Belgium: A "Winning" Country

The biggest countdown of the year for me was the arrival of my brother and his girlfriend on May 20th.  For weeks and weeks I struggled against a painful yearning for that particular Friday; getting through the work days, especially the Thursday before, was almost unbearable!  It came (and has gone already!) though, and I think that family time was just what I was looking for - it was so nice to talk and joke and laugh and debate with Mike again; it's really been too long.
The day they arrived was Britny's 26th birthday so, exhausted though they were, they came for a nice dinner with us, met all my wonderful friends, and even made it out to the bar for a bit before heading back to mine to get some sleep. 

We went to London the next day and walked around for hours seeing all the major sites, and spent the following day in Maidstone shopping and watching movies (I finally got to see Scream 4!) - we also ordered curry for dinner (I wanted Mike and Juli to experience the glorious, saliva-inducing Indian food), and despite the fact that they were a little tentative at first, they enjoyed it (Mike especially...didn't stop talking about it for days).
While I was at work the next week (the last week of term 5) Mike and Juli went on a five day bus trip to Paris; they had a fantastic time and got back to mine on Friday evening.  We spent Saturday doing laundry and went to see The Hangover II; we didn't want to overexert ourselves since we were leaving for Belgium the next day.
Our taxi picked us up at 8am on Sunday morning and took us to Ebbsfleet International train station where we boarded the Eurostar to Brussels.  Finding our hostel when we arrived was not quite as simple as we thought it was going to be.  We printed off directions and had several maps, but the streets coming out of the train station were not signed and so we went the wrong way and ended up in the middle of a bustling market.  It was hot, our bags were heavy and we couldn't seem to figure out where we were for lack of signage.  We were getting a little bit snippy with each other but luckily soon figured out where we were and made our way in the correct direction. 

Even though it took us an hour to get to our hostel (when in theory it only should have taken us fifteen minutes) we were eager to get exploring.  Before we could delve too deeply into Brussels, however, we first needed to delve into some food - we were starving!  We had a quick lunch at a pizzeria and then we were off!

Walking from our lunch venue through the crowded, cobbled, medieval streets, we stumbled upon Grand' Place; this Flemish Renaissance market square is lined by old administrative houses, the Museum of Brussels (located in the Maison du Roi - the King's house) and the Hotel de Ville.  These gothic style buildings create an incredible atmosphere as one stands in the centre of the square.  We also happened to be there on the weekend of the annual Brussels Jazz Marathon - very lucky indeed!

Very close to Grand' Place is the Chocolate Museum, and for an entrance fee of only €5.00 who in their right mind would pass up such a promising exhibition?  It wasn't very big, but there was this cute old man who explained the process of making chocolate - with a little demonstration and samples to taste and savour too!

The upper floors of the museum offered loads of information about the history of chocolate; for example, did you know it originated in Spain?  Also, Belgium produces 172,000 tons of chocolate every year!  Crazy!  There were also loads of displays of things built from chocolate and/or sugar, things ranging from typical Disney character heads to (believe it or not) life-size Victorian dresses (yes, these are made from chocolate)!

After the museum we wandered around the charming, picturesque streets, stopping to "window" shop (and gawk in mouth-watering amazement) at the infinite number of chocolate and candy stores, including the oldest cookie shop in Brussels.  This picture pretty much sums up how we felt about this particular feature of Belgian culture:

This utterly enjoyable journey did have a purpose, however, and we soon succeeded in reaching our goal: Manneken Pis!  I was really surprised at how small the bronze statue is - I expected him to be at least two feet tall!  There are several legends behind this small peeing boy, my favourite being that he was turned to stone after being caught urinating on a witch's garden.  Check out how small he is:

Next on our list was Notre-Dame church.  It is not nearly as impressive as the church of the same name in Paris, not to mention there was a crazy lady yelling at a woman inside, so needless to say we didn't stay long.

As we made our way to Manneken's sister (who you may very well not have heard of) we discovered several cartoon murals painted on the sides of ordinary houses and buildings.  I didn't know that Brussels was the "cradle" of 20th century comics - apparently there is no other country in the world that has so many comic book stores; this is thought by many to be the most important aspect of Belgian culture (and I thought chocolate was what they were famous for)!  Below are my favourites:

As we were walking towards the pissing sister I really noticed how similar Brussels is to Venice (in my opinion anyways).  The streets are all so medieval and small and cute, and they are bustling with people and pubs and restaurants; it is impossible not to feel hungry while strolling down these streets, even if you have just eaten.  I swear there is a street for every type of cuisine; we walked down a street lined with probably a dozen Thai restaurants; one full of Chinese and Malaysian cuisine; and many others as well, including a seafood street which made me very upset that Juli isn't really a fan.

Thankfully it didn't take us long to find Janneken; it was literally torture walking down these food streets!  Now, Janneken Piss is much closer to the size I expected Manneken to be.  The pissing sister is hidden down a side street and is poppin' a squat right over top of a rock.  She is a pretty hilarious site, I must say, and is much luckier than her brother - there were barely any tourists watching the little lady piss (most likely due to the fact that she was made after Manneken and is not based on any legends).

Our next stop was Saint Michel's Cathedral.  Although the church I previously visited (and mentioned) is named after the Notre Dame in Paris, this church is actually modelled after it.  It is an incredible 16th century French Gothic church that overlooks the entire town but is sadly surrounded by boring office buildings that most believe spoil the grandeur the cathedral offers. 

After a little rest at the cathedral we made our way to Parc de Bruxelles, a massive park with a rather large fountain in the centre and two exquisite buildings on either side facing each other.  On the north side of the park stands the Palais de la Nation (the official residence of the Belgian Prime Minister)...

...and on the south side is The Royal Palace.

That evening we weren't hungry enough for a real sit-down dinner since we had a late lunch, so we figured it was the perfect opportunity to check one of the three food-must-tries off our list: french fries (or as they are known in Belgium, frites)!  They were so hot and delicious, especially dipped in mayonnaise (Mike had his with just ketchup - lame, if you ask me).

That pretty much concludes our first day in Belgium.  We bought some cards and played Asshole for the rest of the night in our room - the perfect end to a perfect day.
The next morning we woke up early and took the hour-long train to Bruges.  At first we didn't think we were going to get to go since our guide book told us Bruges was essentially closed on Mondays, but after talking to a few locals who didn't seem to have ever heard that, we decided to take a chance and make the trip.  I am very happy we did because not only was Bruges one hundred percent open, but it was also a mixture of adorable and stunning - one of my favourite combinations!
The walk from the train station to the centre of Bruges was lovely.  There were so many cute houses that have been transformed into restaurants and hotels; I felt like I was walking through a fairy tale.

Our first stop, before we made it to the central market, was Saint Janshospital, a 12th century, medieval hospital which is famous throughout Europe for founding cutting-edge medicine. There are several red-brick buildings with an outdoor square haven in the centre of them, offering a very peaceful atmosphere.  The view of the church-with-the-crazy-name (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwe-kerk) from the hospital grounds is very pretty as well.

We journeyed into the centre of Bruges to the Markt, home of Stadhuis (the most-used government building) and Saint Salvator's Cathedral/Belfry Tower. 

Mike decided he wanted to be athletic and climb the three hundred and sixity six steps up to the top of the tower which, will not be surprising for those of you who know me, I wasn't very excited about.  After we got to the top though, which wasn't as dreadful as I anticipated, I was thankful to my brother for the views were fantastic.

We continued on our way around Bruges and stumbled across a very yellow candy store that had so much bright, colourful candy that Mike and Juli had a bit of a freak-out trying to decided what to get.  We decided on lolli-pops and Mike very generously purchased one for each of us.

We walked over a bridge and along the waterside (can't recall the names of either of these things) towards the only four remaining windmills left in the city. There were once twenty windmills surrounding the city - don't know what happened to the other sixteen.

On our way back to the train station we decided we needed a boost of energy, and what better way to achieve that boost than by checking off the second food-must-try: waffles!  We decided to share one and at this moment, as I write these words, I kind of regret that decision to share.  However, it was half dipped in chocolate and covered in whipped cream, strawberries and bananas.  We basically salivated over one another as we sat eating this divine piece of artwork-food. 

Feeling rejuvinated, we boarded the train back to Brussels.  When we got back we decided to walk up to the Arc de Triomphe which was about a half an hour away in the middle of nowhere.  The arc was pretty cool - definitely the biggest one I've ever seen.  The crappy thing about it, though, was that it started to rain just as we got there and we didn't have our umbrellas.  Uh oh.  Needless to say our stay at the arc was short-lived and we very quickly motored our way back to the centre of Brussels for dinner.

We decided to have a nice Belgian dinner that evening.  We hadn't really had a proper, semi-expensive meal on our trip, and we read in our guide book about a place that we talked about going to the first day, but it was inside and, since it was so sunny, we opted for an outdoor restaurant instead.  Since it was a bit rainy though, we thought this was the perfect opportunity to try out the Vaudeville Cafe inside Galerie St-Hubert, the oldest mall in Belgium. 

Although our food was a bit expensive it was totally worth it.  The traditional Belgian meals we each had were to die for - Mike had a beef and beer stew with chips, Juli a mushroom ravioli and myself a plate of chicken sausage and mashed potatoes.  Mmmm Mmmm good.

It was pretty late after dinner so we went back to the hostel and played cards again until we went to sleep.
The next morning was windy and a bit rainy; luckily we were leaving at noon so we didn't have to spend a whole lot of time enduring the wank weather. 
Mike and Juli wanted to pick up some chocolates for family and friends so we went into some shops.  This turned out to be a very good decision; at ten o'clock in the morning there are very few people in the chocolate shops (as you can imagine) so we ended up getting loads of free samples (subsequently checking off the third and final food-must-try on our list).  My favourite chocolate shop was this one in the Galerie with a chocolate Manneken Pis 'pissing' chocolate out of his...you know. 

By about ten thirty, though, we each felt a little nauseous so we quickly purchased our delectable truffles and high-tailed it out of the final chocolate shop.  Since it was not the nicest outside we wandered around the Galerie; there were lots of very cool (and expensive) shops selling a wide range of products including, but not limited to, lace (another of Belgium's very popular and well known commodities), candy, clothing, shoes, gloves and toys. 
When we were finished in the Galerie it was time to get the underground to the main train station in order to catch our Eurostar back to Ebbsfleet.  It was a really wonderful trip; I was really happy to get to travel somewhere with one of my favourite people and his fantastic girlfriend.  And I was about to get even happier too since, mere hours after getting back home, my parents would be arriving, making the Sprague Family Holiday complete!