belgium: brussels

I love the way various members of my extended family have lived in different countries. For this visit, my cousin Bryn was my host in Brussels, Belgium.

My flight left kyiv early in the morning, so there was no traffic to interfere with me getting to the airport on time. Yay! The line to checkin was long and slow, argh. Why doesn't Ukrainian Airlines do online checkin? The flight departed late, I never figured out why.

Upon arrival it was easy enough to take the train to the central train station (Gare Centrale) where cousin Bryn met me. We walked to his flat and caught up for a while before heading out again. 

We walked toward the city center, stopping in a church or two, and heaps of chocolate shops. Belgium is known for chocolate, for good reason. Pieces of chocolate, not bars of chocolate, though they were available as well. By the time the day was over if bought about 10 different pieces of chocolate. And this was just the first day :) I decided my goal was to find the best couer framboise.  Some stores were more expensive than others, sometimes that corresponded to taste, sometimes not.

The city centre is full of tourists, as well as small places to buy waffles and frites (French fries.) 

When we turned the corner into the Grande Place I was well and truly impressed. It's basically a giant platz. The buildings surrounding the platz are almost all big, and beautiful. I loved it. Definitely a good place for people watching. Photos didn't turn out as well as I thought the whole area looked, i hope that's because the sky was flat and grey.

After going through the Grande Place we followed another street or two, finding ourselves in front of Mannekin Pis. It's a lot smaller than I expected. Mannekin Pis is a statue of a little boy peeing, with water coming out of that part of his body. I don't get it, why is it famous? During this visit the statue had a costume covering most of him. How often does that happen? 

At that point both of us were hungry, we decided to be tourists sortof. We each ordered frites at a random place. I chose mustard as my sauce, you could have ketchup and mayonnaise and a few others as well. Mayonnaise is the typical sauce, I'm so not a fan. 

After that, I decided I wanted a waffle too. (Obviously, a healthy diet was not going to happen.) I chose one covered in whip cream and strawberries, Bryn had Nutella. By the time I finished eating I was stuffed, I had no room for 'real' food! Oops! As often as I talk about eating healthy, this was an epic fail, but so worth it!

The next morning the first thing Bryn did was show me how to get to a nearby large supermarket. (This was useful the next day when Bryn had to go to work, but I had a few more hours to explore.)

From there we continued walking. We crossed another platz, this one set up with a farmers market of some kind. I found the stalls with baked goods of course :) I didn't buy any of those items, but I did buy when I found the hot chocolate stall. Yum. They had three different types: milk, white, and dark. Why don't all places that sell hot chocolate have these choices? 

Eventually we made it to a BIG park. I think the name of the park is Cinquantenaire. There is a giant 'gate' in the middle of the park. On this particular day the park was the start and end point for a running festival. The main race was a 20km. (Why not a half marathon distance of 21.1km?) there were people everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Bryn and I have both run multiple marathons, though he takes running and training in general a whole lot more seriously than I do. I'm just happy to finish any race I run, he has actual goals. Seeing all these people made me think I should run the event next year.

We walked out another exit of the park, making our way to the area of town where the EU commission buildings are located. All I have to say about them is that they're not architecturally appealing. At all. 

Those buildings were yucky, so we decided to walk through the gardens close to the royal palace. The gardens are pretty. A few statues, walking paths, old trees, etc... We got to the palace itself, and due to the crappy weather there weren't many people out in front. Yay for photos without people. I wonder if it's ever possible to go inside the palace. It's big, but not super impressive outside; is the interior the same?

From there we walked to a monument which I think was an eternal flame. I'm not sure though. As we got there the wind picked up, as did the rain. YUCK. I know I've mentioned previously how I feel about rain. YUCK. Wind and rain make picture taking more difficult as well. 

The main Cathedral was close. It was big, and the front facade was quite nice. The interior wasn't nearly as impressive. Or maybe I'm just churched out. 

It continued being windy, and raining from time to time. To get out of the crappy weather we stepped into a cafe with a lovely display in the window. It ended up being a great choice. I had a slice of a raspberry tart, YUM. 

More time in the city center, including another church. This one was much more appealing to me. Smaller, much more friendly. 

I got another waffle, saw flavors as before. Again, YUM. At this point I realized it's a good thing I don't live in Brussels, I'd be HUGE! Between the chocolates and waffles, eeek.  When I ordered this waffle I had an entertaining conversation with the guy who worked there, in French. I love being able to speak a little of another language. 

I bought more chocolates. I think I ended up buying chocolates from all the main brands in Brussels. Except Godiva, I've had that brand plenty of times in other countries.

I wasn't hungry, but I realized I needed 'real' food, as I hadn't had any in a couple days. Bryn knew of a nearby street with several good choices, I ended up choosing a pita. Protein and veggies, I needed those. Since I wasn't full I didn't enjoy it as much as I could've, but I'm still glad I ate. Of course by the time I was done I wasn't feeling so good, I had way too much food in me.

The next morning I packed up, and walked Bryn to work. It was still a holiday for me, but not for Bryn. Then I made my way to the supermarket. I wanted to bring back chocolates for everyone at work, I figured I could find a box or several for cheaper than the stores in the city centre. I think I ended up buying three boxes :) 

Then I made my way to a metro stop, and figured out how to get to the atomium. It's a big, um, thing. Several of the molecules are part of a science oriented museum. That didn't interest me, I just enjoyed looking at the exterior. The atomium is in the middle of a park, I enjoyed strolling around and watching people.

At some point I realized I needed to hop back on the metro and get back to the airport. So I did. I got there later than I wanted, but being late meant there was almost no queue left at checkin. Thank goodness for not having to  check a bag!