Eating our Way Through Europe, brought to you by Project Runway: Brussels

(Apologies for the delay in posting...but better late than never, right?)

Thursday, March 4. The beginning of a European adventure for Kaitlin, Megan, and me. It was almost surreal that spring break had come already (and even more surreal writing this almost 3 weeks later!). We left for ten days in Europe, with Brussels, Belgium, as our first stop.

We caught the Eurostar train from St. Pancras International Station, to Brussels Midi Station, and it couldn't have been a smoother trip. Security was much quicker than at any airport (although they didn't seem to look too closely at our passports as we passed through...) and the train seats were super comfortable. Navigating the streets in Brussels, with their French names, was a bit of a challenge, but we found our hostel eventually. The cobblestoned sidewalks and our giant rolling suitcase (affectionately nicknamed "The Beast") were enough to make sure anyone within earshot knew that we were tourists. And we had an interesting encounter on the way to the hostel, with a guy I liked to refer to as "the rapist Grinch." (Disclaimer: Don't worry, Mom, we weren't really in danger and kept our wits about us.) As we were walking down the street near our hostel, this slightly creepy-looking man started slowing down and turning around to look at us as we were walking (again, I blame the cobblestones.) He crossed the street to be on the same side as us, continuing to look back, with a bigger, creepier grin each time. It reminded me of how the Grinch's smile gets slowly bigger and more evil as he plans to steal Christmas from the Whos in the cartoon version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas...hence the nickname. But we were cleverly able to avoid this Grinch by scooting down the nearest side street to walk along the next parallel road, and were at our hostel, Sleep Well, soon enough.

After checking in, we headed back out to explore the city a bit. We had seen a Belgian Waffle stand on the walk to the hostel, and seeing as waffles were tops on our to do list, set out to find it. Sadly enough, when we came upon the stand, it was already closed for the night. But all was not lost, because there was a frites place right across the street. Belgium is famous for its frites, or fries. We went in and ordered some frites to split, and then hilarity ensued. I'm not sure I can do this occurrence justice with my description, but I'll try my best. After we ordered, the fry guy behind the counter put the fries in the little fryer-thingy, then paused. He flicked the switch of an old-fashioned radio next to the counter and the strains of Bizet's Carmen filled the small shop. As the familiar strains of ba-dam-ba-ba-dum played in the background, he started shaking the fries in the fryer in time with the music. It was hilarious. We were dying laughing, wondering if Carmen inspired him to make better fries. Either way, the frites were delicious! Musical fry guy recommended that we try andalouse sauce, which tasted kind of like the sauce on the bloomin' onion at the Outback. Definitely the best fries I've ever had!

After the frites, we walked around a bit to get oriented and saw the cathedral, St. Michael's, all lit up at night. Then it was back to the hostel to get ready for a full day of sightseeing on Friday!

The weather in Brussels was a little bit crazy. When we left the hostel on Friday, it was snowing, but by midmorning it was beautiful and sunny and had to be about 50 degrees outside. Clouds rolled in through the afternoon, and we finished the night walking through a chilly rain. But we didn't let the weather bother us! Our first stop on Friday morning was the European Union. We wandered around among the impressive buildings, after mastering the metro and taking it out to the EU. We also found Brussels' Arch de Triomphe while it was warm and sunny and enjoyed the pretty park that it was in before heading back into the center of town. Lunchtime was more frites and a waffle with chocolate sauce, with some interesting entertainment. There was a guy singing and playing guitar on the streetcorner as we ate our lunch and he really was a great singer. But he was playing lots of American songs, with his French action. Nothing like hearing Tina Turner's "Proud Mary" in a French accent, at a super slow tempo. "Rolling, rolling, rolling on the RI-ver" has never sounded so goofy. Not going to lie, I had some trouble controlling my laughter and felt really bad...but it was just too funny to listen to him.

After lunch, we paused on a streetcorner to examine our map and make a game plan. All of a sudden I heard, "hey, HEY," and thought, "Wow, that guy sounds just like Dan Masterton." Well, that's because it was! SO crazy to just randomly run into friends on the street in Brussels. We spent the afternoon with the Dans, wandering around the famous square, Grand Place, and touring a Belgian Brewery (sadly, not that interesting, but you can't win 'em all). I also wasn't the biggest fan of the Belgian Pilsner, but I was proud of myself for at least trying it. After seeing the famous statue of the peeing boy, or Mannequin Piss, we parted ways with the Dans (but it wasn't the last we would see of them...random encounters seemed to be our specialty over break!).
We sampled some delicious Belgian chocolate and visited the Cathedral in the afternoon and then stopped at this awesome tourist place for students. Not only was there free internet, but there were maps of every city that we were going to and a pub guide to Brussels. It was great! And the pub guide would come in handy, but more on that later.
Our next adventure was a tram ride to see the Atomium, this crazy-looking structure that looks like an atom (if you hadn't deduced that already...) and is all gorgeous and lit up at night. This is where one of our first lessons occurred: When taking public transportation, don't hop on the first thing that moves. We took the Metro for a few stops, then jumped on Tram 51, which we thought would take us to the Atomium. But after going only one stop, the tram went out of service for some reason.
Except we didn't realize that everyone else had gotten off the tram...probably because we were too busy perfecting the three-way fist pound, since we were so proud that we had run and made it onto the tram. Until we heard a rapping on the window. "Girls, you have to get off the tram."
Oops.
After waiting a bit in the rain in the outskirts of Brussels, we finally made it to the Atomium, which was blue and sparkly, so what's not to like?

And Friday night was one of my favorite nights of the whole trip. Our Brussels pub guide told us that there was an 18th century pub near our hostel that served Brussels' famous cherry beer, Kriek, so we set out to find it (after Belgian waffles for dessert, of course!). We walked in circles in the rain for what seemed like forever and I was about ready to give up, when suddenly Kaitlin darted down a side alley. And here is lesson number two: go off the beaten track, because you might like what you find. Naturally, I was skeptical of this weird Belgian alley, being the over-cautious person that I am. But I wasn't about to let Kaitlin walk down there alone, so Megan and I followed. At the end of the alley was a huge wooden door, with strains of jazz music barely audible. And then we opened the door to one of my favorite pubs in all of Europe. It was called Nostre Dame (almost ND, but not quite!) and has been around since the 1700s. It was all old-fashioned wood and brick, with lots of locals hanging out, drinking, and smoking (I think I'm going to campaign for anti-smoking laws indoors in Europe, because our clothes smelled AWFUL when we got back to the hostel; the people here just smoke everywhere, its so different). We ordered three Krieks and snagged a table in the corner, to enjoy the jazz and the atmosphere--such a blast!

According to the humorous, sarcastic city maps at our hostel, a phrase they like to use in Brussels is "carpet the stomach," which means eating up before going out for a night at the pubs. I'd say our efforts at carpeting the stomach were pretty successful. :)

And here's the link to some more photos from Brussels: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=404799&id=538960556&l=c733d24e90