Belgian waffles or Belgian beer? I'll take the latter...

A couple of weeks ago we got a week and a half of school for Easter break. When planning for this semester, I thought that this week would be one of the high points of the semester, and I wasn't disappointed. Throughout the semester, I was a little stressed out about it, because there were so many places I wanted to go, but I knew I could only choose a few. My good friend, Aaron, ended up planning the whole trip more or less, so it worked out well. I got to see some cool places, and I didn't really have to choose anything. There were a few days of the trip that I wasn't even sure where we were going to stay that night. It was kind of fun for everything to be a surprise. (Thanks Aaron!!)

Our first stop, after I gave Aaron a two-day crash course in Barcelona, was Belgium. There was a clear and distinct theme of our travels in Belgium, and that theme was beer. Yes, beer. But not in the same way that beer is the theme of a fraternity party or a Nascar event. We were on a quest to taste and purchase some of the best beers in the world. We succeeded in that we visited two Trappist abbeys, three other small Belgian breweries, and found a few specialty stores that have hundreds of different kinds of beer (all Belgian), many of which you can't buy anywhere else. If you're interested in beer or the brewing of beer or just in weird things, check out the Cantillon brewery in Brussels where they brew odd beers called Lambic and Geuze. Instead of adding yeast to their beer to cause fermentation (which is what every or almost every other brewery in the world does), they let it cool after brewing in the attic of the building, where apparently there naturally exists a yeast that allows them to make deliciously bizarre beer or "geuze". Aaron liked the word "geuze" so much that for the rest of the trip, he referred to any type of beer (or any type of liquid for that matter) as gooze.

I think Belgium was my favorite leg of the trip, not because of the beer (although it was awesome), but because of the unique experiences we had there. One of the small breweries we planned on visiting had recently suffered a fire. Normally, they have tours of the brewery and a bar where you can taste their beers. Being that they couldn't let people into the brewery because of the damage and construction, they opened up their home to people who were visiting. We felt really awkward when we first went in, partly because we weren't sure if we were supposed to be there, and partly because it was full of groups of older people speaking Dutch. Soon after though, we started an hour long conversation with a man named Frankie who explained many things to us, including how many Belgians do not feel "Belgian" at all, but rather Dutch or French depending on which half of the country you grew up in.

Driving through the country was also a really cool experience. Belgium is a beautiful country, and we got to see it in a way that most travelers don't get to. Even though they don't believe in road signs, and were lost about 30% of the time, it was still a lot of fun. We also had an interesting experience asking directions/buying gas from a man who only spoke French. It was such a bizarre feeling not being able to say a single word to each other that both of us would understand. I have definitely experienced language barriers in Spain, but nothing like being in the French half of Belgium.

Well, this is already longer than I planned it to be, so I think I'll call it quits now and just write another post later this week about our adventures in Sweden and Germany. Only three more weeks in Barcelona... Wow. I can't believe its almost over.