Brussels

Monday, August 18, 2014
Day 6—Brussels, Belgium

“Zie je me hẻẻẻrrn??” Which means, “Welcome to Belgium,” in Dutch. No it doesn’t but if you can figure out what it does mean, you can respond in the comment box. Anyways, today we got up super early, because we had to take our international Chunnel train to Belgium which left at 6:50. On the train ride we continued to catch up on journals, seriously, why do I write so much… like I know I’ll appreciate it later, but it’s not later and I’m about to fall asleep. The good news is that today is Monday and we are in Brussels, and on Mondays in Brussels, the museums are all closed, so there isn’t much to do and I can spend the extra time, yep you guessed it, journaling!

It is a good thing that we tackled London first because everything was in English and everybody spoke English so if we were ever confused about the tube it was easy to figure out, it was like our practice round. And now, we have settled pretty well into a good flow and I think we can handle anything (except for maybe losing our only other cell phone… good news is Morgan is much more responsible than I am). After we arrived at the train station in Belgium, called Medi, I went and exchanged some money into euros and then we tackled the metro in a foreign language. Our hostel was actually right next door to a Godiva chocolate factory, and that was when we knew we were in the right country. We stayed at a place called Hello Hostel, it was extremely nice! We had a four person room completely to ourselves, and it was clean, private, and comfortable. We went into our room, dropped our stuff, and then relaxed for a bit, checking our emails, Facebook’s, and getting little pieces of the outside world. I clung to my WSJ emails thrilled with even a tiny bit of news from the outside world. I know that sounds dramatic, that’s because it is. But we did enjoy having a good wifi connection for a little while.

Once we had rested and made a “plan,” we took the metro into the center of Brussels. Now I have to tell you that while we were in Brussels, I spoke my own form of Dutch that Morgan totally understood. For instance, on the way into Brussels, she asked what station we needed to get off at because she had forgotten. The station was called Bours Beurs, so I replied, “Beeeshhie Bee.” To which she said, “Oh yeah.” I started laughing because she said, “Oh yeah” as if “Beeeshie Bee” meant something. I also called a street Cleep Cloppers that was really called Kloeperstraat. And yes, I do realize (as Morgan just informed me when I read this to her, with sass I might add) that she and I are probably the only ones who will think it’s funny. Just so you know, this is my blog, I need to remember these things, and that is why I am righting them down, so no I don’t care if you “get it.”

We got off the metro and headed straight for a place called The Waffle Factory because it’s Belgium and we each had a 1 euro off coupon!! When we got there we ordered one meal waffle, with ham and cheese and tomatoes in it, called a Campagnarde (Yes, I did refer to this as the champagne waffle and yes, Morgan DID understand what I meant), that was, even if it sounds gross, extremely delicious!! We also got a waffle with dark Belgian chocolate and bananas. It was seriously delicious. Best waffle I have ever had.

Our selfie with the peeing kid.

Then we walked around the city and found a really beautiful area called Grand Place. It was full of old building and beautiful architecture. Like every other city in Europe the roads were paved in stones that have been there for hundreds of years and add to the knee pains (cause they’re so uneven) as well as to the beauty. We walked around the city with no goals or plans, we just wanted to soak it all in. We went and bought more postcards at a souvenir shop, and continued to explore the city. In Brussels, there is this famous peeing boy, so we tracked that down and took a selfie with it, because that seemed to be the thing to do. And then we were pretty much ready to go back to the hostel and rest. We did stop at a local coffee place to get cappuccinos that were strong but also very delicious. On our way back to the metro we ran into a crowd of people that were watching some street performers. Two Italian guys that have been traveling to different countries and playing on the street. They were fantastic, one played the cello, and the other played the guitar and sang. They did, “Let her go,” and “Fix You.” Both of the songs were great and it was nice to just stand there looking around at the beauty surrounding us while listening to good music. 

Our meal of burgers and
famous Belgian frites!

We took the metro again, where we saw one guy sneak in behind a woman as she scanned her card (which NEVER would have worked in London), and we saw another man jump the tracks because he was on the wrong side to catch a train (which would have gotten him killed in London). We hung out in our hostel for a couple hours before walking to get the famous Belgian Fries (which are fried twice and are infinitely better than American fries) I actually thought of my mama, because she would have LOVED them. They stayed extremely hot, and they were perfectly brown and crispy and yum yum yum. We also tried some different sauces because they eat fries with mayonnaise here. Morgan got a spicy mayo, and I got tartar sauce. We also both got diet cokes with Dutch words on them. I had “Ma Belle,” which means, “My beautiful.” And Morgan got, “Schattie,” which Google translate didn’t know so that’s still a mystery. After our fry and burger dinners, we went back to our hostel, where we showered and headed to bed so that we would be super energized for our early trip in to Bruges!