Loving Leuven (this is a long one)

Let me preface my post on Leuven with a tidbit that pretty much sums up the shenanigans from last night/this morning. From what I remember, this is how it went.

Bart had work at 9 this morning. We got in after 6.

Bart (waking me up): Shit, it's 1(pm). I forgot to set my alarm.
Me: Oh shit.
Bart (getting ready hurriedly): I had a meeting with my supervisor and am supposed to give a potential masters thesis student a tour at 1:20...

Later in the Day...

(Bart gets back from work)

Me: You still have a job?
Bart: Yeah.
Me: What did your supervisor say?
Bart: I said "Sorry, I overslept" and they said "Ok. Don't worry about it."It's not the first time it has happened.

Having set the stage, let me now elaborate on our first time in Leuven.

We arrived in Leuven at around 10 pm, having come directly after practice and the traditional post practice gathering and pintjes. Before cleaning up, we grabbed some dinner from where other than the local Frituur. If I keep eating fries and other fried food at the rate I am right now, I will probably way about 200 lbs by the time my stay here is up. Combine that with the beer and chocolate and I may double in size, but it will be worth it. Bart graciously offered me and Reid his last two Trappist beers from the Brouwerij Westvleteren. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trappist_beer) One of the 7 Trappist beers you can find, the beers are brewed and sold by Trappist monks. The monks are the only ones who can produce and distribute the beer, adding to its legend and allure. To get the Westvleteren Trappist beer, you have to go straight to the source. Each beer comes in a different kind of bottle (because they are recycled) and you purchase them by the crate (a sweet wooden box with Westvleteren stenciled on the side). We enjoyed the treat that Bart had been saving for over a year in its special glass, and it was a great way to kick off the night.

After eating and showering up, we were joined by Bart's friend and we headed out for the night. Leuven is a happening college town and home to Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, a college with more than 35,000 students. After checking out the library and city hall, both amazingly beautiful buildings that seem like they would fit better as palaces, we headed towards the mass of bars. To describe them as a mass may be an understatement. In the square, there are actually 35 different bars, a bunch of restaurants, and (for some reason) a high school. Lets just say that this would be a pub crawl that would give the most fit Beer Olympians a run for their money. After our first drink, we were joined by a few more teammates, Tim, Tom, and Jan. With our full crew now assembled, the night could really get started.

After going to 4 different bars, we settled into our final stop for the night, The 7 Oaks Bar. We had earlier been told that you either hate it at 7 Oaks or you love it, and luckily my preference was the latter. The setup of the bar is underground and almost dungeon-like, but in a good way (if that is at all possible). Another cool part about the bar was that you could order beer by the meter. Each meter of beer was a round of 12ish beers, placed in a long skinny wooden box/crate. Between the 12 glasses of beer and the wood, it probably should have been called a ton of beer. It was quite an adventure trying to maneuver through the crowd, carrying the heavy meter (which actually seemed like it was longer than a meter) while fending off hands trying to swindle a freebie. We ordered several meters of beer throughout the night, just to make sure no one went home thirsty.
Meanwhile, the music was bumping and not to toot our own horn, but our dancing circle was by far the best in the joint. As such, it didn't take too long before we found ourselves up on this elevated little stage, showcasing our moves to all our fans below. Okay, so maybe that isn't exactly what it was like, but it was still a blast. In actuality, it was almost impossible to dance with anyone and despite my tour through the crowd to try to recruit people to the stage, only several joined throughout the course of the night. Among these adventurous souls was a girl who was about 8 feet tall and wanted to make basketball babies with Bart (also very tall), a girl who wanted to drink everyone's beer, and a guy from Singapore with his entourage of 2 girls. In the end, Bart likes baseball over basketball, we didn't want to give up our beer (except that I did give her someones beer from another table that had been sitting there all night, which she happily drank), the guy from Singapore disappeared, and the two girls didn't speak Spanish, which I tried speaking to them on multiple occasions.

When you dance like we do, it turns out you actually don't need any new people to dance with and before we knew it, it was approaching 6am. It was a great night out and we walked home to get some shut eye (as construction workers were starting their work). Reid and I slept in late and spent the afternoon doing some sight seeing in Leuven while waiting for Bart to get home from work. I was quite impressed with the city of Leuven and its never ending nightlife. It seems like a great place to go to school and I have a feeling it won't be our only time visiting there. Big ups to Bart for the Hospitality.I'll throw some pictures of the trip up at some point.

Tomorrow we head into Antwerp for game 1 of the weekend series against the Hoboken Pioneers, last years Belgian champ. I will be pitching at home on Sunday and playing either 3rd or 2nd tomorrow. Stay tuned for updates and until then, take care...

Peace and Love

Ethan