Brussels

Please please please forgive me for not updating in forever. I really have no good excuse for why I have not written. I wish I did. This is going to be two entries. This one about my trip to Brussels and then an update on everything else. There are going to be a TON of pictures. So sorry if you don't like long blogs.

So Aunty Brenda came to London on February 12th. She was supposed to arrive a day earlier but because of the massive amounts of snow that everybody got at home her flight got delayed. She arrived early in the morning came back to my apartment and slept for a little while. We then caught the bus to St. Pancras train station to catch the train to Brussels. It took up about two hours to get there. I took a nap on the way there.

Aunty Brenda and I

Our train information. Woohoo!!

Once we arrived in Brussels my first thought of the country was yum it smells like chocolate! Because well, it did! But the farther we walked around in the train station it didn't smell so pleasant. Plus it was not the nicest of places to walk around in. We were supposed to catch a really quick train to bring us to the station we needed to get to for our hotel but we both got confused and ended up on their metro. We ended up getting on going in the wrong direction, but eventually found our way to the hotel. Their metro is clean but it is really dated and old so it seems like it isn't clean. I guess that would be the best way to explain it. The station we needed was directly across the street from the hotel we were staying at. They were doing roadwork so if we wanted to walk to the hotel we had to walk around all of the work. It was a little annoying when you had snow blowing in your face. It was so nice seeing snow though. I know Aunty Brenda was tired of the snow after leaving all of it back in Maryland, but I hadn't really gotten any in London. The snow wasn't sticking on the ground though in Brussels. I really liked our hotel. The bed was a lot harder then I was expecting but I guess I need to get over the softness of beds over here. My bed in London was hard until I finally splurged on a mattress pad. We showered and went to bed early that night.

Our hotel room.

The next day we woke up and walked around Brussels for a few to find something to eat, explore and then walked to the train station to catch our train to Brugge. While we were walking around we had our first of I couldn't even tell you how many cups of hot chocolate. Each one just kept getting better and better. I did fall asleep for a bit on the train ride to Brugge, but the little I did of the country-side was beautiful and covered in snow. Once we arrived at the Brugge station we left the train and followed the crowd towards what we assumed was the city. Brugge is BEAUTIFUL. It's small and cute and what you would expect a small European town to look like. There are chocolate shops everywhere and they all smell amazing and have unbelievable window displays. I wanted to take everything home but it was all so expensive. We went to a chocolate festival that they were having that day. There were tons of different chocolate makers inside. Most of them giving samples. I can't even begin to explain how good some of the chocolate was. There was one piece a guy gave me that looked all crumbly and when I bit into it, it was sofa and there was a almost Three Musketeer like filling in the center, but so much softer and smoother. It was heaven. There was a section where people were painting on paper with chocolate and a girl sitting having a face mask painted on her face with chocolate. I would rather each the chocolate then put it on my face. Afterwards we went to eat at this really cute little place. Too bad the owner of the place got into a huge argument with one of the customers and ended up having the police called. Once they left, everything was really nice. From there we just walked around and explored the city. Before we left we had another hot chocolate. This was so awesome because if I remember this hot chocolate correctly, it was chocolate on a spoon, like in the shape of an ice cube and you take it and put it into a cup of hot milk and stir it until it melted. SO AMAZING.

Church across the street from our hotel.

Brussels is so cute.

My favorite Godmother.

Brussels

Please somebody get me one of these??

Our hotel

Brugge train station

So many bikes

It was so cold the water froze over. The sound that the ice made when the boat broke through it was really cool.

So cute.

Yum!

ALL of this is chocolate and ALL of it was for sale.

Center of the city.

Made out of chocolate at the festival.

Yup, this is chocolate too.

This is the mask made out of chocolate.

Walking around the city, it was a cheese and meat shop.

City center again.

The guy made it while we were having out hot chocolate.

When we got back to Brussels we walked around for a little bit and ended up at this place that had the most amazing mussels. I got so many in a pot that I couldn't eat all of it. It was this place that had so many tables crammed in that we were basically sitting on top of the table next to us. It was great. Afterwards we went to find Aunty Brenda a crepe.

The next morning for breakfast we went to get me a Belgian Waffle. See below. It was so good. It looks like it was really filling, and it was, but it didn't make me feel sick after eating all of it. It wasn't as heavy in my stomach as the waffles at home are. It was light and fluffy and so much goodness in my belly.

Before

After

Our next destination was the Atomium. For the older world fairs, each city would put up a piece, for example, Paris was the Eiffel Tower. This was Brussels. We did not go up since it was overcast and a lot of money. If it was nicer out we might have. This thing was massive and it was really neat to see the reflections of the surrounding area in the building/statue/whatever you want to call it. By the time we got back into the city center. It was starting to not get pretty out. It got dark really quickly and was sprinkling to the point you were getting soaked. We walked around to find the fountain with the little boy peeing. There are so many rumors as to what this story is about. Something to do with a little boy peeing on a fire, then another one about him getting lost. He has outfits that he wears depending on the season and holiday. While we were there, he wasn't wearing anything. I got a shot glass with his picture on it. There were tons of chocolate pieces shaped like him a well. It was really weird to see a town love a statue of a boy peeing.

Atomium

Aunty Brenda and I

Chocolate sculpture that is bigger then the actual Statue.

Little boy peeing.

Later that night we caught the train back to London. I ended up staying awake for the whole ride back. I was bored since Aunty Brenda was sitting behind me this time. The next day we got up early-ish and went to see if we could get tickets for a play for that night. We ended up seeing Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. James Earl Jones and Phylicia Rashad were starring. The play was really good but so long. There were two intermissions!!

Us outside of the theatre.

The next day Aunty Brenda walked around by herself for a little while to see some of the stuff she wanted to see while I stayed home and tried to get some work done. The night before she left we went to see Wicked. It was my third time seeing it, but I love it so much so I was okay with seeing it again. It was Aunty Brenda's first time seeing it. She loved it too. Finally Aunty Brenda had to leave me and go home. :( I was really glad to have her here and enjoyed my time with her both in London and Brussels. Yay!

The stage for Wicked.