 |
| NUTELLA! |
 |
| Delicious! |
And then Anna decided to visit one of her ancestral
countries: Belgium. But it’s me, so I do this with a theme: capital to capital.
So I headed on the train to Brussels to see what my family left. By the way BIG
MISTAKE. They have waffles with nutella. Seriously people let’s get our
priorities straight!
 |
| Hero |
But I got in and it was already not as great as Germany. The
tourist booth it turns out isn’t open everyday, and when I was finally able to
get help it took 2 hours and a really annoying ticket system to get any answers
to buy a single tram ticket. Then when I got off the tram I had no idea which
way to head so I ended up asking another hostel for help (I’m not THAT type of
person, but I saw a big friendly building and it happened to be a hostel, I did
feel guilty) then I found my hostel and settled in.
 |
| 11 forever! |
Now as many of you know by now I am a huge Doctor Who fan.
And this year during the Christmas special, my beloved Matt Smith was going to
die and regenerate into Peter Capaldi. And while I am incredibly excited to see
what Capaldi does with the character-Matt will always be my favorite. I
sincerely believe he was the youngest because he was the Doctor who “forgets”
like a child who’s brain doesn’t want them to process the horrors they have
seen. And thus moving to an older Doctor works because there is no need to
forget now, now is the time to remember. But that doesn’t change how much it
hurt to know Matt won’t be on the show anymore, Matt the actor who portrayed
the most selfless, most humane doctor. Matt who taught me who I want to be, and
who helped me become an activist. So I knew that I had to be able to get my
anger out after watching the episode. Here’s what I did:
 |
| You are always here |
I checked into my Brussel’s hostel, and set up shop. I had
already
 |
| LOVE IT |
downloaded the Christmas special onto my phone and I took out some of
the lovely chocolate my friends mom had packed for me (emotional support) and
watched the special in my bed. I did this because it was still bright daylight
and I knew if I was too upset I could go for a VERY long walk. But it turns out
that after I was too worn out. I just wanted to curl up and process the death
of my favorite. It was a beautiful death. I have to say that Moffat had 10
die in the best way possible, he died to save another which undid the
selfishness you often saw in his episodes. But with 11th he was
always so selfless really, and his death was his way of maintaining the balance
and order and not letting anyone else die for him.
It was a hard episode to watch, and I think it was perfect
the way it ended. But for me it is the end of an era, and one that started when
I was in university, and it greatly impacted all my life choices. Now it’s
weird because I’m an adult, in the real world, actually in Bulgaria which in
itself is a wild ride, and I know that Matt Smith’s Doctor helped me get here.
So it was hard. But the next day I worked that aggression off by taking a tour
of Brussels!
 |
| So much emotion. FEELZKABAN |
 |
| THERE WAS A LIGHT SHOW! |
Funny story, I am not fluent in Spanish. If my high school
Spanish
 |
| Me when they started talking... |
teacher ever reads this- you were amazing. Really, brilliant. And I
LOVED your classes, but I just was too sick during high school and missed too
much. Now I am taking the time to go back and re-learn a lot of what I missed,
but still not fluent. So imagine my surprise when I accidentally ended up on the
free walking tour in Spanish. Yep, that happened. Literally I started to only
talk to the Koreans on the tour because they spoke English and got on the wrong
one as well. But it didn’t matter to me, I just went with it and understood
what I could. Which was great until I got lost in the town square and couldn’t
remember how to say “Help! Don’t leave me!” (Shout out to Amelia for telling me
how later!) But in typical Anna fashion I thought “eh, at least I know how to
get downtown now, let’s explore.” SO I DID. And wow was it pretty! I found a
cathedral for mass and literally during mass one woman told the man next to her
who clearly wasn’t catholic "this is kinda like the sound of music" seriously?
Nuns sing and that’s all that you need to jump to Julie Andrews?
Then I saw the University, and all of the Christmas market
stall. Befriended a waffle man, yep. I now
 |
| Drug Opera? |
know a guy ;) Went through all the
lace shops, tried to track down a store that did family heritage (no luck :( )
then just watched people go about their day.
I love walking ladies and gentleman. LOVE IT. I ended up
walking between 10-12 miles that day just enjoying Brussels and taking in all
the Christmas shows and light extravaganzas. I walked off my sorrow about Doctor Who, I walked off my
confusion of Spanish, and I loved it all. I even found this walking spot that
when you go under this construction it sounds like different types of dinosaurs
stalking you. How cool is that?
The next day I made it back downtown to see all the spots I
hadn’t gotten to yet, and guess who I ran in to? Come on…guess.
 |
| It made dinosaur sounds! |
Well if you guessed: the Spanish speaking tour you lost. You
would be correct! Give yourself a pat on the back! I found them, and found out
all about the government in Belgium and the opera house. (Or I got a great
recipe for fried chicken that I can’t eat- not quite sure :) )
 |
| McDonald's counts |
During the second night I also got to skype in to my family
sing-a-long that we do every year around Christmas. It was nice to just get to
tell them what I was doing and have them involved. It isn’t normal for my
family to have someone live abroad. It’s not that we are against it, it’s just
not normal. So it’s been a bit hard for me to the be the one that isn’t there,
but they love me and I love them. Which made it great to hear their laughter
and join in! You can stay in touch with anyone if you set an alarm to wake up
to call at 3 am!
Brussels’ was fun but I was glad to leave. I wanted to get
to Paris, and as much as I loved some of the people I met in hostels- this was
an annoying one. With very whiny people. So I got on a bus to Paris after
walking the canal one more time and committing to memory every thing I loved
about being there. (Also, side note- I got brunch! I MISSED BRUNCH SO MUCH!)
 |
| Raggedy Man: Goodbye |
Tonight’s song is: Thing’s we lost in the fire. I chose it
because memories are often all we truly have to hold on to, and I will carry my
memories of Matt as the Doctor with me forever, but he is now lost in the fire.
Just as I will carry my memories of Belgium with me hopefully until I die, even
if I never get those pictures off my SD card that my computer has decided to
hate. (urgh)
No comments:
Post a Comment