This is my place to vent. Although I doubt anyone has read any of these posts, it keeps me sane. So, today I think I am about 95% sure that I sat in urine. I had an early appointment so I did that and was heading home for a nap around 10 AM. The metro was not extremely crowded, but there was no one sitting down in a section of 3 seats. The optimist I am, I was like, "Hell Yea, I never get a seat." I took my seat and rode home to the nearest metro stop Republique. Side note, the other day someone committed suicide by jumping off a building about a block from my apartment. Kind of crazy, but it almost made me respect cub's fans. They have gone 100+ years without giving up, but I still hate them. So back to my story, on the escalator up out of the metro station I realized my jeans were wet. It wasn't raining and hadn't for a day or so, but then it hit me. I probably sat in a seat where a drunken bum relieved himself. No wonder no one was sitting there. Son of a biscuit. The first thing I actually thought was, what if my brother had been the one to sit in urine. He would have gone on a rant. I will never tell him, but his pissed off approach on life really cracks me up. That is why I try to piss him off all the time. It really is funny. So, I sat in piss. O well, I am a glass half full kind of guy. It was a catalyst for me starting laundry. Although, I could have worn this pair of jeans for another week, it was probably a good starting point for laundry.
OK, to the real point of the story. We woke up in Achouffe Belgium and had breakfast at the hotel. Complimentary, or we would not have eaten it. We had some chips or something in the car so we were prepared. We went to the nearest town to check out the scenery and it was pretty cool. It was a little town in a valley with a big church in the middle. You could see the entire town from the winding road that let us in the town. It was cool, because we realized, we literally have no business being here. I think that is my favorite part about traveling is seeing a place that I never thought I would have ended up before or even know it existed. We found out later that allied troups gathered in Houffalize, the town mentioned, for the battle of Ardennes. You learn something everyday.
Well, we had a short drive of about a little over an hour to Luxembourg, Luxembourg. It is the capital city. Like I mentioned before, It is cool to go to places you never think you would go. I was talking to Ryan when we planned this trip. Why don't we go to Luxembourg. Why the hell not. How many people do you know that have been to Luxembourg. For me, it wasn't too many. I actually met some students when I was traveling in Madrid a few years ago that studied in Luxembourg, but besides that, I don't know anyone. We had no plan and literally no idea what there was to do in Luxembourg. Hey, that's the way I travel, spontaneous. It is the most fun. Worry free is the way to go.
We got to our budget hotel near the airport and took a a bus into the city centre. We just walked around having no expectations and were pleasantly surprised. Luxembourg, if you didn't know, is an incredibly small country. Luxembourg city is only around 100,000 people. Very small for a capital city of a country, but who am I kidding I grew up in central Iowa. It happens to be a very rich country as well. There GDP is ranked third in the world. A little worrisome for two students traveling, but it worked out alright. The city was very nice and didn't seem to have a bad part in the city. Elvis would have nothing to sing about because there was no ghetto as far as I could see. The entire city surrounded this park region. It seemed this town was built around this valley of natural beauty, I can only imagine what it would look like in the spring or summer. The valley went very far down and the coolest thing where the bridges. You wouldn't notice going across driving, but walking you could see all the bridges crossing this valley and they were remarkable. They were very rustic looking, made of brick, and extremely tall. I have honestly never seen anything like it. We walked around for hours, basically taking pictures of the same things because we thought it was astounding.
Walking around became a bit monotonous, so we did what any young men outside of the church of latter day saints would do, we found a pub. Luxembourg has two national languages. They speak French and German as they are surrounded by both. During WWII there was an act by the Nazis called Germanization of Luxembourg. This was the attempt to wipe out the French language, culture, and all French traditions out of Luxembourg. They could wipe one out in France where grocery stores close at 8 PM. C'mon, a brother gots to eat. I am still getting used to that, but the Germanization never completely worked. We had no idea which language was going to be spoke to us, and although we could order in French, I can only say thank you and train station in German, so we took the easy road out and found an English pub. We sat around and had a beer discussing our future plans. In future, where the hell were we going next.
A beer turned into 4 and we finally decided we were hungry. We pulled up Google maps to find an area of restaurants with the free WiFi and set off on what turned out to be an hour journey. The streets were completely crazy. Iowa is easy, some streets run the length of the town, and I don't even know the street names. I just say got Ben's house and take a left, you will come to Megan's house take a right, and right in between Green and Aaron's house your there. Ok, that was not accurate, but you get the point.
We were reaching our boiling point of frustration, and almost committed the ultimate sin. We almost went to McDonalds. Just as we were walking in, a light caught our eye. The sky's opened, the seas parted, and the cubs won a world series. Not really,anything to describe a miracle. There was a freakin Chi Chi's. For those who don't know, it is an amazing Mexican restaurant that I thought had closed. This is how my parents conned us into taking family pictures in Waterloo where we would stop at Chi Chi's after. I just found out that my parents want to take family pictures for their 25th wedding anniversary. Newsflash parents, we have gotten older, not matured. It is still going to quite the spectacle. Chi Chis, by the way, was amazing. Thank you Ryan's parents. Hadn't had a margarita in a long time. We did a little more wandering and caught the last bus back to the airport. Luxembourg is not a crazy city to go party, but I do recommend checking it out. It is a good place to stay and you are close to like 3 countries and plenty of places to see. I will discuss the next part of our stay tomorrow or when ever I get bored.
Ps--> this Glee shit is crazy. I am getting so pumped up for regionals its silly.
Call JG Wentwort 877-cash-now
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