Comic Books, Chocolate, and Waffles

During the week of October 31st to November 4th I had what is called "reading week" at Royal Holloway. Basically what that means is I had a week off for mid-term break. Reading week is designed to allow students to catch up on reading and work though most end up either going home or on vacation; in my case I did the latter. I have never been one of those students to get behind on work and since I didn't have anything to work on over break I decided to go on holiday. Most of my friends already had plans or were staying home so I ended up going by myself which was fine. I left on Monday and spent the day in London and caught a play, "The Woman in Black," which was genuinely terrifying and appropriate for Halloween. I then hopped the Eurostar train the next day at St. Pancras station in London and two hours later I was in Brussels, Belgium. 

I had two main reasons for picking Belgium for my holiday. First, I had never been the Belgium and wanted to see what it was like; second, i could take the train and avoid the horrific experience that is the United Kingdom airport security and border agency. I decided to spend three days in Belgium and arrived late Tuesday evening, basically just in time to have dinner and go to bed. I stayed near the city center and could walk most places though Brussels does have a metro system. 

View from the balcony in my hotel room

I had Brussels as my base for Wednesday and Thursday nights and Wednesday I set off exploring. I walked to the Grand Place which is slated as the "most beautiful square in Europe." It is lovely, but I have to say I think that Prague's main square is more beautiful in my opinion but you can judge for yourself.

Grand Place

The area was absolutely saturated with Belgian chocolate shops, waffle stands, and lace stores (all of which are Belgium's trademark goods). While I didn't buy any chocolate, I did have waffles on three different occasions and I must say they were outstanding. They topped them with molten chocolate sauce, strawberries, or whipped cream and they simply melted in your mouth. 

Brussels is the capital of the European Union and the city reflects that; it is full of office buildings and, in general, I found it to lack some of the blockbuster sites and beauty of other European capitals. I spent the day wandering and was easily able to do everything I wanted within one day. Two other things that I did was visit the Mannekin Pis statue (a statue of a small boy peeing which apparently has come to symbolize Brussels) and visit the Belgian comic book museum. Comic books are enormous in Belgium and the country has produced many famous comics such as Tin Tin and the Smurfs!

Mannekin Pis

I enjoyed the city but there were a few hiccups during my visit there. Firstly, my map given to me by my hotel was atrocious; it barely covered the city center and the area around it was nonexistent so when I tried to visit a museum a bit further out I ended up walking in circles for two hours and was ultimately unable to find it. Secondly, the city itself is not well marked with sign posts for tourists which was irritating, being a big capital city and all. Thirdly, the metro system in Brussels was confusing at best (and I consider myself a public transit pro). Many times I wandered around stations trying to figure out which way the signs were pointing to or which direction the trains were actually going. I spent a lot of time checking and rechecking my metro map in order to make sure that I was on the right train. 

On Thursday I took a day trip to the town of Bruges, which is in Northwest Belgium in the Flemish speaking area. One other surprise I had was that for most people in Belgium their first language is Dutch whereas I thought it was French. I was completely thrown off when signs were in Dutch and people spoke to me in Dutch on the streets or in shops (I must look Flemish because I had loads of people ask me for directions in Dutch). Bruges is a town that was once on the trading route as a canal stop but has been largely untouched since the 1500's. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and absolutely stunning. 

main square

I spent the day wandering around the canals and the town as well as taking a canal boat tour. It did rain most of the day but I still had a lovely time strolling and Bruges truly was the highlight of my trip. It was so quaint and beautiful and reminded me a lot of Amsterdam. I enjoyed it much more than Brussels. 

Chai tea break at an adorable cafe

I ended my day in Bruges by ascending the large bell tower in the town square in order to get a 360 degree view of Bruges. The stairs up were incredibly tightly wound and there were 366 stairs to boot. Needless to say I was exhausted and slightly on edge because of the steepness of the tiny stairs by the time I reached the top; I have to say though that the views made the climb worth it. I will let my photos do the talking for this.

Death stairs

a sea of red roofs

On Friday I didn't depart on the Eurostar until 2pm so I had time to do one last thing on my list in Brussels: visit the Atomium at the old World's Fair exhibit grounds. It is basically just a giant statue of an atom but nevertheless it was quite pretty in the sunlight. 

Atomium

I arrived back at Cherrywood Avenue at 8pm on Friday night after two train rides, two tube transfers, and one bus ride and I was knackered. I took the weekend to recover my throbbing legs and rested from my vacation. I enjoyed Belgium but was glad that I only visited for 3 days as I felt that I covered everything that I wanted to see with ample time. It was good to be back in the UK where I once again understood the language and could enjoy the comforts of my own home.