Here I am in Brussels, Belgium... the first place I have been where everything is written in French, Dutch, German, but not so much in English, including the computer keyboard. The French one is even more different than the German one, so my apologies now for the upcoming typo possibilities.
For all of you loyal to my blog, I have a quiz for you...
I will give you a few facts, and then you answer one yes or no question, okay?
Facts: Brussels is known for its 1. Waffles (with lots of chocolate syrup). 2. Chocolate. 3. Wheat Beer. 4. French Fries. *5. A statue of a little boy peeing.
Question: Does Christine Love Brussels?
*Special Note: This fact really has nothing to do with the answer to the question. If it confuses you, ignore fact 5.
I hope you answered Yes, if you were wrong, perhaps you do not know me and you are reading the wrong Christine Diffell's blog?
So the food is perfect for me...luckily i have now been in my pants and shorts long enough that they have stretched out:)
The Center Square is amazingly beautiful~. My guidebook says that Victor Hugo called it the most beautiful square in the world, and he could be right...(I have a few more to check out though before i can agree.) There are also Cathedrals and Chapels everywhere. I have come to believe that they only post the sign directions to about 25% of them though, because on my way to one I passed several other huge and gorgeous ones that were not even marked. In an effort to remember what is distinctive about each of them, I have created a criteria for which parts of them would be best for a wedding...I generally think about this while I walk down the several hundred foot aisle. (I have also decided that if the aisles are too long, I would be tired by the time I arrived at the alter, so that could eliminate about 95% of them.)
In regard to fact #5, I suppose some of you knew that Brussels is famous for its tiny Mannikan Pis statue...a little boy pissing, (in case you did not gather that from the name.) Yesterday he was naked, but today he had on clothes. There is a whole museum devoted to the clothes people have made for him...perhaps the Tailors Hutter and Hurst could add to this? (By the way Hutter and Hurst, the Tailor,s Guild has one of the premier spaces in the center square, and Victor Hugo once lived in the same space as well, so you are pretty important... kind of made me think about getting a new pair of stays made... well, actually not too much, as I never realized how much I would appreciate not wearing them everyday.)
Oh yes, there were some interesting marching bands parading through yesterday, nothing like ours in the US though.
For all of you wondering when i am going to talk about the dogs of Brussels, here is the dog update: They are everywhere, but mostly with the beggers. I have seen many beggers sitting with dogs who are wearing signs saying they are hungry, or having their dogs do tricks for money. The most bizarre, (sad) incident I saw was a guy who had a little black lab mix (looking quite a bit like Lane Staley,) sitting on a bright yellw blanket wearing a pair of bright yellow rimmed sunglasses with a little cup for people to put money in, presumably after taking a photo. Actually I should say TRYING to make the dog do all of this, who kept pawing the sunglasses off, and then kept following little kids around rather than sitting down, and tried to eat what was in the little cup. The man trying to get money from his sunglasses wearing dog was furious and yelling at the dog and the dog kept trying to bite him so the man would jump back. Then kids other people would pet the dog, the dog would calm down, and the man would once again start the process over again by trying to put glasses on the poor dog. I watched this for quite awhile with mixed feelings of "this is horrible" and "this is totally bizarre."
Anyway, Brussels is beautiful, (Donna, you were right,) and I am glad I made it a stop. (I will not mention any names of anyone who discouraged me from coming... you can all just wonder about it.)
Before I go I will note that it is great that Brussels is wonderful, because there were quite a few frustrations throughout yesterday...
I left Amsterdam at around 5:30 am to arrive in Brussels at 9:30, hoping to check into my hostel and then quickly hop on another train to Waterloo to see Mark Schneider in action as Napoleon. However, because of some rude fat men standing in front of the door for the next stop, I could not get off on my right stop, and then the area where I had just stored my bags seemed to start flooding, which held me up a bit longer. I decided that it was best to not spend several more hours traveling and hold my post in Brussels... sorry Mark~/ The day grew increasingly exciting as all the "automatiques" were down, plus most companies' credit card machines~ (Mel, I am positive you were right because everyone does, in fact, say automatique...i think that one lady was just confused and crazy about the modern world of banking.) Ah well, the joys of traveling. The worst part was actually that because of the bank problems I couldnt go to the Chocolate Museum:(
There is a new suprise twist to my travels-I will be going to Luxembourg for a night...so more adventure stories still to come.
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