Chocolate, Waffles, Beer, Repeat - Belgium

Last week, I had a 5-day break from work, so I decided to take a little trip to Belgium, a place famous for its chocolate (ohhh the chocolate!). In other words, my dream come true. 

Hello, lover.

Saturday was mainly spent traveling, but as soon as we arrived in Brussels, we set off toward the city center. It wasn't long before we stumbled upon some delicious Belgian waffles.

Tourist waffle, but so so so delicious!

After devouring our amazing waffles, we made our way toward Grote Markt, or the main square in Brussels. It was beautiful! The buildings are all so ornate and so European!

Inside Grote Markt

So ornate!

After some more exploring (but not too much, since it was so cold!), we decided to search for some traditional flavored Belgian beer, and ended up at Delirium Bar, which has tons and tons of beer choices. My first choice...a fantastic cherry-flavored beer.

My face is so flushed from the beer!

On Sunday, we took a train to Bruges, a quaint little picturesque town that I fell in love with! All of the little houses and buildings are made of brick and are so charming! 

I love this place!

Inside the main square, just love those colors!

Not to mention, the chocolate here was to die for. Seriously, that good. I may have spent more money on chocolate on this trip than anything else, but surprisingly, not much of it made it back home with me...

Best day of my life. Best chocolate of my life.

While in Bruges, we had the chance to tour the 150-year-old De Halve Maan Brewery. Our tour guide was hilarious, and the best part of the tour was getting a free beer at the end. I would definitely recommend it if you're ever in Bruges.

Such a cute little brewery

Delish!

We made our way back to Brussels that night, and spent the next couple days exploring more of the city, eating more waffles -- seriously could not resist these things, indulging in some delicious french fries (yum!), and of course, seeing the famous Mannekin Pis statue. To my surprise, it was smaller than I thought, and of course, a little funny. You'll see why...

Sometimes they hook beer kegs up to him!

Yes, that's a little boy. And yes, he is peeing.

We ended our stay with a couple quite a few more Belgian beers, including a raspberry beer that was absolutely delicious and went down soooo smooth. Of course, our large intake of beer caused us to venture out in search of more fries, which ultimately led us down an alley that we later realized was full of prostitutes, buuuut that's a different story for a different day.

Bottom line: If you want good beer, good chocolate, & good waffles, Belgium is THE place for you!

Hasta luego :)

Malaga, Te Quiero

I had every intention of writing this post last weekend, honestly. But then I ended up staying out until 5:30am on Saturday night (or Sunday morning, I guess you could say). Let's just say the couch and I were best friends the next day and I accomplished absolutely nothing.

This weekend wasn't quite so crazy, so I'll give it another go.

Let's just say a big part of the reason I ended up working here in Spain was my friend Antonio. I met him at UWEC, and we had a few Spanish classes together. One night, I ran into him at Brothers and he told me he was about to move to Spain. We chatted about the program he was working for a little that night, and I guess the rest is history. 

We've kept in touch while he was in Spain his first year, as well as during my time here. I had mentioned coming to visit him in Malaga, but never planned anything. So finally, a few weeks ago, I asked him if what weekend he was free, and from there started the trip planning.

I had the BEST time on this trip, it has honestly been one of my favorites so far. Malaga is absolutely beautiful, and it was great to see a friendly face so far from home!

Antonio & I out and about on Saturday night

Antonio was nice enough to let my friend Fanchon and I stay at his place, and he was basically our own private tour guide. We explored the local market (which was amazing!) and made some homemade soup from the goodies we picked up there, created our own version of homemade sangria, walked along the beach, explored the port, hiked up a crazy huge hill (in my opinion) to explore the castle at the top, visited the Picasso museum (Malaga is where Picasso was actually born!) and traveled to a nearby town with some breathtaking views. 

I think I had a smile on my face the entire weekend, and honestly couldn't stop taking pictures. Everything just seemed so beautiful, and those of you who know me know that I absolutely love the beach, so I was happy to be able to see it again! 

At the port for the afternoon

Antonio, Fanchon and I exploring for the day :)

Everything about Malaga is just gorgeous

View from our hike up to the castle

In addition to Malaga, we made our way over to a neighboring town called Rincon de la Victoria. It definitely has that small town charm! I think we walked along the sea and the beach for a couple of hours, just basking in the sun and realizing how lucky we were to be enjoying that moment. I couldn't stop snapping pictures, it was just that beautiful!

The sea, the sun, good friends --what more do I need?

Love everything about this

Beautiful views all around

Oh hey there, Antonio

This is me, wishing I could live in Malaga!

It was great being able to catch up with Antonio after so long, and some day I would definitely love to go back to Malaga!

Until then, I'll keep exploring more of Europe. I'm off to Belgium soon to enjoy my five-day weekend and take in copious amounts of chocolate, beer and waffles (...see ya later, diet).

Hasta luego!

Goals

It's been way too long since I've updated my blog, and quite a bit has happened since then. I've been pretty busy these last couple weeks working on some translations for the Government of Extremadura, but as soon as they're done I'll have more time to work on some of the goals I've set for myself.

• Update my blog! I just got back from an incredible weekend in Malaga, so I'll try to come up with a post this weekend during my free time.
• Start training for a 5k. I've always wanted to run a 5k or some type of race, but I was never motivated enough to do it. I've set up a schedule for myself and I'll begin training for it next Tuesday!
• Plan more trips! I'll be booking my plane ticket for Belgium tonight for a nice little trip from February 18th through the 21st; I can't wait! Belgian waffles and chocolate, anyone? :) I'm also working on setting up a weekend in Paris, and I would love, love, love to spend St. Patrick's Day weekend in Ireland. We'll see what happens.
• Get everything set up for my family's visit. I can't tell you how extremely excited I am for my family to come visit me. They'll be here from March 30th (right after my birthday!!) until April 9th, so right now I've got to set up a trip itinerary and make sure they have an amazing time in Spain!

It's not a very long list of goals, but I'm starting small to make sure I can accomplish everything I want to. :)