BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
I arrived in Antwerp and was really
impressed with their ornate train station.
A very nice woman from California (but originally from Antwerp) took a
picture for me and then invited me to tour around the city with her and her
son. Unfortunately I had to catch my
train to Brugge and wouldn’t be able to change my ticket. She was such a good sport though and her son snapped
a photo of us reenacting the famous flash dance that took place in this station
years ago. Youtube it. It’s pretty cool!
Bruges knocked my socks off! I felt
like I was walking over the sands of time!
The medieval buildings were over 500 years old but still so full of
life. My purse broke on the train ride
in so it was a perfect excuse to hit the two main shopping streets of Steenstraat
and Geldmonstraat. I wish I didn’t have
to carry around my purchases for the next few months or else I would have
bought a lot more. But then again, with
all the good food around here, it’s probably best not to lock myself into a
size! I thought the best way to immerse
myself into the Belgian culture was to start with the waffles. I found they were best when drizzled in
chocolate sauce but also enjoyed the healthier version with strawberries and
whipped cream. The REAL Belgian waffles
came with the sugar already baked into them so they were REALLY heavy and not
as delicious….relatively speaking! I
would eat another.
I thought the best way to work off
the waffles was to stroll. And there’s
no better to city to stroll in than Bruges.
The ancient buildings were positioned with canals carved along one side
and cobblestoned streets on the other.
We Americans love cobblestones! They’re
so ancient that they’ve become chic. Thanks
to the Bruges travel guide made by locals, I got a more authentic experience
with the city. Even if I moved here now
at the age of 27, I don’t think I could visit every café in Bruges before I
die. It made me wish I liked
coffee! Both tourists and locals enjoyed
sitting outside a café facing Markt Square while watching the people, bicycles
and horse-drawn buggies go by. Their
hooves echoed ‘clop, clop, clop’ down the cobbled streets and it made for a
charming atmosphere. Also passing by the streets were lots of couples holding
hands. This city was so romantic that they actually labeled all the schmoopy
spots on the map with a red heart. Any
couple that’s on the rocks should head for Bruges for revival. With very few clubs and live music to choose
from, this town catered toward lovahs instead of fist-pumpahs.
That night I was able to see even
more sights on my way to a local pub called Honest and Modest Bruges. Since it was in the guide, I thought there
would surely be some tourists there but I was wrong. I think it was my first time showing up to a
bar alone with no expectations of meeting anyone I knew. The bartender was really nice though and I
spent most of the night chatting with him and playing solitaire at the bar. It’s not as sad as it sounds. He later revealed that he owned the bar and I
thought he was much too nice for that role!
I had noticed that the bartenders in Belgium had a tendency to scoop off
the top layer of a freshly poured draft beer so I asked him what that was all
about. He explained that the top layer is
actually CO2 and it’s important to scrap it away rather than ingest it. He even gave me a chance to scrape my
own. Why haven’t I seen that method
before? It must make people less bloated
so they can buy more beer!
I found myself in the middle of Markt
square with wireless so I started uploading pictures to Facebook when this man
from Poland started conversation. Once
we immediately discovered that we didn’t speak each other’s language, I was
sure we’d just stop talking. But he kept
insisting on trying…which is really frustrating. If you can’t communicate, you really can’t do
much! I was able to speak some Spanish
to him and he got some of it through the Italian he knew. It was a bizarre 30 minutes…but endearing.
After two days in beautiful Bruges,
I hopped on a train for 2 nights in Brussels. I was looking forward to my first official
couch surfing experience! I had reviewed
profiles of people that lived in Brussels and arranged to stay with a 57
year-old woman named Hucky. She had
hosted a slew of people in the past and had great reviews. She had lost her husband last year and had
since opened up her home to travelers just for the company. She worked for the German embassy so she
always had an interest in different people and cultures. Hucky was the sweetest woman ever! She HUGGED me when she picked me up from the
train station and welcomed me into her lovely abode. She was just full of so much love- she reminded
me of my mom. Her sister was visiting
for a couple weeks so it was fun to spend time with a Belgian family and
exchange crazy Couch Surfing stories.
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| Comic art of Brussels |
I travelled to work with Hucky the
next morning so that I could explore the city for the day. Honestly, I didn’t really like Brussels. It was modern and busy and I wish I had
stayed in Brugea or gone to Ghent. The
best part was definitely the Grand Place- the commercial hub of the city since
the Middle Ages and where you’ve probably seen their impressive flower displays
during the month of August. It turns out
I had missed that exhibit by a week or so.
Darn. I had a hard time
navigating around the city and spent most of my time lost. Even the highly advertised Manneken Pis was
disappointing- I was expecting it to be larger than life! I found a cool skate board park and was able
to tour through the Place Royale, which was obviously really nice. And the comic strip art was really neat. I had bad blisters from all the walking I had
done over the previous days though so I mostly enjoyed laying in the park
overlooking the Triumphal Arch waiting for Hucky to get off work. Later that night, she was nice enough to
drive me to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart and Atomium! The
Atomion was built in 1958 as an expo for the Brussels World Fair. They were going to tear it down but thank God
they didn’t. It was magnificent at
night.
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| Atomium |
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| Basilica of the Sacred Heart |
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| Triumphal arch by night |
It was early to bed that night because I had to leave at 3:45am to catch a bus to the airport outside of the city center. I would have taken a cab but Hucky insisted on driving me herself. Can you believe that? I know family and friends that wouldn’t even do that for me! J She went above and beyond any hosting responsibilities and, although I wrote her a good review on couchurfing.com, I couldn’t express just how grateful I was to have met her. As far as I’m concerned, the best part of Brussels was Hucky.
To see the resr of the Bruges pics, click here:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.911150988967.2362161.1611207&l=4fede37057&type=1
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