36 Hours in Belgium

I'm behind on blogging and skipping past the Reading Week road trip to tell you all about Belgium. This past weekend I went with a friend on a 36 hour excursion to Brussels and Ghent.  We got in late Friday night and caught the very last bus from Charleroi Airport to Brussels (this airport is an hour south of the city) and arrived at the hotel around 1 am.  We stayed at the Hotel Bloom.  It was such a nice change from staying in hostels.  The beds were comfortable and there was a TV.  The hotel decor was pretty hip too.  They let us choose our room based on the painting because each room has a mural by a different artist. This was the one we selected:

Also, the hotel staff had ridiculous names.  There was Rainbow, Crocus, Angel, MC, and Sand.

The next morning, we woke up super early (7:15, yikes!) and set out for Ghent. I wanted to see some of the Dutch part of Belgium in addition to Brussels. We may have taken the wrong train because it took an hour to get there and I thought it was only supposed to take 30 minutes or so.  Once we got to Ghent, we got really confused about where we were and which direction we were supposed to go.  We bought a map, but it was in Dutch and we couldn't figure it out.  Eventually we just walked one direction and found the main square.

It was beautiful.  We bought some chocolate and took a canal tour.  And then bought more chocolate.

After that, it was nearly 12:40 so we made our way back to the train station and returned to Brussels.  We found the main square and then promptly bought waffles.  We spent the rest of the day buying chocolate and sight seeing.

The main square in Brussels is called the Grand Place or Grote Markt, in either French or Dutch.  Brussels is very seamlessly bilingual and almost everyone spoke English as well.  In Ghent everyone we ran into spoke English as well, but I read somewhere they don't really like French or something like that.  Anyway, in the Grand Place, they were string up sparkling lights on the massive Christmas tree.  They only lit them up in practice, however, rather than at night.  We also saw the Mannekin Pis, a tiny statue of a peeing boy.  When we were there it was dressed up as a painter.

 

Yes, I did attempt to add videos.  Now it's like you're almost there.

This was from our final morning in the main square.

First waffle!

After that, we made our way to passed St. Michel and St. Gudule Cathedral and the Parliament building to the Metro.  For whatever reason, the metro card machines only accept coins.  However, Brussels's was the cleanest metro I've ever been on and each station had a different decor.  It was quite pretty.

 The bells were lovely too.

We went to the Triumphal Arch, and then took a very long metro ride to the Atomium.  Once there, we went up to the top.  By the time we got there (it was a long wait for the elevator - the only way up), you could see all of Brussels at night much like the view from the Eiffel Tower, except unexposed and not in the center of the city.

Again, it's just like you're there! You can even hear the boy scouts murmuring off to the side.

By then we were pretty exhausted, and at this time I realized I hadn't eaten anything other than chocolates, waffles, a doughnut, and half of a yucky burger from a street trolley all day.  We deposited our chocolate in our room and went out to eat.  I had mussels and fries.

We then went to the Grand Place hoping to see it lit up for Christmas and were sadly disappointed.  We bought more chocolate and had waffles for dessert, before returning to the hotel.

Christmas in Belgium!

 Belgium is famous for chocolate, waffles, mussels, fries, and beer, so to round the trip out, we had beer at the hotel bar.  I had a Leffe Blonde which was really good.  Probably my favorite beer. And then, thoroughly exhausted, called it a night.

The next morning, we went to the main square for a final waffle for breakfast.  We had to eat at a cafe because it was 9:15, too early for any of the street vendors to be open.  In the middle of breakfast, we spotted Miss J from America's Next Top Model walking through the main square.  Then, having enjoyed our last delicious Belgian waffle and backpacks stuffed full of chocolate, we bid adieu to Brussels and headed for the airport.