{an early morning arrival to brussels}
{a few delightful hours in bruges}
{and back to brussels for some mussels and frites and peeing statues galore}
brussels is kind of a weird city. they have not one, not two, but THREE statues of a girl, boy, and dog peeing on the street, and the rest of the city makes sure to capitalize on this mascot by imprinting a picture of a peeing boy EVERYWHERE. also, although belgium is definitely not known for its food, the mussels + frites + waffles were pretty much to die for.
we arrived in brussels at 8 am saturday morning and walked through the quiet streets that had yet to wake up. the only people stirring were those who were awake from the night before with a nice warm beer in each hand. it is belgium, after all. in the afternoon, we made our way to bruges, the cutest disney-land like city in all of the land, and wandered through the cobblestone alleyways while attempting to avoid an ankle sprain.
a few notable moments:
- getting kicked out of the "first class" train car to bruges and having to stand in between cars for 30 minutes with approximately three little children and more spit than we could handle.
- my first hostel experience after a day of recounting the harrowing scenes from the movie with the same name. we survived.
- people speak french, dutch, english, and flemish in brussels. just like in paris, i attempted to use the few words of french i know, but people spoke back to me in english every. single. time.
- learning that, on our way to amsterdam after brussels, a man had thrown himself in front of the train from brussels to rotterdam, so instead of one stop, we changed trains at leuven and antwerp and rosendaal and rotterdam. grateful that i'll never fail a quiz on the southern geography of holland.
and a few notable noms:
waffles + a speculoos milkshake at maison dandoy
mokafe for eggs + lunch specials
mussels + frites at chez leon
"the very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. the most you can do is live inside that hope, running down its hallways, touching the walls on both sides."
- barbara kingsolver
