Chapter 78: Truffles in Bruffels

nerd blog post #84

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy Family Day. Spend time with your mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, pets and cousins. And take a moment to thank Canada for the second annual extra day off of work and school. Happy F-Day.

Brussels is great. Passing through on the train with Steve, it looked bleak and bah-ring. But this week-end did not disappoint. Raffi and I took a bus there, which was a much cheaper option, and just under four hours from Paris. Eurostar bus service beats Coach Canada. More leg room and soft pop music! As a satisfied and frequent C. Canada customer, this is a big compliment to Euroline. Anyways..

We arrived in Brussels just after 6pm and easily found our hotel, which was less than ten minutes from the bus depot by foot, and under fifteen to the main spots in Brussels. It is a very walkable city, and perfect for a week-end length trip. On Friday night, we ate kebabs and drank Belgian beer as we walked around the Grand Place and its surroundings. It isn't a city with too many tourists, which is nice.

On Saturday, we enjoyed a very good (and included!) breakie before setting off to see the city by day. We were lucky to have mild and sunny weather - a nice change from cloudy Rennes. We saw the famous Grand Place again, as well as the Mannequin Pis. This is a tiny but famous statue of a little boy peeing into a fountain. There are legends about how it came to be and it is arguably the most famous thing about Brussels... Weird. We also walked by the many museums, through parks, into chocolate shops (free samples!) and through the Gallery. There is a beautiful cathedral called Saint-Michel, which looks just like the Notre Dame in Paris. Raffi called it the Faux-tre Dame. I liked that one.

Though Belgium has three official languages, Brussels is mostly French, so that was nice.

That evening, we enjoyed more Belgian beer. Our favourite is called Juliper. We went for dindins at a delicious Thai restaurant. The touristy restaurants were very expensive so we passed on those. I also found out that their seafood (which is what Brussels is famous for - mussels in Brussels) are imported from.. guess where!? BRITTANY!! Soooooo I think I'll pass on that and just jaunt to the coast and catch and cook them myself. After dins, we went to a bar and saw the over 100 beers on tap. We had Juliper. Oh! And the waffles are delicious there. So delicious.

On Sunday, we checked out but left our bags there so we were free to walk around. We went to one of Europe's largest markets, located in a sketchy part of town. Only open on Sundays, this market had over 450 stalls and everything you can imagine.. Fresh food and clothes and gadgets and bikes. It was really neat to see such a different part of town and such a massive and diverse market. We then had coffee back in the centre of town, walked around a little more, and headed to the bus depot. We left at the same time but in different directions. He headed back to Paris and I made my way to Amsterdam, which is where I am now!

Hope you are all well and enjoyed the long week-end!

Signing off,

Hincks.