Brussels, Belgium

I’m not going to lie, Brussels began as a huge disappointment. But, as time passed, I ended up regretting the fact that I had to leave so soon. (I ended up only spending about 24 hours there!)

What gave me the bad first impression? Well, for starters, the Brussels municipality has made no effort to keep its city clean:I have about a dozen pictures of graffitied walls and houses. Even some statues and monuments are graffitied. It’s on the buses, too. It just makes the whole city look disgusting, and makes a lonely traveler really not feel safe.

Besides this, the buildings aren’t even as grand and majestic as they were in other cities:
As you can see, the day I arrived on  was particularly gloomy, as well.

You get faint reminders that it’s still a European city like the others, though. For example, the Grand Plaza:
 The picture linked to above in wikipedia is taken on some national event and is much more glamorous – I encourage you to take a look.

But even then, you really feel like you’re in tourist land. You walk over to see the Manneken Pis:
But are then mobbed by tourist shops, waffles shops, and little Pis figurines. Let me tell you, these people really do love their Manneken Pis:
I’ve read that “the pissing boy is the ideal national symbol for a country that is also very small and absurd.”

It takes a bit of walking out to start really getting a glimpse of the appeal of this city:

I found this awesome map made by locals that said it best:

Brussels is ugly, and we love it. And if we don’t love it, we live with it. So don’t be surprised that we built a terrible apartment block next to an Art Nouveau jewel, or a pseudo-classical monster in front of the Central Station.

The city certainly doesn’t wow you, but you must admit that it has a certain charm that grows on you with time. I mean, fair is fair – Montreal certainly doesn’t stack up with any of these European cities, but I still believe it’s the best city I’ve been in so far.

I went to go visit the Magritte museum. After walking out, I had a better appreciation for what was being displayed outside of it:

Speaking of Magritte, it’s easy to understand what inspired him in this city. On the first day, it rained, but look at how amazing the sky looked afterwards!

During my stay, I got to the musical museum – it’s known to have many kinds of instruments. It’s also laid out pretty interestingly – you’re given a headset that somehow communicates wirelessly with the instruments displayed in front of you, and you get to listen to them as you watch them!  This museum had a whole bunch of intricate, beautiful and obscure instruments:

I also went to the ‘Délirium Café’, a bar that’s famous for having the most types of beers available in the world. I was recommended to go there by these Americans I met in Amsterdam. “Was it fun?” I asked. They answered, “I don’t remember, so, yea.”

I also went to the European Union Parliament. (Did you know that Brussels was the capital of the EU? For this reason, Brussels is an incredibly European city – there’s a ‘Europa strip’ that has restaurants and stores from every country in the EU.)

It turns out that Brussels is actually a beautiful place. It’s just that, contrary to Paris, where you might accidentally stumble upon a gorgeous statue or building, in Brussels you might have to look for it.

Belgisms:

- I had a Belgian waffle:
Standing beside me is a Scottish girl named Catherine who, it turns out, actually knows my friend Stuart from McGill. Small world… (Also I learned that Scotland is part of Britain, not England, and that Britain along with Northern Ireland form the United Kingdom. Mustn’t forget, mustn’t forget…)

-I had fries (“chips”) in a cone:
and yes, I had to pay for the sauce on them.

-Brussels has the most wicked metro-warning-system-thing:
So get this – the little red dots actually tell you where the other metro cars are on the rails! I think that’s phenomenal. It also tells you how long until the next car shows up, but the metro systems in Paris and London also do that, so it’s less awesome.

The next stop is London (again) for about a week – a pair of Israeli cousins let me know (kind of last minute) that they were going there, so I hopped on a Eurostar to join them. After that is Paris for a day, then Madrid!