Girlstrip: 3 cities in 3 days

by Mariana Silva Barbosa (Switzerland)

A leap into the unknown Belgium

Right in the beginning of the european spring the sun starts to shine, we start wearing less jackets and we start thinking of summer and of the trips we want to do during the warm months. Back then we were just three friends searching for new adventures during our first european summer but we had no previous arranged destination. Since we had a budget we looked for countries where we could do the most and spend the less and that’s when we decided to go for Belgium. History, architecture, art and a variety of languages. The first city of this journey, Antwerp, called my attention because as soon as I got off that bus at 10 am, my first impression was of a very happy city. There was a square nearby and many people were walking around those narrow streets, there were children running around, the bright morning sun shining and the train station in the background. First challenge was to find my hostel because at that time I didn’t have internet nor a map (which I found out later that was my stupidity since I did have a plan to use in the whole europe). I was so enchanted that I kept on walking and checking all the international restaurants and cafés that were there. Hours after I found my way to the hostel, I went to meet my friends since their bus came a while after mine. Did I mention we left from different cities in Germany? We ended that day hearing some nice fireworks while walking back to our hostel after a full afternoon of sightseeing. Following day we decided we’d go to Gent. Not that far from the first city and not expensive at all a train ticket, who could think I’d fall in love for the second city even more than the first? As soon as we got out of the train station we were mesmerized with the amount of bikes parked in front of the train station. It was already almost around midday and it was already very hot. We checked the signals pointing out to the Old city and off we went. First impression of the city? Lovely. Right in front of us there was a big square with full cafés and bars. Walking up a bit more there was a river and cute bridges and a castle. A great atmosphere of people smiling and tourists walking around. I obviously stopped for the vary famous waffles. After one whole day of walking around and discovering cute doors and old buildings we left for our last destination: Brussels. It literally felt like we were entering another world. We have always heard a mixture of English and German but now even inside the train we kept hearing French. It all sounded different. Our train was late. Trying to get out of the train station and going out to discover... huge and moderns skyscrapers. Were we even in the same country? Being in a bigger city we decided that this time we had to get a city ticket instead of walking around as we had done before. And that was totally worth it. Visiting the Grand Palace during the evening and getting to watch all of those lights shining through that region was one wonderful moment. It felt like we were in a movie. We kept our journey for the following morning as we were carrying our backpacks and we needed a shower badly. Last day. It felt like in this city there was much more going on, busy people running errands but also lots of tourists and their cameras in the hands. Arriving at the Palais Royal there were many colorful flowers and I could bet that if a royal family still lived there they would have the best of the glamorous life as to judge for the decoration style of the place. But since we were not royals after spending a few hours out in the city it was time to leave. And in a not at all glamorous style: sweating and running and carrying the heavy backpacks but we couldn’t miss the bus.