Brussels, Belgium, to the best of my limited knowledge, is known for two things: waffles and chocolate. For me, the former is much more important than the latter due to my taste buds irrational dislike of chocolate. So when a few friends asked if I’d like to tag along to Brussels this past weekend, I didn’t turn down the invitation in spite of thinking I’d just be bouncing from one waffle place to the next.
The best of my limited knowledge let me down, again, though it made for a welcomed surprise. Brussels is beautiful and my three nights there were nothing short of tremendous. I knew it’d be fun, obvious—you don’t go to a new country with six friends and expect to not have a good time—but I didn’t think it’d surpass Paris and be right up there with Barcelona.
It started quite well. The outgoing 45 minute flight wasn’t filled so I escaped the punishment of a random seat chart putting me in a middle seat and got to jump rows to a window seat with no soul adjacent. The plane went up and it seemed as though it came right back down the flight was so short. Our hostel [hotel here in the United States] was centrally located, the city isn’t massive to begin with anyway, and the seven of us got our own eight bed room.
The first night is when I began to figure out how wrong my premonitions were about this place as we stumbled into Grand Place, a beautiful center of the city with only footpaths coming out of it. No cars, just cobblestone and businesses. The only corporate food chain there was Starbucks, and I can’t lie, we fed that monster with a few euros for coffee pit stops. We then went looking for a specific place to eat that was home to some of the best fries I’ve ever tasted. In the coming days I’d find out that Brussels is also renowned for its fries and I could taste why.
The next morning we awoke and found a non-tourist waffle spot, and it was heavenly. At least one piece of information I’ve concocted over the years rang true. After indulging then subsequently raving to each other about how great it was, we went back to Grand Place and it was even more magnificent during the day time. We explored around there then walked all over the city to the tune of 9 miles, as per my iPhone pedometer app. Along the way we found the popular Manneken Pis—the infamous statue of the peeing boy. We shared a laugh at the two-foot statue even more when we translated Manneken Pis, which in English is “Little Man Pee”.
After lunch, and no it wasn’t waffles again, we had to take our only trip on the underground system to Atomium. The large building was constructed to depict an atom that was formed in the 1950’s World Fair in Brussels. On the other side of Atomium is Mini-Europe, a miniature park with miniature monuments from other countries, which is unfortunately closed between October and March. At the highest point of the Atomium yields a beautiful oversight of Brussels.
The next day we checked out a few museums and enjoyed a more relaxed day than the last two, culminating in one last trip to Grand Place at night. There, we stumbled upon free entertainment. Three young men were wearing shin pads and red capes whilst other young adult men in camo jackets and red berets would come over and give them instructions, the first of which was they had to kneel down and keep their arms about their heads until told otherwise. It looked like we stumbled upon a public hazing event. We noticed a few policemen standing off to the side, possibly watching with amusement just as we were. Two girls in our group went over to the cops to confirm what we were saying. They understood the boys weren’t being forced against their will to do such embarrassing events; they could get up and leave whenever they’d like. As we watched on, a man in a red beret came back to give the three men their next order: while on their knees, continuously go back and forth on the cobblestone from one end of Grand Place to the other. We figured we’d seen enough embarrassment, wished the knee-crawlers luck, and went on our way back to the hostel.
Our flight in the morning was at 9:30 a.m. local time Brussels, and we were set to land 9:20 a.m. local time London. We thought that was funny; we landed before we took off. Not shockingly, though, we were greeted with cloudy weather in London. Seems to be a requirement for returning from a trip.
No trips imminent for the rest of March now, but two friends from America are coming to visit in a few days to stay in my closet of a dorm room for a week. After being here for two months, it’s my turn to be the tour guide. I should’ve studied more.
