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Published: March 11th 2010
My room
I think if you laid width wise, many of you would be the length of it. But this is like many other hostels.After leaving Brugge, I headed back on the train to Brussels. Brussels is no Brugge but it definitely has character, it's where the modern meets the old gothic world. As you may know, it's the capital of Europe and though it brings in many people from all over the world, their language of choice is French. So I was able to practice some of my French crash lessons. I seem to have this look to the locals that makes me approachable, from Leiden where a resident just started speaking to me in Dutch(we ended up having a great 10 minute conversation in English) to Den Haag, where a clerk at the Escher museum asked if I speak French to Brussels, where an elderly woman asked me for directions. I sadly said to her, "Je parles un peu francais. Je suis American." To which she replied, "Que? (hrrmph)" she smiled at me and shook her head... haha!!
My entrance into Brussels was with a little trepidation because it was almost as if I landed in the middle of south LA with all the graffiti surrounding me, it was a bit seedy but it soon showed me it's wow factor. I arrived
King's House or City Museum
One of the buildings in the Grand Place at my hostel which was more like a budget hotel, it was really cute and there were actually a lot of business travelers. It was situated on a quiet street just outside of the Grand Place or Grote Mrkt and I had a private room with a shared bath, that was the size of someone's walk-in closet, the bedroom that is. Literally... but the bed was all I needed and the shower was an experience in that I almost got locked in it! OMG I fiddled with the old key for about 5 minutes, had to calm myself from having a panic attack and soon enough I was freed! Now if I haven't already told you about Dutch houses is that they have a lot of stairs and are tall! My room was 127 and it was technically on the 5th floor, what?
Anyway, I squared myself away and then headed out the door to walk around Brussels along with Lisa's chocolate list from a store I had forgotten the name of and then was hit with it when sitting in a restaurant and a fellow tourist had the bag... aha! You're lucky Lisa B. I was about to
Town Hall
The spire is a key marker to get around the city. buy you ones from Godiva! 😊 Sacrebleu!
With the help of my friend Darion's friend Valerie, she emailed me places to see within my whirlwind 24-hour tour of Brussels. Along with that and Rick Steve's handy guide, I made the best of my Brussels visit. I started off walking to the Grand Place, when I walked to this square, I had the same reaction when hitting the Market Square in Brugge, "This is "BEEP" amazing!" What struck me was that you're walking down an avenue that has the old and new buildings and then you head into this square and BAM! you're hit with history! It was a sunny day and the buildings literally shined. Like Brugge, the streets aren't straight so I was turned and twisted everywhere but by this morning I had everything ingrained into my head. 😊
I grabbed lunch and then walked to the famous Mannekin-Pis, the little boy peeing. He's a wee little guy, pun intended and he was dressed as a Tibetan monk. He gets a new outfit everyday, this morning I walked past and he was Dracula. He really is much smaller than you think, I guess when you think about
it, he's life-size. ha! After thoroughly exploring the Grand Place, I went the Belgian Comic Strip Museum. It was pretty interesting and I never knew that the Smurfs originated from a Belgian artist in the 1950s! Well-done Hanna Barbera in fooling me in my childhood. Whenever I head back to Brussels, I'll definitely hit the many museums which there is a lot to see. One museum that was suggested in my tour book was socked away underground in a chocolate shop... so bizzare. It's basically called "Brussels Discover the City in 45 minutes." I paid 4 euros, entered thru the back door of the chocolate shop and walked downstairs into this museum that gave a great description of the history of the city. Pretty amazing and kind of creepy too as I was the only one in that museum. I would've ideally liked to take one of the walking tours with a guide but didn't have the time, but this did a good job nonetheless.
From then on, I explored the Upper Town which houses the Royal Palace, the Parc de Bruxelles and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts. My guide book had a good walking tour that then
landed me back to the Grand Place. The buildings here definitely differed from the gothic buildings of the Town Hall. It had a more aristocratic look at one point of the walk there was a great view of the city. The spire of the Town hall is not hard to miss. After a long walk, I sat down for dinner at a place called Chez Leon. It lies within the area of the Grand Place on a street called Rou des Bouchers. The hosts of the restaurants literally bargin with you to eat at their place, I walked down here and was asked to eat at 5 different restaurants. If I had the stomach I would but I never thought I would be approached to buy food. ha!
Soon headed back to my closet room and got a good night's rest and before I headed back to Den Haag, I made sure I bought chocolates. It was Pierre Marcolini, which according to the people at the tourist info, it's the fancy chocolate. Lisa B. - I'm not surprised. 😊 This chocolate store had 2 floors!!
Now I'm back about to eat some of that yummy chocolate and getting
Mannekin-Pis
He pees a lot! ready for my flight tomorrow. I hope everyone is well and I'll touch base with everyone in Africa. Getting ready to spend time with Tang and FOT will be fun - I need my Tang fix even if it's with a small portion.
BTW - to the Tang peeps back in the states. Where are the pics for your grand party!?
Much love and aloha everyone! Catch you soon!!
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Malia
non-member comment
Brussels
Ha! Your room looks like our room in NYC! Restaurant row makes me hungry!