Claessens Antwerp

Hi Everyone!

After catching up with work from school and just taking a few days to enjoy Florence, I was off to my next destination…Brussels!

We had found a great deal using Ryan Air and decided to jump on the offer.

We departed early from Florence by train in order to get to the airport in Pisa. After a quick transfer, we were there. The Pisa airport is very tiny, similar to Florence's airport. We checked in, and then waited ...

... was quite powerful and got me thinking of some of the other smells....apart from sweaty riders...strong coffee...cigar smoke....salty water....assorted farm smells and the occasional waft of something pleasant as we ride past a garden. Remind me to tell you why I'm glad we didn't call anybody Rosemary when we catch up. Had better go wake John up..a reversal in our family!!

... to gain access. Of course a trip to Antwerpen wouldn't be complete without a stop at Sint Jacobskerk. This is where Rubens was laid to rest. A very nice church, quite and away from the crowds. Dinner ...

... Heathrow Airport tomorrow! I knew everything was going too well! So I started going through all the boxes that I'd packed and my rucksack but it was nowhere to be found. At this point I really started to panic. I even started rummaging through the bin!!! And that's when I found it. Just sitting there waiting to be thrown out ...

... hall, and a bunch of restaurants and overpriced tourist traps. I'm noticing a theme. We stopped for a beer at one of the aforementioned overpriced tourist traps - by overpriced, I mean we paid 2.50 instead of 1.50 for a beer, so it's still cheap by most standards. I finally got around to trying one of Belgium's famed Trappist beers. On Marie's recommendation, I tried Orval, which was pretty good even if it's low alcohol content compared to ...

... of a little boy peeing; the Musée de la Ville de Bruxelles (Brussels City Museum), where Mannekin Pis's expansive wardrobe is housed--he has several hundred outfits that he wears for different occasions; the Atomium, a giant statue of an iron molecule, made for the 1958 World's Fair (sort of like Brussels's Eiffel Tower); and getting drinks with fellow hostellers at the Delirium Café--a bar that boasts over 2,400 different beers!

... of this city, which by virtue of its geographic position, and its adherence to Catholicism, was for centuries occupied by foreign powers and sat at the center of often-violent international and religious tensions. This beautiful late-Gothic cathedral isn't as widely known as Notre Dame in Paris, for example, or Chartres, but it's a glorious repository of six centuries of Flemish artistic development. For starters, Our Lady Cathedral houses no fewer than four works by ...

... horrible & I'm tempted to just cut it all of now. I'll keep you informed I do in fact decide to give myself a "buzz" cut. So tonight was "my night" because it was my actual birthday party. It was decided that we would all go bowling & it was a BLAST! And...I bowled the high game of the night - It was a 154 I believe. Not to shabby if I say so myself. Time for bed...

... challenging classes, and then get to hang out with Ambassadors and Secretaries of State at work....this really is the best trip I could think up. It is the perfect balance of fun, learning, travel and practical experience. AU really does their study abroad programs well. I am going to take this moment to just stop and say thanks to everyone who has made this awesome experience possible. Thank you for being so supportive of my globe trotting....it really is the experience of ...

... Antwerp is meant to be the capital of Europe for diamonds. 2nd day) We drove to Delft, home of Dutch pottery. Here we climbed the steeple in the Oude Kerk. Great view of the city and then I found a coffee shop. Can't help myself really. Next was Rotterdam. We only came here because Jackie Chan had filmed Who Am I partly here. We saw all the buildings in use during this movie and we did a tour of a rectangle house. I would love to live in one of ...