Just Doing What Girls Do Best... Shopping!

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

The title says it all.... Today a couple of friends and I met up in Liege to go shopping. I was very scared by the fact that it would be the first time that I had to take any type of public transportation... I was very happy when I knocked on Cecile's door to get help and there was a list of the bus and train schedules for Liege, planned out for the 1 PM time that I had planned to meet up with everyone at Liege Guillemens, the main train station in Liege. I was so nervous that somehow I would mess up the whole timing, I left like 30 minutes earlier than I actually needed to. And waited. And waited. And waited. And realized that the list that Pascale had given was wrong. And checked the list and saw that the bus doesn't come to the bus stop until about 45 minutes after Pascale had written down. And I waited some more. And I texted Cecile, panicking. And I waited. And I waited. And finally, the bus came, just when the little schedule at the stop said. I was soooo happy when I arrived at the station and was able to find an atm. But then there was more disappointment as I realized that I had missed my train and that the next one didn't leave for anotehr hour and a half. So then, when I went outside and saw a bus with the destination as Liege, I hopped on the bus and said "What the heck! Don't know how long it's gonna take, but it has to be faster than waiting for the next train!" And so about 45 minutes later than suspected, I finally got to Liege. I was ecstatic to see the familiar faces of my friends at the station. and fortunately, I didn't feel all that bad because no one had any idea where Lauren was, even though she had said over and over again that she was coming (you see, she doesn't yet have a cell phone so no one is able to get a hold of her unless it's on Facebook...)

 I was so nervous to go, I got ready super early... Hence, the I am so excited to go pictures! :) And my goal is to have my arm covered in bracelets by the time I leave...

So after waiting another 15 minutes, we got onto a train to get to the center of Liege where all of the good shopping is (we didn't want to walk 20 minutes to get there when we had already lost some time... And hey, it's free so why not?) Then, just when we get off of the train, I get a call from a random number I don't recognize. Just because I didn't really remember who exactly it was who I had given my number out to, I answered and it ended up being Lauren. Apparently, her host father had decided to take the scenic route to Liege and decided that it wouldn't really matter if she was more than an hour late to meet up with us all... A bit annoying, but we were just glad that she could make it after all and that she was able to even find us after we had already decided to leave her behind (we thought she wasn't coming...) By this point, all of us were starving so Maddy, one of the oldies from Australia that was showing us around Liege, found a good friterie and we all got Belgian frites and Lauren and I were so hungry that we decided to split some kind of sausage. And boy, was it amazing. I will never again be able to face the gross-ness of American fast food places again... except for Taco Bell. Cause it's pretty amazing... After our completely unhealthy but delicious lunch we walked a little bit farther to meet up with Becky, who was getting dropped of a bit later than the rest of us. We met up her and then Maddy took us to a really good waffle place. Now, in Belgium, there are 2 different types of waffles: the Brussels waffle and the Liege waffle. They are both waffles, but the Brussels waffle is just a plain waffle with either chocolate or whipped cream or fruit (or all of them :)...) on top, while the Liege waffle has cinnamon or brown sugar cooked into the actual waffle and occasionally topped off with chocolate. Of course, since we were in Liege it was the Liege waffle we were eating, and boy was it delicious! Still hot, you could tell how freshly cooked it was. And I had my waffle with brown sugar, which is definitely my favorite kind of sugar out of them all! YUM! I get hungry just thinking about it, and I just finished dinner! Anyhow, everyone I was with (Maddy, Becky, Emmaline, Lauren, and Maddy's newie whos name I have forgotten...) said the preferred the Brussles waffle, but me, well let's just say if I ever want a waffle I'm going to Liege! :)

The shopping in Liege was amazing... There were so many shops, it was crazy. My favorite was H&M though... Now you people that have been to H&Ms in the US know it as a cheap place to shop with not very many cute clothes that generally fall apart quickly anyhow... But the H&Ms in Europe are to die for! There were sooooooo many adorable clothes, we probably spent over an hour just in that store. By the end, Lauren, Emmaline and I (the oldies were apparently over H&M's magical-ness and the other girl, well I just don't know why it wasn't love at first sight for her...) literally had over 20 items each going into the changing room. When we finally finished, there was a pretty long line outside the changing room... and I feel bad for the attendants, because we each only ended up buying a maximum of three things. Me, I bought a leather jacket that I feel in love with as soon as I walked into the store. Upon coming to Europe and noting everyone else's fashion sense, I realized that a lot of people wore adorable leather jackets and I just knew that if I were to buy anything, I NEEDED to buy a cute jacket to round out my wardrobe! When we finally left H&M, I think everyone else was reallt glad, because we really had taken quite a long time in there...

After a good day of shopping for all, we went our seperate ways and left Liege around 5. I was happy to figure out that Maddy and her newie were riding the same train back, so then at least I had someone to talk to! (Well, they got off a stop earlier at Spa, but still nice..) And thankfully, Pascale and Cecile came and picked me up at the train station in Verviers so I didn't have to worry about catching the train back. After such great shopping, I don't know if I will ever be able to return to plain old American malls ever again!