As I left Budapest I was hoping I was going to warmer lands… no such luck. It snowed the first night I was there and remained freezing the whole time I was there. It was also icy and slushy.
Brussels ended up being my bumpiest city in terms of small things happening. It started before I even got there. The night before I left for Brussels my host messages me and tells me that her father died earlier that week and she couldn’t host me. So I posted in the Brussels Last Minute Couches group on couch surfing the next morning and crossed my fingers as I ate breakfast at McDonalds and refreshed the page every few seconds. I got a reply back about 20 minutes later from Hetram saying I could stay with him. We made plans to meet up in central station. I missed the bus I had planned on taking to city centre, which would have gotten me there in time to meet Hetram. By the time I got there it was an hour after we should have met and I had no way to contact him. I had a freak out minute of just standing in the middle of the station thinking “Oh my god what am I going to do?” I ended up walking over to a security guard and asked where the phones were. Turns out you needed a calling card and all the places that sold them were closed. I went back to the security guard almost in tears to ask where else a phone was. He ended up letting me use his phone to call. I met up with Hetram by the restaurant he was having dinner with other Couchsurfers. Lucky for me it was the end of the dinner and we headed off to a pub a few minutes after I got there.
It was fun that first night to just hang out and talk to people from all over Europe. It’s cool to meet people and hear some of their life stories and just for a night you really know this person. I had fun.
The next day I slept in hoping lots of sleep would help me kick my cold. It didn’t but it was still nice to sleep in. After a small breakfast Hetram took me to city centre and showed me around to the main sites. It was really nice of him since it was freezing cold!
The last place we stopped at was Manneken Pis. It’s this little statue of a boy peeing. For being so tiny it’s got a lot of history. It was cast in the 17th century by J. Duquesnoy. Originally it was just a public fountain for drinking and along the way gathered fame. Now a days he is dressed up per a schedule but the idea of putting a costume on him dates back to the 17th century. He’s also got a history of being stolen. It was in 1745 that he was kidnapped for the first time by the English. Two years later the French. In 1817, the statuette was stolen again, this time by a reprieved French convict, and was found broken in pieces. The fragments were used to make the statuette which you can see today on the old fountain.
He’s tiny really… but so cute. He also has a “sister” Jeanneke Pis who is down a side street and not very well known since she was only cast in 1985.
After Hetram left me I made my way to the place that inspired my whole trip to Brussels, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts. Why this museum? Because it has my favourite painting. The Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David. Why this painting? It’s rather hard to explain. It’s an odd picture to most people but to me it’s perfection. It’s like I just have this bond with it. I think it’s gorgeous and stunning. I went into the museum and started to prowl for it. I went through a few rooms and started to get scared that maybe it was taken down for restoration and I was thinking all these absurd thoughts and getting more anxious. Then I walked into the room and there it was and it felt like I’d found something I’d been looking for all my life. It had it’s own wall and looked so lovely. I just sat down and stared at it. Then walked close and stared some more. Then took a few steps back and stared some more. It was just breath taking to finally see it in person.
After I saw my painting I went off to see the city. And it was a short while later that I was lost… well not truly lost but off my map. I was trying to get to the cathedral and saw a gorgeous church at the end of the street a bit of a ways off so I started walking.
Past Koninklijk Paleis
Past Warandepark
And Congreskolon
I should have known then that I had gone too far but I didn’t check the map since I was sure I was going in the right direction.
Then past the botanical gardens
Finally I got to the church!
It was then that I pulled out my map and realized I was off it! So I simply walked back the way I had come and found the Cathedral much easier this time.
Then I had a stroll through Galeries Royalls St Hubert
^this was a creepy display window^
Then it was food time. First my Belgium Waffel, tourist style lol. It had whipped cream strawberries and chocolate. And it was just amazing!!
After another short wander about I had my Belgium Fries with curry ketchup and damn were they good!
I’d go back to Belgium just to eat myself fat.
I hopped on the metro to go see the Atomium, it tends to be what people picture when they hear Brussels.
And a wee bit of info on this land mark.
When I was back in city centre I walked around with a dying camera and took a few picture before heading back to Hetram’s flat to eat dinner.
The next day I was up bright and early to catch my flight. I took the metro to the North Station and had to find my bus to the airport. I missed the 6h00 one because I couldn’t find the bus stop but caught the 6h30 one so it wasn’t too bad and I still got there to catch my flight!
It was off to my favourite country, Italy. Little did I know that Pisa would capture my heart and I was in for the best four days of my trip.
Cheers,
