Yesterday, I went to Brussels with a different group of girls, on a mission to get some authentic Belgian waffles. Go to Belgium, eat Belgian waffles- simple in theory, right? Unfortunately there were some mishaps. At our stop in Brussels, the train doors were open for a grand total of 45 seconds, during which the guy blocking my way out (He was a European backpacker who has clearly not been choosing hostels with showers… we later dubbed him Sir Smelly) took his sweet time getting his backpack down from the luggage rack. When he was finally done, Amy and Aislinn were off the train, and Alana and I were inching behind Sir Smelly towards the doors, which tragically closed when we were five feet away from them, sending us to the next train stop 10 minutes away, against our will and separated from the other two. We made the most of it though, and eventually got back to the right station- little did we know, Amy and Aislinn had taken a train to follow us; we probably crossed paths inside trains at some point. We ventured out of the station and wandered the streets in eerie silence- it didn’t feel like Europe at all right outside the station, it felt like downtown Houston after the apocalypse.
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| TALL, shiny office buildings + complete silence + spooky clouds... |
The only people we encountered for quite a while were some women (actually I’m pretty sure one was in fact a man...) in short, tight dresses, and heavy makeup, working the street corners. You would think 11:15 on a Sunday morning is not the opportune time for this kind of business…hmm. It was strange. Alana said we should give them the benefit of the doubt, because they might be waiting for a bus to take them to the Lord’s house for Sunday church service. And maybe they were.
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| Gorgeous churches are a recurring theme so far. |
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| See? |
After 45 minutes of wandering aimlessly without a map, asking the few other people we saw (by the way, almost NOTHING is open here on Sundays… whoops) where we could find an open waffle place (in French, yay!), we made it to the pretty part of Brussels- the Grande Place, I think. We finally stopped at an adorable cafe after making sure they served waffles. We sat outdoors with a great view and fully enjoyed our authentic Belgian waffles- complete with fruit, which makes them a nutritious meal, right? :)
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| The view from our table. |
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| Waffle success!!! |
After that, we just walked around and took it all in, taking lots of pictures. The Grand Place is beautiful, and there are lots of boutiques, pretty hotels, and little overpriced chocolate shops surrounding it.
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| The beautiful Grand Place- I think this is a museum. |
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| Brussels town hall, also in the Grand Place |
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| A hotel and restaurant- I liked all the flowers. |
We even saw a begging dog- I don't mean the way Karli and Dixie beg for food, I mean with an actual tip jar, he was adorable! The strange thing was that he didn't have a human near him that I could see; he or she must have been hiding. Nevertheless, this seemed to be a creative, and very effective begging strategy.
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| He has to be very well trained! Precious. |
After a little while, Alana and I decided that, though Brussels was seemingly trying to make nice with us (a bit too late), it was time to head back. I feel like I didn't really see all that I should have, but we were so frustrated and ready to get home. I guess I'll just have to go back there sometime during my stay here- luckily it's only an hour and a half away. On our train from Liege to Maastricht, we ran into tons of Baylor people, so we all took a bus back to the guest house to avoid walking in the freezing rain. Again... I just can't believe it can be this icky and cold in AUGUST!
Today, I slept in a bit, got some groceries, and have mostly just been working on homework and group projects. Tomorrow starts week two of classes, and though I am very excited to be back in the classroom after what feels like a very long break (I am loving this whole four day weekend thing...), I'm even more excited about the fact that there are less than four days until I go to Paris! I can't wait!
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