Our First Day in Europe!

It occurred to me earlier that I have not blogged for a good while and I said to myself "I really need to blog again, I've probably lost my following" (Ya know, because I'm suuuuch a famous blogger). Anyways, now that we've settled in to my dad's apartment in Turnhout and have spent 2 days here I suddenly feel inspired and my writer's block has diminished. It's actually kind of odd because you'd think it'd be the other way around - that I'd be so tired and jetlagged - But! 'Tis not the case and for that I'm glad. 

So here we go, let's start with our plane rides to Brussels first. A few days before our departure I thought we had to be at the airport by 5:30 am (which is dreadfully early) because our flight to ATL left at 7:05 am, so I thought to myself "Oh that'll be plenty of time". When I checked in to our flights and printed out our boarding passes I noticed they said boarding began at 6:15 am, and to my dismay that meant we had to leave for the airport by 4:30 am. If I'm not mistaken I have stated previously how much I loathe waking up early...or was that packing? Either way I hate them both equally (BTW thank you Erika for helping me pack). Okay so it's the night before we're supposed to leave and by the time I've gone to my dad's house to pick up the rest of my beloved clothes to pack, grab my last American meal in Las Vegas at McDonald's with Ashley (it's only natural that we went to McDonald's), and got back to my mom's house it was already like 2:45-ish am. Despite my mother's constant "Sweet, you need to get some sleep" I decided to stay up because we were leaving in an hour and a half anyways. It gave me enough time to try and look as put together and decent as one could possibly look after pulling an all-nighter basically 2 nights in a row (which I failed at regardless, but hey that's okay). Clearly I was so tired that I was delusional in thinking I looked acceptable, that or my mirror lied to me. I looked like a hot mess. I looked like a whale. It's all good though, I can laugh at myself. 

At McCarran Airport, saying our goodbyes.

Alrightyyy so we get inside, check our bags, and make it through TSA, take the tram to our concourse and walk to our gate just in the nick of time. When we got to our gate they had started boarding all the fancies with their first class tickets and whatnot, so we fell in line for our zone to be called and boarded, and before we knew it we were on the plane and in our seats. The plane ride to our 4 hour layover in ATL was just around 4 hours, give or take 10 minutes, and it was the most uncomfortable 4 hours of my life. I don't know why but the seats felt smaller than usual, literally no leg room, it was freezing cold even with jeans, a jacket, and scarf on, and I couldn't sleep worth a damn. I was entirely too happy when we got off the plane, I think we both were. We went to a currency exchange booth and then met my older brother, Freddy, out front and he drove us to his house and we had Fox Brothers BBQ, which Freddy said it was the best in ATL, and I have to say it was probably the best BBQ I've ever had. Along with the food there were some interesting conversations taking place, conversations that I prefer not describe in great detail, it was fun though and it was great to spend some time with Freddy and his girlfriend Rossana before we left. Freddy then drove us back to the airport and we said our goodbyes to him too. We went through TSA, walked to our gate, and boarded the plane with ease. To my surprise the plane was no where near full, and I think that made it easier to fall asleep. I think I may have fallen asleep before we even took off, because when I awoke I thought we were still on the ground waiting to lift-off, but I opened the window and we were in the clouds. I thought to myself "When the hell did that happen?" Nevertheless, the 8 hour plane ride was actually much easier to bear and a tad bit more comfortable than the last. According to Mike I knocked out a couple of times for a good while, long enough to drool on his shoulder (sorry babe). When I wasn't asleep I watched 22 Jumpstreet, Bend it like Beckham, Cool Runnings, and Neighbors. I nearly woke up the whole plane from laughing so hard when Seth Rogen's character shot through his office ceiling because the fraternity put an airbag in his office chair. It was too funny to hold my laughter in. Mike and I watched so many movies that the time passed by fairly rapidly. Sooner or later the pilot spoke on the intercom and said we were beginning our decent in to Brussels, and Mike's face lit up. He turned to me and said "I can't believe I'm actually here." He's so cute.

When we landed it was Thursday the 23rd around 7:50 am, so we left the plane and headed for passport control. Mike was nervous about that, he kept asking "What do I say?!" and I told him just to say that he's here with his girlfriend visiting her family. I went to my officer and he went to his. I always find it funny when I go through passport control because the person always asks "What is your purpose here in Belgium?" and I say "I'm visiting family." And they seem so surprised, probably because I don't look like I'd have family in Belgium, so they ask "You have family in Belgium?" And as sarcastic as I want to be I smile and bite my tongue and say "Yes, yes I do. In Turnhout." When Mike passed the control area he was laughing because the man had given him a hard time. Mike said what I had told him to say and the person had asked him which girl was his girlfriend, if I was a Belgian citizen, how long he'd be in Belgium and a few other questions. I just told him that the officers there probably get really bored with their jobs, so they were most likely just giving you a hard time to mess with you. After passport control we walked to get our luggage and sat down in a cafe to wait for my dad to pick us up. My dad was stuck in traffic and so he advised us to have a beer, keep in mind it was 8 am when we arrived. I followed suit anyway, I was still jetlagged so it was really 11 pm for me, perfect time to have a beer! I ordered a beer called Duvel, my cousin Tom says it's probably the beer that's drank the most in Belgium. I didn't like it that much, it was very bitter. 

My dad finally shows up and walks us to his car, its a Ford made in Belgium with a German license plate, I thought it was funny. We drove from Brussels to Turnhout, brought our luggage into the apartment, changed and headed out to see some of my dad's hometown. We stopped in one of my dad's old neighborhoods, which is apparently "the slums" so to speak. He said the best part about living there was the park right next to it. We walked around my dad's old stomping grounds (because my dad is such a badass) and took some pictures. After we walked in the park, we went to go see my grandpa's sister, Marlene (idk how to spell it, I would ask my dad but he's asleep at the moment, it's 2:30 am here) who lives in that complex, she's lived there ever since my dad was a kid. When we went to go see her my grandpa's other sister was actually there too and I had never met her before, so it was pretty awesome to finally meet her. When we left Tante Marlene's (Tante is Aunt) we drove past one of my great-grandmother's old houses, went to the grocery store, the laundromat, and then we had drinks and dinner at my cousin Tom's restaurant D'Vine.

We had a pretty eventful day today as well, but I'll post about that in the next blog because this one is getting ridiculously long!

xx - Amanda!

Park by my dad's old neighborhood