Hi, this is Lindsay. Haley and I have been in Germany since the 13th and we love it here! We have been visiting our friend Stefan, he lived as an exchange student with my family in Silverton a few years ago. Stefan and his family live in a small village called Hänigsen which is about 25 minutes away from the city of Hanover. The village is soooo cute. All the houses here are brick, but nothing like I've seen in the states, they have more of a cottage feel here.
All around the village the roads are lined with trees and beautiful fields of yellow flowers. Its spring so everything is green and alive.
I've really enjoyed seeing what Stefans life is like here. Our first night we had a traditional German bbq with his dad, mom and girlfriend(Klaus, Irenne and Laura). Right away we felt welcomed and at home here. Friday Stefan took us to Celle. Celle is a small historical town with cobblestone streets and a bavarian feel. The buildings are brick of course, with ornate wood carvings and paintings worked into the brick. "Cute" was the word for the day! Stefan was shocked at how many times we were able to work cute into our sentences. But really, everything from the outdoor cafes to the people riding bikes was cute. After walking around the city and visiting a castle, we stopped and had lunch at an outdoor cafe where we learned a bit more about German food. Haley and I have had a nickname for Stefan since last summer...that name is Schnitzel. The whole time we thought schnitzel was a sausage but in fact it is a piece of pork with a bread crumb crust, similar to chicken fried steak. I guess calling him schnitzel isn't the cutest of nicknames, oh well, maybe we can change it up for something cuter like strudel.
That night we met up with some of Stefan's friends and went out dancing. We went to a club in Hanover and literally danced the night away. The clubs don't close till 7 a.m. so by the time we were leaving the sky was already starting to get light. After getting some sleep we went back into Hanover and spent Saturday afternoon shopping around and exploring the city a bit.
There is a lot more new architecture in Hanover than some of the other cities we've visited so far. During the war a lot of the city was destroyed and then rebuilt so we've seen a variety of new and old here. Haley and I have an ongoing saying of "when in ...(insert country), do as they do" so when in Germany we must ride bikes.
Everywhere we go, we see bikes with baskets on the front and back to carry stuff. Sunday morning we rode around the village and countryside thinking "this is soooo cute". That afternoon we got to see Stefan and his brother, Benny, play in a soccer match. It was so cool getting so see a real European futbol game. On Sundays, the whole family gets together for dinner and this week we were lucky to be a part of it. Irene is a great cook, and as always, the meal was excellent. The evening was full of laughter, which we have learned, has no language barrier.
Yesterday we went to a small town in Belgium named Brugge which is often called 'little Venice.' It is different than Brussels in that the buildings are shorter but still share the same charm.
The streets are only one lane wide and if you stand on the street corner for a few minutes you will see countless bikes and horse drawn carriages pass by! Pinch us, we are seriously in a dream...or at least disneyland. We are not sure if Brugge is technically the chocolate capital of the world but we deemed it worthy of the title. Just about every other store in the town was a chocolate shop...imagine walking through a quaint village, watching the boats cruise under a canal, suddenly you walk by a shop and smell the sweet scent of freshly made chocolate. Mmmmm...to be on a diet in this town would be sheer torture!
There are two languages in Belgium, one being French and the other Dutch. The locals in this town speak Dutch, so our tour guides Tommy and his brother Gary were almost as clueless as we were. Our favorite parts were the little canals that ran through the town and the tiny alleyways that led us all over the city. Lindsay saw an alley between two buildings that led us down to a balcony leaning over the water. She yelled.."an alley!!!" And we both started running towards it like two kids on Christmas morning...the boys laughed for a while then Tommy said "it makes it easy for me...you are easily entertained!"
That night we headed back and went to Tommy's work, a restaurant called Le Piano. The food what wonderful. We had french wine and shared duck a l'orange and chicken brochette with fine champagne sauce. SO good!!! We had an awesome night meeting Tommy's friends and hanging out in a Belgian college town.
We are heading to Germany today and have had the most amazing time in Belgium! Tommy, his parents George and Maria, and his siblings Alexander, Sabrina, Gary and his Girlfriend Gaelle are wonderful people and have made us feel like royalty during our time here. Just to prove how spoiled we are, yesterday while Lindsay and I realized that neither of us knew where the silverware was! The family has barely let us lift a finger. We're not going to know what to do when we return to reality!
Last night was our last evening here and we decided to cook the family an American dinner…so we made Mexican food. We headed off to the neighborhood grocery store, where everything was written in French. A very interesting experience. Just a tip, next time you go to Belgium and want to make a traditional American dessert...bring your own pumpkin pie filling! The family loved the dinner and we had an awesome night. Tommy's younger brother and sister warmed up to us, despite the language barrier. Don't ask us how, but we even played a round of pictionary with them!
Although we are excited to move on to the next city and visit our other friends, we are going to miss our Belgian family. They are genuinely wonderful people with such open hearts and a welcome home. We will miss them. My favorite phrase that I learned while being here was, ’je suis contente,’ which means ‘I am happy…’ that definitely was the mantra of this trip!
Something that we have noticed so far is how quickly the trip is going...it seems as if we just started getting to know Tommy's family and we are already leaving. It is exciting though because we are just now starting to learn French phrases and how to pronounce things correctly (but, to be honest...we still sound like a bunch of frauds faking a Pepe le piu accent). Now we are off to learn German and see the ways that our friends Stefan and Julian live in Germany!
Thanks for reading...it is nice to be going along this journey with so many others.
