The Epic Eurotrip--Chapter 4: Seizing the Flame (Belgium--Manneken Pis, Grand Place, etc)

This one is gonna be relatively short, as we only stayed in Belgium (Brussels) for half a day. We had lunch there though. It was a good meal, and it's NOT Chinese (Woohoo~~).

The station is very busy in the morning, and you have
to go through custom, like you do at airports.

Since the place is across the English Channel, we have to take train there. Eurostar is the common public transportation for people who want to cross the channel. It either leads you to Brussels or Paris (which is our ending point). The train was pretty comfortable (although the walkway is a little too narrow.) It took us 3 hours to get to Brussels, but the ride felt short as I fell asleep fast. I don't know if it's because it's been running for a long time, but the train is not as new as I expected. I was expecting a new, bright, and big train. Instead I got the opposite. It wasn't bad, though. It was just not up to the expectation.

What the train looks like

Apparently many people would take this train daily to work (it doesn't only stop at Brussels and Paris). I live in US, so going to another country to work daily feels weird to me. I guess it's kinda normal for Europeans as countries here are generally small. Anyway, so we arrived in Brussels. We immediately went to the Grand Place where.....everything is. Honestly, the only thing I knew about Belgium was the chocolate and the beer (and I tried them both this time. Hell yea!)


I'm going to post bunch of pictures before writing somethings again, so enjoy the photos.

Part of Grand Place. I wish the flag wasn't there......

I mean......I would add some history or story for these buildings,
but there are so many of them, and I didn't really go into any of them.
So forget it. I'm not gonna do anything.

Again, my photo taking skill sucks. This one could be so much better.
The sky was beautiful that day.

A couple getting married here. The girl is pretty.

Wedding at a public place is kinda cool. So many free photographers
spreading your wedding photos on their blogs or websites......if you like that. lol.

The famous Belgium Waffle, something I shouldn't eat before lunch.

Besides the buildings, this place is known for the Flower Carpet. However we got here too early, so we didn't get to see it (it's only there in August or something like that). Judging from the pictures online, it looks very beautiful. Almost makes me wanna go back just to see that.

The statue is actually really small. Look
at the size compared to the head of
these tourists.

A little further into the neighborhood, you get to see the Manneken Pis, the statue of a little kid peeing in public without being arrested. What a pro. There's a story (more like a myth) behind this. in 14th century, this city was under attack, and the enemies were trying to blow a hole in the walls or something, so they planted bunch of explosive near the wall. This little kid saw it and pissed on the gun powder line, thus seizing the fire. He therefore became a hero......for publicly peeing. Go kid! Since the streets are really narrow, it's kinda hard to find this place without a guide or asking around. Oh guess what. It's a pain in the butt driving around here, especially at this spot. Yes, this thing is on street side. Imagine a crowd standing on the street you try to drive through. Good luck with that. Surprisingly, drivers here don't honk at you. Who said Europeans are rude (well some of them still are)?

Another statue near the Grand Place is the statue of Everard't Serclaes. He was a hero for driving the invading Flemish out of the city. Honestly, without a statue, he would just be "one of those with a somewhat heroic story." There are just so many of them in history. i mean, I have respect to them, but sometimes I feel there are just too many of them, especially for tourists (I know, I know. I'm a dumbass who doesn't know anything). Well, at least I took a picture with him. Apparently touching his arm gives you good luck.

So I did this. I couldn't resist, you know?

I hope the local people are not mad. Pretty sure some people did worse things than me......right?

Almost forgot to talk about lunch. I had the mussels and chips. There's another popular dish here that I didn't try. It's a tomato topped with other stuff. Looks really delicious on the menu, but I wanted to save some money for other countries (which is a good idea since I was short on cash on latter part of the trip.) Their mussel dishes always come in a bucket (or pot.) The price......I heard people can get it for cheaper, but considering it's a tourist spot, it's quite okay. Plus, tip is not mandatory, so 10% is considered really good tip. Crap, sometimes I wish I could do that in US (even though you're free to leave no tip, but people in general expect tip, unlike Europeans)

Mussels, chips, and local beer. Mmm~~~delicious!

The tunnel that leads to the food street.

The food street is located near the Grand Place. Through a tunnel (not exactly) you can see bunch of restaurants with outside seating. Outside seating really is a thing in Europe. Sometimes they charge you extra for sitting outside (cover charge, music charge, scenery charge,a cup of coffee can be 8 euros at some places.)

There is one place I really wanted to go but couldn't. Old Chinese people don't care about the awesomeness of this place. Come on! There's a giant statue of an iron atom!! Who doesn't want to see that? I did see it from far away and wanted to ask the guide for more info, but apparently he doesn't know much about this place, either. I had to wiki when I got internet, and then I realized how much I had missed......




Next stop: Amsterdam, Netherlands.