The European Extravaganza!

The Mussels in Brussels

For anyone reading this post, we have written about 4 other ones since Naples, so make sure you scroll dozn and read about our adventures in Paris!

OK, yesterday was pretty much just a travel day. We checked out of our hotel, and thank goodness we spent four nights there, because that was ALMOST enough time for our backs to heal! We made our way to the train station, and seeing as our train didn't leave for another few hours, settled down to do some writing. Well, that is after we managed to find a way into the train station (after leaving it temporarily to pick up some post cards). In our 5 minute absence, the place went into this strange lockdown, in which you couldn't get in through the main entrance and yet could get in by going through the cafés at the station. Also, there were no announcements going on in the station, and they were not evacuating it, so we have no idea what was going on? Was it a drill or just strange French paranoia (we did see them demand the passports of a few "suspect" looking people (that is to say, not suspicious looking at all... just not caucasian) and frisk them as well.

We settled ourselves on the floor, since apparently benches are hazards in train stations. We made a pseudo fort out of our bags, since we were not going to pay upwards of 4 euro to check them in a locker while we waited. Before jumping on our train, we finally got ourselves a crêpe! Totally worth the wait, and Laura found a place that didn't charge us an arm and a leg! Yay Laura!

The train ride to Brussels was quite quick since we were on the highspeed Thalys train. The tiny child in front of us fancied herself an acrobat and whiled away the hour by running up and down the aisle and bouncing in her seat.

Once we got to Brussels, I was relieved to find that they speak French here instead of Dutch. Of course, the signs are in both languages, which is annoying, but at least we understand one of them! We easily navigated the metro here (and were also assisted by a friendly subway worker), and only hit a temporary glitch when we got off the subway and our directions and map got a little sketchy. We still haven't bought a proper map of the city, but have not found that we need one.

After dropping our bags off at the hostel (which smells funny but is probably not the worst place we have stayed so far) and headed off into the city. Thankfully Brussels really is tiny, so we soon found ourselves in the central area. But NOT before we found an English bookstore with a huge Harry Potter display in the window AND the new books in boxes by the door! Never has a life of crime been so tempting... They were just sitting there! In their embargoed boxes! Must... resist... desire... to... steal...

The tourist signs are horrible here, but even with that handicap, we found our way to Mannekin-Pis, the statue of the little peeing boy. Alas, he was not wearing a costume as they have been loaned to... another peeing statue? We don't know, and are thoroughly disappointed. However, we drowned our sorrows in a fricken huge bowl of mussels (but not before other restaurants tried to woo us with free drinks... and mistake me for a Spanish speaker... again!) and fries. It was soooo good, and we are definitely going back to night. After all, Brussels is a perfect city for eating! We could easily spend 4 days here doing nothing but that! It's great!

We then and sat around in the Grande Place, which really has to be seen to be believed. I don't think we have seen anywhere quite like it in any other city we have visited. You won't believe your eyes... we are never going to forget it! We spent a long time sitting on the curb, and then the cobblestone after a strange man tried to talk to me, waiting for the sound and light show that was supposed to begin... It never did, but we had a good time listening to Pomme and laughing away. We successfully navigated the streets in the dark without a map, outmanouevred a man selling bread that he was eating (we called him The Breadler), and Laura power walked her way away from an overly friendly Belgian.

Today we have been to the CéBéBéDé, which is probably the only museum worth seeing here. Neither of us are huge comics fans, but it was still interesting to see. We have no idea what the rest of the day holds for us EXCEPT it will definitely involve eating more mussels. Tomorrow: HARRY POTTER DAY!!! EEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

posted by Steph @ 11:49 am