEE organized trip to the city of Bruges. The trip was originally scheduled for the same day as the Belgium game but because Monika and Michelangelo are awesome, they changed the date so we could go to the game.

We met up at the train station early that morning. The program was divided into two groups, one was to do a bike tour in the morning and a walking tour in the afternoon with the other doing vice versa. I was one of the fortunate souls lucky enough to be in the morning group. It was already raining when we arrived in Bruges, but little did we realize what we were getting ourselves into. Monica handed out ponchos to everyone. I accepted one but was not yet ready to submit myself to the indignity of wearing a poncho. After meeting up with our tour guide who assigned us each a bike we were ready to set off on our tour. After surveying the pouring rain around us, I finally relented and put on my poncho.

What have you done to me?

The plan for the bike tour was to ride a few kilometers outside of the city, stopping at an old fashioned windmill and then the old town harbor. I say that was the plan, seeing how we barely accomplished half of that. Initially, the conditions were not terrible as we started to make our way out of the city. It was raining but we were on the bikes going a comfortable speed with poncho's keeping us somewhat dry. The next part required us to bike several kilometers down a straightaway right next to a large canal. This was the part when everything went to shit. Upon hitting the straightaway, the elements of earth began to exact their anger on us. The rain picked up to a heavy downpour as wind blew off the canal directly on to us. The ponchos became useless as the wind caused them to tear, letting the rain, which was coming horizontally thanks to the wind, fall straight onto us. It may have been only 10 or 15 minutes but it felt like 2 hours. Eventually we did make it to the aforementioned windmill, where we got to stop and go inside.

Tous Ensemble! TOUS ENSEMBLE!

On a cool March night in Brussels, I was finally able to cross one of the highest items off my European bucket list: Attend a high level football match. The Belgium national team was playing its fourth group qualifying match for the 2016 UEFA Euro championships. Belgium is in Group B with Bosnia & Herzegovina, Wales, Israel, Cyprus and Andorra. After playing home and away matches against each team in the group, the top 2 teams qualify for Euro 2016 finals with the 3rd team placed in a playoff to earn one of the final spots at the finals. Anything other than qualifying for the finals would be a massive failure for the current Belgian national team. The team is expected to win the group, but had started slow with only one win and 2 draws in their first 3 games. Coming into the Cyprus match, Belgium was 4th in the group with only 5 points, trailing Israel with 9 points, Wales with 7 and Cyprus with 6. It was a must win game for the Red Devils.

Ik Spreekt een Beetje Nederlands (part 2)

So the day following the CIEE trip to the Hague, i returned on my own to visit my friend Sien. Sien is a student at Leiden University in the Netherlands who studied on exchange at Richmond during the fall semester where she joined up with the quidditch team. At the end of last semester, I told her I would visit her and I delivered.