So the day you have all been waiting for is finally here! I am going to tell you alllll about BEAUTIFUL Brussels, Belgium and show you a ton of amazing photos, sorry but I cannot fit all of them in the blog, so I will pick the best ones that show the most of how amazing this city is.
So the journey began REALLY early Friday morning at 3:55 in the morning! And let me tell you, that morning was nothing but exciting and lets say eventful. So I got woken up by my roomie Elyssa who tells me that our power is out, and I sit in bed trying to process this information at, if you forgot, 3:55 in the MORNING! The first thing I thought is how will I get dressed if I cannot see and there is no sunlight and then naturally of course my second thought was food! Oh no I thought my food that I just went shopping for was going to go bad. So the roomie that I was traveling with (Marissa, she also goes to UVM) wakes up and I tell her the bad news and she sets out on a search to find the garbage room key where the power breaker is. Now the girl downstairs (Kristin) usually has it, so sadly we had to wake her up (luckily there door was open) and ask her where it was. She said my other roomie, Rachael, who was in Barcelona for the weekend had it. I then had to call my roomie Adrienne who was with Rachael, but she didn't answer...probably for a good reason because it was 4 in the MORNING! I then tried our landlord and he didn't answer and at this point we were searching our apartment room by room to find this stupid little key. I called Adrienne again hoping she would answer and thank god, she did. I felt terrible but we needed to solve the problem. She then continues to tell us that Rachael gave it to Mel who lives downstairs. So we then call Mel who is on her way to the airport and she says she gave it to Dom, a boy that lives with her downstairs. We continue into Dom's room where we all thought he was awake because he had his laptop on his stomach and it was on. Turns out he was asleep! We had to wake him and when he finally realized what we were asking he said he didn't have it. He then starts to look in his pants and says oh guys here it is. So all along, it was in his pants pocket. So we finally got the key, turned on the power, and was able to get ready for our trip. We rushed out of the house to make the 5 AM bus to the airport and we just made it. We got to the airport, checked in and got to the terminal. We were veryyy early and just hung around. And then we see that our flight is delayed, luckily only by about 20 minutes. Marissa and I were anxious to get on the plane, and we started getting up for boarding, and 5 minutes later we began to board the plane. By this time the sun finally had risen and it was a more normal hour of the day but we were DEAD!
This is Bergamo airport in Milan.
And this is the plane we got on!
It was crazy to get on a plane that we had to get on using stairs! I felt so cool :P
So we finally boarded and got seated and of course to add to the whole stressful morning, a big guy sits next to me who had very bad body odor and he even uses my arm rest making me have to smother Marissa who is next to me so that I don't have to smell him or touch him. I know it sounds bad but all I wanted to do was sleep and the smell was just rancid. However, I finally fell asleep and before I knew it the flight attendant was telling me that we were preparing for landing. The flight was only an hour and 20 minutes, but my nap felt like 2 seconds. But I was so excited because we got to Belgium!
This is the Brussels airport.
As we got out of the airport, we needed to get tickets for the bus to the city center. We found it waited on line, and soon enough found out that we had to wait until 11:30 to get on the next one because the others were booked. Just great. But Marissa was right, she said it was only an hour so we went inside and got a quick bite to eat for breakfast.
I got a delicious pan di ciocolatto. It like a chocolate croissant. My first and definitely not last thing of chocolate in Belgium!
We finally got on the bus, and set off for the city center. I immediately fell asleep, but woke up 20 minutes later. We were literally almost to the bus stop where we were to get off when our bus starts smoking and the bus driver just seems like he has no idea what he is doing. People outside on the road are even gesturing to us that the bus is smoking and at this point I am freaking out and ready to get off, no matter where we are. And that's what we did, everyone got off the bus because, just another thing to add to our morning, our bus broke down. So Marissa and I thought we were in the city center, but we were about 15 minutes from it and where our hostel was located. We didn't have a map or anything but luckily Marissa speaks French because we asked a little store owner and he showed us where to go. We kind of went on a little stroll through the streets of Belgium, following the crowd of people or where we thought was more populated, and thank goodness we found a map, we took a picture and set off for our hostel.
This was were we got off the bus.
A church we passed by when we were finding our way to the center!
A skate park!
A cool road
A nice piazza, but it probably isn't called "piazza" because they speak French there.
Slowly finding our way, and seeing awesome things along the way, like these blue flags.
Another square on our hunt for the center!
Some statue that people were rubbing for good luck, or so that's what they said :P
Finally, we made it to the Grand Place!
I cant tell you how beautiful this place was, I just have to show you in all the pictures I took of it!
A building with gold decorations
The town hall I believe!
It was so intricate
Me in the square!
Our hostel was a 1 minute walk from this amazing center.
Restaurants and buldings
That gray building is a museum that we went into.
Graffiti comics by our hostel!
A better view of the amazing town hall
GODIVA chocolate!
My favorite! But I didn't get any because they were a rip off!
So instead I got the less rip off and got a chocolate bar! Dark chocolate with almonds!
We then got to our hostel! It was pretty! I got the bottom bunk.
These are the lockers
Our shower
Our sink and blow dryer
The toilet! My first hostel experience went really really well! We only had 2 other people in there with us and they were from Croatia, but they were never there, so it was like Marissa and I had it to ourselves.
In the museum, we got a student price discount, and I took a lot of pictures, but these are the ones that really intrigued and scared me. Like this little guy, who was creepily staring at you that it made it seem like someone would open up the holes of the eyes and be watching you!
This is a statue of Mannekin Pis, Belgiums one of many sites to see. This guy is just an old replica.
The museum stairs, I know people usually take pictures of the art work and other things on display but I thought the stairs were cool!
A really old shovel that helped build the city.
A painting with horses! YAY!
After, I was super hungry and couldn't wait for dinner so I had to get a waffle with chocolate. Let me tell you that this was the greatest thing that has ever set foot on my taste buds! I would kill for their recipe! Its nothing like waffles in the states.
The one and only, Mannekin Pis, the real one. There is a lady who changes his outfit everyday!
Another important building.
A church
Some streets for high end shopping, not my type of road.
Pretty!
A tree, so leafless :(
So this was a sign in a store, I was thinking, "I don't know if that could be very true because I surely cannot fit into a small if I tried." Is this false advertising?
A comic scene on the side of a building! How cool!?
Of course there was a chocolate store every other store we passed by.
They have frozen yogurt, oh how I miss that.
Me in a huge wind tunnel!
More chocolate!
I think this is what heaven looks like!
Me in the city center! It was very cold there, about 52 degrees.
The center at night
My first falafel here in Europe! It was delish and from a Greek restaurant! That night Marissa and I were so tired and cold that we decided to call it an early night so we could wake up early to get our day started so we went back to the hostel, I bundled up in my PJ's and my blankets and went to sleep around 10.
The next morning we got up at 8, had some free hot drinks (I got hot chocolate), checked out of our hostel, and began to explore. This day was rainy and cold, but we buckled down to see everything we hadn't the day before.
This is the big cathedral there
Brussels central station
A nice building near the royal palace!
Steps leading up to the royal palace
And ta-da, the amazing, wonderful, brilliant royal palace!
Me in front of it!
Look at these gates, they are covered in gold!
What an amazing place
I am secretly in love with palaces!
This is what I called the "guest" palace, like the guest house!
One last, breathtaking picture of the palace with the Belgium flag waving above
In the park across from the palace, they had some contemporary art pieces and this was one. A beer, typical.
A nice fountain
A gazebo
Look its fall!! The leaves are changing!
And falling!
The cathedral that we got to go into for free.
You will not believe it but I found a chocolate elephant, too bad there was a sign on it that said do not eat.
Look, I spotted my first Subway in Europe
An indoor shopping gallery
Chocolate squirrels
And Halloween themed chocolate!
My third waffle of the trip, it was only a euro and like I said they are the greatest thing I have ever tasted, and I got some chocolate for my friends and family back home!
Me enjoying the sweet and delicious, mouth-watering waffle
Look another casino Dad, whats the gambling age here anyway? :)
Marcie, look at the pants I found, didn't you try these on once?
Erik :) haha
Another piazza we stumbled upon
And this is the first Forever 21 I have seen in Europe and we were so happy only to find out that it was still in the works of being opened
A cool building called Drug Opera
Biscuits and macaroons!
Lollipops!
Belgian beer and a Greek pita!
This place is where I found a hidden treasure that you will see in a picture to follow...
Marcie, tennis ball candies!
And the surprise was Challah! I found challah! I had to get it, and then I shared with Marissa and it was almost gone by the time we were getting on the plane. It was so good and I realized how much I have missed it. When I got home, I immediately put some cream cheese and olives on it. I think this challah from Belgium comes close to being better than Rockland Bakeries!
Finally we took our bus back to the airport and waited to board our plane. It had been raining the whole day and I was wet and cold and tired, but this little guy decided to poke out of the sky before we go ton the plane. It was a nice ending to our lovely trip. We got home and we both crashed, got in bed a went to sleep!
The next day (Sunday), we stayed in because it was raining and we did some school work, went to the grocery store, and relaxed. So I think this is all, I know it was a lot, but it was my first trip on a plane and it was stressful, annoying, happy, amazing, unreal, scary, and unbelievable all at the same time, and I couldn't have asked for anything more.
"Love the world around you and it will love you back."
Until Next Time,
<3 Lauren
