I like Brussels.
My hostel was amazing (St. Gilles area). It was a 4 story townhouse with a big old golden retriever and a backyard with a ping pong table. People were friendly and spent most of my time exploring the city with a fellow traveler from SF. We met up at a lambec brewery tour and after realizing we both liked Belgian beer, we made it our mission to drink it lots throughout the city. In Brussels every beer has a specific glass that it should be drunk from. In the more poppin' neighbhorhood you can just walk right out of the bar and go stand in the middle of the street with hundreds of drunken Belgians.
-Wonderful architecture, from gothic to art nouveau. The town center is stupid pretty.
-Every five minutes or so I stumbled on a mural on the side of a house featuring a Belgian comic character (tin-tin, smurfs, etc)
-I took a tour of the EU parliment in which they give everyone video ipods and then lead them around to two rooms where you watched videos about how great multinational governing bodies are.
-Cars always stop for pedestrians at crosswalks.
-What I drank: BEER!
-What I ate: French fries! and a couple waffles. (food was very expensive in Brussels)
-What I wished I new before coming: That Brussels can be confusing to find your way around. Getting into Brussels, I accidentally got off the train (international) at the north station instead of the middle. I walked around for twenty minutes in a turkish neighborhood before I realized my mistake. I took a train (subway) to my hostel, but got lost again. Eventually I swallowed by pride and walked into a hotel to ask for directions. Just before I was about to ask, I took a glance at the business cards and realized the hotel was on the same street and my hostel and bounded out.
This annoyance was cured with a pocket map.
That's all for now.
My hostel was amazing (St. Gilles area). It was a 4 story townhouse with a big old golden retriever and a backyard with a ping pong table. People were friendly and spent most of my time exploring the city with a fellow traveler from SF. We met up at a lambec brewery tour and after realizing we both liked Belgian beer, we made it our mission to drink it lots throughout the city. In Brussels every beer has a specific glass that it should be drunk from. In the more poppin' neighbhorhood you can just walk right out of the bar and go stand in the middle of the street with hundreds of drunken Belgians.
-Wonderful architecture, from gothic to art nouveau. The town center is stupid pretty.
-Every five minutes or so I stumbled on a mural on the side of a house featuring a Belgian comic character (tin-tin, smurfs, etc)
-I took a tour of the EU parliment in which they give everyone video ipods and then lead them around to two rooms where you watched videos about how great multinational governing bodies are.
-Cars always stop for pedestrians at crosswalks.
-What I drank: BEER!
-What I ate: French fries! and a couple waffles. (food was very expensive in Brussels)
-What I wished I new before coming: That Brussels can be confusing to find your way around. Getting into Brussels, I accidentally got off the train (international) at the north station instead of the middle. I walked around for twenty minutes in a turkish neighborhood before I realized my mistake. I took a train (subway) to my hostel, but got lost again. Eventually I swallowed by pride and walked into a hotel to ask for directions. Just before I was about to ask, I took a glance at the business cards and realized the hotel was on the same street and my hostel and bounded out.
This annoyance was cured with a pocket map.
That's all for now.
I love the thought of you wandering around all these cities in Europe, just like I used to! Oh Matty P. I miss you!
ReplyDeleteYea! Told you it was a great city! Such a goodtime. Out of all the places I visited - it was the one where I had the lowest expectations yet it was one of my alll-time best trips! So glad you enjoyed it! Miss ya xxx - Nicole
ReplyDelete