brussels!

September 15, 2012

Yesterday, my friends and I had a break in our schedule of orientation things and decided to get away from Leuven for the day. So we took an adventure to... Brussels! Yep, you guessed it. I suppose the title of this entry probably gave it away, but we spent the day in Brussels - the capital of Belgium, a huge urban setting, and the home of some deliciously Belgian cuisine. But more on the delicious-ness later...

After packing our own lunches (yes, I guess you could call us thrifty), we walked to the Leuven train station to take our first shot at maneuvering the train system on our own. The good news is that we made it to Brussels on our first try.. yes! We got into the city around noon. On Friday night, we had discussed some different options as to what we could do in Brussels, but once we got there we just kind of wandered around until we stumbled upon this HUGE, beautiful church!

The Cathedral of Saint Michael and Saint Gudula

When we first saw and approached it, I don't think we really thought it was that big of a deal.. just another European church. But once we were inside and looking around, we discovered that not only is it the seat of the Catholic diocese in Brussels, but it's also the hosting church for the royal Belgian weddings.. kind of like William & Kate, but just not as popular in American pop culture. Whatevs.

This picture truly doesn't do it justice.. the Cathedral is MAMMOTH in size. 

It was quite a feat to be able to fit the entirety of it into the frame of the picture! 

Had to back up quite a bit to get a decent shot :)

I'm a little bit obsessed with stained glass, and the bright colors of this were wonderful. 

HUGE ORGAN. I wish I could've heard it in action...

Grote Markt (The Grand Place)

The Grote Markt in Brussels is also very similar to the Grote Markt in Leuven - both have the city's Town Hall, police station, tourist information center, etc. It's really just the main part of any town, set in a HUGE open square! Except the Grote Markt in Brussels was much more crowded than I have ever seen the one in Leuven.. seriously. 

On the day we visited, there was some sort of festival going on in the square. Add that to the fact that it was a weekend and the weather was absolutely gorgeous, and you can probably gather that the main square was PACKED full of people. Some of you readers out there might be aware that I was pick pocketed last May in a crowded, touristy area in Rome, so this onslaught of people made me feel super anxious and nervous.. it was that crowded. Seriously. But I made it out with my wallet & phone still in my purse - hooray!

Brussels Town Hall

The "Maison du Roi," or King's House, which houses the historical City Museum. 

Guildhalls surrounding the Grote Markt

Parc de Bruxelles and the Royal Palace

So it took some doing, but we FINALLY found this giant, beautiful park. For a park so big, it sure was hard to find. Anyway.. the pathways of this park had all these ornate statues of... food? Yes, there were countless statues depicting the popular foods of Brussels: waffles, frites, beer, mussels, and brussels sprouts. Let me say that last one again... there were huge statues of BRUSSELS SPROUTS everywhere. Ew. But apparently brussels sprouts may have originate in Brussels, which I suppose would make sense because of the name... but still. So odd. 

At the end of the park was the Royal Palace! We didn't see any kings or queens, but the building itself was beautiful and we snapped some pretty neat shots. 

I'm kind of bummed, because the brussels sprouts statues were the best, and I guess I didn't get any pictures of them? Oops! But off in the distance of these two you can see statues of mussels & frites on the left, and beer on the right. 

To my Phi Mu followers.. I found Sir Fidel in the park!!

The beautiful Royal Palace!

The Musical Instruments Museum

Our next stop was quite possibly my favorite part of the day. If you thought my picture above of the huge, awesome organ was a music nerd moment, then you should probably just skip this whole section... 

Okay fine, I won't be that nerdy about it. But this place was awesome! The Musical Instruments Museum, abbreviated to the MIM, is just this humongous collection of old, beautifully restored instruments. It's divided into four floors, each with a different type of collection. The top floor, keyboards and strings, was my absolute favorite because I have a not-so-secret obsession with pianos - definitely my favorite instrument. I went a little crazy taking pictures of the beautiful instruments, but I won't bore you with all of them..

The intricate exterior of the MIM

       
                             My favorite piano!                     Many of the keyboards had detailed paintings
                                                                                        on the wood, just as this one does.

I'm a music minor, so therefore it's okay that I take nerdy pictures such as this. 

Don't judge me.

Oh my goodness! I almost forgot the best part!!

This fancy contraption hangs on a string that you put around your neck and it connects to a pair of headphones that you wear, and the little computer device around your neck has a fancy sensor. So when you approach a new exhibit or instrument, it automatically recognizes where you are, and you instantly hear music from the instrument you're looking at. Really, really cool. 

The entire time walking through the museum, everyone is just drifting alone, listening to the beautiful music of these ancient instruments. The museum itself is virtually silent. It was pretty incredible. 

FOOD

The MIM was our last big stop of the day, and after that we were on the lookout for some Brussels staples: frites, waffles, and beer. Frites were our first find and were DELICIOUS. They're just like normal french fries that we have all the time at home, except they're fried not once, but twice for extra crispiness. Also, they come with a wide choice of sauces for your tasting pleasure :) I got mine with cocktail sauce, and I don't even know what that really is... but it was awesome.

Next up was beer! And we were searching for the world-famous Delirium Cafe, named after the beer called Delirium. Turns out that it's tucked away down this hard to find alley.. but after walking around for almost forty-five minutes, we found it! We went inside to have a drink, and it only seemed right to order the beer from which the cafe got it's name! Delirium Tremens it was. 

Our last food stop, and also our last stop before heading back to the train station and back to Leuven, was for waffles. There are waffle stands EVERYWHERE in Brussels, but we were looking for one with a short line & a small price. It wasn't hard to find :) You know how in America, everyone always loads their breakfast waffles up with butter and syrup? Well, I got my genuine Belgian waffle completely plain and ate it fresh off the waffle iron and it was the BEST waffle I've ever eaten. No syrup, chocolate, or whipped cream necessary. I don't know what made it so magical and delicious... but it was. 

We definitely did our best to jam-pack our daytrip to Brussels, and I think we pulled it off quite nicely. We made it safely back home, but not before I could snap some SUPER touristy pictures in Leuven - not sorry. I may be considered a resident now, but it's still all new to me and I'm just not used to being surrounded by buildings that are this beautiful all the time!! Pictures taken in the morning & the evening...

Town Hall - Stadhuis 

Stadhuis, St. Peter's, and "Fonske," the fountain of wisdom

Stadhuis

Apologies for this post being a couple of days late and a bit lengthy.. I tend to be detail-focused and kind of long-winded... oops. You'll all be professionals at skimming my blogs come December :) 

Thanks for reading, & I hope to post soon about these last couple days I've had - filled with excitement!

Love to all at home