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My name is Irene. ~~Fourteen~~ Seventeen,26thJanuary
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London/Belgium/Netherlands 2014 (Thursday, September 25, 2014)

Hi guys it's 11.30pm here in London & I can't sleep early tonight. My parents just left for Singapore at 10.05pm after having a good meal at Heathrow Airport T2. It was really a nice and exhausting week spent with them, exploring the neighbourhood around my hall (college hall), Belgium and then Netherlands. I miss them a lot especially in the few hours before their departure to the airport, and I tried my best not to tear in front of them, and they came gushing out once they stepped into the train. I've never been apart from my parents for more than a week!

I also find this time a good opportunity for me to grow in faith, and to grow my trust and love for God. All I need to do is to trust in His plans and providence, and keep praying that everything will be fine. Having taken this path, it is so easy to have doubts once again and to keep looking back to ponder upon whether the decision made was ever right. To think about the things I gave up to be over here, it is definitely heartbreaking at times, and to think that it's not so much of what I have lost, but the sacrifices my family made for me to be here. Not being able to be a listening ear for my mum, to coach my sister and argue with her to pass time, and to attend mass with my dad. I still hope that I will be able to love them even more after this period.

Enough of the emotional, and on to pen down some memories! First time travelling with my parents without my sister. We really walked a lot during this entire trip. Usually, my dad would want us to take a cab and my sister wouldn't be able to walk too much. So this time, walking to the sites 90% of the time really demanded our endurance and patience.

Un séjour à Bruxelles

A weekend in Brussels, Belgium.

Brussels, the capital of Belgium was just 4hours away from London via Eurostar. Belgium is a country that mainly consists of Flanders (north region) and Walloon (south region). Most people in Flanders (the Flemish) speak Dutch and those in Walloon speak French. Though Brussles is located in Flanders, the capital is predominantly French-speaking, which makes navigation and communication much easier.

A monument of some patriot outside our hotel. Brussels was bright and sunny most of the time! And there are so many beautiful Catholic churches around that I can't take my eyes off.

Eglise de finistère

The traditional confessionals, where us Catholics make confessions of their sins to the priest.

"Saint Virgin Mary, Mother of God, you who has welcomed Christ in our name, you who rejoiced over His birth, and who keep His prayers in your heart, you who have become our Mother at the foot of the cross, we pray you that in joys and pains, in happiness and hardship, we would know how to welcome the grace of God, only which can renew our hearts, change our life and fill us beyond any expectation."

Ever wonder what you should pray when you light a candle in front of the statue of blessed Virgin Mary or Saint Joseph? I found this beautiful prayer, and my dad and I lit a candle each.

By letting this candle burn -

Lord,
that this candle that I light be the light
so that you can enlighten me
in my difficulties and my decisions.

That it may be fire,
so that you burn in me,
all egoism, selfishness and impurity.

That it may be flame,
that you ignite in my heart.

I cannot rest long in your church,
but by letting this candle burn,
it is a little bit of me that I want to give to you.

Help me to prolong my prayer
in my daily activities. Amen.

Waffles in Belgium, or BELGIAN WAFFLES!!! & below supermarket value.

Their numerous royal buildings.

A popular tourist spot near Grand Place.

Wonder why this building is such a great beauty? But first, let us enjoy some Belgium goodness.

BELGIUM BEERS! I'm not a big fan of beers but this is raspberry beer and it is amazing. Together with mussels, pasta and shrimp salad, at a popular touristy restaurant Chez Leon. It's rather overrated.

Galeries de St Hubert

Look at that price man.

Brimming with tourists.

WHERE ARE WE GOING??

THIS BEAUTIFUL PLACE CALLED GRAND PLACE. It was the ancient city centre for Belgium, and there's a palace, a town hall amidst the 4 buildings. It is magnificent at night. I must have sent the video of this place to some of you already!

A symphonic band showing off their repertoire, one of which included Amazing Grace.

Please tilt your head to view these pictures. These were taken at Église de St Nicholas, where we had mass on Sunday! It's a rather cosy church even though it's relatively big.

Mary chocolates and Elizabeth chocolates, 2 popular chocolatiers in Belge! Common trend - female names.

Sorry for the spam of church pictures, but this is another vintage looking chapel we didn't get to go in.

Patriots celebrated in statue forms - seen around Brussels.

Graffiti as well!

Le Mannekan-Pis which we spent some time finding.

Église Notre-Dame de Bon Secours (Our Lady of Assistance Church) - sightings of Mother Mary have reportedly appeared here and granted miracles to people!

Looking back

Breakfast @ somewhere! Not cheap

At the Sablon area now! An area in Brussels.

Église de Sablon - huge!

Christ elevated up on high.

Godiva ice-cream that was so soft, something that I don't really like! So that's that, 2 days in Brussels. So we headed to the train station, (walked there with our luggage) to take a train to Antwerp for a day trip! Before that, we even saw the Cathedral of Brussels. Beautiful pipe organ playing in the background.

Antwerp (Belgium)

The Antwerp train station is a beautiful place!

It's a city of bicycles as well, with numerous Baroque and Gothic buildings. Can you tell the difference between these 2?

It's nice to be in a country with Catholic roots really!

This just appeared out of nowhere at a happening district.

Had Italian food for dinner!!! Even their iced tea, has to be GASSY hahaha this was really an awesome drink.

Brussels' ancient town hall

Me @ an ancient fortress with an ancient statue of fertility lol.

Being the model of the year.

Countless cafes in the outdoors.

After a few hours of walking, we headed back to Antwerp Central cos my parents were quite drained already!

My mum had to take a seat whenever she could.

But I wanted to go to Antwerp zoo to not waste our trip here ): so here we are!!!

I thought this can't be that different from Singapore Zoo. But I was wrong!

What's this mysterious creature?!

IT'S AN OKAPI!!!! My mum thought that humans cruelly created hybrids - horse and zebra chimeras. I'm not too sure about that but my instinct is that they are naturally-bred.

Rotterdam (Netherlands)

Subsequently on the same evening, we took a train to Rotterdam! It's actually a stop to Amsterdam and we decided to explore this small town. Rotterdam was actually completely destroyed and bombed during WWII if I'm not wrong and the whole city was rebuilt by fine architectures, and it's also a port now. That explains the seafood!!!

A different style of church building here at Netherlands. It's much simpler! (Netherlands is not very Catholic rn.)

No kidding, these are Rotterdam's famous cube houses. It's 3D btw. They have real occupants so we aren't able to view inside!!

A run of the mill market selling mostly fabrics.

Having some bagels and cheese just for the free wifi haha. Well technically like that then not free alr.

A guest.

An assistance dog!!

ANOTHER CHURCH!

This machine that plays music (literally each instrument, like piano, drums and cymbals) by reading music sheets with the kind of hand crafted codes!!! Super amazing invention.

Our neighbourhood near Hotel Santa Maria, where we stayed.

Lunch at a highly-raved restaurant - Zeezout (that means seasalt in Dutch)

Bread with a slab of butter

Some foam asparagus prawn thing.

Grilled scallops

Chinese inspired spring rolls with grilled prawns.

Lobster satay tempura. Shiok!!

Saltbaked sea bream and my fish bouibaillase. I also dk how to spell

Took the train once again this time to

Amsterdam

People also call this city the city of sin. It's somewhat true because of the liberal prostitution scene as well as the consumption of weed (on paper it's illegal but it's socially permissible, due to this concept called "toleration" where they had to be accepting of each other's social behaviour)

The countless canals that made us feel lost. We went for a 3 hour Sandemans tour though that was very insightful!

The canal water is actually fresh, flows from the sea everyday, so even swans take an inviting swim!

This is a very serene place called Begijnhof that used to be a convent. It's now a place of residence for women. It was what Amsterdam typically looked like in the past!

The National Museum

Carpet that showcases a myriad of patchworks that are representative of 150 countries.

A painting of Napoleon Bonaparte when he came to Amsterdam. Note the red flag with the 3 crosses on the top right. It is the official flag of Amsterdam. What do the 3 crosses signify? Google it :D

I spy the smallest house in Amsterdam. Do you see it?

A typical Brown cafe. Cafe t'Smalle for a short break from the endless walking.

Some blue cheese (it's blueberry extract) from the Cheese Museum. It's so delicious, but admittedly, a little strange to eat. It's very delightful though ahhaa.

Huge wedges of cheese

One of the famous street markets of Amsterdam.

Stroop waffles!!!! Essentially syrup waffles (2 thin layers of waffles sandwiching a spread of syrup) that are so yummy!!

At Museumplein, where all the museums are including Van Goh's museum. We didn't had the time to visit it, as well as the time to queue for Anne Frank's :/ But ultimately I learnt that it's also important to do what the parents want as they probably won't come again and they aren't that fit anymore!

Cyclists actually seem very innocent but they are pretty dangerous to both tourists and cars lol. Especially in swarms.

Vondellpark!!! A place near our apartment.

Appartment 163

Back in London

One day my parents and I were walking past this building with black railings and we heard some rattling. So it's this!!!

Dimsum and lobster noodles at Royal China. Dimsum was so so la but the noodles quite decent. 36 pounds which is about 72$$$ :O

Royal Albert hall

These lovely clouds. & a trip to London isn't complete without shopping at Harrods (for my aunt especially who's a Harrods fan)

They apparently smell Christmas already.

The tax-free bureau...

Okay so I'm quite sian now after so many photos. Tata!!!