Life in Brussels 11-13 May

For those of you who know your geography, Belgium is conventiently situated within Europe to allow for easy access to neighbouring countries... France, Germany, The Netherlands, Luxembourg and even London are all close. In fact, in Europe, everything is within easy reach (although sometimes not affordable!)

So, with grand plans of either heading to the beautiful medieval town of Bruges or to Luxembourg with a few of my flatmates for the weekend, Belgian weather got the better of us and with the sixth consecutive day of rain it was decided that another weekend in Brussels was on the cards. Still all living a typical student lifestyle, it was deemed necessary to save our money and postpone our travels for a day when we wouldn't be stuck inside a cafe at our destination wishing for the rain to cease!

Saturday, 12 May 2007

Nevertheless, the weekend was not entirely unproductive. Saturday was spent with my Norwegian flatmate Yngvild as she introduced me to Rue Neuve, the city's pedestrianized shopping street. Following that, it was lunch at a cute little coffee house where I sampled my first "authentic" quiche. It was fantastic but I wouldn't recommend the place to female diners... although seemingly normal in Belgium, anywhere else and the attentions of the majority of the male staff would have been classified as sexual harassment!

I was then wowed by the beauty of the shopping arcade known as Galeries St Hubert and as we passed through we tortured ourselves by visits to a number of the chocolateries present! Halfway through Galeries St Hubert you have the option of turning off down Rue des Bouchers which is apparently Brussels' most famous (not to mention incredibly packed!) dining street. Walking down here was quite an experience as each restaurant has waiters out in force attempting to entice you into their respective restaurants. Offers of marriage are not uncommon.

To top off a day where I was introduced to more peculiarities of Belgian/European life, from 9-12pm I endured (yes, endured) my first "Eurovision" song contest. Yngvild assured me it was taken very seriously in Scandinavia and Rosel and Javi (from Spain) were also getting into the spirit. Andrea, however, was experiencing his first Eurovision viewing also and initially wondered why Italy didn't participate. After viewing the first few acts though, I think the answer was obvious. To sum it up in one word: bizarre. Don't believe me? Then by all means, please check out the Ukrainian offering here then click on the "video" link. No words can really explain the horror I felt whilst watching it...

Sunday, 13 May 2007

Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée
Remember Tintin and The Smurfs? Anyone think they were an American creation? Well, I did - but my visit to Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée/Belgium's comic-strip museum put me right. Tintin was in fact brought to life by the Belgian cartoonist Hergé - also known as Georges Remi. The Smurfs entered the comic-strip scene as early as 1958 when Belgian creator Peyo introduced them to his comic "Johan and Pirlouit" about two young heroes living in medieval Europe. The little blue guys proved to be such a success that they earned comic-strip status in their own right in 1959 and the rest, as they say, is history...

Grand-Place and around
During my time in the museum the weather had, typically, turned from miserable to hot and sunny... and so after exiting the Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée I headed to my favourite part of the city, the Grand-Place, to make the most of the change in the weather and take some more photos for you all to drool over...!

As the photos clearly state, I also returned to Galeries St Hubert to sample some of the chocolates that Yngvild and I had managed to resist on Saturday. YUM.

And that's all for the end of my second week in Brussels. If I manage to secure myself some cheap last-minute Thalys train tickets, the next time you hear from me I will have just returned from Paris...! So, 'til then - au revoir!

---

---