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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Adventures in Bruges & Aachen

A blog post by Joe White, Fall 2011


 I think this’ll be a two part blog: the first, a more superficial look at my travels and the second a deeper analysis of what these travels have taught me.

 
            The first week I travelled without the school, was a trip of all sorts. Peter, my friend, had a strong, burning desire to get to Bruges in Belgium, if only to see where the movie In Bruges was filmed. We had some complications with train reservations on the way out, so instead of ironing them out we made no reservations on anything and hoped that the 18 hour trip would go without a hitch. Long and short: it did. We stopped in Brussels, originally a twenty minute stop that we decided to make a two hour respite. On the city subway Monica made friends with a French speaking student (indeed, from France) and he and his friend gave us an hour tour of the city—all in French. Luckily Sam and Monica are both pretty fluent in the language so they were our translators. We all had enormous waffles topped with bananas and strawberries and cream and then headed to Bruges. The city was beautiful in its medieval splendor. Everything you’d expect to be great met our liking: the mussels were tasty, the beer: wonderful, the chocolate: exceptional.
 
I ditched my group the next day to meet up with my friend Laura. She was a foreign exchange student at my high school (junior year), and we became good friends during her time in America. Of course when I decided to go to Franciscan I told her I would visit her during my Austrian semester. We met in Maastricht, Netherlands where she attends university and then went to her home in Aachen, Germany. It was really great to see an old friend, especially in her wonderful German home. Aachen was a great city: young and vibrant with university students but also rich in history—there was a legend to go along with nearly every statue in the city. Plus the incredible Aachen Dom, built by Charlemagne (or Karl der Grosse, as the Germans call him) himself. One of the most unique churches I’ve ever encountered: it was built in the shape of an octagon. It also contains the tallest stained glass window—that is to say, it is one solid piece of glass. Truly impressive. Check it out:
Yes, each of those windows is one piece of glass.

            I departed from Aachen, alone, Sunday afternoon, knowing full well I’d be arriving back in Gaming at 6 AM Monday, only minutes before my Christian Moral Principles midterm. It’s good to be young!
 
 On the overnight train from Munich to Salzburg, while getting up to use the WC I heard a call from one of the other cabins. “Joe White. JOE WHITE!” I heard. And who was on the train, alone as well, but my good friend Daniel. I entered his cabin, and we exchanged stories—he left his passport on the train going to Bruges, and so on the last day he had to train to the very top of Belgium[1] to get it back. But he retrieved it—just as he retrieved the famous Westwleterny 12.[2] From Salzburg we rode to St. Polten where we met up with a very cold Patrick who had been trying to sleep there—unsuccessfully—for nearly half a day. Our merry band grew larger. On the train from Pöchlarn we encountered Dave, Jacob, and John who were just returning from Cinque Terre. We all returned to the Kartause safely and demolished our exams that day, followed by a long, well earned nap. Stay tuned for more!


[1] In his own words, “I could see the English Channel from the train station.”
[2] Nearly unanimously ranked as the world’s best beer

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