The Hague, Brussels and more quotes than I know what to do with

Last week, my European politics program went to the Hague and Brussels..well really we went to Brussels and stopped by the Hague for a day. Trip started with a supposed-to-be 11 hour bus ride, which turned into a 16 hour ride after the 4 hours of what I imagine to be New York-style traffic in the middle of nowhere Germany..who knows? Next morning, after painfully dragging myself out of bed, the group headed over to a lecture by a civil servant at the Dutch representation to the EU. Interesting stuff..we were supposed to see the ICTY but since the trial of Karadzic started we weren't able to. After, we headed over to the Peace Palace. Another lecture, this time on the International Court of Justice- which of course I find fascinating, and a tour of the Palace. The entry way has the quote "may the sun of justice enlighten us" of which I am incredibly fond. The different parts of the Palace were donations by different countries- for example, the US donated a large amount of the ceiling. Well that and Carnegie helped fund an incredible amount of the Palace. After the required awe and photo-op out front, we went over to one of the 7 trappe monestaries in the world- 1 is in the Netherlands and 6 are in Belgium. We got a chance to try 6 of their beers...oh and they dont mess around, it ranges from 3-10%. Tour was interesting, I came to the conclusion I could never live a life like that so have a lot of respect and intrigue for those that can.

That night we drove into Brussels. The next few days have all kind of blurred together. We visited the EU Council and Parliament, NATO headquarters, political actor interviews, Planet Chocolate, the Music Museum, the Anatomium, had a bike tour of the city, went to a flee market, and basically did an incredible amount of wandering around. EU was interesting...they are much more compromising and consensus driven than any US organization I have encountered. Also, everything basically boiled down to nothing can be done without US support but the EU is a lot better at diplomacy. NATO was hilarious because we spent the whole time discussing whether it should even be in existance..not the typical stance of NATO officials but much more interesting. For our political actor interview, my group was assigned a legal representative from the European Trade Union Confederation- they work to lobby for workers rights. Lobbying works very differently here though because it is institutionalized do the EU will actually come to them and ask for advice as well.

For the more cultural stuff: Planet Chocolate...well you can guess, was incredibly delicious. We got to make our own chocolate and sample a bunch of different ones and Belgium has definitely earned its rep for having amazing chocolate. Very well deserved. A few of us went to the Music Museum which was really interesting because regardless of the fact my knowledge of musical instruments is close to nill, the entire thing was very interactive. You would get headphones and stand on little circles in front of the instrument and it would play a recording for you. Loooooved the music from Namibia and Western Africa in general- so upbeat and Im sorry but the classical stuff bored me after this. We swung by the Anatomium. You kind of have to if in Brussels, I mean its on all the tour brochures. The bike tour was probably my favorite part of the whole trip, at least in terms of the cultural aspects. Our tourguide was Argentinian and threw in lots of quirky anecdotes (including how the US is not America and in fact should be renamed Land of We Kill the Cherokee- I said Id pass on the suggestion but doubt it'll get much support). The views he showed us were incredible though and we got to see some places we definitely would not have seen otherwise, like the train station that is covered in graffiti (which Ive started to fall in love with) that turns into a club after midnight.

We also checked out the Brussels nightlife..Delirium Tantrum basically sums up the extent of that. Its a huge tourist attraction so the big downfall was that we didn't get to meet too many people from Brussels, but considering I couldn't talk to them anyway (dont speak French or Flemish..actually I was really lucky that a few of the girls spoke French and got all our directions). Anyway, the place is huge, has every type of beer you can imagine..I tried Cactus, Mango, Cherry and the regular ones they make. The specialty is the Delirium Tantrum which is 10%, but that's very normal there. As much as I didn't like beer before this, these are actually really good and a must try if you ever go. Our professor also came out with us and the guy is completely hilarious and does stuff professors in America would never be able to get away with..including doing a jig with one of the students in the middle of the bar, telling us his "motorboating story" from his politician days, showing us "how the west was won" by taking obscene amount of whiskey shots, and just being overall ridiculous. Our bus driver Klaus also came out with us and we had some great bonding time where he told us about his kids and grandkids. Oh, there was also a dog at the bar. And this was not me being drunk, but there was actually a dog hanging out at one of the booths. Totally normal right?

I also tried Mussels!! Mussels in Brussels...figured I wasn't going out of my way to eat them in the future so I may as well. Actually kind of liked them. Not at the same time, but we also got Belgian waffles- its like their version of hot dog stands because they are everywhere. I got strawberries and bananas on mine and wow when I have a heart attack at 25, Ill know what its from and it'll be so worth it. Overall, the trip was amazing. Well...

We were leaving Friday night at 7pm to make the 14hour long ride back. Fifteen minutes into the trip, the bus breaks down outside of NATO. This is pretty much how it played out from there: hours of trying to repair the bus, calling a repair man, explaining to the repair man what Brussels is and how to get there, him having no idea how to fix it, sleeping on the bus for the remainder of the night, paying a regular bus 100 euro to take us back to the hotel, having breakfast in the hotel, staying in the hotel lobby for the next 10 hours (a few of us wandered around and found the sweetest playground ever where we created our band and made our first album cover, very creative looking), had dinner in the Chinese restaurant that was in the lobby of our hotel and then made the 14 hour bus ride back, making it into Copenhagen at roughly 7am on Sunday...a mere 24 hours later than planned. At that point, I went back and passed out from pure exhaustion.

Update since then- not much. Went to the Globe to watch the Arsenal game tonight- won 5-2. Have not heard people swear that much in a while (and this is when they were happy as its a British pub). Now back and going to pass out.