Hello Brussels!

What. A. Day! We left at 9am to catch our train to Brussels and the metro was PACKED. We had to shove our way on, and one of the girls got left behind!! Luckily she just hopped right on the next metro and caught up to us. We were like sardines on the train tho, and we were all just standing there and then this poor lady passed out! She hit the side of her head, but luckily the people beside her were able to catch her. Immediately two people got out of their seats and helped her sit down, this sweet lady held her hand and grabbed her phone to call someone, and Ellie even gave her her water bottle we got in our lunches. I felt so bad for the lady but it warmed my heart to see people just jump immediately into action to help a stranger. Just gives you a brighter outlook on life and reminded me that there are so many good people that exist in this world. 

We needed that bright outlook when we got to the station and our train to Brussels was CANCELLED. All of the people from our train now had to try and get on the other train that was leaving soon. We were all standing in a huge group and then we met the nicest older Australian ladies who are going on a river cruise! We had fun chatting with them about our study abroad, school, and their trip. There was also a different Australian man who started talking about our presidents and how Michelle Obama is actually Michael Obama and her brother confirmed it? Odd but he was still nice hahaha. We were all in the same boat and meeting nice people definitely lessened the tension in a stressful situation. One of the Australian ladies was trying to organize everyone and it was so cute. They were the sweetest and we had lots of laughs. 

Thanks to Mary Ann and Dr Hegstrom, our powerhouse ladies (never doubted that they would get us on haha they are forces to be reckoned with), we were able to get all of us on the train! Our tickets for the other train were for assigned seats, but unfortunately they had no seats left in this train but told us we could stand. We were originally standing in the aisle by the seats, and got to talking to a different old French couple that spoke English. They asked us if we were heading to Brussels for some student competition, so we told them about our study abroad and chatted with them. The man told us that he had a dog named Utah in the past haha. He also told us that if his wife wasn’t there he would have offered to let us sit in his lap😭 Different generation, he definitely meant it harmlessly, and his wife like smacked him upside the head. It was an hour and a half long train ride that we ended up spending in the luggage space sitting on our suitcases feeling like stowaways, but honestly where’s the fun in having a seat anyways!

We made it to Brussels and had a bit of a long walk to our hotel but we got to see some cool things while we walked. Brussels is a city of comics so there were lots of comic themed murals, even right when we got off the train. 

After we made it to the hotel we dropped our bags off and then headed to the grand plaza where city hall and a bunch of shops are. Our appointment for city hall tour wasn’t until later so we walked around and saw Mannekin Pis! What a funny little guy. In theme of manekin pis we also saw a donut shop with some lovely shaped donuts. The alleys are filled with chocolate and waffle shops so it smells AMAZING. 

Oh my gosh this guy jump scared us so bad. He was SO still like even though I knew it was a person I couldn't even believe my eyes. And then we're all walking by and all of the sudden he like JUMPS at us. I almost peed myself.

We headed to our city hall tour and got to go around each of the rooms in city hall. Our tour guide knew a lot and he had a dry sense of humor haha. The city hall was built originally with the tower on the side, and then there was another part added later, so the tower is off center. Before we found that out, he dead pan told us that the builder realized that it was off center and went up to the tower and jumped off. Literally completely straight face haha it was so funny. Then he told us the truth. Brussels was also a center for textiles and a large part of their population wove tapestries. The tapestries carried their economy and there were some in city hall that were hundreds of years old. Super cool. 

After we were done there, Marie and I went on the search for some frites (French fries) which are famous in Brussels. I got mine with Americaine sauce which from what I remember was tomato mayonnaise with chili, onion, Cajun, and herbs. It was really really yummy but they put the sauce right on top of the fries and there was SO much. I couldn’t eat quite a few of the fries because they were way too saucy for me it made me feel a bit sick haha. Next time I’ll ask for it on the side!

After frites, Marie and I hunted down some chocolate and went to a little mall place that Dad’s coworker recommended. It was mainly bougie stores so we just got some chocolate. I haven’t tried mine yet because right after we went to get waffles with the group, which were SO good. Mine had chantilly whipped cream, strawberries, and chocolate and I am salivating just thinking about it. I also got a lemon fanta, and in europe they use real fruit juice. It was SO good.

After waffles we went to find Jenneke Pis, which is the girl version of maneke pis. I was interested in how a girl version would work and she ended up being so cute. They had her dressed up for the iris festival! Manekin also has a lot of costumes but he wasn’t dressed up unfortunately. They actually have an entire museum for all of his outfits! Oh he also isn’t the original, the one that is in public. He got stolen too many times by drunk people and once his legs got cut off, brussels was like nope and replaced him with a replica. The original is now in the city museum. 

We also found a feminist icon cat statue that we’re obsessed with. We posed with her. 

We decided to go to the grand plaza to see it light up at night, and on our way we stopped to listen to a saxophone player which was so fun. We were dancing and singing along and just partying it up in the street. There was a couple that started dancing to one of the songs and it was so tender, but then they started hardcore making out and the moment was slightly ruined LOL. Meg put some euros in his case because we enjoyed it so much haha. 

We got to see the lights in the plaza which were a little underwhelming but we still had a lot of fun because there was a whole group of us. My phone died so no pics of the lights haha. And that was our day in Brussels! Our hotel is really nice but there are six girls in a room and one toilet, one shower, one sink. We’ll see how that ends up going😅