To say that Brussels was a better trip would be an understatement. I can’t describe in words how much I love the city of Brussels. This time, our coach ride there was during the day (it left at 8am); it was not the most pleasant bus ride but it wasn’t horrible either. When we left the station, we heard two little British boys sitting behind us talking to their parents in the seats behind them. At first, I couldn’t help but think how cute they were with their little British accent! However, as the ride went on my frustration grew. The entire ride they were kicking my seat, screaming at each other, and whining about one thing or another. I was most frustrated at the parents because they were both asleep with their face masks on. Oh well, nothing I could do about it!

When we finally got there, I was nervous to see all the signs in French again. I had such a hard time in Paris because no one was willing to talk to me in English and I didn’t want to have to be lost all weekend again! Since there were six of us going, we decided to pay for a triple hotel room and sneak 6 people in. it was genius because we ended up only having to pay 25 euros each for the 2 nights we were there! I forgot to print off the name and address of the hotel, so I had one of the girls traveling by eurostar text me the address. Still, we didn’t know how to get to there, so we went up to the information desk. When the man asked me where I was looking to go, I didn’t even know what the street name was as opposed to the hotel name so he just asked to see my phone. He was so nice; he showed us on a map exactly what we had to do to get there. We had to go into the other line with “his friend” to get our tickets for the metro and when it was our turn, the information guy that helped us took over and got the tickets we needed and asked for the money. He was so nice and helpful I wanted to cry and kiss him (but I didn’t)! The metro itself was actually pretty nice (especially after Paris).

Even though the information man told us to get to the hotel by tram after the metro, we were really confused as to how the tram system worked. We must have looked really confused because someone came up to us and asked us where we were trying to go; all I had to do was show her the text and she said it was within walking distance and then directed us in the right way. I was happily surprised by how nice everyone was! The area that we were walking through reminded me of home in Chelsea (London); it was super high end stores and really fancy shops. 

When we walked into the hotel, we didn’t want to make it obvious that we were sneaking people in so as three of the people staying in the room were checking in, the other three took the elevator to a random floor to wait for the room number. We’re so sneaky!  The hotel itself was gorgeous; I couldn’t believe we were staying there for so cheap. Since it was already 6pm by the time we were checked in and settled down, we went out for dinner and to a bar near the hotel. Apparently you’re allowed to smoke in bars in Brussels because it was really smoky in there.

Saturday, we headed out with the first destination being the Grand Place. It was only a 20-30 minute walk from our hotel so I suggested that we walk everywhere while in Brussels. As I always say, it’s the best way to explore.  To my pleasant surprise, everyone agreed! On our way there, we walked past 2 antique markets and a ton of chocolate places. Apparently, Godiva Chocolates originated in Brussels! As we approached the Grand Place, I could see parts of the buildings from the side road. Once we entered the square, I was speechless. This was the most strikingly gorgeous and breathtaking square I’ve ever seen in my life. The architecture style was Gothic (not sure which era); which is my favorite style. I think that seeing different architecture is one of my favorite things about traveling to different places.

 

We all stood there kind of speechless for a while before taking a ton of pictures. Since Belgium is obviously known for their waffles, everyone wanted to find a non-touristy place to go for breakfast. We walked a short way from the square and found a little place to eat. I was also told that you had to try the coffee (and beer and fries and chocolate) while in Belgium, so I ordered a coffee for breakfast. Everyone else ordered waffles with toppings and chocolate. My coffee was absolutely delicious and everyone else’s waffles looked so good – and they apparently were!

 

We walked through one of the markets and then we went into a chocolate store called Chocopolis. It was really expensive chocolate but it looked so delicious. Since I don’t eat dairy, I asked the workers if they had any “dairy free” truffles (when I was in Stratford-Upon-Avon, there was a Belgian truffle place that had a whole list of dairy free truffles!) but this time, the workers looked at me as though I had 7 heads. I walked away thinking that there was no way I’d be having any chocolate this weekend. Bummer. We left there and set out to find the Chocolate Museum. When we got there, I went up to one of the people working and asked them if there was any chocolate that didn’t have dairy in it. They told me that any of the dark chocolates they make are all dairy free (there are 3 different kinds of dark chocolate). They had little bowls all around the museum of the 5 different kinds of chocolate, so I got to sample all of the dark chocolates, yay! The chocolate was extremely delicious. The museum itself was really cool inside because there were chocolate statues, art, and information all over. About 10 minutes after we went inside, we got to watch a demonstration of how the Professional Chocolatier makes the chocolate.

 

Luckily for me, he was making dark chocolate so when he finished, I got to taste fresh made chocolate. It was unlike anything I’ve ever had before! After the demonstration, we walked through the rest of the museum and then left to go adventure more. I didn’t realize this, but there’s a Royal Palace in Brussels; so we headed in the direction of that. There was a really pretty “garden” across from the palace so we walked through first and then made our way to the road to cross the street to the palace. The road was so incredibly wide! I don’t know how people drive on it without lines; it’s totally beyond me. Before we crossed, we noticed the lions that were “protecting” the gardens and the palace; they looked so scared!

 

I’ve never seen lions that had that kind of face so it was funny. We didn’t spend too much time there; it really wasn’t all that impressive. We ended up finding a cathedral as we were walking around, so we went into it to see what it looked like. It was really pretty inside; we left shortly after going and walked back to the place where we wanted to try the “frites” right across from where they had breakfast. The thing that’s good about the fries here is that they aren’t gross and sopping in grease, they’re actually potatoes lightly browned (in grease LOL). One of the girls was dead set on seeing the Manneken Pis, so we figured out where it was and arrived there quickly. It was so much smaller than I had imagined!

 

Seriously, there were chocolate replicas that were bigger. There were at least 6 chocolate stores around the statue so we went into all of them to look at their presentations of truffles and check out the prices. 

Everywhere we went, I asked if they had “dairy free” truffles and at each place I was looked at like I was an alien. I found that most dark chocolate bars were dairy free, so I bought them instead. As we were leaving the last store, it really started to rain. I was one of the only people with an umbrella, so we headed back to walk to the hotel and rest before dinner. We left for dinner around 8pm and walked back to the Grand Place; we found a restaurant there that seemed pretty cute. One thing about Europe that I’m finding – waiters usually take pride in their jobs, they don’t always take your order unless you tell them you’re ready to order, and they don’t ever give you the check until you ask for it. I was so amused for the whole of the dinner because they had a food elevator and a phone to ring the kitchen upstairs, place the orders, and then the food would be delivered via the food elevator!  I couldn’t help but watch it – I was mesmerized.

Apparently there’s a bar in Brussels that serves over 2500 beers and has 3 floors. Everyone wanted to see what it was all about, but I didn’t stay for very long. It was really late and I was exhausted! I headed back with one other girl and I thought I knew exactly where I was going. We got a bit off course and I started to get nervous because it was late and dark and we weren’t on a main road. Luckily, I quickly saw outdoor elevators that we were standing near earlier in the day so I knew that all we had to do was get on the elevator and go up and we’d be on the street right by our hotel.

Sunday, we had to be checked out by noon. Luckily, we were able to leave our bags at the hotel, which was really nice and unexpected. We headed back towards the Manneken Pis because there were chocolate stores everyone wanted to go into. On our way there, we decided to stop at a chocolate store called Leonidas as we were passing it. I went in and approached the women at the counter in a different way; I asked them if there were any truffles that were free of milk and cream. They looked at me and asked if it was an allergy and I said that “I don’t know if it’s the same word here, but I’m vegan”. The younger girl looked at me and said “oh, yes! Vegan!”! She pulled out a huge binder and looked through everything for me and showed me what I had to choose from that was dairy free. Apparently, I approached the question wrong in the past. I was so happy that I was actually able to get chocolate truffle-like treats!!

Since it was Sunday, most of the shops (other than souvenir shops) were closed. We spent the remainder of the day walking around the deserted fashion district and traveling on the metro to get to places that were further away. Apparently, when there was the “World Fair”, every country had to have a specific site that was theirs; Brussels built an “Atom” was considered the site for Belgium. I think it’s supposed to represent the different countries connecting together in Europe. You can walk to the top and through the connecting bars, but no one wanted to do it. 

After that, we went to the area that is the headquarters of the EU. It was so windy and cold but we walked for a while to find the buildings. As it turns out, you can take tours of the buildings during the week but since it was a Sunday, the buildings were all closed. We got to see a part of the Berlin wall and all of the EU flags. 

We headed back to the area of our hotel and went into some final chocolate stores.

When we got to the coach station, there was hardly anyone in there. I double checked that our bus was coming at 10:30 (it was about 9:45 at this point); it’s a good thing we looked because the coach was coming at 9:45. The bad thing about taking coaches everywhere is that they leave at whatever time you’re ticket says whether you’re on the coach or not; they don’t announce boarding or check in either. When we got out to where the coaches were waiting, we saw that a coach to London was already sitting there. Apparently, you have to check in at the Eurolines office; we didn’t know that so literally at the last few minutes, we checked in and ran to the bus 2 minutes before it left the station. Talk about lucky! When I woke up from my attempt to sleep, I was really confused because we weren’t at the train station; we were driving into the waiting lot of a ton of ferries! They were huge and I was scared at first because I thought you just drive on and then sit in the coach. Well, apparently that’s not how it happens because when we parked, everyone got off. We followed and went inside; holy crow it was like a cruise ship! There were 7 floors total and 2 of them were filled with shops, a restaurant, a caf� and bar, toilets everywhere, and an outside deck. 

It was so incredibly nice! I wasn’t expecting it at all. The ferry ride probably lasted a total of 2 hours and 30 minutes and it was a relatively smooth ride. We were back in London around 5:30am and it was so lovely to hear Camille’s voice (we named the voice that speaks over the loudspeaker on the buses). Even though I love to travel and adventure, I am so glad that I’m living in London. It is such an amazing city and I hope there comes a day when I can actually live and work here.

Location: Louise, Brussels, Belgium