Chocolate, Waffles, Fries, and Beer

I spent Easter weekend in Brussels, Belgium. After dropping off my luggage at the hostel, I ventured back into the main part of the city to see “The Art of the Brick” at the Stock Exchange.

I was totally mesmerized by all of the creations. Some abstract, some realistic, some representations of famous artworks or landmarks. All of it was simply fascinating.

“Create what you see. Create what you feel. Create what you have never seen. Just create.”-Nathan Sawaya

I ventured towards Grand Place to hunt down a famous Belgian waffle. In researching before my trip, I discovered that there are 2 kinds of waffles--Brussels waffles that are rectangular with powdered sugar sprinkled on top and Liege waffles with a less defined but still definitively waffle shape with sugar throughout the middle. Liege waffles are the way to go. The outside has a nice crunch to it while the inside is doughy, sugary bliss. In my search for a place to sit down to enjoy such a treat, I found Maison Dandoy and its terrace. Unfortunately, a guy in his 3rd floor apartment across the street had a rough night and decided my meal time entertainment needed to be him retching out the window. Absolutely disgusting.

Grand Place

I continued going through the shops around the Grand Place before searching for Mannequin Pis, the fountain of a little boy peeing. I couldn’t believe how many people swarmed the gate surrounding the fountain to get a picture of the underwhelming site. Being a good tourist (unlike 90% of the other tourists I encountered in Belgium), I snapped a pic and got out of the throng.

Mannequin Pis

I decided to have a traditional Bruxelles dinner and ate mussels and frites. I’d never had mussels before, but mastered the shells-as-a-fork technique in no time. After dinner I headed to Delirium village for a lambic. I went downstairs to the crowded bar, encountered too many rude people (not even drunk, mind you), gulped down a framboise lambic, and headed back to the hostel.

All around the hostel was a pretty miserable experience and I hope that future hostel trips won’t be as bad. I know--I got what I paid for, but it doesn’t change the fact that everywhere I went in Brussels I encountered people with absolutely no sense of common courtesy or decency.  (And I live in FRANCE, people, so this is seriously an issue if I’m commenting about it.)

Grand Place - Mini Europe

The next morning one of my hostel roommates crashed my party of one and tagged along with me to some attractions further out of town. We went to Mini Europe first, where each of the EU members has displays of its famous landmarks at 1/10 (?) scale. It was pretty cool to see some of the places--especially ones I have no desire to visit in person.

Atomium

After that we went to the Atomium and (rushed, not by my choice) through the exhibits and saw Brussels from the top atom. The tag-along and I parted ways on the metro back into the city where I bought a box of truffles at Godiva and enjoyed more beer at Delirium. I got my train times mixed up and thought I was leaving Brussels around 17h, but in reality I booked a ticket for a train leaving at 21h. Discouraged by the trip in general (crowds, excruciatingly rude people, and the whole vomit-out-the-window-onto-the-street incident), I went back to the hostel and read on my Kindle until it was time to head back to Paris.