Happy New Years!!

Well, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a very drunk and Happy New Years!! Lynsey and I have been enjoying ourselves to the fullest these past 2 weeks or so. Christmas in Paris was absolutely perfect and New Years in Belgium was a blast. Since the last update ya'll recieved was while we were in Cologne, I'll give you another update of the past week or so. So after I wrote you all the last time, we made some dinner and ran in to a couple from the states. She actually was born and raised in Marshfield so we all got along great. Needless to say after dinner we made our way down to a local Pub where we consumed way to much beer in way to short a time and then stumbled home to pass out. I guess during the night one of the guys in our room got up sleep walking and was looking to get to the bathroom but only managed to make it to the other 2 people in the room and stood over them in the peeing position. Both woke up and were quite startled. It was funny. So we slept in the next morning and then poked around the city all day before getting to bed early for an early morning and day of traveling. We got up the morning of the 30th and headed to Luxembourg for the day because we both wanted to see the city before we left. Of course as soon as we got there and stored our bags and started walking, it started raining! So we walked around for a couple hours and then jumped back on the train and headed to Antwerp, Belgium to meet up with some friends. We arrived in to Antwerp around 1830 and they picked us up and we headed to their house. Filip was my old roommate at Brno and Caroline is his girlfriend he meet in Brno. We headed to Caroline's house where her mom had prepared an authentic Belgium 5 course meal for the 5 of us. It was amazing! We visited for awhile and then headed back to Filips house to meet his parents and get some sleep. We woke on New Years Eve Day rather late, got ready, ate breakfast and headed for the city. Another friend of ours, Kristof (Filip's roomie the last part of the semester) met up with us in the city so now we were 5. We wandered the city, saw the sights, had Belgium fries that Lynsey was craving and then headed back to his house for another typical Belgium New Years feast. His parents are so much and we are so grateful for their hospitality the 4 days we stayed. The meal was another good one and after relaxing a bit after dinner we got ready and headed to a party at one of Filip's friends house nearby. We drank some more Belgium beer and rang in the New Years in fashion complete with champaign and fireworks. From there we caught a cab in to Antwerp and partied at a very busy bar until 0430 or so before catching the bus back to his house. After seeing 0600 on the clock and having to wake up by 1100 we were tired. We took a drive out to the coast and spent a few hours walking around and enjoying the beautiful weather and fresh ocean breeze. Great way to wake yourself up after a long evening. We had Belgium hot chocolate and waffles and then headed to another city to see some sights and have dinner. It was another late evening but a great day indeed. Tuesday morning we got to sleep in a bit before getting up and catching the bus in to town to catch the train to the neighboring city of St. Niklaas where we met Caroline and headed to a big outdoor biking event. Biking is the number one sport in Belgium so we were glad we got to see such an event. Since it rains so much in Belgium, the outdoor course around the entire lake was complete mud as well as the bikers. It was fun to watch and even a few Americans where competing. Caroline dropped us off at the train station and we said our final goodbyes to hear and we caught a train back to Antwerp. We got back to Filip's house after a long delay in the train station and had another wonderful meal. We spent some time with Filip and his parents before heading to bed for an early morning.

We were orginally going to go to Amsterdam on Tuesday (the 2nd) but decide to go to the cycyling event instead and just make a day trip to Amsterdam on Wednesday. So we were up bright and early, said our goodbyes to our wonderful Belgium friends again and headed to Amsterdam. We spent a good portion of the day wandering the streets, visiting the Anne Frank House, seeing all the hard working women in the "Red Light District" and smelling weed and other various drugs all day. The city definetly has a completely different vibe then the rest of Europe and we couldn't get over how many people were there! Having to be back in Brussels last night, we boarded another train and got back in to Brussels at 2030 after yet another short delay and checked in to our hostel and relaxed.

So today we will tour Brussels before boarding the Student Agency bus around 1800 for yet another 15+ hour bus ride back to Brno. Then we will spend 12 hours or so in Brno saying goodbye to friends, grabbing our bags and checking out before getting on another bus for 9 hours and heading to Munich. But I can fill ya'll in on that another time. Right now we have some sights to see. We miss you all back home and can't wait to see you in less than 3 weeks. Take care and until next time, CIAO!!