Early on Saturday morning, a bus picked up a group of IES students at the Res Hall and off we drove and drove and drove south to the white cliffs of Dover to catch a ferry to Calais, France, to then drive to Ieper, Belgium! It was a long, long day of traveling...
I didn't think the ferry would bother me much in terms of motion sickness because I was feeling more confident in regards to dizzy issues but... there was definitely a rock and sway as it was rather windy out... I spent some time outside on deck in the fresh air with my eye on the horizon, but after awhile it started raining so I went and sat inside and just stared out at the horizon. I didn't vomit or anything like that but I wasn't feeling too great either.
Here's a picture that looks fairly boring at first, but there's a rainbow in the center and right above the water, you can see the thin whiteness—that would be the white cliffs of Dover:
The ferry:
Leaving the white cliffs behind, heading to Calais, France... When I heard we were going to Calais, which I had never heard of before the trip, I instantly thought of the Jabberwocky poem by Lewis Carroll. There's a line it it that goes "Callooh! Callay!" but I couldn't remember how 'Callay' was spelled... well, I have no idea if it's where he was talking about because who ever really knew what he was talking about...
And magically, here we are in Ieper, Belgium, driving past a muddy field! No, it's not "LEPER" but "IEPER", pronounced "EEP-ER".
Here is perhaps a better idea of the city part of Ieper, which was so 'Europe':
First thing, we went to a WWI Museum. Huge, devastating WWI battles, or rather massacres, took place in Ieper. These two tablets pay homage to cities that have been DESTROYED by war:
The museum was SO well-done. The story about the Germans and French (I think it was these two sides, shoot, I'm so confused still) putting down their weapons and enjoying Christmas in peace is just magnificent. It really makes one question why they were fighting in the first place... I mean, I know it is a whole lot more complicated than that but after hearing about so much horrific loss and suffering... I just feel hopeless and don't see the point in it all. Most of the guys were probably fighting to avoid punishment for NOT fighting, anyway! OH HUMANITY.
This might seem like a strange moment to mention this, but I've 'always' had a sort of fascination with the Klu Klux Klan and I think it has a lot to do with the mystery of those really demonic-looking white hats they wear—I'm fascinated in the sense that I'm interested in the sort of people that are involved with them and their rituals. While wearing a WWI-era gas mask is far from association with the KKK, seeing the pictures and masks sort of sparked that same fascination. It really, really looks like something from a nightmare.
The masks really give me chills and look like something that can only be dreamt up in Hell.
I thought these little pamphlet dictionaries were 'cute'. One says "What a British Soldier wants to say in French and how to pronounce it".
A small model of a WWI battlefield...
And now for a gruesome, abrupt change of topic:
BELGIUM CHOCOLATE! There were several chocolate shops I saw in Ieper and at least the chocolates in these stores wasn't as expensive as I was expecting. I was so excited that they had marzipan chocolate candies, too! Marzipan is just my favorite...!
A weirdly distorted picture of some lovely Ieper architecture:
This is the Menin Gate. We only walked by during the day, but we visited it as a group at night. It is there to honor the many soldiers that died in Ieper... I forget if it just acknowledges soldiers from a certain side or...? I feel bad that I forgot a lot of the history, but a lot of the time I was just kind of confused because my WWI history knowledge isn't that great...
More pictures from 'round town:
Me with my chocolates!
And then we went to the Menin Gate to see a ceremony that they do every single night. We had a very informative guide. Below is a picture of the names of some Indian Sikhs that even fought in the battles! And towards the right it says BURMA, but I'm not sure why because I honestly just now noticed it in the picture... (for those of you wondering why this matters, my mom is Burmese).
Unfortunately I couldn't see ONE SINGLE THING in the ceremony because of the crowd and the fact that I am short. I could hear the horn playing a song but that was all.
And again, a very serious change in mood:
There was a pub that our professor recommended we go to called the 12 Apostles that was pretty close to the hostel. It was fantastic inside!
Look at that! The most fantastic place ever!
Our trip leaders warned us about Belgian beer because it has about twice as much alcohol content than the beer we're used to.
Terrible record covers you can only find at Goodwill covering the walls...
And then we learned that if we did not get Belgian waffles that VERY SECOND, we wouldn't get to try them at all because apparently places that serve waffles wouldn't be open early enough Sunday morning for us to try them before we had to leave! So we ran off to find Belgian waffles, and oh no the last place was closed, BUT they made them for us anyway and we took it to go.
The waffles TOTALLY lived up to the hype! It was really, really delicious and we each got a little cup of chocolate to drizzle all over it... They were so, so scrumptious!
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