Why had I never before eaten a waffle?

---

After my fun filled four days in Stockholm I started to head south to Belgium, to break up the trip I travelled back to Copenhagen to stay the night. I couldn't believe the change in the city, since I had last been there the ice that had covered all of the waterways had disappeared giving the city a completely different look. Heading off the next morning I arrived in Hamburg mid-afternoon where I stayed for two nights before leaving for Brussells on Friday morning.

With a 4.5 star hotel awaiting them, which backpacker wouldn’t be happy to be heading to Brussells? I had left it a little too late to find hostel accommodation in Brussels, there were still beds available however the price for these beds were extortionate, and so standing on my moral high ground I refused to pay such ridiculous prices and instead turned to wotif.com to find myself a great bargain – the first hotel I have stayed in my entire trip. I walked in the door of my hotel room and felt like it was heaven – a king size bed, a full sized bathroom, mini bar, satellite tv…what more could a girl want? Well, the tv to work for one thing! After many attempts by the front desk to “…apparently fix it, just give it half an hour…” I finally convinced them that my expectation when booking into their hotel would be to have a tv that worked and that they needed to either a) fix the tv now; or b) switch me to another room. After politely standing my ground for another twenty minutes, they realised that I was not going to back down, and switched my rooms – to one where the internet didn’t work! I gave up at that point.

Waking Saturday morning I realised that spring was upon Brussells, the sun was shining in the clear blue sky, the flower beds were beginning to bloom, and the trees were beginning to develop the first of their lush green leaves – it truly was bliss. Setting out for the day I had every intention of staying outdoors for as much of the day as possible given that it was predicted to hit a high of 24 degrees.

Brussels is a city where you can easily see majority of the tourist sites on foot, so with my map in hand I headed firstly to Grand Place. I visited the Manneken Pis, the Royal Palace, the Botanical gardens and more. In the key tourist areas everywhere you looked you could spot tourists tucking into waffles topped with the most delicious looking toppings – and I was determined that before the day ended I too would be just like them. Deciding on a waffle shop was a big task, do I go with the one that is slightly cheaper, however they don’t have as many choices in toppings, do I go the one with the really big line up, or do I go for the one that is slightly out of the tourist strip and which may be the one that the locals favour. In the end, my stomach decided for me and I went to the one that had what appeared to be the ultimate topping mixture – chocolate sauce, sliced banana and whipped cream piled on top, it was yummo!!!

Another great thing about Brussels was that everywhere you looked you saw a café or a pub and every patron frequenting them was drinking one of the many Belgian beers on offer. Tourists and locals alike were mingling in the beautiful warm spring sunshine eating their French fries – yes the Belgians claim that they were the inventor of the humble fries, and drinking their beers. My trip to Brussels was superb due to the beautiful weather combined with a gorgeous city. I wholeheartedly agree with all of the experts who claim that exposing people to sunshine can increase their state of happiness!!!

This blog is short and sweet given that I am writing it a number of weeks later and to be honest cannot remember much more...whoops!

---

Photos

Yummo, what a beautiful flavour combination
Chocolate sauce, sliced banana topped off with a healthy lashing of cream

Comments

[michelle]

I think they might have given you a waffle with your whipped cream!!

[Tan M]

Ha ha, I know!! There was so much whipped cream on it - it was oh so delicious :)