This marks the first of many weekend trips.

Destination: Brussels, Belgium.

After hopping on a bus in Caceres at 4pm, we arrived into Madrid around 9pm Thursday evening.After becoming familiar with the Metro, we then set up camp on the not so forgiving tile floor where we then attempted to take turns sleeping at the airport.I was not as successful as others, but was able to finish some homework, create some wonderful works of doodle art and narrate a few articles from Cosmo for the boys. When it came time to board our flight, I was surprised at the rugby match that had suddenly taken place.As people shoved their way to the front, you did all you could to stand your ground and avoid the potential domino effect that was becoming more of a reality with each passing piece of luggage.

After boarding our flight, we were then able to relax. We made it!The flight was actually decent and arrived early into our destination at 6:30am in the Charleroi Airport in Brussels, Belgium.From the airport we had planned to meet up with Pieter, the gentleman we would be couchsurfing with.For those that are not familiar with couchsurfing, much like myself before I came abroad, let me explain.Couchsurfing is an online forum dedicated to travelers who seek to be cost-efficient.It is quite popular in Europe and consists of people opening up their home to you while you are in their city.Many people offer up their homes because they too travel. I have heard of many wonderful experiences, but cannot say that our first attempt was all too wonderful; interesting, but not exactly wonderful.

We ended up staying in a very nice hostel located on the nicer side of town.The four of us (Andrew, Kathryn, Sean and myself) had our own room and bathroom as well as internet, a bar/café below and most importantly cleanliness. Pieter was nice enough to offer up suggestions on where to go and what to see, and for that we were greatly appreciative.We took him out for an authentic Brisket & Fries dinner, which he also suggested, as a thank you for his help.It was a nice close to a day well spent walking around the city, taking in the sights.The beautiful day we had and the chocolate museum we visited weren't a bad touch either. ;) We went to sleep around 12, making sure to get some good rest seeing as that was becoming something quite foreign to us.

After getting our healthy seven hours in, we were ready to hit the streets of Brussels.We started our morning off right with the most delicious Belgium waffles.We attempted to pace ourselves seeing as they were so good, but failed miserably as we all began cleaning off the chocolate and whip cream that became the only evidence. No need to worry though, we made sure to purchase more.

We then made our way to Old England, a museum consisting of six floors of instruments from around the world and from many different eras.I had been looking forward to coming to this museum and was so pleased to find that it well surpassed my expectations.We spent hours walking around the museum with our headphone sets, listening to music.As we walked past each instrument we were able to read about its origin and history, all while listening to solos and compositions with the specific instrument.

After walking around the Royal Palace, St. Michael's Cathedral, a castle and checking out the shopping district, we decided to stop for lunch.We stopped into a little restaurant where I sampled a raspberry flavored beer—delicious. Between each topic of conversation was a mini photo shoot.Our dubbed photographer was Cindy from Texas.She must have seen us struggling to take our own picture of the four of us, and offered to help.We then asked her to join our table, and as she did, she bought us a round.Cindy was actually on business for the military and we all thought her personality was very refreshing! She was such a sweetheart and allowed us to keep our bags at the Marriot she was staying at seeing as our flight was leaving early the next morning and paying for another night at the hostel wouldn't have been worth it.

After saying goodbye to our new friend, the four of us took in a bit more sightseeing and then began the search for dinner.We looked at a few different restaurants, but finally settled on this great sandwich place—Subway.We couldn't believe we were in Brussels and still opted to eat Subway.I must say the lady was nice, but she just didn't have the same Dan Herrmann touch or sugar cookies.

From Subway we started our quest for the perfect pub to sip on some Belgium beer.One of the students in Spain had suggested Delirium, and seeing as we were new to the town, decided that would be a wonderful choice.We couldn't believe our eyes when we walked in.I have never seen so many beers on tap in my life.We grabbed a menu (which consisted of hundreds of beers) and began narrowing down those that all four of us agreed on.

After trying a few different kinds of beer, we decided to head out to an Irish pub to try out some new dance moves.(Kathryn has been working on the stanky leg, and wanted to show it off some.) We danced until about two and decided to head towards the bus station, only to realize that it wasn't open until 4:30am.Wonderful.So then we headed back to the city center to bide our time, settling for our only option other than a club--McDonalds.For two hours we sat with our bags, occasionally drifting in and out of sleep.If there has ever been a time in my life where I have felt homeless, this has to be it.

Needless to say, we made it to the bus, which then took us to the airport to catch a flight back to Madrid.We walked around Madrid to kill some time before our bus back to Caceres, and were extremely exhausted by the time it actually left.I'm almost certain we all fell asleep before the bus pulled out of the station.

This weekend was full of many new experiences and I think we can all say that we feel a little bit more confident with our ability to travel.We may have had some "interesting" moments, but we seemed to have a fairly relaxing trip with many memories to go along with it.(As well as all of the chocolate I purchased. :) )