Before going on exchange, it has never ever crossed my mind that I would be visiting Belgium, Iceland and Denmark. They all sounded too cold for me. But life is all about surprises and ad – hoc decisions 🙂 so here I am, overloaded with Belgian chocolates and missing Icelandic water, recalling my 12 days trip to these wonderful places.

Embarked for Brussels on Feb 20th, 4pm, we got off the shuttle bus at 3:35pm. Thank GOODNESS we made it. Upon arrival, we saw several of these ugly hearts and I wonder what sin did this person commit… The next day we woke up and we saw this huge protest from people wearing Red, Blue and Green respectively. (Research has shown that it was one of the biggest Anti-Austerity Protest)

 

Brussels was cold, I couldn’t bring my hands out to take more photos but here I saw some wooden llamas and color-coated bottles so I had to take a photo of it.

  

There was a gallery featuring Hong Kong photos and I suddenly miss home, and the vita soy, and the BBQ pork, and Japanese Food.

This is our lunch place! It was really good money for value. That was our first meal of deep fried food…Brussselians LOVE fried food… Did you know French fries were invented here?

 

1) Gueze Beer. They say it tastes like vomit, but I actually liked the sourness of it. We also visited a beer brewing factory and had a taste of lambac and cherry gueze beer. (NEVER try cherry, one way or another they taste like meds)

  

Perhaps I just wasn’t a big science person nor a beer fan, that’s why bottling and labeling was the only processes that I understood 😛

Those brownish mushy stuff right there was how it all started. It smells so warm and good, like ovaltine. (And I’m not short, the boxes  were just stacked high :P)

 

2) Pissing statue… I simply didn’t understand their fascination with pissing stuff. There’s this pissing dog, and then the manneken pis…which is supposed to be THE tourist place, but I.T. W.A.S T.I.N.Y. NOW I am pissed.

 

3) Of course there were the lovely waffles too ❤ I must have had fries and waffles as many times as I tripped/stepped on poop because of concentrating on the map.

 

4) The Tin Tin and the graffitis, they were all over the streets! You just got to be super eagle eye to spot them 😉

 

5) CHOCOLATES !!! This was basically why I even took notice of Brussels, not because it is the Capital of EU. There was a street with ALL kind of chocolates, and of course I didn’t buy any Godiva. AND WE HAD CAKE FOR DINNER :O

 

Mary’s is my favorite one 🙂

V: (pointing to a 60 year old lady) Hey the sales lady over there looks like the owner, you think she is Mary?

ME: (pointing under the logo) The shop was established in 1919, do you think she looks 94?

Dinner in the hostel common area , girls eating Salad.

V: Look at them eating salad…OUR dinner looks so much more delicious!

ME: Yea, that’s also why they are thinner…

 

Well who cares 🙂 The cake and chocolates were heavenly. It was chocolate mousse with creme brulee filling. The bottom crust was ALSO CHOCOLATE. aaah god.

 

Erm… we also went to a flea market…after it was over. Apparently the owners just leave whatever they don’t want anymore for free. And my dear friend and I started searching for treasure/trash, along with the hobos… yea it was fun. She got her Discs for I-Don’t-know-what

Note to self: MAKE SURE you go to these markets in the MOOOoooorning.

 

At night we arrived a square thingy (which all looks the same everywhere, in Madrid, or Bordeaux) and IT REALLY WAS FREEZING. I couldn’t stand it anymore and called it a day.

Please note that we did ALL THOSE, in one day. Thank you very much. (Yes you might say that on day 1 walking 10 hours is normal, but do note that I have been walking for at least 6 hours a day for 8 days right before the trip… It was just such a huge challenge for me but I made it alive and enjoyed every bit of me, except some of the hostel but we will get to that 🙂