More in Maastricht

The last two days have been pretty relaxing. After my last post we went out to one of these old churches that have been converted to a very modern hotel. A group of us including Toby, Mirle, Moritz and his girlfriend Natalie sat down for a nice glass of wine to end the day. Below is the church which has been converted to a book store.



Since the weather has finally cleared up, we have been able to check out more of Maastricht. Toby and I walked around town as he pointed out the most important areas. For example, the city hall, which is where Toby believes they signed the Treaty of Maastricht that created the modern EU and Euro in the early 1990's.



I also had the chance to try some authentic Dutch food which includes a lot of meat and potatoes. In the evening, Toby, Moritz and I went to a bar where we ordered many types of beer for us to try. We even ordered a couple plates of bitterballen(pictured below), which were great. It's like a breaded ball of mashed potatoes with meat mixed in it which you dip into mustard, kind of like crab cakes or something like that.



Today I received the rest of my complete tour of the area. We drove over the border and got gas in neighboring Belgium.



Well today was my last day in Maastricht. Toby says that they have a great European Studies Masters program in Maastricht, I think this would be a great place to live and study. Tomorrow at about 6am, Toby, Mirle and I will be driving to Mirle's village to drop her off. She leaves for Beijing on Monday to study Chinese amongst other things until the summer. From here, Toby and I will drive to Münster, Germany where he has a meeting and I will try and do some sightseeing.

Only 2 more days till Moscow!