Brussels 2016

For summer 2016, my family and I travelled to Belgium for a mini vacation. I didn't know much about the country, apart from the fact that they speak more than one language there and make good chocolates. Without knowing too much about this place, I came there with an open mind and a list of go-to places given to me by a fellow crew member. The months of May and June consisted of countless hours of revision. Then my exams came, did them, and was left with a bunch of ideas of what I  could do in the summer. I wrote lists of exciting plans of my time sleeping late and waking up even later. I was in a cycle of laziness.

When it was near the time of our holiday, my sister and I did start to feel excited. We had never properly been to Belgium. By "had never properly", I meant that my family and I were sort of stranded there and had to stay for a night at a hotel because the plane had to land due to bad weather. I don't remember much from that apart from the odd few flashback glimpses and a few pictures by a bench with my sister in our coordinated denim-on-denim outfits. Another reason why I was excited was that I knew they speak French over there. Sad thing is that I've forgotten a lot of the rules of grammar and my vocabulary has shrunk rather than grew since I studied French. Boo.

Day 1 involved heading to the airport in the early hours of the morning - on zero sleep. The airport was busy and the terminal was cramped. Upon arriving in Brussels, this friendly driver that we pre-hired picked us up and by the time we reached the vehicle, my Mother already knew about his family and where he's originally from - my Mother is chatty.

Checked in at the hotel first, met my Mother's cousin and then we roamed around. Now, one thing that surprised us was that their metro stations are incredibly clean in comparison to the stations in Manchester and the London underground. One of the stations even had air conditioning.

We checked out the (outside of the) European Commission building first (*awkward turtle*, #Brexit) and then visited Parc du Cinquantenaire. Green statues could be seen decorating the three arches and the centrepiece triumphal arch proudly featured a large flag of Belgium.

Next, we headed into central Brussels and walked through cute narrow streets and ended up in what they call 'Seafood street'. We ate so much seafood (with a meat platter as well) that my stomach was about to burst. I legit felt sick and despite the fact that my trousers were stretchy material, it was high wasted and tight. I wasn't being dramatic. I felt super sick that I didn't get to enjoy my Belgian Waffle as much. Nearby the restaurant, round the corner, was this narrow alley way, something called Delirium. This was a mini alley of bars and pubs.

It was also there at the restaurant that my Father was introduced to Leffe beer, which then became part of my family's list of favourites. Although I'm not a massive beer drinking myself, I do agree that it's pretty nice and something rather pleasant to drink. In fact, they loved the taste so much that they had Leffe everyday of the trip. We even bought special Leffe glasses.

Grand Place was beautiful square, surrounded by decorated buildings. I could really see myself just chilling there in one of the cafés chatting with friends with the sun out. Even though it was busy with tourists (rather much like myself), I thought that with the people sat down in groups, it was pretty nice. I read that in August they have hundreds of flowers creating a tapestry design in the square to celebrate 150 years of Belgo-Japanese friendship. It was unlucky that we left about a week and a few days before the Flower Carpet event.

We walked even more around the streets of central Brussels and with the sun shining, I was sweating like crazy! It was cold back in the UK alright? We had our first Belgian waffles, but the waffles lady was super cranky and got annoyed at us. When in Belgium, one MUST have waffles. The pleasant aroma of Belgian waffles could be smelt in the streets and you would get a really inviting smell with eating passerby. 

Walking around the streets, you pass by souvenir shops and you see so many pictures, fridge magnets and little figurines of this little boy...peeing. That's right, the Manneken Pis. Once we reached the fountain, I was like "what the heck, he's tiny!" You could say I was expecting the dude to be larger, but instead it was a 61 cm bronze statue of a naked little boy urinating into a fountain. Apparently, this lil' guy gets dressed up in costumes which are scheduled throughout the year and people have tried stealing the statue in the past. He's like some celebrity over there.

Now when in Belgium, one MUST also eat Belgian chocolates. The chocolate shops are everywhere and were so distracting everytime we would walk pass one. Oh I do love chocolate myself, and walking in the shops was so satisfying! I tried and bought chocolates from the chocolatier shops: La Belgique Gourmande, (L'atelier de) Neuhaus and Godiva. Moreover, we visited a chocolate museum and was given a short talk on what chocolatiers do. I'll be posting about Belgium and their chocolates in another post. So stay tuned for that!

We passed by an art gallery that previously caught my eye back in the first day. We couldn't stay long, but I found the pieces to be rather interesting. It exhibits the work of resident artists all year.

Work featured by: Caroline Brisset, Catalano. 

I can't quite remember the name of the gallery, so if anyone does know the name please do let me know.

Despite just missing out on getting to see the Flower Carpet event in Grand Place in August, we were lucky enough to be able to go and see inside the Royal Palace. The rooms were beautifully decorated and the ceilings and chandeliers were majestic. One room had a number of chandeliers and arches, that everytime I would look around and up, the room would just exude elegance. There were also preserved items on exhibition which were interesting to look at. You could spend hours reading all the notes on the side on each item, but I was slightly rushed as we still had things to do and places to be at on that day.

Another 'special' room that was pretty cool, was a hall which featured a deep green ceiling and chandelier. What was interesting about the chandelier was that it was made from the wing shells of beetles. Pretty cool, right?

The Atomium is a landmark of Belgium. You could say it's like how the Eiffel Tower is to Paris, except it's a giant magnified iron crystal cell monument that's a museum, 102 m tall. My Mother is afraid of heights, so it was just my sister and I that went up. It was alright inside, but I found one of the exhibition rooms to be really cool. The room was like an electronic display of squares and lights and techno-like music. I really digged that room. 

For the evening of the penultimate day, we ate at Brussels Steak restaurant. Good food and amazing salad. Now, I'm only just starting into the whole salad-eating thing, but this one was delicious! A steak cooked well with vin rouge - a satisfying meal indeed. We spent such a long time at that restaurant, laughing and chatting away.

Stay tuned for my post on Bruges & Oostende!

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Phew, I know that was an extremely long post, but I guess there was much to talk about. 

As I said before, I didn't know what to expect from Brussels, Belgium. We did a lot of walking and taking pictures, as well as trying delightful chocolates, learning a few things and spent a really good time together. I loved hearing the French language again, but started panicking when they would reply back in sentences really quickly, each time I would successfully speak a little bit of French to them. The buildings were beautiful and the people were friendly. 

Brussels was nice.