Bye bye Brussels

So here we are, literally sitting on the train in the Brussels station awaiting some movement as we start on our way to Amsterdam. Steve's to my left, in the window seat and Dave's across the aisle. We just finished a nice cheap lunch bought in the grocery store in the Brussels station. The train just stated moving and we are on our way north, across the border with the Netherlands into Amsterdam, leaving behind our third city, Brussels.

Brussels was probably the least I knew about any of the cities. The process of choosing it for our itinerary was quite simple, when we saw on a map that "Bruxxeles" was located right between Paris and Amsterdam, we said "why not?"

Brussels truly is the Baltimore to Paris and London's New York. A small, easily navigable city with less museums and big tourist attractions than its counterparts. As the capital of the European Union, the city plays host to thousands of employees from Monday-Friday. On the weekends, those areas are literal ghost towns. It reminded me of Charolotte, NC or that part of DC down by the White House that empties out after 5pm on a work day.

The center of the city, though, is gorgeous. Old cafe-lined avenues host buildings of all shapes and colors. The people are carefree and relaxed. Life is slower there. As our guide map explained, Brusseleirs dress for comfort, not fashion: "Be yourself especially if you're weird. Acting cool may work in Paris, but not in Brussels."

Within 3 hours of our first day, we had seen the "Manaken Pis," Brussels' largest tourist attraction and simultaneously the smallest statue I have ever seen; ate the amazing belgian waffles (only 1€ a pop!) and sampled some of the most delectable beer I have ever tasted, at what was once rated the 10th best bar in the world, "Moeder Lambic."

We had a great youth hostel right in the center of the city, which finally allowed us to meet some great travel buddies. As Dave alluded to in his blog, we became especially close to a Danish guy named Christian who was visiting Brussels for work during the weekend. Christian (who I aptly called "The Great Dane") accompanied us back to our new favorite bar that night, and we laughed over drinks for hours until we headed back to our dorm for some much-needed rest.

On day 2, Christian joined the three of us for a lazy Saturday. We got some breakfast at the grocery store, then walked to a nice park. We wet into an English bookstore for an hour as we picked out books for the trip, we got some free wifi and reserved hostels later down the road, and eventually left christian and headed to our new hotel in Brussels to the east of the city center. (By the way, Christian, if you're reading this, sorry we never met up, we ended up staying near our hotel for the rest of the night!)

The next few hours we had pure relaxation. All of us showered, read, and napped (in different orders). When we were finally all napped out we headed down to Place Jordan where we finally sampled what the locals call "Belgian Fries," which are just really well cooked french fries- that I believe were done in truffle oil. The guys got some hamburgers and I grabbed a falafel sandwich before grabbing the ceremonial end-of-city round. We finished the night playing cards back at the hotel before sleeping for what seemed like eternity.

And so here we are... on our way to Amsterdam for the next 4 days. Behind us, we leave a city that really surprised me. Cool, relaxed and beautiful, Brussels is definitely a city that I would return to, if only for the waffles.

Talk from 'Dam,

Greg





Waffles!


So good




The Manaken Pis





Steve doing his best impression of the statue







Us with our new friend Christian





Steve and Chris