A weekend of friends

A quick recap of the weekend....

With the world cup starting this weekend, London began gearing up for a month long party. After work on Friday, I met up with Corey, Angie and London Tom for a late dinner. We went to a great Eastern European place that also specialized in fruit infused vodkas. They even had homemade pear vodka...yum. Esp since GG pear doesn't seem to exist here. The meal was wonderful and had a great time just hanging out with the group!

I got up on Saturday and met up with Carela and some of her friends at Borough Market. We ate at Roast and then went down to an oyster bar for a small snack :) We then wandered around a bit, had a couple of drinks by the river and just enjoyed a beautiful but windy day in London.

After that, I left the gang to go meet up with Jobina, Kazai and Angie for the US/England game. We reserved a table at a bar called Bar Soho and watched as the Brits wanted to pull their hair out. After hanging out for a bit after the match, we went over to Convent Garden to grab a bite. We found an awesome mexican restaurant and hung out over a great meal and a margarita.

It has been a great weekend and I'm really happy I got to hang out with so many friends this weekend! Now...back to resting on the couch :) Yay to lazy Sundays.

Belgium

Off to Belgium I went...

I jumped on the Eurostar and within 2 hours, I was in Brussels. I did little research as to what I wanted to do or where things were located in the city which ended up being an interesting decision. Arriving with no euros also probably not the best of ideas. I went to jump on the metro to check in at the hotel and of course their machines only take coins. Their booths only take cash...sigh. I miss NYC where even a bottle of water can be charged!! I end up taking a cab to the hotel- why not..im on vaca (better known here as holiday). We drove by a very large protest and what appeared to be a wedding party on horses. Really odd..I wish I had gotten pics.

After checking in, I decided I was going to walk around and see the sites. I roamed around for a while, grabbed some food and a drink and enjoyed sitting outside.

On Saturday, I woke up early to take a tour to the Belgium countryside. It was a beautifully sunny day and I got to enjoy it by walking around 2 very quaint towns. Brugge felt a little like New England, or the other way around I guess. Cute stores, food, history etc. Seeing Michelangelo's Madonna sculpture was truly amazing. It strikes me how I always imagine things like that to be massive when in fact they are not that big at all. Ghent was a smaller town but with another amazing cathedral. After sitting outside a bit more, it was time to head back to Brussels. The tour ended up leaving a random Spanish couple in Ghent because they were over 30 minutes late back to the buss (random side note but that still makes me chuckle).

On Sunday, I got up and went for a bike tour of Brussels. Note to anyone who wants to do a bike tour in ancient cities...be careful of cobblestones. I will spare you the details of the falling ...all I will say is that I came home with souvenirs that I didn't need. I met some great people on the tour and got to see the EUC which was an impressive part of the tour.

Overall- awesome trip. Yummy waffles in many forms, good beer, sunny days and chocolate! Can't complain :-)

Back from the country where I apparently like to fall!

All I will say for tonight is...seriously, why must I always trip in European cities?!? I have come back to London with some fresh bruises...awesome! Damn cobblestones being 3 inches apart. Couldn't they tell that they were leaving spaces? Jeez. Too tired for the whole story tonight but stay tuned for an update on my trip to Belgium!