Our trip started yesterday morning at 5:30 am when we had to meet the bus at Place du Vingt Aout, which, luckily for me, is right outside my front door. We drove for 3ish hours from Liege to Lille where we went straight to the hostel to put away our luggage. I was with Franny (Canadian) and I believe her name was Justine (Latvia). We were on the top floor, up several sets of staircases. We had a couple minutes for lunch (they passed out huge tuna sandwhiches, with the works on them!), then it was outside for a walking tour of Lille. I must say, I wore my parka, and it was still pretty chilly out.
The walking tour was really cool. They separated us into groups of 20 and the heads of ESN in Lille showed us around their city and all the highlights. For example:
The gate to Paris
City Hall
Palais des Beaux
After the walking tour, we had a couple hours of free time. A few of us went shopping at the mall near the train station. No word of a lie, it is shaped like a boat!
At 6 we all met back up at the hostel for a pre-party before supper. Chips, beer (all included in the 65 euros we paid to go on this trip), socializing. Then we walked to supper. Oh my goodness did we have a wait! They knew about us ahead of time, we had tables waiting but apparently they didn't start cooking until we arrived, if then! We arrived at 7 ish I'm guessing, and it was 9:30 before we saw any kind of food. I swear, some of the other students looked like they might eat each other. In an attempt to appease us, they had a gentleman play guitar and sing for us. He was very talented! Supper was ham and french fries.
Once we finally got out of supper, closer to 11 than 10, we went to the local student bar for a party. It was waaaaayyyyy too crowded! But the bar was cool. It was called La Plage, which means the Beach! It was all tiki themed, they even had sand under the tables! Anyways, so we hung out there for a few hours, dancing, having a wonderful time! Until the bar tender decided to be a jerk. They had a small tiki bar upstairs where we were dancing, and I feel a tap on my shoulder. The bar tender asks me to take the glass that someone put on his bar and move it. Not my glass, not my problem. He started yelling! So I grabbed it and basically threw it on the table, didn't break, but seriously? You work at a bar, if an empty glass is in front of you, put it behind your bar... Cultural differences I guess!
Around 1 am, Franny and I decided to walk back to the hostel, and, being Canadians in a foreign city, got lost. Not very lost! We were just turned around for a few blocks, no big deal. Once we got back to the hostel though we basically collapsed onto bed and fell asleep, not even waiting for our other roommate to get back. We were two of the first people back as well!
At 8 am, we had to be downstairs for breakfast, cereal and baguettes. Then we had to pack up the rooms and put our luggage back on the bus. After, we all walked to the Covered Market. It was such a cool experience, vendors all over the place selling everything from fruits and vegetables to tea sets and underwear! It was super crowded, super busy, and super cool. I bought an infinity scarf, which is a scarf that is sewn together at the ends, for 2 euros, and a really pretty watch for 5 euros. I think they were both good deals.
Then it was time for lunch. The girls I was with decided they wanted to eat closer to where we had to meet up later on (to go to the Art Gallery as a group), so we walked to La Palais des Beaux Arts, which is the square in front of the gallery. Two girls went to the health food cafe while I and the other girl, from Poland, went to Subway. I love subway so much! I'm sad that there isn't one in Liege, but it did make for a nice change. The line took forever though!
The art gallery was amazing! They were having a showcase on Jan Fabre who is a really famous Belgian artist. He works with beetle shells to make is pictures. The exhibit was all about the atrocities that slaves went through in the Congo. It was definitely an exhibit for adults, but how he does his work is amazing. These are all beetle shells:
After the gallery, it was time to get back on the bus and drive back to Liege. I'm pretty sure everyone slept on the bus, including myself.
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