Brussels & Brugge, Belgium

Fries, and beer, and waffles, and chocolate, oh my!

Unfortunately I didn't write anything down during my trip to Belgium two weekends ago, but I'll try to adequately inform everyone on just how spectacular this place is.

Tastes like apples!

I went there with 7 of my friends - which makes mostly all of API Grenoble's year students - plus our friend Stephanie's boyfriend from the Netherlands, Alex, who joined us later. We did this thing called couch surfing, which allows travelers to stay with residents of a city for free. As a large group we stayed with a nice guy named Mathijas, and then later we split into two smaller groups, and my group stayed with an amazingly nice, generous, intelligent guy about our age named Lennert, while the other group stayed with this pretentious, arrogant, Frenchman named Dimitri.

During our time in Brussels we ate the fries, waffles, and chocolate that are so raved about, and drank the beer that is usually exalted. Yes, Aunt Cathy, I tried the cherry beer! It was good, but I have a notion that you liked it better than I! We pretty much survived on these foods the whole trip, or very nearly. I could do without eating fries for a while.

Also, Brussels, as a bilingual city, is a very interesting concept. People speak French and Dutch, and a lot speak English as well. Lennert told me that outside of Brussels, in the predominantly Dutch speaking areas of Belgium, French isn't second, but third following English! Dutch is just between German and English when looking at linguistic lineage. Belgians are very nice, too. Much less hostile (read - more welcoming) than the French. Though, surely, the French are welcoming too (just watch out for those Parisians)!

We drank beers in a park, and one day went and visited the Atomium which was good to see, but we just goofed around. Sometimes while in Europe, you actually forget that people take vacations here - living out dreams. We actually live here, and the idea is just bizarre. One night, while in our separate groups, we took ourselves (couch surfing host included) to the other group's place, as their host was having a party. We got there at 11, and the party was dead - not to mention that Dimitri was rude to Shawn when she asked where our friends were. Oh well, we had fun sitting in our corner making fun of his apartment.

One day we took a train to Brugge, which is said to be the Venice of Northern Europe. It's full of canals and cute houses. That's another thing - I really did love the architecture in Belgium (from what I saw). Lots of brickwork that reminded me of what I imagine America's big colonial cities to have. Once we got of the train we bought things for a picnic, and after a stop for fries, we walked a ways and found a nice grassy patch to sit on. Then, after walking around a bit, we found an open air market.

This isn't even everyone! Atomium.

Still not everyone. Big group, one room.

Overall, it was a fantastic trip and a very lovely city. I would definitely go back, and I even read that 23% of Brussels' population is foreign, so you never know. I could stay!