Hello! Welcome to our blog and my first official post! Here we will be sharing our journey and misadventures.

Day 1 Arrival & First Impressions

Today is the first day being back home from our one week trip in Europe. Although I’m not battling jet lag, I’m feeling quite dazed out. I’m currently sitting in my room listening to Shallou’s album “Souls”. I’ve always wanted to document my travels in a blog, so here it is. Bear with me as I try to vividly recall and share my daily journeys, adventures, the laughs, the lows and mishaps in Europe.

Day 1: We arrived at the airport early, but not too early. Our flight was at 5:55 p.m. at Pearson Airport and we had to take a bus that takes us to the gate. That was a first for me at this airport. Our first flight was to Dublin and then a transfer from Dublin to Brussels. This was also the first time we took a plane together, so I felt a lot of things. Nervousness, excitement, and all that because it was our first time travelling together! Smooth flight, I watched A Wrinkle In Time (highly do not recommend) and I also beat David at Trivia!  *proud moment* 5 and a half hours later..we arrived in Brussels, Belgium finally! Both David and I did not get any sleep on the plane and were very much sleep deprived.

Upon arrival, there were two major things we learned:

• There are no Vodaphone Data Sim Cards at any vending machines. They actually do not sell data Sim cards this way anymore, and you must show your passport when you buy a sim card from a phone provider.
• A comma is equivalent of a decimal. So when it says 10,50 it really mean 10.50 Euros.

We took a train to our first stop: Ghent.

The train ride was about 35 mins from the airport, and there were frequent trains. We grabbed a bite to eat at the airport (a sausage roll in pastry). It hit the spot. As we arrived in Ghent, I was really impressed and in awe with the architecture surrounding the canals. This was the first time I felt like I was in Europe.

To our luck, there was no rain like it had forecasted. David and I wandered around taking a lot of pictures even though we were very sleep deprived and dead inside. We then stopped by a restaurant with an outdoor patio where you can see the canals called “De Witte Leeuw”. I ordered a Lasagna because I felt like it, and David ordered a lunch sandwich (I think). After lunch, we walked around and took a train to Bruges!

We checked into our hostel and wandered around Bruges during the evening to find a place to eat for dinner. It was pretty late, around 9pm, so it didn’t seem like many places were still opened. We found a little restaurant with a canal view outside. I had my first Belgium beef stew, and David had the mussels and frites. It was nice and quiet by the canal, and as we were eating we saw some swans swim by! After that, we wandered back to our hostel while stopping for a few photo ops and then finally got some rest! I can’t believe I’m here, in EUROPE and travelling with David. I remember going to sleep feeling really lucky and happy that I get this opportunity to travel. This once was a dream of mine to visit Europe and here I am…

-Charlene