Brussels: home of the European Union Headquarters, amazing waffles, chocolate, and of course, Belgian beer
March 25th,
Solo trip from Dublin to Brussels to meet up with one of my very good friends from Holy Cross, Bob Egnatchik. Bob goes to the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, so we met up on Friday to spend the weekend in Brussels with a side trip to Brugge. They way the flights worked out, I got to Brussels first, around noon, found the hotel and spent the day exploring on my own to get a feeling for the city.
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| One of the EU HQ buildings. Our hotel was down the street to the left |
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| exploring around the outskirts of the city, found this little pond. Beautiful day, about 60 F |
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| interesting wooden exhibit attached (sort of) to the Flemish Parliament Building |
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| front of the Flemish Capital Bldg |
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| Overlooking the city |
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| First Belgian beer of the weekend, while looking over a map of the city |
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| One side street crammed with restaurants |
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| Old town square |
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| Old town square |
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| some of the ornate architecture (Baroque classical? correct me if I'm wrong) |
So I didn't realize that Bob's wouldn't get to Brussels until about 11pm on Friday, so I had most-no I had the whole day to myself, which was nice because I got to explore the city and see different parts of it that I may not have seen otherwise.
Interesting story- on my way back to the hotel to chill out and wait for Bob to arrive, I was crossing the street heading away from the cathedral pictured above when I was approached by a Barcelonian guy looking for a light for his cigarette. I told him I didn't have a light and kept walking, but he kept talking to me, asking me if I watched football (soccer) and who I favored. I said Portugal to get him off my back, he put his hand out in agreement to shake, and then started sort of kicking my leg as if there was an imaginary ball he was trying to get from me. He did this a couple of times, I pushed him away from me and told him to get lost, which he did. About 5 minutes later I went to check my phone to see if Bob had called, and it was gone. The S.O.B. had done the kicking thing to distract my senses on my leg while he picked my phone from my right front pocket. When I realized this, I said a mental "aww hell no", put my camera in my bag, cinched my backpack tight against my back and took off to try and find him. I rounded the corner by that cathedral, where he and his friend were walking. I shouted sharply at him as I ran up on his heels, and luckily he didn't try to run or anything, and gave the phone back to me. I can honestly say that I have never felt so personally violated in my life. A part of me died after that incident, and his name was Naive Kevin. It was a good run, Naive Kevin. Distrusting, Jaded Kevin will miss you dearly.
When Bob finally arrived, we went out to check out some of the town center area, went to a couple of places, sampled a few different beers and caught up on the last 4 months since we had seen each other last.
March 26th,
Saturday we took the train to Brugge, a smaller city northwest of Brussels. There were a number of Cathedrals there, including the Cathedral of the Holy Blood, which contained a vial of holy blood- a relic brought back from the Crusades. Michelangelo's Madonna and Child sculpture was also in another church nearby. The town was beautiful, cobblestone streets, gothic-style architecture, and of course, awesome food and beer. The Belgian beer was not what I expected. Most of it had a smooth taste comparable to wine.
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| Outside the Brugge train station, check this thing out. |
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| Walking into Brugge |
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| Madonna with Child |
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| Tower in Brugge town square |
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| Cathedral of the Holy Blood |
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| Of course we had to go to an Irish Pub- there's no escaping them! |
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| The red beer on the left was ridiculously sweet |
After returning from Brugge to the Hotel, chilling out and watching a little bit of Anchorman on tv, we went exploring again, and of course ended up at another Irish Pub near the main square. But it didn't matter, we could've been anywhere and it would've been a blast. We sat outside on a balcony, even though it was a little too cold to do so, and watched people go by as the night progressed. It didn't help us too much that the clocks moved forward an hour that night (it's a week later in Europe than in the US).
March 27th,
Sunday we woke up, checked out of the hotel and went over to an Automotive museum, which was supposed to have 500 different vehicles on display. They did, but it was quite underwhelming. The main highlight was a Lincoln Continental with suicide doors (you may recognize from the show, Entourage). After getting some food, we took the train up to the site of the 1958 Worlds' Fairgrounds, including the "Atomium" (oooohhh...ahhh), modeled after an Iron crystal magnified 165 billion times.
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| Sweet. I'll take one of those please |
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| The Atomium |
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| Inside one of the tubes of the Atomium |
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| Top of the Atomium |
We hung out outside for a while before taking the train back, enjoying the beautiful weather and sun. Dinner that night was a Doner Kebab-we must have had about 5 of them over the course of the weekend. They were cheap and so unbelievably delicious, I don't care what you say about the quality of the meat that they serve, or the fact that they shave it off a vertical spit with a power tool that's cousins with a Dremmel, it hits the spot when you need it to. We explored a little more of the city that night, indulged in some delicious take-away waffles, and headed back to the Hostel. We might as well have not even gotten a room, because we had to get up at 2:30am to walk to the bus station to catch a bus to the airport for an early flight back to Dublin. My flight was at 6:20, Bob's wasn't until about 10. I feel bad that he came so early, but it was good having him for the walk and the ride. Downtown Brussels, especially near the train station, is not the most fun place to be walking alone at 3am. But guess what we had for breakfast to keep us company. You guessed it: Mr. Doner Kebab.
It was an awesome weekend. Brussels is a different city than most that I've visited. It seems to be the most developed and modern, and not as "touristy", although there were a fair share of tourists around. Would I go back there again? Probably not unless there was some special event to draw me there, but I would say that it is worth visiting once, and Brugge/Antwerp is a definite destination as well.
