Chocolate and Waffles and Fries Oh my

Belgium is honestly the coolest place ever...who knew? I'm so glad we went to Brugge because I would have never of thought to go there in my lifetime but it was BEAUTIFUL and every shop was a chocolate shop, so it was definitely my kind of city. It was also built on a river and is kind of like Venice, but cleaner. I ate more chocolate, waffles, and fries in one day than most people eat in a lifetime. Seriously. At first I didn't understand the hype of Belgian waffles, but trust me they deserve all the hype in the world. I want more right now...they're soo good. The weather was perfect and I WILL make it back again sometime in my adult life...it's that amazing. Nuff' said.

About to go on the boat tour

Lovin' Brugge

Windmill Dance

Jamie and I at the Chocolate Museum

YUMMM

I whisked my own hot chocolate...yes the cup the chocolate chips are in is also made of chocolate..

After Brugge we went to Northern France and visited some WW1 burial sites and went to the Somme valley area. It was actually pretty cool; we walked in the very trenches that many young men did 90 or so years ago. It's pretty rad that for history we visit these places rather than read about them...basically my life is awesome.

Laura and I in the Trenches

A Canadian Cemetery

Party Time!

On Sunday I went to my mom's cousins sons daughters birthday party. I thought it might be a little weird, because I don't really know them, but they were SO nice and I had a lot of fun!

Alexis, Suzzana, Robyn, Chloe, Jeremy, and me

The Birthday Girl Chloe, she's adorable.

Gettin' Crunk On St. Patty's Day

St. Patrick's Day this year was out of control, and totally awesome. I can't even describe what the parade was like so I took video footage ('you' can ask to see it when I get home). I will try to explain it to the best of my abilities: Tim Burton meets the circus meets techno meets crazies. It didn't make sense (unless you're drunk, which in that case it might make sense).

Highlights of Ireland include:

• The parade (even though it was freakin weird).
• Dancing in the streets, and yes I was surrounded by a crowd of 100 people give or take doing a solo riverdance. It may or may not have been the highlight of my life.
• Watching drunk people from the window of my hostel with my roomies.
• Going to the Guinness factory (it's the beer factory) and getting a sprite at the top.
• Only drinking out of flask the whole time I was there (thank you Kelley).
• Hearing the most horrible rendition of poker face EVER and yes he said "the next song we'll be playing is poker face by Rihanna (confused faces) I mean Lady Gaga."
• Meeting milkshake man, we fell in love at the milkshake shop. Also the oreo madness milkshake I got.
• Live music going all week long

Ireland, you were great to me; I miss you and hope to make it back again some day.

Paddleboating

It's all the rage. 'You' should try it...

Devon, Me and Maddy on our Paddleboat

Just paddle boating in Hyde Park.

Julie jumped off their paddle boat to go get crepes, they got in trouble...embarrassing.

I Should Be A Miner

...Okay not really, but don't I look good? Big pit was probably my favorite part of Wales or should I say Cymru? Did I mention Welsh is a funny funny language? Well it is, basically it's a language full of consonants (trying to pronounce anything is a joke) luckily most people speak English, and by most people I mean everyone. Big Pit is an old coal mine in Wales, and our tour guide was hilarious. Basically I have a crush on him, but he's like my dads age...creepy, I know. Maybe he has a son. Here are some photo Highlights of Wales (and England. Yes we thought we were spending 3 days and 2 nights in Wales, and we spent 1 night in Wales...confused? So were we).

Maddy, Laura and I in the English countryside (The wind was a little out of control, in case you couldn't tell. Funny story, my brother Ryan was telling me last week that in southern France he was literally moved by the wind and had never felt that before; I was like ya you're weak I haven't ever felt that..well now I have).

Gadfield Elm Chapel (part of the church history tour that never ended).

Me at Tintern Abbey

At the Big Pit gift shop...I shoulda got that hat. (Yes I'm aware Blake is a creep)

 

Gardens by the Castle at St. Fagans.

Paris-ites

I'm a Paris-ite. (Paris-ites are Paris dwellers/tourists that mooch off of other people well versed in French and know there way around the Metro and city.) My brother Ryan affectionately referred to us as Paris-ites throughout the week, but not really. This week really was perfect, minus a few mishaps like losing Lyse, forgetting pants, not speaking the language etc etc. My good friend Maddy captured the week pretty perfectly and made this little video.
Some photo highlights of the week:

 

Oui Oui Pari! (That is my extent of French)
Oh and then my brother came back to London for a day with me, and it was fun to show him around my favorite city.