It wasn’t the most comfortable flight, but when you pay less than 60euro for a flight- you can’t be picky! The airport we landed at was actually in Charleroi which is just south of Brussels so we had to take a shuttle from the airport to the center of the city. We all bought the bus tickets and waited for the next shuttle to arrive. When it finally did there was a mad dash to the shuttle door to get a spot on the lone bus. After some pushing 4 out of the 5 of us that flew together made it on to the bus…but Elizabeth was still stuck outside the bus in the crowd. We pleaded with the bus driver to let her on the bus, but he immediately told us that he “didn’t speak english.” I’m not positive that I believe him though because even when a kind bystander tried to help and explain the situation to him in French- the driver still wouldn’t let Elizabeth on the bus and kept yelling at us in French to sit down! By some miracle there was an extra seat on the bus and despite the driver hand picking each and every person he wanted on his bus- he finally had to let Elizabeth on.
After getting lost finding our small hotel we finally made it there and quickly made friends with the hotel staff. I think they enjoyed how chatty we all were and plus they were all Filipino.
We also made friends with this old Greek man that owned a small café near our hotel that sold pastries and sandwiches. Our first meal in Brussels was there and he was so welcoming and loved talking with us. He was also impressed by my food and ingredients knowledge and my ability to understand his accent better than anyone else in our group.
Before we left for Brussels I had found a bicycle tour of the city that we all reserved spots for. I was super excited and it turned out to be a great tour! The weather was perfect and while it took a minute to get used to riding the Dutch style bicycles at first (especially because some roads were cobblestone), I had a fantastic time!
Our guide was young and spoke perfect English and was really knowledgeable about the sights on the tour and was able to make recommendations for other spots to visit as well. Lucky for us they drive on the right side of the road in Belgium (like in the States) and drivers in Brussels are so much more aware and cautious of the bikers than they are in Dublin (we were once riding on a double decker bus in Dublin…that hit a pedestrian…and didn’t stop).
The lunch stop on our bike tour was at Maison Antoine, where they supposedly have the best frites in Belgium- and I definitely believe them! They were delicious! The Belgians claim to have perfected frites (fries) and their technique is that they fry the potatoes once, then again for a second time right before they are served. This creates a delightfully crispy outside and a soft potato inside. At Maison Antoine they fry their potatoes in animal fat instead of traditional oils and it adds so much more flavor to the frites. So for lunch we all had frites and beer. Just like it seemed very Irish when our tour guide gave us Jameson shots in the middle of our tour of the Wicklow Mountains, our lunch seemed very Belgian even though it was in the middle of a bicycle tour! The beer I had was Chimay Bleue. It’s a Trappist beer meaning it is brewed in a Trappist monastery and we were told that when you buy Chimay portions of the proceeds go back to the monastery. Nothing like beer for a cause, right?
There are thousands and thousands of beers in Belgium and we only tried a small portion of those, but it was really neat trying varieties that were exclusive to Belgium, Brussels, and sometimes even a particular bar! There was even a place called Delirium that has over 2004 different beers with dozens on tap!
I loooved Belgium, but I must say that I think the fact that the food and drinks were on every street, cheap (compared to Dublin) and absolutely delicious helped a lot. Our hotel in Brussels was within walking distance to the Grand Platz and the main part of the city, but despite walking everywhere- I don’t think I burned off the amount of waffles, chocolates, frites, and beer that I consumed.
There are 2 different types of waffles in Belgium. One that they call “Grandma’s Waffles” are the type of Belgian waffle we typically can get in the US- square, made of a fluffy dough, and dusted with powdered sugar. The other- which I preferred, was sugar based (less doughy) and when it is put in the waffle iron becomes a bit chewy and the entire waffle browns from the sugar cooking. YUM. They had plain waffles and waffles with bananas, strawberries, chocolate, Nutella, cream, ice cream, and other delectable toppings. I had one with warm Nutella dripping off of the chewy sugar waffle. Imagine streets with bunches of these waffle stands and the scent of these treats lingering in the air.
They really should just call Belgium, Candyland. Cookies, waffles, and of course Belgian chocolates. The most delectable chocolates I’ve had yet (I think it even gives Swiss chocolates a run for their money). There was no shortage of chocolatiers in Brussels or in Bruges (where we made a daytrip to while in Belgium) and we all traveled from shop to shop buying one or two specialty chocolates or truffles to taste and share. Most of the shops had individual pieces for sale for this purpose and you could usually buy one or two pieces for 50cents or so, but it was cheaper to buy more pieces at a time or to make your own box. Typically a 250gram box of chocolates (about 15 pieces) cost somewhere between 4.50-6.50euro depending on the chocolatier. I probably consumed more chocolates in the 3.5 days were in Belgium than I had in the month before I came to Europe!
One of the chocolatier we went to in Bruges had a huge line. Cami and I waited in the line to buy the chocolates without even trying the chocolates first because every one the line was gushing about how many trips they had made to this one shop because it was the best, most delicious one! When we got closer to the front of the line I noticed that the shop had Christmas cards from Rick Steves- my favorite and most trusted Europe travel guide writer and was highly recommended by him. That’s when I knew it really had to be good- and boy was it. I bought a box of truffles and 2 mixed boxes which were all actually very well priced.
For the most part my diet in Belgium consisted of sweets- pastries for breakfast, and waffles and chocolates for snacks, but I did have the ever popular mussels in Brussels and of course frites.
As I mentioned earlier, we made a daytrip from Brussels to Bruges which is about an hour train ride away. We were initially planning on stopping in Ghent along the way to see the Gravensteen which is a big, preserved castle from the Middle Ages that used to belong to the Count of Flanders. Unfortunately we all 1. fell asleep on the train 2. it was raining heavily at the Ghent stop. When we arrived in Bruges the weather wasn’t much better. Still pouring rain and we were inadequately dressed for the weather. We stopped for snacks and more Belgian beer at a cute restaurant outside the train station and waited for the rain to slow. We were cold and wet, but after braving the weather for a little while- it cleared up and was sunny just a bit chilly! Bruges is often called the Venice of the north and is a smaller city than Brussels and is connected to Ghent by one of its many canals.
We spent even more time tasting chocolates and shopping and browsing through the many lace shops that Bruges is known for. The only lace I bought was a cute little wine bottle cover, but all the lace in the stores was very pretty. I didn’t really need much since I’m not too interested in lace table cloths and coasters and such and too be honest- I actually bought a bunch of lace pillow cases and aprons and similar lace products in Hong Kong last summer. Obviously not the same specialty Belgian lace, but it looked the same to my untrained eye and was so much cheaper in Hong Kong! A lot of the souvenirs from Bruges were also slightly similar to the souvenirs in Venice, Italy. Maybe it’s a canal city thing? We did take a boat ride along the canals and got to see a different view of the city which was really beautiful and romantic (at least for the many couples on our boat ride- not so much for our big group of college kids)! Really made me want to explore Bruges and Belgium even more in the future!
Our trip to Belgium was originally a girls trip so there were 5 girls on the trip, but one of the guys ended up coming with us too. Poor Wil was the only boy on a trip with lots of shopping, oooh-ing and aaah-ing at lace and chocolates, and of course lots of picture taking. He was a great sport about everything though and I think he had a good time! It was also nice having a boy around to keep us girls from getting to dramatic, keep things light-hearted, and to deter some potential danger.
Being in Belgium also reminded how exciting (though stressful) it is to be in a place with a different language and such a different culture. Ireland is awesome and it is so convenient that everyone speaks English, but it is similar to the States in many ways and I enjoyed being in Belgium where the national languages are French, Flemish (similar to Dutch), and German. It reminded me of what one of my bosses from Spain at my internship in Hong Kong told me last summer- Americans don’t know multiple languages because they don’t have to, everyone learns English for them. Sad, but true. While in other countries it is such an advantage and sometimes a necessity to learn English, I think as a native English speaker it is even more valuable and rare to know another language.
I don’t have much to do during Summer II when I get back to the States, I want to work on my language skills! Brush up on my basic Spanish foundation and learn a bit more and work on my Tagalog. I am mostly fluent in understanding (hearing) and reading Tagalog, but very poor in speaking- something I definitely want to change. I told y’all earlier that our hotel staff in Brussels was all Filipino- well they were not only shocked that I was born in the Philippines and couldn’t speak Tagalog, but I was thoroughly impressed that they could not only speak English and Tagalog, but French and Dutch and some even more languages! I was so jealous and now I’m motivated to learn.
Sorry for the extremelyyyyy long blog post. This week is going to be super busy with the end of our summer classes approaching. This time next week (Tuesday) we have classes, 2 final exams, and a research paper due. Plus since it’s our last week and half in Ireland we are all trying to make the most of it. Lucky for us, we are done with class next Tuesday and then have Wednesday and Thursday completely free before we leave for TX on Friday!
We actually have quite a bit of fun stuff planned for this week and are going to Belfast this weekend. I think there’s always a fair bit of controversy going on in Northern Ireland, especially Belfast, but apparently there was also a big riot and some violence there yesterday. Our trip is already paid for though (and they use the British pound there) so there’s no point in wasting money- just have to hope for a safe and fun trip!
Love, Pristine
wow, what a week for you!!
ReplyDeletefull of excitement & adventure. too bad, you guys fell asleep and missed ghent. heard it is very nice, too. well, there's always a next time.
miss you and good luck to your exams.
mom