Brussels

Friday the 13th (apparently that day isn't bad luck in France, but having 13 people at a dinner table is, so much so that some superstitious people leave dinner parties to even out the number of guests), Elyse and I took an afternoon flight to Brussels after class. We landed in an airport nearly an hour outside the city, so getting to the city and then finding a hostel took some time. The first one we went to was booked, but we got a map there that we used for the rest of weekend --it was a sort of mini guide book for adolescents too and random, funny Brussels things to do--and the clerk called ahead to find space for us at another hostel. We had a dinner at a place on the map and then went to Mort Subite ("sudden death") where there is a special blanche beer made just for that bar.

Naturally, we had one of those, and then Elyse also ordered a waffle. When the waiter brought our drinks, he tossed a cold packaged waffle on the table too. Pretty disappointing since we were in Belgium and all, but we had a good laugh about it.
The next morning after breakfast at the hostel, we headed out to a Flea Market at the Place Jeu de Balle. It was raining and while trying to open my umbrella, I walked right into one of the short posts lining the streets to keep cars off the sidewalks. I flipped over it and completely wiped out. This was a few days after I took quite a tumble down the spiral staircase that leads up to Robert's room, so I was rocking some pretty impressive bruises for a while. The Flea Market was sort of sad since it was raining and a lot of people were closing up their tables, so we moved onto indoor activities.
Cantillon Brewery and Gueuse Museum. One of the only breweries in Belgium (and the only in Brussels, I think) that still uses turn-of-the-century machinery and spontaneous fermentation to brew their beers. We got a brief explanation from a tour guide and then she gave us pamphlets explaining the rooms and left us to our own devices. It was interesting since I know pretty much nothing about brewing. I guess I could explain it on here except most people reading probably either know or don't care, I'm guessing? Also, we got two beers included in the admission price (a mere 5 euros)! a gueuse and cherry kriek

Elyse with the wheat
This room smelled so yeasty and delicious
Yum
Art exhibit on our way back from the brewery. I just really liked these
St. Michael's Cathedral...I guess maybe we couldn't take pictures inside because I don't have any, but I do remember there being some very cool stained glass. also remember eating a waffle outside before going in
Next stop after lunch was Chocopolis because our maps had coupons for 15% off or something like that, and they promised a free tasting. I bought a few chocolates and some bars to take home too.
Hotel de Ville, I think
The Belgians are almost as proud of their fries as they are of Mannekin Pis (fountain pictured below)
Organizations can dress Mannekin to raise awareness for their causes. This fountain was so much smaller than I expected it to be. There's also a statue of a peeing dog in the city, which we saw, and Mannekin used to have a sister somewhere, although I don't think the fountain runs anymore
St. Catherine's. The interesting(?) thing about this church is that there's a public urinal on the side...that people were using...I'd say at least 10 or a dozen men went into the stalls during the 10 minutes we were standing there. I can't believe it was okay to attach a urinal to the church, but apparently it was and nobody has any qualms about using it. Everything we read about Brussels talked about how the Belgians build really ugly buildings right next to works of art and they like it that way, so I guess maybe this is a prime example.
Parc near the Place Royal. We walked by the Palace, but it's weirdly only open for tours during the summer. also checked out a sculpture garden nearby, and we passed Cinematek, which has one of the largest film collections in the world. According to the map, Martin Scorsese is quite a fan. We walked through the park and ate chocolates and then went shopping for a bit although we didn't buy anything. There's a musical instrument museum, but supposedly the best thing about it is the view of the city from the top floor, so we took pictures outside the museum and skipped it.

Our map recommended a bar where we could meet "Therese," so we killed a few hours there playing backgammon and drinking framboise. When Elyse ordered, Therese asked if she was sure that's what she wanted because the raspberry beer wasn't very alcoholic. I guess it probably was 5 o'clock by then, but it was still funny Therese thought we were just there to get smashed.

Around dinnertime, we walked down what our map called "eating street" where there were actually very few restaurants, and then it started raining, and we were cold, so we were really excited to happen upon a cozy-looking restaurant where the walls were lined with books...it turned out to be an all-you-can-eat rib place. Even the five-year-old girl at the table next to us was eating ribs. We weren't hungry enough to eat 20 dollars worth of ribs, so after about half an hour of scrutinizing everyone's plates around us and trying to get our waiter's attention for a menu, we were very American and left after drinking a few glasses of water, which was I believe the only tap water we got in Belgium. That's probably the one thing I really miss about the US--tap water being free at restaurants. It was unheard of in the cities I visited over break, and there are even some places in France where you have to order a bottle.

After going to a restaurant where we didn't eat ribs, we went to a bar from the map where I had a beer called the Pink Killer. I didn't anticipate so much fruity, brightly-colored beer in Belgium.
The next morning we went to see the Atomium, which was built for the 1958 World Expo. pretty cool. By Sunday afternoon, we had done pretty much everything there was to do in Brussels itself. We went to a bookstore for a few hours to do some art history reading (L'Oeuvre) before catching our flight back to Marseille. It was nice to have such a laid-back visit after the sightseeing marathon of vacances, and I had wanted to go to another French-speaking country besides France, so Brussels definitely accomplished that.