Post #6: Brussels, Belgium

“Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe”……Anatole France

I haven't posted in awhile because I have been busy exploring, meeting people, sightseeing, etc.  Hopefully I can catch up to where I am in my travels by making my posts more concise and a little shorter.  After reading and talking to friends, I have come to realize that if one can make their points concise and short that they will most likely have 110% of the audiences attention.  However, if you fall into a long strung out rant you might loose your impact and only get 75% of their attention and thus, the point you are trying to make may be lost.  For those of you who know me, this important lesson is one that I definitely need to embrace and deploy (lol).  Travelling has helped me refine myself tremendously thus far, and this is just one of the important lessons that I have learned so far in my journey. 


When I was booking my accommodations for Brussels, I elected to stay in a Bed and Breakfast twenty minutes from the city centre. I felt that it would be a nice change of pace from the typical hostel stay--it didn't disappoint.  I found myself immersed in the culture more and saw what the living quarters were like for a typical person living in Brussels.

Since I was in a Bed and Breakfast I saw this as a great opportunity to do some laundry. I headed downstairs only to find out that the typical living quarters in that specific area didn't have en-suite laundry--no biggie.  I would simply walk around the corner to a laundry mat--seems simple enough.  Well, this idea of "simplicity" quickly eluded me and I found myself stressed out, confused, embarrassed with my arms full of clothes that were soaked and full of soap.  I thought to myself, "well, I guess years and years of my mom doing my laundry has now caught up with me--dammit."  But after analyzing the situation, I quickly came to realize that this wasn't the case.  Instead, it was due to the instructions being entirely French and the display pictures being far from explicit;  on top of this, it didn't help that no one in the laundry mat spoke a word of English. To this day I still don't know why six dollars and forty-five minutes later, my clothes were soaked and full of soap.  It either had to do with the machine not functioning correctly or my inability to read the directions.  To hold down my pride I am going to go with the former (lol).

The next day I headed to the city centre and checked out the streets and Brussels stock exchange.

Brussels stock exchange--built 1868

There was a DJ on the steps playing music--pretty cool

I don't expect you to be able read this, I just don't have many pictures of Brussels for obvious reasons (lol)

Walking around downtown I quickly came to realize that there were no cars in the streets--odd.  I enquired as to what the reason behind this was and was told that it was annual "No Car Day" to promote green transportation. If you were caught driving your car apparently you would be issued a ticket.  It made the city feel very real, peaceful and in the moment--quite the change from Amsterdam.  I just went from one extreme to another and the situation was perfect for contrasting the differences between busy, bike frenzy Amsterdam and slow paced, vehicle free Brussels.  Nevertheless, both places were extremely busy, just in a different way. 

The next day I went on a brewery tour with a girl named Young from South Korea who was also staying at the Bed and Breakfast.  It was a special brewery because it is one of the last places where beer is brewed the original old fashion way.  The machinery was old and the building looked as thought it could collapse at any minute.  There were actually spider webs everywhere.  They invite spiders because apparently they keep the bugs at bay, which are bad for the brewing process--I can't remember why.  When we were there the brewery wasn't running because they can only brew beer a certain time of year due to the moisture in the air--never knew it was that specific.  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera which at that point, was starting to become a regular occurrence (lol).  

On the tour Young and I ended up meeting a girl from New York and a fellow Canadian from Montreal named Daniel.  The four of us ended up making our way to the European Union head quarters after the brewery. The building was quite lack luster and it was basically just a typical office building--we were expecting more. So, instead of taking a picture of the building we took a picture of us in front of a statue outside the building.  We weren't exactly sure as to what the statue was symbolizing so we just reenacted the statue with Daniel being the female and me reaching up towards her.  You can't see it, but there are a bunch of hands reaching up symbolizing something that we couldn't quite figure out.  Young engaged in the stereotypical Asian peace pose (lol).   

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That night we ended up going to a famous bar in Europe called Delirium.  The reason this bar is so famous is because it has over 2000 different kinds of beers in stock.  I was a little aroused when I heard this and quickly checked to see if they carried Bohemian or Pilsner--they did not.

When I first arrived in Brussels I originally only planned on staying for a couple days.  This ended up not being the case and I ended up staying a total of five.  When I tell people that I stayed there for five days they always say "ummm why did you stay in Brussels for five whole days?"  The reason it is such a shock to people is due to the fact that there isn't much to do in Brussels in terms of sightseeing.  However, I stayed there for that duration because I didn't have a choice.  At the end of the two days I had packed up my stuff and headed for the train station (with my Eurail Pass) only to realize that I wouldn't be boarding a train that day.  Apparently, one needs to make a reservation if they want to travel from Brussels to Paris (my next destination).  So I elected to stay in Brussels for another couple of days, to which I am happy that I did because I met some great people and it was a good time to relax and really feel the city out--despite the minimal tourist attractions. 

After being there for five days and really exploring the city I started to recognize a pattern that I was surprised I didn't realize sooner.  The picture below captures this pattern perfectly--see if you can see it. 

 Well if you saw it good job.  If not, the picture below should help.

If you look close in the first picture you can see this advertisement posted THREE times within a twenty metre radius.  I am not complaining seeing as that the advertisement is quite easy on the eyes, as you can see (lol).  I just merely found it interesting that this advertisement was absolutely everywhere.  I know I know I was taking pictures of advertisements in the streets but when you are in a place like Brussels for five days you have to find entertainment in something; this was it and I was entertained at least two times every block.  Maybe it is a way to make up for the lack of tourist attractions in Brussels (lol).

Well, I waved good bye to Brussels and embarked on the next part of my journey--Paris.