I Hope You Enjoyed the Song

As much as I enjoyed my weekend!!!!!!!  Sorry for the brief hiatus, but I am back from the land of paper writing and ready once again to satisfy your blog-reading needs.  So, this past weekend was pretty much perfection.  I'll go ahead and admit that it was the best two days I have had since arriving in Belgium.  As you all know from previous posts detailing my anticipation, my best friend Sally (yes, that is correct, Sally and Ali.  You got it!  Our names rhyme.  Moving on.) came for a (way too short thanks to all of my ridiculous work) visit.  But come she did!  And I am still running off of the high from Friday and Saturday. Everything went according to plan - which almost never happens when the two of us are involved.  She arrived Friday at around 8:45.  We promptly went to the Markt square and ate hot "frites" (that's French fries, or Belgian fries, for those of you who didn't know) on a bench under the belfry.  From there we proceeded to a certain dessert establishment of which I am ashamed to mention the name so I won't.  Here we basked in the glory of hot waffles, GIANT cappuccinos, and wonderful conversation.  The waiter offered to lock us in for the night and then roll us out the door the next morning.  We politely declined, but we may have to go back and take him up on his offer.
From dessert we headed to one of my favorite bars in Bruges, De Garre.  It is a teeny-tiny ancient establishment that could have come straight out of Hogsmeade (some of you know what I mean).  We had a couple of beers and spent a few hours planning our future - which, to give you a hint, involves lots of cupcakes, concerts, and a sweet apartment in the great state of Arizona.  At  some point, deep into our evening, we ended  up getting invited to another table by an American couple from Connecticut on their way around Europe tasting beers.  They were sitting with a couple from London and the six of us ended up staying far past closing just laughing hysterically at the quirks of Bruges.  Eventually the staff literally told us to leave because they wanted to close.  Mind you, it was only about 1:00 a.m.  But still I find it funny that we were kicked out of the bar.  From there we went back to my room and managed to stay awake for about an hour of the Holiday, which provided the inspiration for the next morning's activities.

I have been cutting hair for almost 10 years now and I have been cutting Sally's for three.  Whenever we get together after a separation a haircut is usually involved.  This visit was no different.  Except this time, Sally wanted Cameron Diaz's haircut from the Holiday.  Please see before and after pictures.  To make a long story short (pun intended) it was a daring morning set to the soundtrack of "A Rocket to the Moon."  So fun!

The rest of the day was spent meandering around town, being complete tourists, taking amazing pictures and visiting one of my favorite finds in Bruges: The Old Chocolate House.  This is the place to go if you love hot chocolate.  It is a miniscule 2nd floor tea room that doles out GIANT mugs of steamed milk to which you add chocolate cups and morsels that you then whisk into the milk yourself.  Simply delightful,
especially on cold dreary Belgian afternoons.

This was followed by more frites, (what can I say, we really like food.  Besides, it is a cultural activity after all.  We are in Belgium).  We proceeded to head back to my room where we spent some quality youtube time with our favorite bands and a few more hours just catching up with each other.
Sally's dad had flown into Brussels on Saturday (he is a pilot) so we met him at the train station in Bruges and he took us out to dinner.  It was so nice.  Such a perfect, relaxing evening.  Good food, good friends, good conversation and matching grey elephant necklaces from J. Crew.  Need I say more?
Neither of us stopped talking for more than a minute at a time.  We had too much to say after 6 months apart.  Even with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Gmail, and Skype, nothing does it like seeing someone face to face.
Best weekend ever.
Sorry for the ramble, I just really had fun and wanted to share!

Peace, Love, and Waffles.