WASHINGTON – The Georgetown University women's soccer team made it to its next destination of its nine-day spring break trip in Europe: Belgium. Throughout the trip, members of the squad took a break from their action-packed adventure to reflect on some exciting moments of the journey. Junior Isabelle Fuchs (Concord, Mass. / Middlesex) gives GUHoyas an update on the squad's journey, including a few puns.

Day 5 – Tuesday, March 5

Ladies and Ghent-lemen: Day 5 of our sleep-deprived journey started bright and early with a healthy dose of Ghent puns as we made our way to our second destination: Ghent, Belgium. Belgium is a country known for their waffles, french fries and chocolate.... can't Ghent any better than that. After a reviving lunch and a storm of bubbles in a public square, we explored the city on a walking tour. Our tour guide brought us to significant sights, like the Castle of Ghent, the Market Place, Ghent Town hall and Graffiti alley. The Ai nati oggi Lantern was a crowd favorite; after a baby is born in the local hospital, the lantern lights up to celebrate the birth. After the tour, the team had free time to go shopping and get dinner before we headed to our third game of the week. The sophomores scoured the streets looking for the best chocolate and eventually found a chocolate shop that had a window overlooking a chocolatier making the milk chocolate eggs.
 
We continued our day with a match against KAA Gent. When we were getting ready in our locker room, Lauren Gallagher accidentally hit a button that turned on the shower. While running away from the shower, Charlie Kern ran into another shower button, spurning a 100 per(Ghent) chance of rain in the locker room that night. Despite already being soaked, the team was ready to take on KAA Gent. In the first half, the Hoyas went down 2-0 after a free kick and a penalty kick; however, we responded positively with a picturesque header goal from Meaghan Nally and a slotted shot from Amanda Carolan to even the score. We ended the night with pizza and a game of contact as we headed to our third destination: Holland. Ghent captured the hearts of every Hoya, so much so that we want to have a four-year reunion back to this wonderful city.
 
A trip to Europe would be incomplete without spending some time in Amsterdam. Your favorite Hoyas got up and out of the hotel before the sunrise. Before departure, we were greeted with a fantastic breakfast of Dutch pancakes, croissants, fresh fruit and much, much more. We boarded the bus for a two-hour journey for our day trip to Amsterdam. Since it is Devon Lis' birthday, we were not only able to sing to her at midnight on our way home from our game in Belgium the night before, but also on our way home from Amsterdam almost 24 hours later.
 
On this rainy day, our first stop was Anne Frank's House. This museum was most of the team's favorite site so far, inspiring several to read (or reread) her diary in the future. Afterwards, we had some time to explore the city on our own, get lunch and dodge aggressive bikers. Maya Fernandez-Powell joked that dodging bikers and cars was secret center midfield training.
 
In the afternoon, the team split up to go on a walking tour throughout the city. We saw the Secret Church, city canal, Red Light District, "coffee shops" and the Central Train Station. The city's rich culture and interesting history motivated the team to get through this rainy and cold weather. The city is vastly different from the innocent cupcake shops and salad restaurants of Washington, D.C. After the tour, everyone was excited to have free time to see the shops, museums and dessert restaurants. People chased down the Stroop waffles and city souvenirs. Coach Lyndse met up with her college friend from Amsterdam and found the best cookie the team has ever tasted.
 
The team gathered again for dinner and we learned that vegetarian does not translate well into Dutch. Our server was convinced that the vegetarians on our team were not able to eat the brownies for dessert.  Confused and full, we walked to the bus for our drive back to the hotel. Our bus trip once again included an intense game of contact. We are all looking forward to a good night sleep to recover from our eight-mile walk from earlier in the day.