The surprising city of Brussels

After a three hour train ride to Belgium, we arrived in yet another city: Brussels. We got to our hostel a little later than expected due to our train's failure to stop at its advertised station; instead of getting off at the central station as we had intended, we had to take the metro from the more distant South station. It was not a major deal, but it served as a good reminder of how much more laborious a walk is when carrying luggage.

That afternoon, we walked to the Galleries St. Hubert, which was a series of fancy restaurants and gourmet chocolate shops on either side of a glass-roofed street. We stopped at two separate chocolatiers: we each tried a piece at the first store and by the second, decided that they were so good we needed to buy a whole box. After all, we were at Neuhaus, the inventor of the praline! After careful selection, we each choose eight and boy, were they amazing. My favorite was a tie between a plain caramel and a praline and caramel filled chocolate. Believe me, they were worth every penny, or rather euro(s). 

After my exposure to chocolate heaven, we walked to the nearby central square which was called the Grand Place. My first impression of the city was that Brussels was mostly drab, boring, and even a little ugly. Imagine my surprise, then, when I walked into the central square and found myself surrounded by old, elaborate buildings covered with flower boxes, decorated with a good number of statues and with some appearing almost Bavarian. It was certainly a marked change from the rest of Brussels. By this point, it was close to dinner time and so we set off for the Mannekin Pis. You have undoubtedly seen him, even if you don't immediately recognize the name. It is the statue of the little peeing boy, and is Brussel's most famous icon, though I must say that it is not extremely imposing. 

I had been smelling Belgium waffles everywhere and so we stopped so I could buy one covered with powdered sugar. Just the waffle and the chocolate alone made the trip to Brussels worthwhile. We had mostly seen the touristy places and so we returned to our hostel with a slight detour to a grocery for more chocolate. It was good, though admittedly of a lesser quality. And thus we concluded our short but productive afternoon in Brussels - next stop, London!