Lexi's Semester in Sweden: 2015

Saturday 5/30/15

All Sidney and I knew about Brussels was that there were Belgian waffles. It was exciting going somewhere completely unfamiliar and having no expectations. We walked out of the bus station and there were several peep shows on the road. The fact that it was 8am made it even more shocking. But eventually we walked to old town and started the real learning! French is mostly spoken in Brussels and I decided I know just enough french from the year I took it at Gustavus to get me in trouble. I can speak enough for the other person to think I am fluent but a few phrases in I switch to English and say thats all I know. It was fun to actually speak French for a day.

The center of activity was the Market Square (aka Nedermerct or Grand Place). It was paved in the 12th century. The Brussels museum seen above was originally mason du roi which sits opposite to the hotel de ville in the picture.

The museum had the typical artifacts displaying several centuries of European history.

Brussels used to export altar pieces all over Europe.

Model of the town in the 13th century. It was a port on the river Seinne.

The most famous statue in Brussels in Manneken Pis or The Peeing Boy. The museum had a whole room dedicated to the costumes they dress the statue up in. Above is the Canadian costume. They had a cowboy and an astronaut for the US. They even had a traditional Sami outfit for the people of Northern Scandinavia.

The English costume.

Here are some origin stories of the statue.

The Brussels Museum

And of course Belgian Waffles with an enlarged replica of the peeing boy in front of the store.

When we visited the statue it was dressed as a witch. There were a bunch of men dressed as witches and one jumped in on our selfie.

Manneken Pis, The Peeing Boy. They say this statue represents Brussel's spirit of freedom and amusement. It dates from at least 1451.

After we visited a beer museum.

Sidney was in heaven. She loves her beer and has grown a new appreciate for beer during our semester in Europe. The beer in Europe is much heavier than America.

We got complimentary beers after we toured the museum.

A mural of Tin Tin, a children's story that originated in Belgium.

For lunch I had a savory waffle sandwich from this nice shop.

A cute street showing the architecture of Brussels.

An antique market that had incredible items for sale.

The Notre Dame church next to the market.

A view from Place Royale.

The Royal Palace

Sidney and I in front of the Royal Palace

Delicious cone of Belgian fries.

Belgian Waffles! One with chocolate and one with fresh cream.

We finished the day at the Delirium Cafe. It is a bar that has several hundred beers on tap.

We tried the light Delirium brew and the dark cherry Delirium brew.

While we waited at the train station for our night bus to Copenhagen where we would catch the train to Stockholm we met several people who struck up conversations with us. Two black ladies asked if we had met Jesus. Sidney, who is a religion major, found it interesting to ask them about their faith but we said goodbye when they got a little too preachy. Sidney is fascinated with religion and has her own unique faith but she strongly disagrees with telling other people what to believe. She respects it is something I am working on on my own. We also people watched a lot and made stories up for the people we saw. One man appeared to be an artist so we talked about his estranged father and terrible childhood. Another man was very well dressed. We said he was a fisherman from Italy whose boat had just wrecked so he was buying a ticket to get back home.

Sunday 5/31/15-Monday 6/1/15

After spending three nights on buses, next to strangers, going through customs in several countries, and both of us getting sick we arrived in Stockholm for our last night. It felt as if we were home, as if Sweden was our second home now. It was familiar and comforting but we ready to go home for real.

We ate Max Burger for our last Swedish meal. It is like the Scandinavian McDonalds. We ate it as our first meal at the airport in Stockholm when we first arrived in Sweden so we thought it would be great symmetry to eat it as our last.

In the morning, bright and early, we headed to the airport and grabbed our luggage from storage. Luckily the locker payment machine was broken so Sidney didn't have to pay for her second bag.

Our flight out of Stockholm was delayed several hours so Sidney got us food vouchers for our inconvenience. Our second flight was rebooked. The international flight went by uneventful. But…when we landed in Newark we had an hour to get off the plane, get our luggage, go through passport control, go through customs, recheck our bags, get to the right terminal, get through security and get to our gate. It seemed impossible. We were frantic as we waited for our bags. Sidney got pulled aside at customs because she had claimed food so her bag had to be scanned. I was let through and booked it to catch the flight. I ran through it all to security. When I was at security it was 10 minutes until the plane took off. I was let through security, grabbed my shoes and ran with my bags to the gate. I panicked because the gate had changed but it had moved only a few down. There were a bunch of people in line and it turned out the flight had been delayed 25 minutes!! But Sidney was still nowhere in sight. About 10 minutes later she comes running up without her shoes on and completely drenched in sweat.

Turns out when she got to recheck bags they wouldn't take it because it was under 30 minutes before the flight was to take off. So she was told to get in a long line to rebook her flight. She called her dad while in line and breaks down because she was so excited to get home and I had made it through while she hadn't. Her dad was just laughing on the other line. A small asian man who worked for the airport approached her and asked if she had flown Scandinavian Airlines and that they were trying to get ahead. She said yes and he checked her connecting flight. He told her it was delayed and to run! She brought her bag back to the recheck bag man, shoved it to him and said "RECHECK MY BAG, MY FLIGHT HAS BEEN DELAYED!" Then the little asian man ran with her to the door and she was off! We both made the flight and were only 2 hours and 49 minutes away from Minneapolis. Our bags didn't make it on our flight but arrived later that night.

My mom was waiting for me at the airport! I spent the night in Minneapolis and saw my cousin's new baby Stella the next day. She is beautiful! Afterwards we started the four hour drive to Sioux Falls! Oh, how I missed the Great Plains and my South Dakotan people!