Bruges

If you only had 24 hours left to live your life, how would you spend it? You may spend it travelling, with your loved ones, or perhaps doing everything you've always intended to do but never got around to. I for one, would probably spend it travelling, or writing, and certainly with my family and friends. These past 3 months I've spent abroad and travelling have showed me that we should not live on these 'intentions'. It is inexcusable to say that you intended to email someone, meant to send someone a Christmas card, or meant to return that call. As the years go by, something as simple as forgetting to send a friendly email accumulates into something along the lines of, oh I meant to keep in touch with that person, but I just didnt. Before I send myself off on a tangent, the point is that life is just far too short to put things off. I've noticed often when travelling that I've had thoughts of, oh I'll just have to come back to Berlin or Brussels and do this next time, but the fact of the matter is, if we spend our whole lives putting things off for tomorrrow, being too lazy or lacking ambition and initiative to do the things we want to do, we will have never really lived at all! Although I feel like I'm contradicting myself by dancing around the point here, it's just so hard to perfectly articulate, but whether you have 24 hours, 24 days, or even 24 years, there is never enough time to do everything you want to do, so it seems foolish to ever wait for the next time. It's all in the little things (cliches are cliches because they are true).Otherwise you'll be busy wondering how 24 hours turned into 24 days, and then 24 years.....

On that note, I sent my parents some Belgian chocolates today from Bruges and I guess this means that I have already ruined the surprise... Bruges is a small town, about a half an hour away from Brussels. It is an old, Renaissance town that is almost entirely full of tourists. There are cute little chocolate shops, horse-drawn carriages, and of course, a bicycle rental place, as there seems to be all over Europe. We spent the majority of the day walkíng around, enjoying chocolates and the scenery. Well I should admit that we spent quite a while in the train station reserving our complex route to Geneva tomorrow. Apparently, Europe closes down on Mondays so all the eurail backpackers have opted to spend their Monday on a train- all the seats on our desired route were full. But don't worry, we booked the next viable alternative, it is just unfortunate that the train leaves at 7 am.... oy vey.... Anyways we bought some chocolates, still havent finished them. Steph and I got these sort of round Belgian donuts with at least a cup of icing sugar on them wrapped in a paper cone. There was a looooooooot of sugar there, mostly ended up all over us with all the bumping around inthe crowded square of tourists. there are before, during and after photos of Steph eating her donut... she turned her face into a tourist attraction (I helped). Anyways, we made it back to Brussels alright intime for dinner with Anna, Elisabeth, Terry and Jamie, and two rounds of desert!!!!! mmm definitely not backpacking anymore!!!! Iø'd like to give them a very very special mention for their wonderful hospitality, this will certainly be one of the best and most memorable parts of our trip! so thank u!