Brussels was not somewhere I was ever particularly interested in, but when Ryanair is selling flights for 10 pounds to Copenhagen and 6 pounds from there to Brussels, you don't worry about the destination. The airfare for our entire trip from Edinburgh-Copenhagen-Brussels-Edinburgh was 50 pounds each. I keep trying to quit you, Ryanair, but you draw me back with your cheap, cheap deals. (Although I have to say, they are somewhat back in my good books after this trip. No near-death experiences at all.)
Also before I start, can I just say, I was kind of nervous to go to Brussels after the Paris attacks. We had booked the trip like three days before it happened, and then Brussels came out as a huge terrorist target, so you know, that was slightly concerning. However, actually being in Brussels, I felt so much better because there were soldiers everywhere. I mean, full on head to toe camo, walking in pairs, with gigantic machine guns. BIG guns. They were on every few blocks. So clearly Belgium was taking steps to insure our safety, and knowing that any terrorist assholes would be gunned down in seconds made me feel a lot more confident being in the city.
Day 1
Brussels: Grand Place, Mannekin Pis, St. Michael's, Paleis Royal, & the bars
Wednesday January 20th we were up early to get packed and ready for our 9 AM flight to Brussels. We flew into the Charleroi airport (obviously the downside of our dirt cheap flights), so when we arrived we needed to take the shuttle bus about an hour north to get to the city. That dropped us off at the Midi station where we then needed to get another tram to the Bourse station in the city center.
Once we got there, it took us about another half hour to find our accommodation. To make a long story short, nobody we asked had ever heard of it, we found the right road and ended up walking the same circuit about three times, and finally after being too worn out to keep looking went into a small bar to use their wifi and find out where we were. By that time it was 1:00, an hour later than the estimated arrival time I had given the guesthouse in my email. I knew they didn't have a reception desk and so had to be there to let us in and figured we had definitely missed them.
Well, it popped up on the map that our guesthouse should be literally right next door, so I went for a little walk and found it two seconds later. We'd walked past it about five times. The problem was that it was just a black barred apartment door with no signage, nothing that would make you stop because it looked like a private residence. There was a black mailbox on the door and there was a small sign that said BXLROOM, but you'd never notice it unless you stopped to search. There was also a note for us taped there which said to call the number when we arrived, so I went back to the bar and borrowed the bartender's phone to call the guy who said he would have the upstairs neighbor come let us in. It was really more of an apartment rental than a hotel, but our room was great. It was big and spacious with a huge window on the far wall that looked out on the garden courtyard.
After dropping off our things, our first stop of the day was only about two blocks away- the Mannekin Pis fountain. It was just as underwhelming as I expected. That little pissing toddler is so tiny, and it's actually just a gated fountain on the corner of a street. You might walk right by it if there weren't so many tourists taking photos of it.
We got our own pictures there anyway because we are tourists, then grabbed our first Belgian waffle at a 1 euro waffle place across the street. I got mine with brown sugar and Nutella, and HOLY SHIT. How do I describe this waffle?! Words would just undermine the experience. I got a quarter of the way through it before I remembered to take a picture and document this beautiful moment in my life.
We walked and ate and I was determined to get at least one waffle a day if not more.
Look how happy I am. Little do I know what the following day has in store for me.
Our next stop was Grand Place, and it was one of the prettiest squares I've ever been to. The buildings are detailed in gold! It's just very impressive.
After that, we walked over to St. Michael's Cathedral. It was large with alcoves along the sides holding statues and carvings. There was a chapel at the back as well and an underground part you could pay a euro or two to go down into and see where the original foundations were.
I also saw a sign saying that confession was on, and I saw a priest sitting by himself in a gated section of the cathedral. Being that it has been about 9 years since I went to confession, I felt a lot more nervous than I should about the idea considering I've spent a good part of my life in Catholic schools. Well, I finally decided to just go in and sit down, and of course he was so nice and asked about my being in Belgium and was very patient considering how way off my confession game was. Seriously guys, priests can be so great. And then he gave me a rock! He told me to leave it somewhere that I found beautiful. Well I left feeling as fantastic as you usually feel after a priest pardons all of your sins, plus I had a brand new rock to carry in my pocket for a couple of days.
We made one more sightseeing stop and that was to the Paleis Royal. We went through the gardens to get there and it wasn't a long walk at all. The main attractions in the Brussels city center are not that far apart. The building was nice but nothing that memorable.
Now that sightseeing was over, it was time to drink! I had been very excited about Belgian beer. We walked back to this bar that I majorly wanted to go to right off of Grand Place. I had read about it on TripAdvisor. It was called Le Cercueil which translates to The Coffin. And it was AWESOME.
You walk through a pitch black tunnel after coming in the door from the street to get to the door to the bar, and then it's only slightly less dark. It's very small, the walls are black, the bar has a sort of vampiric/gothic look about it, and the place is only lit by red lanterns/spotlights and blacklights.
Decorations include weird paintings, crucifixes, and a ribcage. The tables are coffins- one of them wooden with a clear glass pane over it and the other a blacklight open coffin with skeleton inside. And on top of all this they were playing 80s rock! I was just so happy!!
Lewis and I got beers which were served in skull mugs, and we sat at a table and I just smiled for the entire half hour. I was sad to go after our drinks. I think it's my favorite bar of all time.
Sexy blacklight photoshoot.
Our next and last stop was Delirium. I had read about this as well- four floors of beer and about 2000 to choose from. 2000 beers!! We accidentally went in the vodka bar first (I would never intentionally go into a vodka bar), because Delirium Village is a whole little collection of bars and cafes, but we sat and had a drink there. I got a Delirium Nocturnum and we also each had a flavored vodka shot (Nutella for me) since they had quite a selection.
I have to be honest- and I want to say in my defense that we had not eaten dinner and the beers in Belgium were AT LEAST 8%- I was feeling a little tipsy at that point, but I was just in a good mood. We went next door then to the real Delirium four story bar. It was all wooden and massive. There were people and tables everywhere, like three different rooms to sit in just in the main level. I got a Delirium Red and we sat at a barrel table. Lewis suggested we have a drink on every floor which sounded great, but we didn't make it that far.
Our last floor, unfortunately, was the next one- the basement. Luckily that seems to be the place to be. It was very large and very packed.
I took ages looking at the gigantic beer menu, then when I tried to order my first two choices were both out. Some guy came up next to me and suggested a beer that he was drinking, I tried a sip and it was good, so I ordered that and went to find Lewis at our table. We made friends with the two American guys at the table next door who somehow immediately guessed I was from Ohio- I have no idea how- but I did also correctly guess they were from New York on my second try (I figured it out from their disdain at my first guess of DC).
So somehow I ended up very drunk after that last beer- ok, like again, keep in mind that with the percentage I had probably had the equivalent of 8 beers by now. In fact, let's just say that from now on instead of 4 beers because this is embarrassing. We went to a Thai place for some much needed food.
Lewis is looking pretty sober here himself.
We had spring rolls and noodle bowls, and then thankfully Lewis and his great directional sense got us back to our hotel because I had no idea how to get there nor was I willing to try very hard. I had a shower when we got back so that I'd be prepared to get up and go in the morning (I mean seriously, I felt fine!), then we went to bed.
Day 2
Misery
What I did not anticipate was how unbelievably, horrendously ill I would be on Thursday. I mean, I was sick. I could not keep food down until 6 PM. The amount of alcohol I had the night before was not AT ALL deserving of how terrible I felt that day. I had FOUR (slash really the equivalent of eight) beers! Is this what getting old feels like?! I've only ever been this sick when I've had food poisoning, and I have had nights out in my early 20s that should have killed me. (If my mom is reading this, I'm totally joking.)
This really sucked too because we were supposed to go to Bruges that day. I mean, we watched In Bruges before our trip in preparation. Lewis was looking forward to Bruges more than anything else on the trip. We were up around 9 but I had to lay back down, obviously. Lewis went out and picked up sandwiches and coffee and said we could wait a few hours and go later, which I was determined to do. Unfortunately after I had already thrown up the nothing in my stomach from the morning and then the painkillers and water after that, the longest I could keep a bite of my sandwich down was for 5 minutes.
The entire situation was miserable. Obviously by late afternoon, Bruges was no longer an option. I thought I could rally and go to the Atomium before 6 to at least have done something, but that didn't happen either. Thankfully Lewis went out into the city a couple of times and got something out of the day.
I finally felt a little human again by the evening and finished the sandwich and my now-cold coffee. I managed to go with Lewis around 7 or 8 to get dinner and was just so happy to be up and walking and breathing fresh air.
Grand Place at night
We went to these cute little side streets with closely packed restaurants and chose an Italian one where we sat at a table facing out the window. I also managed to finish my entire plate of gnocchi like a real person.
We just walked back to the room after that and watched Parks and Rec for a few hours. What a waste of a day. And the worst part is I didn't even get a waffle.
I'm just going to post this here as a reminder of what could have been.
Day 3
Bruges
Friday morning I was back to myself. I had decided the evening before that we WERE going to see Bruges no matter what, and we would do it this morning. I would have been more upset about causing Lewis to miss it than not seeing it myself. Our flight wasn't until around 6:30 in the evening, so we thought we'd manage.
Well, we woke up with the alarm but were a little slower moving than expected. We ended up sitting down in a breakfast place to have our waffles for the morning- mine with coffee syrup and chocolate sauce- but that was a disappointment compared to my first street waffle. Also disappointing, it was my last waffle. We were in too much of a rush later to get another one. This is the tragedy of my trip.
It might look nicer than the first one but it was not.
We then caught the train at 10 from the central station to Bruges. By the way, the Belgians are totally ageist. The lady asked how old we were when we bought tickets. I said 27, not knowing what it was for, and Lewis said 25. She asked if I was sure I was 27 and by now I was like, well, I can be younger... I got charged a full 12-14 euros more for my train ticket!! What the fuck!! Lewis's was about 12 euro while mine was at least 24. The age cutoff is 26. Like, what kind of weird age is that to choose?! Also, way to make me feel older than I already do. My boyfriend is getting child prices. Not cool.
Anyway, we got into Bruges around 11 and were only going to have 3 hours so wanted to make the most of it. We started walking towards the center, and it was a really nice city.
We passed a church which was near one of the pretty canals you see in the pictures with a bridge crossing it and storybook village houses along the banks.
We kept walking past another canal and down a street of chocolate shops. We went into one called Chocoholic and did most of our chocolate shopping there. I got a box of 20 chocolates and a really cool key and lock made out of chocolate. I haven't brought myself to eat the key set yet, but the rest of the chocolate is gone and it was so good.
We came to the town square next which is cute with little shops surrounding it.
The bell tower stands on one side and we had to climb that since, as I mentioned, we watched In Bruges beforehand and the bell tower features prominently in the movie. Well once again I was discriminated against for being over 26. I even lied about it this time but of course then she wanted an ID, so my ticket was 10 euro while Lewis's was only 8. What even is this policy?
The tower, the Belfort, had 366 steps to climb to the top, and they get steeper and narrower the higher you go.
There were things to see on the way up though like historical information, the drum, and the bell itself.
When we finally got to the very top, we didn't stay for all that long because it was freezing and so windy! It also was definitely not like the movie, because it was grated the whole way around (no falling to your death in real life). Great views though.
The other thing I wanted to see (also which we discovered from In Bruges, our factual guidebook to the city) was the Basilica of the Holy Blood where there is a reliquary of what is supposedly Jesus' blood. That's up for debate, but I thought it was worth visiting. We had to ask for some directions in a bakery, definitely not because of this display that was laid out in the windows.
We managed to find it afterwards. It was a little chapel wedged in a corner between larger buildings. Unfortunately, it was closed for midday and wasn't opening again until 2 PM... the time we had planned to be on the train back. But I thought, hey, only in Bruges once, I'm sure we can make it quick once it opens.
It was only about 1:15 at the time and Lewis was hungry of course, so we went to find some lunch while waiting. We went to this sort of trendy little health-conscious cafe. It was the only place we walked by that served anything under 15 euro so it won by default. I got these "tartines" which were like flatbread triangles with toppings that were a lot more like a small appetizer than a meal and still about 10 euro. Bruges is expensive.
We got back to the chapel at 2:00 sharp and went upstairs. It was small but pretty. It kind of had two sections, the main one with a golden altar, and the other in a little alcove under some arches.
This is where a priest came out carrying the reliquary and gave an introductory speech about the blood of Jesus and told us in a sort of accusatory way that this was not a tourist attraction, so I took a picture. He didn't seem very personable.
He set down the reliquary and we were able to line up and one at a time go up onto the altar and pray over it. Like I said, I don't know whether or not it was really the blood of Jesus or what proof they have of that, but it would be cool if it was.
We had to rush after that though and immediately headed for the train station. It took so much longer to get back than it seemed to get into town! I also had to stop by that cute canal with the little houses and find somewhere to leave my confession rock. I ended up putting it in some bushes next to the church so it would be less likely to be disturbed.
It started raining on our walk and we were in a hurry, but by the time we got to the train station we saw that the next one to Brussels wasn't even until 3:00. This was stressful. See, the shuttle bus to the airport left every half hour from the Midi station. Our flight was at 6:30, so if we didn't get on the 4:30 shuttle at the latest, we were screwed.
The minute we got into Central Station around 4 we went off running through the city- as much as my lungs would let me- to get back to our room and pick up our luggage. We did that, left our keys, and tried to run again to the Bourse station. We got the tram and made it to Midi, but then we couldn't quite remember where the shuttle buses were. It was again very lucky that Lewis has excellent directional sense because without it there was no way we could have made it in time. As it was, he ended up running up to the bus just at 4:30 and we literally couldn't have been two minutes later without missing it and in turn missing our flight. It was ridiculously close.
We finally got to relax after getting on the shuttle and made it to Charleroi around 5:30. We crowded in line to go through some of the most poorly organized security I have ever seen in my life, then we boarded our plane and were on our way back to Edinburgh.
In the end, I enjoyed Brussels more than I expected! I wouldn't put it on my list of top cities, but it's at least worth a few days for the beer and waffles.