Europe Adventure Part 2: Brussels

Published on by Amanda C

After spending a couple days in Paris, where we ate and drank and walked way too much, we headed to Brussels for a day. Guess what we did there? Ate, drank, and walked way too much.

To be honest, I was a little skeptical about Brussels at first. The walk from the train station to our hotel did not make a great first impression (it was one of those “don’t make eye contact and just keep moving” kind of affairs) and after being dazzled by the beauty of Paris it just looked drab in comparison. Things started looking up when we got to our hotel – it was old but super swanky and cool.

The view from the balcony – Brussels is an interesting mixture of old vs new

Then when we left the hotel and walked a couple blocks away into La Grand-Place, I suddenly understood. WOW.

sometimes I panoramic

 

La Grand-Place is the city’s central square. It contains their Town Hall and some other official buildings, but also many taverns and touristy shops. I’ve never seen so much amazing chocolate in my entire life. First we hit a tavern for some beers (bonus points if you guess which one is mine) and a super delicious cheese tray. Because cheese.

A slightly different view than your typical American bar

Then we wandered around past some more shops and I learned that apparently Easter is a really big thing there. All the chocolate places had crazy elaborate displays in the windows, most of which involved bunnies of varying levels of creepiness.

it’s ALL chocolate!

Then we wandered down to an alley full of nice restaurants to find some mussels (apparently you must have mussels in Brussels, but I personally refused to partake because ew). I kept calling it Diagon Alley but I’m pretty sure that wasn’t it. We got serenaded by some interesting dudes and were lured into a restaurant with the promise of free drinks. When you’ve already had a few beers, free drinks just seem silly to turn down. Plus – I was on vacation.

Not-Diagon-Alley

We ate and drank some more, then started wandering back towards our hotel. Along the way we passed a waffle shop with some awesome looking waffles in the window, so I leaned in for a closer look. Sadly, in my slightly hazy beer and wine induced state I mis-judged just how far away the window was and WHAM – forehead went boom into the glass. Commence my former friends dying of laughter, everyone in the shop dying of laughter (it was a loud thunk), and me slinking away in shame. No waffle for me, just a minor concussion and long lasting mortification. Sorry about the forehead print on  your window, waffle shop.

To make up for my lack of waffle, when we got back to the hotel we decided to see just how many macarons we could fit in our mouths. Those buggers are bigger than they look, I must say.

The trick is to smoosh them together…

 

Yep, that happened. Almost choked, but there are worse ways to die than via macaron eating contest. And yes there’s macaron in my hair. That’s how I party.

The next morning we snagged some breakfast from the buffet, where I fell in love with this brioche. Good god it was delicious. Pretty sure that’s crack sprinkled on top.

Then our Belgian friend Baudouin came to pick us up and take us to see some PONIES!!! But you have to wait til tomorrow for that… brace yourselves for pictures. Many many pictures.

 

 

29 thoughts on “Europe Adventure Part 2: Brussels”

  2. Looks like such a great city! Sorry about your forehead, ouch lol.
    I like your idea of vacation though: food, food, beer, food, beer, and more food.

    Lemme guess: the middle beer? 😉

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  6. Sounds like you are having a great, great time! I went to Brussels many years ago, and all I really remember is seeing lewd souvenirs everywhere of the peeing boy fountain!!

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  10. Years ago, before credit cards were used for everything, I arrived at that same train station from London late at night. My friend and I looked out the door to where the only ATM was – down a dark street in a sketchy-ass area – and we were like NOPE and went back in and jumped the turnstile for the subway. The rest of the city is gorgeous and lovely and very safe, but man is that train station in a bad location. Beautiful pictures!

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  11. ha sounds like fun was had and food was eaten. I am ready to see the pony stuff I admit. And I would have loved to see you boink your head. 🙂

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  12. PONIES!!!!
    Can’t wait

    PS i have done the exact same thing looking at a waffle shop – in fact ow that two of us have done it…i think it’s safe to say that there is something wrong with those that don’t. Cos them waffles look (and are) delis and totes need closer-inspection-and-head-smooshing

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