I might have to officially declare Belgium one of my favorite travel destinations so far. I don't think it's a place that would immediately jump into most people's heads when planning a Europe trip, but I absolutely adore it. In the first place, it's beautiful - it has everything a quaint European town is supposed to (cobblestones, ancient architecture), along with all of the conveniences of 21st century life. And the food...oh the food. Nowhere on this trip have we eaten better. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning...
We landed in Brussels and took a train into the center of the city - where we stumbled upon waffles immediately after exiting the station. Naturally we had to purchase on and...*sigh*...Belgian waffles are puffy little squares of heaven. They will live up to any amount of hype, I promise. They're the kind of food that forces you to eat in silence because talking gets in the way of eating and not eating is just unfathomable. Odes have probably been written about the Belgian waffle.
Anyway...
We should probably move on before my keyboard is dripping with saliva.
Waffle successfully procured, we lugged our bags to our hotel and set out in search of wi-fi. The quest for Internet quickly turned into an exploratory wander through the neighborhood, however, and for once sight-seeing won out over responsibility. See? I told you Brussels is beautiful...it can even win over the most workaholic of boyfriends! Our wandering worked up an appetite, so our next mission was finding a source of late night food. It took us awhile, but we eventually came upon a restaurant called Drug Opera (no idea what the name is supposed to mean) that was still open. Jon had a Flemish stew and I had pasta with smoked salmon (delicious!) and, most importantly, we both had our first domestic Belgian beers! Raspberry Lindeman's. I drink it in the US when I can find it, but mmm...it's so much better here. The raspberry flavor was perfect. It's not a strong beer, but we were so exhausted after our long travel day that we were ready to head home as soon as we'd finished. We stopped briefly in a karaoke bar so Jon could get one last drink, and then called it a night.
We woke up the next morning to the soothing sound of construction on the elevator directly outside of our room. I can think of more pleasurable ways to be woken - being pelted with rocks, for example - but at least it got us up at a decent hour and forced us to leave the hotel. I found the Grand Place for Jon, because it's what I remember most about my first trip to Brussels. I even remembered that one of the buildings was constructed to look like the stern of a ship because a captain lived there. I have a terrible memory when it comes to important things, but my ability to retain useless facts is second to none.
Breakfast was a waffle with whipped cream and strawberries from a vendor just outside the Grand Place. After eating we wandered through an outdoor market, a mall, and some of the cutest side streets you could ever be lucky enough to see.
The afternoon was spent sipping cappuccinos in a cafe while getting work done. I also discovered the first episode of the BBC's "Sherlock," a modern day Arthur Conan Doyle adaptation. It's written by Steven Moffat, the "Doctor Who" writer who is responsible for the creation of the one and only Captain Jack Harkness and who is now the head writer of "Who" in the wake of Russell T. Davies' departure. His first season as showrunner of "Who" was brilliant, so I had high expectations for "Sherlock." I was not disappointed in the least. The lead actor's name is Benedict Cumberbatch which, in addition to quite possibly being one of the greatest names of all time, is reason enough to watch the show as far as I'm concerned.
I can't remember what we had for dinner that night, but I wish I could because I'm sure it was scrumptious. We settled on an Irish bar for our post-dinner entertainment, and it turned out to be an awesome venue! I get the impression that Belgium is not particularly interested in big dance clubs, but that the bar scene is exceptionally lively.
Day Three was much the same in Brussels, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. Breakfast was, of course, a waffle - with whipped cream for Jon, and Nutella for me. Honestly, food that delicious should not be legal. Take my word for it when I say that getting fat in Belgium will be some of the most fun you will ever have.
We found a different wi-fi enabled location from which to work all afternoon, complete with Belgian hot chocolate. I also finally purchased a power adapter for myself, which I am unreasonably excited about because it works in the US, UK, EU, and Australia. Well worth every penny spent. We dropped my precious new purchase and our laptops back at the hotel and then returned to one of the cute streets we had discovered on Day Two for dinner: two free drinks each, plus an appetizer, main course, and dessert for €12.50. Not bad at all! The food was slow, but it was good. I had a cheese thing to start that was called "fondue" on the menu, but was not what you picture when you hear that word. It was sort of a small rectangle of fried cheese, which I haven't had since the family trip to Switzerland and Austria years ago! My main course was "moules frites," mussels with french fries, which I knew I had to have at least once before leaving Belgium! Dessert turned out to be flan, sadly, but I ate it anyway because I am incapable of turning down dessert.
After dinner we paid a visit to a local casino because it was lit entirely by color-changing rainbow lights in various forms and we are also incapabable of resisting shiny things. The place wasn't terribly exciting beyond the lights, but Jon won €70 or so at the blackjack tables, so it turned out to be a worthwhile stop. Afterwards we went back to the Irish bar, which was even better than it had been the night before. The upstairs dancefloor actually had room for dancing on it, and the music was good electronic stuff. Downstairs they were playing all of my favorite alternative and indie rock of the last decade - The Killers, The Kaiser Chiefs, The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand - so I was a very happy camper aurally all night. My other favorite part of the night was a group of British customers, some of whom were wearing colorful wigs and some of whom were dressed in matching red bowties, tweed jackets, and bowler hats. One even had a pipe! I complemented them on their attire, but I never had a chance to ask what the occasion was (or, indeed, if there was an occasion at all). We brought the evening to a close with frites in hot Samurai sauce and a final walk past the hookers that had decorated the street corners by our hotel every night. :)
I didn't want to leave Belgium, but the sadness was tempered by a trip to Bruges before leaving the country. We bought some truffles to bring home to the States and saw the infamous Manneken Pis, because I figured I couldn't let Jon leave Belgium without having seen it. Then we hopped a train to Bruges, and an hour later we were disembarking in the city and meeting a high school friend of Jon's who now lives nearby. Bruges, for those who don't know, is a picturesque medieval town with Venice-like canals. It is, in a word, gorgeous. I'd seen it during my last trip to Belgium, and was pleased to see that nothing had changed since then. Considering that the city is famous because it basically hasn't changed in hundreds of years, though, I shouldn't have been surprised. :)
We wandered through the fish market, down the canals, in and out of churches, and through a park. We also passed through the grounds of a Benedictine monastery, which was a rather interesting accident! After a couple of hours of walking, we settled into a cafe for refreshments and Jon and Sofie spent the rest of the afternoon catching up and reminiscing about their high school exploits. Sofie walked us back to the train station and we bid her farewell. After a 3 hour journey and a brief stop in Antwerp, we arrived in Amsterdam, where we can now be found. Though I expected Amsterdam to be a tourist trap city filled with obnoxious American kids looking to get high, I'm finding that I actually rather like it.
But that, dear reader, is a story for another entry... :)
Shoulder Watch: The MSP is all but gone, I think! Though I still find that it gets tired quickly if I carry bags on that shoulder and I still cannot sleep on my left side.
No comments:
Post a Comment