Brussels-30th March 2008

When you arrive in a European city on Sunday, don't expect to see much. It's just gonna be you and yourself! But brussels was a bit different. According to some Belgians, the Belgians are so hard party-goers that they don't sleep. I agree to a certain extent. At 6 a.m in the morning, some clubs were still operating and there were drunkards hanging around.

But trust me, Brussels is really a 1-day see-everything city. I concur with some of my Singaporean friends here after visiting.

Grand market place

City Hall-in the day

City Hall-at nightI like the structure at the top of the building!

Beers.Chocolates.Waffles.Fries.Mussels that more or less summed up my day in Brussels.

Hoegarden.Stella Artois.Duvel
Godiva.Leonidas.Seashell chocos.Cate d'cor.More chocolates.
Belgian waffles are the best
Fries originated from belgium but the French stole their product.So it became french fries.
Have MUSSELS in BRUSSELS.You can't be wrong.

See the chocolate-my saliva is so drooling...

Belgian Fries?The big pot of MUSSELS !

Interesting people:
There are police posts every 500m in the city centre I'd say and you see police officers everywhere. I think it's because Sat is a party night and they are afraid those drunkards would start creating trouble on Sun morning. As we were waiting for the tourist office to start business, we met 3 policemen at the main square and started chatting with them. However, they weren't too well-versed in English so it was really hilarious the way we communicated. French is actually the official language in Brussels and it was good practice for me. Road signs, menus and directions were all in French and people spoke the language everywhere. It's pleasant to be there immersing in that beautiful language. I could understand people briefly but I can't speak the language well. You need the accent to speak French. I need time to pick it up. When I speak French, I sound like those Caucasians trying to speak Chinese. hehe... Anyway, we started asking the policemen where to get the best fries, the best mussels, the best chocolates etc..

Just random pics..See the sun!

My Dream House!

Oh yeah, Tin tin is from belgium. We went to the comic museum but we didn't enter. haha.. It's freaking expensive 10 EUR per person and we felt it wasn't really worth the money. :)

Tips:
To get the cheapest mussels, go to this small street by Rue du Marche-aux Herbes. There's a whole stretch of restaurants offering set dinner for mussels at 10 EUR. Don't settle for the first one. The first will most probably offer you something looks like a good buy but everyone down the alley will do the same thing. The deal just seems to get better with each passing restaurant. Kim wasn't in for mussels so it's just me! But because it wasn't the mussels' season, the mussels weren't that huge! Wait till the mussels' seasons and you will get those HUGE and JUICY ones! However, the meal was probably the best one I had during the 12 days' trip.

The street to go..

Appetizer-Prawns in garlic sauce with bread
Main Course-Mussels in cream sauce with Spaghetti in tomato sauce
Dessert-Brownie Cake

This is a "restaurant" that we passed by. There weren't seats. Everyone just stood eating. But there was live music and people ordered wine, seafood and savour it... I love that feel....

The Atonium. The 9 atoms represent the 9 states of Belgium. Oh ya, there's a MINI EUROPE in Brussels where they have miniature displays of all key tourist attractions in Europe like Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, Pisa's leaning tower, Rome's Colosseum etc. If you can't visit all, maybe you should go Brussels? haha...
Au revoir Bruxelles, Salut Berlin!