The town I'm staying in shuts down on weekends, so some friends and I took a little day-trip into Brussels. The first thing we saw was the town hall at the Grand Place. It was pretty amazing compared to our city halls back home. We wandered town for a bit, and found a place to eat lunch. In a lot of places in Europe, the restaurants try to entice you to eat there by asking you to stop and talk for a while. In Belgium, they follow you down the street offering everything they can think of to get you to stop. I think the best one we heard was the first drink free, free dessert, half-price meals and his first-born son!Anyway, we continued through the city searching for the Mannekin Pis: Brussels' most famous attraction. It's a little fountain of a boy peeing, with many legends. One theory is that it's to remember a little boy who put out a fire of an important building by peeing on it. Another is that he was the son of a nobleman. His parents lost him, and when they found him, he was peeing on the street. Either way, it's not that impressive.
Finally we got some Belgian chocolate from Neuhaus. It was sooo good. I think I'll have to bring some home for all of you to try. Then it was back home on the train. I think on the next trip to Brussels, we'll have to check out European parliament, the Cathedral, and some more significant things, but it was a good first trip out there.
For those of you who were curious about where I'm staying, t
he city is Louvain-la-Neuve. I ended up in an apartment with 4 Belgian girls, 1 Irish girl, and me. It's been a blast, and I've met people from all over the world: Korea, Taiwan, Finland, Italy, Canada, Turkey, Hungary, Czech... 
Beer tally for this week(When in Belgium, do as the Belgians do!): Stella Artois, Kriek, Mort Subite, Duvel, Jupiler, Maes, Hoegaarden, Tongo, Leffe
Feel free to submit souvenir requests! ^^
3 comments:
Hey Amber I was wondering why the town shuts down?
Wow Ms. Thing. Sounds like you are having fun...Add more details, I'm trying to keep up with your travels. Only 6 1/2 weeks to go for me!! Miss you!
As the reason that the city shuts down on the weekends: My city was really built around the university, and is therefore mostly full only of college students. In Belgium, all the students get their roly suitcases and go home to their parents each weekend to do their laundry and get money for the week(college students don't work here), leaving nobody left to support the town. Thus... everything's closed.
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