Looking at the general assembly of the European Parliament 

Manneken Pis, I forgot to tell you: another famous symbol of Brussels, originally made in 1619. 

The Atomium in Brussels 

In the train to Brussels 

The Servatius Basilica in Maastricht 

Servatius, the patron saint of Maastricht 

Friends I made in Maastricht! 

My trip to Maastricht and Brussels

Dear visitor,

Sorry, it took a while for a new story, but my last travels were very hectic actually. I am getting the thrills of travelling more and more, because every place I visit is so different in its own way.
Alright, after all the partying in Estonia with a wonderful group of international students I flew to Berlin with Marge, Tobi and Maria. In Berlin we would have to spend quite some hours at the airport, waiting for the connecting flight to Maastricht.

It is always exciting to hang around at airports; so many flights arrive and depart, carrying so many passengers, each with their own story and destination. But after 6 hours I was very happy that we could finally take off for Maastricht. We arrived with a little delay, in the late evening.

At Maastricht airport Bas and Arjan were waiting for me already; they were very happy to see their friends back. We got on a bus and had an interesting trip through the villages around Maastricht. What a difference with Estonia; Estonia has only 1.3 million inhabitants and only a few towns and cities, whereas The Netherlands has a lot of people (around 16.4 million) on even less space as Estonia. Me and especially Maria were stunned by what Arjan and Bas called villages: we thought those were cities already!

After half an hour or so we got to Maastricht, and I was kind of tired. Luckily Arjan lives close to the station so we finally reached our destination. The first night we decided to take it easy. We drank a couple of beers, for which the Dutchmen are famous and then I tried a bit of the other thing Holland is famous for…

Well after this I was really tired and decided to go to bed, the next day promised to be tiring cause I would go around town to do some sightseeing.

Pfffff….perfect, I had a good night sleep and there we went! As I heard Holland has only cities and no nature or whatsoever. Well I am not sure yet, but they do have some wonderful parks! And what a difference with Estonia! Here the trees have already blossoms, and flowers are all over. Also they had a lot of animals in the parks: goats, geese, deer, ducks and many more! I made some friends with some beautiful other flowers too.

The park was close to the university buildings so I decided to have a look inside, well at some point I have to study too so I better have a look in universities so I can choose the nicest one. The faculty I saw was built in an old (1923) Jesuit monastery very close to one of the central squares; ‘Vrijthof’. After the faculty we walked through the old centre, which is indeed old but all houses are renovated are in use as residence or office.

We saw Servatius of Maastricht, well better; a statue of him. I read that he is the old patron saint of the city. He was born in the 4th century, and became a bishop, finally in Maastricht. The legend is that he also died in Maastricht in 384 A.D. Later a bishop decided to built a church on his grave, which was rebuilt over centuries until now. Quite impressive that some of this church is 1500 years old, and that some towers are ‘only’ a few centuries old. The pope exclaimed the church as a ‘basilica’ in 1985.

I liked Maastricht, but what is it with Dutch people and those bikes! You cannot walk anywhere without seeing, hearing or being hit by a bike! Incredible.

Then Friday I took the train to Brussels, which is only one and a half hour away. As I heard that Belgium and Holland in history were part of one country I thought these countries would be the same. Well they have a lot in common, but they are very different as well. For example: if you cross the border (7km south of Maastricht) everybody speaks French and not Dutch (of course this is also the other way around, and both are very proud of their language).
I learned that Belgium can be divided in a French-, a Dutch- and a German-speaking part. Brussels is considered mostly French-speaking, but a lot of people also speak Dutch actually.

I arrived at Brussel-Luxembourg, a train station close to the European Parliamant, of course a must-see if you visit Brussels. Thadäus, a friend of my friends showed us around in the parliament since he is doing an internship there. Wow, such a large building, where all the decisions concerning EU politics are made; very interesting to see!

After this I had a look in the old city centre; the Grand square and all the beautiful streets around the square. Belgium is famous for its beers, and that is visible…we went to a pub called Delirium (what’s in a name) where they serve at least 2004 beers, but they can have over 2500 different beers in stock! They are mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records and rightly so. I must say the beers are great, but of course I could not drink too much; there is a lot to see and I did not want to ‘waste’ my time only in pubs.

One other thing Brussels is famous for is the Atomium designed by André Waterkeyn for the world expositions of 1958 in Brussels. You will see at the picture that it consists of 9 bolls, together representing the Iron-molecule. Each of the bolls has a diameter of 18 meters, and the total construction is more than 100 meters high! Very impressive!

Hereafter I decided to go back to Maastricht to spend some more days there and try some more Dutch specialties. Also I had a look in the limestone quarry in the St-Pietersberg; a 220 km labyrinth of tunnels where you can easily get lost. Luckily I walked with a guide who told all kinds of interesting stories during the walk. For example he said that during the second world war more than 50000 people were evacuated in this hill and they lived there for 3 months, they even had bakeries there! I also saw many paintings and inscriptions, some more than 500 years old. It was nice, but I was happy to get out and see the sun again (after all I am a flower).

Well the end of the trip was there, I took the plane back to Berlin, great to be ‘home’ again. Right now I am in Berlin still and hoping to join Caroline to go to…New York! I hope I will meet her so I can fly with her, otherwise I will go back to Estonia to my friends there!
I will keep you updated!

Chao,

Sofie

Some more stories about my Estonian adventure!

Another picture in a pub... (as you can see, I partied a lot in Estonia!) The funny guy is Valerio :)

Dear Visitor,

Welcome to Estonia
So on one very foggy and snowy day I was picked up by one Estonian girl with whom I immediately felt a mental connection as we both love to travel. In total I stayed 5 nights in Estonia, and all of them I spent in either going crazy with Erasmus students in Tartu or drinking with Estonians!

Tartu - ‘city of good thoughts’
The last day I spent sightseeing in Tartu (the second largest city in Estonia).Tartu is known for its university which was established in 1632. You can feel and see bits of the former Soviet regime in this lovely town, but students tend to sweep it away with their jolly traditions and respectful customs. One of the most famous tradition in Tartu are the spring student days, where you can float in a boat while the water is only 7 degrees or run around the city retarded. I feel sorry that I wont be there at that time, but the stories about it are impressive. Another nice thing about Tartu was the Town Hall on Raekoja Plats (main square), which is the third building on that spot already, it was completed in 1784. Since ancient times Town Hall Square has been the centre of Tartu, the main trading area of the settlement between the castle on the Toome Hill and the riverside port on the Emajõgi (the river flowing through town). Unfortunately the day that I was sightseeing it was raining really heavily so I couldn’t cross the river over the arch of the bridge (which is a student tradition).

Tallinn - ‘your home place’
The last day I spent in the capital; Tallinn.I went into the national opera house called ‘Estonia’ and it was really impressive. Estonians are known for their singing fests. There is a national song festival that takes place every 4 years and it makes up the biggest choir in the whole world (20 000 singers). I was impressed, cause that makes around 1.6 % of the whole nation just singing. I was also happy to take a walk in the old town, since it is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site. It was mostly built from the 11th till 15th century. There are many medieval churches and most of all I loved the Latin quarter of the old town. I loved going out in Tallinn cause it was really cosy and the people seemed to like me immediately and also I noticed how many gorgeous girls Estonia has. My host, Marge, started to wonder if I am straight or bi... I still have to figure that out, I think it depends on countries;)

Right before take off to my birth town, Berlin, I went shopping with Marge to buy good stuff for my saviour. We bought three bottles of good Estonian vodka and a few beers. Vodka is Estonia’s national drink, they even drink it when they feel that flu is creeping into them. And did you know that Estonia holds the record in drinking hardest alcohol, one dude drunk 98% alcohol and didn’t die. This nation amazes me. I would love to spent more time there, maybe for student days, cause I heard that is the best party of the year!

Chao,

Sofie

Another picture in Club Tallinn in Tartu (Estonia) 

Me, Marge and Moonika