Brussels is more than a sprout!

After doing an emergency crash in Paris. I ran to the train station as soon as I could to see if I could go to Brussels that morning and cancel my Eurostar ticket and head off to Belgium a day early! I got on a train that was 2 hours late. (BRR...) Sub freezing train station, I should have stayed in the hotel! I left finally and went off to Lille, Flanders. (Home of Don Lillie's people.) It was a very pretty place but I was only there for about an hour so only had time for a short stroll around before I had to go back on my train.

I got to Brussels and hopped on the train to get to where my hostel was. Geez, was Brussels ICY! For some reason Paris wasn't so slippery. Then I proceeded to get lost... AGAIN. Poor me! I think I spent a majority of this trip lost and wandering. 1 hour later wandering in the snow I found the Hostel Van Gogh located in a dark alley of Brussels, pretty easy to find during the day time but at night time not so easy... The sheets were clean, the owners were (meh), and it was really well heated. I went off to find dinner and the only place close was a turkish resteraunt where I ordered something really yummy by pointing and smiling. (I still have no idea what it was, but it tasted great!)

Snt. Catherine's Cathedral, with shitty construction all over it's lawn!

The next day I explored part of Brussels with a girl named Angel from Shanghai! She was very sweet and cute and really reminded me of my friend Betty from back home. We went to Snt. Catherine's together and then the art museum where we parted and she went off to explore while I visited the Museum of Art in Brussels and the Museum of Science. I highly recommend the Museum of Science in Brussels. It was as good if not better than the one in New York. Everything was beautiful and interactive. A great place for adults and kids or big kids like me!

Waffle cart outside the Museum of Art!

The Grand Place!

The grand place in brussels is grand. Home to it's famous christmas market, yummy waffles, hot chocolates, a small lace museum and beautiful architecture. It's like being in an old timey christmas card! Afterward, I went on a train to Bruges- or so I thought. Turns out my dutch is worse than I thought and I missed my transfer. I ended up in DePanne, Belgium. Which is all the way up by the northern ocean. There was a lot of snow, but the locals were very nice to me and fed me vending machine waffles and hot cocoa to keep me warm until the next train to back to my transfer stop.

Me, lost in De Panne! WAH!

I got to Bruges in one piece although about 2 hours late. (Oh, Meaghan...) Bruges at night time is amazing! The flood lighting really sells the place and makes the building super spooky and oppressive to people passing by. Not many locals live in Bruges, just people who work in the industry. It's like people living in Provincetown, Mass or PCB, Florida. Bruges is touristy but it's really wonderful. I wish I would have spent longer there.

Next blog post: FRITES, CHOCOLATE, and cheese wrapped in Bacon! I must be in Bruges!