Hello all,
Sorry I went MIA, again. One day I promise to fill you all in on what I am up to when I go MIA. =P For those of you who don't know I spent a weekend in Brussels, Belgium a few weeks ago with a couple of my friends and we had a fabulous time! Between the delicious waffles, chocolate (that even I liked a little bit), and the 1euro beer, we were set.
Before I start telling you all about this super awesome trip I should tell you all a little bit about the joys of flying cheap in Europe from Ireland. Well you see, I am located in Cork, Ireland and all cheap flights, and really any flights to far away places, go out of Dublin. In order to get to Dublin from Cork you can take an Aircoach bus, which takes 5 hours to go a distance that should take 3, or the train which only takes 2.5 hours, but can get quite pricey. Also the buses do not start running to Dublin until about 8am(getting you there by 1 o'clock) and they stop running at night around 7pm (getting you there at about midnight). Well our flight to Brussels was at 6am, so in order to catch our flight we took the last aircoach bus and then slept in the airport food court from 12-5am. Here is a picture of our little food court campout.
Sorry I went MIA, again. One day I promise to fill you all in on what I am up to when I go MIA. =P For those of you who don't know I spent a weekend in Brussels, Belgium a few weeks ago with a couple of my friends and we had a fabulous time! Between the delicious waffles, chocolate (that even I liked a little bit), and the 1euro beer, we were set.
Before I start telling you all about this super awesome trip I should tell you all a little bit about the joys of flying cheap in Europe from Ireland. Well you see, I am located in Cork, Ireland and all cheap flights, and really any flights to far away places, go out of Dublin. In order to get to Dublin from Cork you can take an Aircoach bus, which takes 5 hours to go a distance that should take 3, or the train which only takes 2.5 hours, but can get quite pricey. Also the buses do not start running to Dublin until about 8am(getting you there by 1 o'clock) and they stop running at night around 7pm (getting you there at about midnight). Well our flight to Brussels was at 6am, so in order to catch our flight we took the last aircoach bus and then slept in the airport food court from 12-5am. Here is a picture of our little food court campout.
As you all can imagine we got lots of quality sleep. At about 3:30am a security guard came around informing everyone that the airport is not a hostel and woke everyone up who was sleeping (we weren't alone). We spent the next few hours eating Mcdonald's hash browns ( first place any of us have seen hash browns or an early enough hour to get hash browns) and playing cards.
Even though we ate a good amount of hash browns in the airport, our first stop once we landed in Brussels was a little cafe for none other than WAFFLES! These were loaded waffles and we later learned that they are the "tourist" waffles.
The nutella, strawberries, bananas, and whipped cream are what qualify them as as tourist waffles.
But Georgia and I sure enjoyed them. Bon Apetite!
After we had waffles we found the Grand Plaza and it was so very beautiful. The Grand Plaza is a big open cobblestone square in the middle of the old Grand Palace buildings. I am sure words don't do it justice, but I hope you can see from these pictures just how beautiful it really was.
This was my favorite of the Grand Plaza buildings
Our little cafe was on this side of the Grand Plaza
This was our first group picture and the guy I asked to take it was from San Francisco. He recognized my accent. I guess Cali has an accent =)
In the middle of the Grand Plaza this cute little guy was making these enormous bubbles. The bubbles were big enough for a person to stand up in. It was by far one of the coolest things. As I watched him I was wishing my nieces were there because they would have had so much fun popping the huge bubbles.
Once we finished exploring the Grand Plaza we started our search for the hostel. We found the hostel and were pleasantly surprised by how nice it was.
Here we are checking in.
We took a little cat nap in the hostel and then we decided to ask the man at the reception desk where to go for dinner. Considering we had had hash browns for breakfast and waffles for lunch, we decided to get his recommendation for the absolute HEALTHIEST restaurant in town.
Much to our surprise and satisfaction, he sent us straight to the best french fry stand in town. Man were those french fries delicious!
In order to work off a bit of our 6,000 calorie diet for the day we decided to do some walking around Brussels. Here are a few of the cool things we found..
The European Headquarters
Some much needed sunshine and blue skys
Brussels rush hour traffic (good thing we were on foot)
The Belgium Gate
It was soo pretty!
A gorgeous sunset that reminded me that I hadn't seen one in months!
Our first of many Chocolate fountains
The stunning Grand Plaza by night
1 euro beers!!!! Best find my far! =)
Day 2 in Brussels was spent exploring more sites and quite a few really cool museums. The first museum of the day was the comic book museum. This museum wound up being my favorite of the day.
Quite the entrance =)
Belgium, the home of the smurf creator!
Tin Tin!!
I can now say I've seen the day when pigs fly.
A saying that made me smile:"When I see the sea I dream of travel"
My very favorite part of the comic book museum was the Peyo exhibit. Peyo was the creator of the smurfs.
What a good man! =)
The model for the Smurf mushroom houses.
One of the first color cartoons with all of the smurfs and huts.
The original smurf comics and their different expressions and actions.
Black and white drawings of the smurfs
One of my best pictures by far..
After a few hours we had to kiss the comic museum goodbye and head off to Autoworld.
Autoworld wasn't my favorite museum, but I did come across a few cool things.
A typical "student car" from 1947.
A sweeet BMW. No lies folks, this IS a BMW
A red corvette just for momma :)
One of the first motorhomes ever made. This was by far the coolest car inside the museum.
And parked right outside was an adorable little mini coop. This is still the car I want.
After Autoworld Georgia and I headed to the underground museum. Along the way we found a really cute park with people relaxing, reading, picnicking, and kids playing.
Georgia and I loving the little park before heading to the Underground museum
One of the funniest moments of the day... Georgia slipped on a banana peel just like in Mario cart when you spin out because someone dropped banana peels. haha
The Underground museum is directly under the palace in Brussels and it used to be used for underground tunnels and wine cellars, not it is a museum or a maze as we found out quickly.
Steps up to the palace that have now been blocked off.
Pillars that go all the way up in to the castle.
Next stop was the second best museum, The Music Museum. At the music museum we were given little head phones and you walk around looking at instruments and plugging in your headphones to hear the instruments being played. There was every instrument from African drums to Indian sitars, to Scottish bagpipes. While walking through the museum I added a few instruments to my bucket lists of things to learn to play before I die, as well as some instruments I would love to have hanging in my home.
This snazzy accordion
The famous sitar that reminds me of India
This hipster violin
A beautiful old wooden piano...
But best of all this chandelier horn.. I wish I could have read the name of it, but sadly it was in French. How cool would I look playing this beast? Anyone want to join me, there are 6 different places to blow into this horn =)
Here I am testing my headphones...
After we finished listening to all of the music in the museum we headed up to the cafe on the top floor of and found the most amazing view of the city. =) We only stayed there a few minutes because we had to go find the mannequin pis. To our surprise the little peeing boy was quite small considering how famous he is.
We were also quite surprised that he was dressed. In most pictures of this little statue he is not clothed. This also was a tourist mess, so we didn't stay for too long.
We also found a wall street protest around the corner from the mannequin pis. We Americans scurried away and headed to the next monument.
The famous atomium that stands 335 feet tall. The atomium symbolizes a unit cell of a magnified iron crystal. It also is seen as a sign of Brussels success and wealth.
It was a really modern looking monument and Georgia and I enjoyed exploring around it.
We were quite disappointed because we missed the time to go up to the top of the atomium, but we A. saved money and B. found the home of the King and Queen of Belgium instead. Being outside of the royal palace felt like being outside of the white house and peaking through the fence.
After lots of hours of walking around, visiting museums and monuments, many many laughs and exploring Brussels we headed back to the hostel. By the end of the day Georgia and I had become pros at reading the mess of a subway guide.
See it was a big accomplishment.
We are happy campers on the Subway, even though some girl tried to grab us and keep us on the subway at our stop. Weird people tend to gather on underground subways, but we made it out safely. As a little treat to ourselves we found some authentic Belgian waffles and they were even more delicious than the first loaded waffles.
That night we decided to go out on the town and see what the bars were like. My camera was dead so I didn't get any pictures, but it was lots of fun and we made friends with a Brussels Basketball team. Free drinks and a good time, not a shabby way to end our visit to Belgium. We also got a chance to see the mannequin pis at night without all the tourists and without his clothes on. haha
This picture shows just how small the famous statue is.
Brussels was amazing and we actually saw so much of the city in a few short days. Yay for waffles, french fries, chocolate, and 1 euro beers. =) Next blog: NORWEGIAN GETAWAY
Cheers all!
