Enjoying Belgium

We are wrapping up our final night in Brussels today. Tomorrow will be another check-out day, followed by a day trip to Bruges and then our longest trek- a bus ride to Paris. 

These two full days in Brussels have been a change of pace from the rest of the trip. Fewer places to visit and quicker transport have made for more free time to relax and enjoy this international city. I'm finding that most people here speak English, but only a very limited version. After seeing everyone in Germany speak rock solid English, even in the little towns, I am surprised that the EU capital would be the place we see the least. Then again  , in a tri-lingual city where English is #4, the local residents have their hands full. For me, it has given me a chance to practice my French in a more laid-back environment than Paris will be. 

Yesterday morning we went to a chocolate museum and factory. It was okay, but nothing special. The museum was a self-guided tour smaller than the Anne Frank House, which wasn't overly inspiring. The factory was crowding into a room to watch a gentleman show us how he makes Belgian pralines. The man really enjoyed his work, I can give him that, but we had around 35 people crammed into a space the size of my kitchen. The highlight here was a little girl who kept calling the chocolate "icky". 

After that we jumped on the subway and headed out to the last stop on the line going northwest. This was to visit the site of the 1958 world's fair and it's main attraction, the Atomium. This is a structure representing a scale model of an iron molecule at a ratio of like 9 billion to one. It has nine different pods with elevators, stairs and escalators linking them to one another, with exhibits inside. Inside the top pod is an overpriced restaurant and an observation deck with panoramic views of Brussels. It was an impressive building, but other than the view it afforded of the city, most of it can be appreciated without needing to spend the €12 to get inside. 

We grabbed some food at the (again overpriced) cafe at the base of the Atomium, and then went next door to mini-Europe. This is a small park where replicas of hundreds of buildings all across Europe have been painstakingly created on a model scale. It was pretty interesting, although we have actually visited many of them on this trip!

We made it back to the hotel by 6 or 7. The whole group had not had an outing together in some time, so we gathered together in the evening and all went across town to a bar that Paulo recommended. It was a nice place, but expensive, so nobody wanted to eat there. We stayed an hour or two for drinks, then the group started to break off into smaller groups that went to do their own thing for the evening. I joined some of the others for dinner at a next-door fry stand. The Belgians sure are proud of their fries, but from what I've found they're nothing special, and none of their 15 different sauces compares to what Amsterdam has to offer. Sorry Belgium, don't mean to hate. 

We rode the bus back to the hotel district and went to a sports bar. There we met a whole group of students studying here from Clemson University in South Carolina. They were nice at first, but apparently rather standoffish, so we didn't interact with them for long. After a few more people went back to the hotel, several of us went back down to the town square, having heard that it's neat to see all lit up at night. We weren't disappointed. 

It was getting pretty late, but we decided to check out one more place, a local club that some people had recommended. After meeting a couple local college students named Juan and "Big Co," they agreed to show us how to get down to the bar (delirium) and came with us. Turns out it was in a pretty seedy neighborhood, but the place was packed. We stayed for just a little bit and talked to the Belgians, and I had a rather lengthy conversation with an intoxicated Russian named Constantine who is studying IT in Brussels and wants to get really good grades so he can one day visit canada. We got everyone safely back to bed by 2.