After a quiet day in Clermont-Ferrand and a few wonderful days in Paris, I caught a Eurostar train to Brussels, Belgium. Dublin is a body of water from Grenoble, and Rome was a stretch of coastline and a little bit of mountains, so differences from France were more expected. But just a 2 hour trip from Paris took me to a whole different world from Ireland, Rome, as well as France. Brussels is even francophone, which can't be said of Ireland or Italy. I spent 3 nights in a city that I took a little while to warm up to, but ended up being my favorite part of my 10 day trip north.
What can be said of Brussels? It is the head of the European Union, but is also known for beer, chocolate, fries, waffels, and art nouveau. French is the language spoken on the street, but Belgians seemed to be pretty good at English (which is spoken at EU affairs and a lot of the business world). In other parts of Belgium, Dutch is much more common, and the country is a bit divided due to the language differences. I discovered that Brussels was a a city of contradiction: old and new, classic and quirky, natural and metallic.
The first thing I saw after I got off the metro: the botanical garden...with skyscrapers in the background. This has got to be about the third botanical garden I have seen this winter.
Typical street in Brussels
Trees in the middle of a huge street of glass buildings. I will admit, Brussels is probably greener than the other cities I have visited, yet the parks are not without the obvious reminder of a major European city.
Night in a popular shopping district.
I'm not a huge comic book reader by any means, but while I was looking at my map to find a good waffel shop, a man asked if I was lost. I wasn't, but we talked a little bit and he strongly recommended the Museum of Comics, so I decided to go. It turned out to be pretty cool, and the building was decorated with beautiful art nouveau architecture, one of my favorite styles of art.
Entrance at the Museum of Comics. It was designed by Victor Horta, a famous art nouveau artist.
Stroumpfs! Maybe you know them as Smurfs.
Drawing at the Museum of Comics
Mmmm, a tasty Belgian waffel the Belgian way - just a little bit of powered sugar on top.
Really... voltzwagon vans selling 'warme wafels' outside the cathedral. Only in Belgium.
Stained-glass window in the cathedral; not as gothic as the stained glass I saw in France.
A very famous shopping strip. Also very expensive, but interesting to look in the windows.
Park in the middle of the city
On the second day in Brussels, I walked around with a girl I met in my hostel. Her name was Beréngère and she was from Lyon studying nursing in Brussels for the semester, but she had just arrived and was staying at the hostel before moving into an apartment. We went to an art museum, wondered around the streets, and tried some Belgian beer at the end of the day. She didn't speak much English, so we spoke in French the whole time; er, she spoke French and I tried to speak French. That's kind of my life in France though. I must mention that it was POURING all day though.
Mannekin Pis, a famous fountain who has hundreds of outfits mailed from countries all over the world.
Yet, sometimes he is wearing nothing, like on the second day I walked by.
In candy shops, apparently he comes in all colors.
Painting at the National Art Museum of Belgium. I love it...do you get the symbolism? I think it is all about language, culture, and immigration.
Art nouveau, isn't it beautiful?
The most beautiful place in Europe, according to Beréngère's guide book. I don't know about the most beautiful, but it was definitely a unique and gilded.
And the same square at night
Beréngère and I at a bar having a glass of Belgian beer. I think the only thing I didn't like about Brussels was that you can smoke inside cafés and restaurants, so they were always quite smokey. In France, you cannot smoke inside any public places.
Beréngère moved into her aparment the next day, and I spent most of the day wondering around the streets and in the cold, wintery breeze. I walked through a Sunday market selling lots of cheap clothes and food.
1€ underwear? Brussels has it, right outside the train station, in fact.
A couple streets away from the food and clothes market was the daily flea market. I think it is kind of cool to wonder where all of the random items came from.
Another picture of the flea market. I had to include it because of the leg; it reminds me too much of the leg lamp in 'A Christmas Story'
These look like my type of glasses.
So here it is, the head of the EU. And look, can you see the basketball court right in front of it...uh, wait. 2 things. Basketball isn't even that common in Europe, let alone to prominent European politicians.
Ah, the wonderfully decorated art nouveau district.
And the very, very expensive 19th century art nouveau district with a 21st century EU building right behind it.
Keeping in mind that I really love art nouveau, I had to include some photos of doors in the district as I wasn't allowed to the inside of any of the houses (which were probably way more magnificent than the doors).
On my last night in Brussels, I went to one of the coolest places I have ever been with a girl I met from Montréal. She had been in Europe for several months and was about to head back to teach a semester of high school French literature in Montréal. The bar didn't look to exciting from the outside, but turned out to be a maze of colorful, couch filled, and smoke hazed rooms in about 3 or 4 stories. I will never forget that bar as it was just so unique and definitely not a tourist hotspot. Mélissa and I talked for several hours, and at one point the owner of the bar came and spoke to us in French for about half an hour about a million different things. He gave us two free drinks at the end of the night, and seemed a bit hurt that we were leaving at 2am because his bar didn't close until 4am.
A view of one of the staircases at Goupil le Fol, the bar
What a table looks like at the end of the night in Brussels
Belgium, I will be back.
