Well, I haven't had internet at home for the past week pretty much. My landlady gave me a VERY short internet cable, and I kept accidentally pulling the modem off its precarious position on top of the TV (and no, there was no better place to put it)...it fell a few times and I think the last time was one time too many - it hasn't worked since!! The landlady was very good and every day I came home there was improvement - first no lights, then blinking lights, then solid lights but no LAN light...but I think the modem is broken. May have to pay for a new one :(.
But...due to the lack of internet, I made sure I was very social this week, and that made up for it. Hung out with my new friend Marcus who works at the research centre and lives in Juelich :). First night we and Daniel got together and played board games at Marcus's place. It was some German board game...very simple but lots of strategy. Was fun. Turns out Marcus' place is about the same size as my tiny place, and he's been living there for 3 years! Second night, after Marcus brought me some packets of vanilla sugar (they don't use liquid vanilla), and individual packets of baking powder (what's with all the single servings here??), he came over and we made chocolate cookie dough. We made some sample cookies in my little toaster oven. They tasted a bit different, but still good! I made the rest the next day at work in the oven there. Everyone was very confused but thankful I shared haha.
Thursday night Marcus organized beers at a pub in Juelich to celebrate him getting his PhD. I got a Weiser (wheat ale) that came in a GIANT glass!! It was about a foot tall! Very tasty. Also tried the traditional Cologne beer. It was just a light beer, not bad though.
Because I foresaw a boring weekend with no internet (and Marcus is gone back home to Denmark for the next ten days), I decided to take a last minute weekend trip - with pretty much no planning. I used the rideshare website to get a ride from Aachen to Brussels. First this meant busing to Aachen, which took about an hour. Aachen is really cute, a larger town/city with lots of old buildings. I met the driver, a 30ish year old adventurous guy, and the three other passengers. I, the only girl, was in the front, while the three other guys were in the back - haha! The driver was a really interesting person, so it made for an enjoyable ride. We passed through three countries on the way - Germany, Holland and Belgium - and no border crossings! The roads were snowy (it's super cold here!) so the going was a bit slow, but fortunately snow tires are mandatory in Germany (not the case in Belgium...hence the slow going).
We were dropped off in Brussels, and it was a ten minute walk to my HI hostel (and a COLD walk!). It's in a really cute part of the centre of town, with narrow cobble stone roads, very quaint little restaurants, galleries and bars, really old buildings and cathedrals. I had a traditional Belgian meal with a few meatballs in different sauces and fries (although I replaced with salad), and some beer. The meal was really tasty, but I think the beer wasn't my favourite...pretty bitter. By the way, apparently Belgians were the REAL inventors of "French" fries. Maybe I should have just tried them...
Have lots of exploring to do tomorrow, some waffles to eat, some chocolate to taste, some beer to drink. Then I will make my way to Bruges. I am SUPER excited about seeing Bruges, and have been wanting to go there since watching the movie "In Bruges". Then I will hopefully catch a train back to Juelich Sun night.
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