Hello,
I recently returned from a trip to Belgium, and I thought it would be nice to share the wonderful experience I had. This was the first time I have been to a country where the majority of people do not speak a language that I am familiar with. It was a bit harder to get around with the language barrier, but it was also common to find people who have learned some English before. I really enjoyed this trip because I went with my boyfriend, and we stayed with his best friend who has been living in Belgium for a few years. We basically had a tour guide to take us to the best places in the city. He was a great host and was able to help us communicate in French.
Our plane landed in Charleroi, and we took a bus to Brussels where we would stay for the next few days. The first thing that stood out to me was the use of bicycles everywhere. The people all seemed to be so healthy. Not just from physical exercise, but the food was also healthy. Don’t get me wrong, I ate quite a bit of Belgian waffles with ice cream and loaded French fries. But there were a ton of markets downtown with fresh fruits and vegetables, and restaurants with locally sourced ingredients. The whole city smells amazing, like a bakery.
Brussels was a very peaceful city with so much to see. We visited an art museum with some famous works that I was not even expecting to see. I have a better appreciation for art when I have studied it before, and especially because I am an artist myself. It was so inspiring to see the talent. There was not only art in the museums but also murals lining the streets. One of my favorite experiences of the trip was a graffiti street lined with paintings and artists working right in front of you. Apparently, Belgium is very famous for their comics, which you can see painted throughout the city. We also went to Ghent for one day. I liked Ghent more than Brussels because of the architecture. The colorful buildings and their style resemble Amsterdam (a place I hope to visit before I come back home). We went into some very beautiful cathedrals that are very different from the ones I’ve seen in Spain. The most breathtaking part of the trip was the sunset that we saw on the river. There was a rainbow and ducks swimming in the water, and I can’t wait to paint the scene one day.
Upon returning home we had a layover in the Canary Islands for a few hours and got to hang out on the beach. It’s so much cheaper to buy flights with layovers in other countries and get to visit a new place for a few hours or a day. It was the first time I’ve ever seen a black sand beach—and a nude beach. It was such a refreshing trip to get a small break away from school and experience new things.
