Student Bloggers

I know, I know. What do I have against brussels sprouts? Answer: absolutely nothing, except for the fact that I turn into a stubborn five-year-old and refuse to try them whenever they’re offered. Why? No idea. That’s just the way I am. But hey, more for the people who genuinely enjoy them!

Now, assuming you read my last blog and you understand my hilarious title (I’m funny so hush), you know that this post is about my weekend spent exploring all I could of Brussels! And boy do I have a lot to share with y’all! If you’re even slightly hesitant about visiting this beautiful city, then let me be the one to push you off the fence of indecision and convince you to buy your train ticket.

My trip began on a Friday when I took the Northern line from Angel to King’s Cross St. Pancras. From there, I went through security and customs and boarded the Eurostar to Brussels! My journey to Belgium was uneventful, I passed the time by reading a book for one of my classes. Before I knew it, I was getting off the train and making my way through the station in order to catch a metro train to my hostel. As I’m sure many of you know, hostelworld.com is a great site for finding places to stay during these types of excursions. For those of you who might not be fully aware of the service this site provides, allow me to explain. You simply type in where you want to go and it will pull up a list of every hostel they have information on, in your chosen city. From there, you can filter for specifics. My personal preferences are for a place with a 7-10 rating, free Wi-Fi, free breakfast, and towels. From there, I can sort via price or distance from the city center. While these factors will increase the cost per night, they do provide me with peace of mind and I feel more comfortable with leaving my luggage behind while I explore. That being said, I do keep my passport and visa papers on me at all times, just in case.

Back to the story! I made it to my hostel without incident! I may have gotten a little lost on the walk over, but that’s because I didn’t put the address into google maps while I had Wi-Fi. Let that be a lesson to all you readers! The important thing though is that I made it to my destination in one piece! The hostel I stayed at was part of a group that goes by Sleephere. They have a few hostels in the city, but I specifically stayed at their Jardin Botanique location, which is near both a train station and the botanical gardens. It was a great property with friendly people and a giant St. Bernard named Oasis that belonged to the owner. I stayed in a mixed dorm for this trip, which is pretty much code for “boy room”. For those of you who may not feel completely comfortable sharing a room with members of the opposite sex, one of the filters on Hostel World does allow you to filter by room, with options such as private, all girl, all boy, mixed, etc. Obviously, I was fine in my room. Plus, everyone was gone during the day because we were all exploring what Brussels had to offer.

Once I was checked in and settled with a bed, I headed out to find some lunch and begin my adventure. I ended up at a sandwich place across the street from where I was staying that was recommended by the hostel owner. It was small a restaurant known as Venezia and my sandwich ended up being really good, but there was one problem. The staff only spoke French and my mastery of that particular language is sorely lacking. Heck, my mastery of any language sans English is sorely lacking. Anyways, some other customers took pity and acted as translators for us. Once that ordeal was finally resolved, I took my meal to the botanical gardens where I ate my fill and walked amongst the trees, sipping my coffee as I went.

When I’d finished up at the gardens, I decided to make my way toward Grand Place since I had scheduled a morning walking tour that met there and I didn’t want to get lost, the day of and miss it. I’ll admit that the map was a little hard to read, but that was because of the way the streets are labeled. Brussels requires that all signs be written in both French and Flemish (a subcategory of Dutch) because the city is officially bilingual. The issue is that it makes the matching game between map and street sign a little more difficult and the print on the maps extra tiny. Eventually though, I saw a spire in the distance and decided to make my way towards that instead of trying to stick with the map. It ended up being the right call too since I wound up at Grand Place in no time.

Historically, Grand Place is a market square that is lined by former guildhalls, the town hall, and a museum. It’s a mix of gothic and baroque architecture and it’s absolutely beautiful. It also tends to be full of people. There are artists, tour groups, entertainers, and more that fill the cobbled space. And if you’re lucky, you might even see a wedding party entering or exiting the town hall (only natives of Brussels are allowed to get married there).

Once I got my fill of the marketplace, I set off to get lost. Getting lost was something we were encouraged to do in London and I figured it would be good in Brussels as well. Of course, I was completely aware of my surroundings at all times, but I kept the map in my bag and just walked through the streets. It really is a very picturesque city. The breeze wafted the scent of fresh waffles and chocolate and the sun was constantly shining. If I didn’t know any better, I might’ve thought I was in a Hallmark movie. I stayed out walking for several hours before I headed back to my hostel.

Saturday morning, I woke up and headed off to my walking tour! The company I used is SANDEMANs and the tour is free. The guides get paid via tips so they tend to be enthusiastic, energetic, and knowledgeable because that tends to increase the tips. They run tours all over Europe so be sure to check out their website! It’s also perfect for meeting other students. I made a couple of friends who are about my age and we ended up getting lunch and shopping around together. As I said earlier, the tour started in Grand Place. Our guide, Magi, is a native citizen of Brussels and she was able to tell us not only the history of the places we visited but also the urban legends associated with each spot. Magi took us to see everything that one should see in Brussels and gave excellent recommendations about places to eat, other tours to take, and where to buy specific goods. For example, one of our stops was in a sort of mall with all these different chocolate shops. She was able to tell us what each shop was known for and the histories behind some of them. She also took us to a bar/café for a break in the middle of the tour where she recommended that we try Belgian hot chocolate. They make it differently there than they do in the states and it tastes amazing! To make it in the Belgian style, you have to heat up and froth the milk first and then you put in the chocolate. But they don’t use powders or syrups like we do in the state, oh no! They use things like melted and crushed candy bars! The one I had was Ferrero Rocher and it was absolutely heavenly! One of the friends I made on the tour tried the Oreo flavored one and her only complaint was that she finished it too quickly.

A brief note about trying new foods in new countries: do it. Different countries will have different cuisines and it’s all part of experiencing the culture. I try to research different dishes before I go somewhere so I have an idea about what I’d like to try. In Belgium, you obviously have to eat a waffle, but try to go to a place where you can see the staff making them. Not only will it smell amazing, but the waffles will be fresh! And I obviously recommend that you try the hot chocolate too. Speaking of chocolate, go to one of the higher end chocolate shops while you’re there and try a few pieces. The one I went to is called Mary. It was started by the first female chocolatier in all of Belgium and possibly the world. They’re known for the pretty blue boxes that some of the chocolates come in and the fact that they have a limited number of stores in order to preserve their artisanal ways. If you’re looking for quantity over quality, then check out Leonidas. They’re also really good and you can get a lot more for less. There are also Leonidas chocolate shops all over Europe, so if you decide that you really like them, you can easily get more once you leave Belgium. Honestly though, I would stop in both. I mean one can never have too much chocolate! Another dish to try in Belgium that may surprise you is mayonnaise and fries. A strange combination for sure, but surprisingly good! And I’m really not a mayonnaise person so I was doubly shocked by the fact that I enjoyed it! Oh, but don’t call them “french fries”. Fries actually originated in Belgium and were introduced to the States after WW2 when the soldier came home and the Belgian people are rather annoyed that Americans pretty much got the rest of the world to start calling them “French fries” (the country has a fairly turbulent history with France). Instead, you can just refer to them as “fries” or “frites”.

Thus, concludes my time in Belgium. I know this post is kind of vague on certain aspects of my trip, but that’s because I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone. I keep a travel journal and I wrote 18 pages about my weekend in Belgium. It contains details of everything I saw and the names of everyone I met and some of their backstory and all the history I learned on my walking tour, but I felt like that was a little intense for the blog. Besides, I want you to go to Brussels and not feel like you already know everything you need to know simply because you read this post. We need to keep the flame of your curiosity burning!

My next post will be covering my trip to the city that gave us democracy and is a personal favorite of the goddess of wisdom herself. Athens here I come!