We all woke up a bit earlier to take advantage of our last few hours in Belgium.  We had another great continental breakfast (and packed our bags with mini-sandwiches for lunch), and decided to split up.  We decided to split up, so while Dan and Kevin did their own thing, Chrissy, Melanie and I checked out the second largest open-air market in Europe, which was pretty neat.  They had all sorts of foods, clothing, rugs, and toiletries for sale.  I felt the urge to buy something and the nuts looked particularly appealing, so I decided to pick up some cashews and salted almonds.

After exploring the market some more, we decided to head just outside the city to see the Atomium!  The Atomium is a gigantic, bizarre-looking, atom-resembling structure that was constructed for the 1958 Brussels World Fair.  We all posed and took some good pictures that made it seem like we were holding the monument up with our hands (original, I know).  We walked closer to the monument to see how much it would cost to climb up to the top, which ended up being 8 euros.  We didn’t feel like paying, even though the view of the city from the topmost ball was probably incredible.  We did, however, end up buying a few beautiful postcards to document our trip.

Satisfied, we hopped back on the metro to head towards the city center.  We saw the famous Manneken Pis, which is a bronze statue of a little boy peeing that was built in 1619.   There are many legends as to why and how this statue became so popular.  One of the ones I heard was that hundreds of years ago, a young boy was awoken to put out a fire with his urine in the king’s castle.  Interesting.  Anyway, we saw the statue sans clothing, but apparently they dress him up a few times each week in various costumes.  There is an entire exhibit dedicated to displaying some of the Manneken Pis’ past costumes.

We were feeling pretty hungry, so we decided to grab a snack at a café across the street.  We finally enjoyed an excellent order of frites and discovered what all the fuss was about, warming up all the while.

After lunch, we met up with the boys at Le Moeder Lambic.  The bar had a pretty great beer selection (as most bars in Belgium do), and I decided to try a Tournay Blonde.  It was most enjoyable, although I was confused by the seed-like things (I forget what our waitress said it was…might’ve been barley?) that came with it.

Since we were all utterly exhausted, we finished up our drinks and left for the train station a bit early.  Chrissy was able to catch an earlier train because her original one didn’t have any stops, but since the rest of us were scheduled to stop in a train station in Lille, we weren’t able to.  Regardless, we were pretty excited: our tickets back to Paris were 1st class!  They cost only a couple euro more than 2nd class, and we figured it would be worth it to roll in style.  We managed to catch an earlier train to Lille, but couldn’t catch an earlier one to Paris.  We hung out in the unreasonably cold station for a few hours until our connecting train began boarding.

As I settled into my big, comfy 1st class seat and began to nod off, I remember thinking, au revoir, Bruxelles.

We got to what we thought was the correct platform, and although we weren’t positive, we jumped on as the whistles blew and the doors were closing.  Not quite the best of ideas; as the train started pulling out of the station, we asked a couple if the train was heading to Bruges.  They gave us a funny look, and said no…

At which point we began praying that the train would make a stop somewhere, and FAST.  God must’ve heard us, because we stopped at Gare du Midi, where we were able to catch a train to Bruges 30 minutes later.

By 1, we were in Bruges.  By 1:05, I was in love.  We explored the cute little streets and quaint shops, strolling over old bridges and taking pictures of the beautiful canals.  I got my second gaufre (waffle), which was a million times tastier than the one I ordered yesterday.  This one was more authentic, had a richer flavor, and was covered in powdered sugar (which obviously ended up all over my black jacket).

We went to the Church of Our Lady, which dates back to the 13th century.  It was absolutely beautiful, and since it also serves as a museum, we got to see Michaelangelo’s Madonna and Child.  I took some awesome pictures in the church, so I’ll be putting those up on Facebook sometime this week.

We decided to check out a highly-recommended brewery tour at the De Halve Maan (The Half Moon).  We bought our tickets, and were ushered inside by our fabulous tour guide, Andre!  He told us all about the history of the brewery, which was founded in 1856 and today is the only family-owned brewery still active in Bruges.  It was really interesting to see how beer is made, and how this specific brewery was run.  Andre was a highly amusing tour guide as well, and kept us all laughing throughout the tour.  The end of the tour may or may not have been the best part; free beer!  I tried the brewery’s blonde beer, Brugse Zot, which was very tasty and quite strong.

After our lovely tour, we went to a restaurant (the name of which I can’t remember, as it was in Flemish and long) and tried some more traditional Belgian food.  We got an order of mussels to split, which were pretty good although not as flavorful as I thought they would be.  We also got a couple of orders of fries, which were better than the first batch we tried yesterday.  For my main course, I ordered Flemish stew, which was just seasoned stew.  It really hit the spot after spending a long day out in the cold.

After dinner, we headed back to the train station and were back in Brussels by 9:30.  Even though we were tired, we decided to go back to Delirium for a bit.  I tried a mango beer, which was a bit sweet but quite tasty; who would’ve thought that mango lends itself to beer?

Anyways, if anyone wants to buy me an apartment in Bruges, feel free…I’d love to spend the rest of my life there.

8:47am.  Hello, Brussels!

Chrissy, Melanie, Dan, Kevin & I hopped off the train at Gare du Midi in Brussels, Belgium, somewhat weary but excited nonetheless.  As we walked towards the exit of the train station, we realized we didn’t quite have the slightest idea of where we were headed.  We asked a kind-looking lady which metro stops were closest to the city center, and we were taken aback when she responded with a smile and some excellent directions.  Reactions like this are unheard of in Paris, where you are scowled at for merely breathing the air of a Parisian, let alone invading their space by asking them a question.  But I digress.

We emerged from the metro station and were hit with a bone-chilling cold.  The city was still asleep, and was fairly quiet as we strolled (read: sped-walked) through the streets, searching for a little café to regroup.  We ended up finding a place called the Café Inn, where I ordered an omelet and a big mug of homemade hot chocolate, thus beginning my passionate affair with Belgian chocolate.

After we were sufficiently warmed up, we decided to head out into the cold once more to check out the famous Grand Place.  The Grand Place is a city square that is surrounded by big, beautiful buildings, including guildhalls, the city hall, and the King’s House.  Bars and chocolate shops line the streets leading up to the square, selling all sorts of delicious Belgian goods.  I have never seen so many chocolate stores in one area, and it was pretty overwhelming.  They all looked so delicious and were beautifully decorated for Valentine’s Day weekend.

After exploring the streets a bit more, we decided to head for our hostel since we were all exhausted.  We got there, checked in, and much to our surprise, realized that our hostel wasn’t, in fact, a hostel, but was actually a pretty nice hotel.  Melanie and I claimed the comfy twin beds in the main bedroom and banished Dan and Kevin to the bunk beds in the little closet-sized space next to the main room.  We had a nice bathroom, too.

After a much needed hour-long nap, we were refreshed and ready to roll.  We walked around the city a bit more, exploring the gardens, the Royal Palace, and some more of the area surrounding the Grand Place.  We stopped to warm up in a cute little café (which I think was called Café Rue de la Madeleine), where I had my first vin chaud (warm wine).  It was pretty good, spiced up with some sugar and cinnamon, and it definitely hit the spot on such a cold day.

We explored the city a bit more, grabbing hold of all of the free samples of chocolate our hands could carry.  We walked through a sort of antiques shop where Chrissy bartered with the owner (in French!) and bought a ring.  We tried our first Belgian waffles…YUM.  Mine was covered in chocolate, and was aboslutely delicious.  By dinnertime, we were all cold and hungry, and decided to stop at a place called “Gaufres du Bruxelles.”  We had sandwiches and tried the famous frites, or fries, which we weren’t too impressed with.

After dinner, we went to Delirium Café, which has an impressive selection of over 2,000 beers to choose from.  The décor and mood were both interesting, as an impressive assortment beer trays lined the walls and ceiling and some crazy-looking bartenders were eager to help you select the perfect beer.  I tried many different kinds of Belgian beer, including a blonde La Rulles beer, Delirium’s own dark Nocturnum, and, of course, Duvel (my mom’s favorite!).  Although they missed their beer missiles, the boys discovered the beauty of the boot, and drank their beer from ginormous, glass boots, which were similar to the ones used in the movie Beer Fest.

After several drinks, we were once again exhausted, and trekked back to our hotel for a long night’s sleep.