lewisgirlnow's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Belgium January 2010 I haven't written anything about traveling in 7 months! That shows you how burnt out I was on school, work and travel in general. I'll document here that I did go to Budapest (again) in October 2009 when I try to remember when my second trip there was later. I flew out of Pittsburgh on Sunday, January 25 for Brussels. The connection was through Dulles in DC and I was lucky enough to get business class from DC to Brussels. That was the quickest 8 hour flight ever since it was relatively comfortable. We landed in Brussels on Monday at 7:20 am local time, the equivalent of 1:20 am at home. After going through Customs and collecting our luggage, we found our driver immediately and headed to the hotel. It was still pretty dark out at 8:00 am. After a two hour nap, Pam and I got directions to Grand Place and walked there. It was cold and gray, about 35 degrees, just like I would expect of Europe in January. We stopped and got coffee along the way so we got a chance to get inside and get warm. We found the Grand Place with no trouble and found the famous statue of the little boy peeing (Europeans!). We went in and out of shops and were overwhelmed with the chocolate selections. As we neared the statue, the most amazing smell filled the air. It smelled like sugar cones being baked and turned out to be a Belgian waffle stand. The topping selection was overwhelming. I went with just plain chocolate in an attempt to get something that wouldn't end up all over my coat. Wednesday after the meeting, we had the evening to explore. After a few inquiries, it seemed heading back to Grand Place was the best option. We did some more shopping and I found a grocery store to buy chocolate in. That was a great suggestion for a business associate. Much cheaper than the specialty shops in Grand Place and still better than American chocolate by far. We headed back toward the hotel for dinner and found a brasserie in the Sablon for dinner. The menu was in French and the restaurant staff did not speak English. I guess that's a good sign that it's not a tourist trap. I translated what I could on the menu for Pam and we both ended up getting onion soup gratin (what we would call French onion soup I suppose only they don't call things French like we do) and frites (fries). The Belgians say that they invented fries but neither of us were impressed. The soup was great, even with the nearly raw egg yolk that was on top, and was served with great bread. The Hoegaarden was the perfect accompainment. I felt pretty comfortable there since French is spoken. I can read street signs and have basic conversations. Most people replied to me in English anyway. 4:27 p.m. - 2010-01-30 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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