My Baby Turned 234 Today (Day 55)

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HAPPY 4th of JULY! Big day for me over here. May be in Europe but that won't stop us from celebrating Independence Day. Today also happens to be what I would call the last part of the first part of my trip day-wise I am pretty much exactly halfway through. Hopefully it will be as enjoyable as the first part has been. Also a big day here since the Tour de France is coming through Belgium (who knew it left France?). So we all went out to a suburb in Belgium where the finish line was set up. It was a much larger event than we had realized. Thousands and thousands of people were there plus all the corportate reps and bike teams and all. The action consisted of us watching guys from the back row fly by so fast we couldn't even identify where they were from. Then after a few minutes it was all over. Not as cool as I expected but still worth it. When will be my next chance to go to the Tour de France?

After that we all stopped at a grocery store, picked up stuff to grill and headed back to the home of one of their friends. Grilled out on his balcony and made quite a few burgers for myself and my grillmate Ian. It was nice to spend the day with some fellow Americans doing what we would have been doing back at home. Had a real good time with my hosts and all their friends here. I was kind of skeptical about staying with another American but in a city like Brussles it's kind of the normal thing to do. Anyways, it worked out.

Overall I did not enjoy Belgium as much as I thought I would but I had pretty high expectations. It just lacks the unique culture that another small country to their north has been able to create. It's just too international but instead of having a bunch of sub cultures in some sort of melting pot like Brookyln or Marseilles it just doesn't have much at all. It's like living in a bubble in a way ha. Still a fun time though, especially with the right people.

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Photos

pis
the manneken pis has the right kind of 4th of july spirit

Comments

[Jan]

Belgium
Hi travellers, To find the uniqueness of Belgium, Brussels is not the greatest place (although it's a really cool city off the beaten tracks). Perhaps not even Bruges, even though it's a cute place to be. You need to go beyond that to find the unique culture of the country, which makes it quite different from all its neighbours. J.

[boom bap]

Belgium
I think you're right. I got a bit lazy when it came to discovering Belgium and just took the easy route and relaxed in Brussels which I did enjoy. You are right, there are a lot of fun things to do outside the center. Just out of curiousity where would you recommend going in Belgium. Perhaps Walloonia (sp?)? Thanks for the read. Cheers, matt