I have always wanted to go to Belgium.  I have no idea why because it’s really not a place you hear much about.  And it’s supposedly rather small and not all too populated (at least not by western European standards).  So what I’m really saying is – I have long had the desire to visit what tourists have more or less deemed a no-go.  But I will not be swayed by the masses!  I have to find out all the dumb stuff for myself.  So lo and behold, even after hearing that Belgium was nothing special, I hopped on the TGV (super fast train) to get to Brussels.

Brussels is pretty small.  You could probably walk across the whole city in an hour.  But I swear, it is a magical place.  Actually, Belgium in general is magical.  It is a land full of all the best things – chocolate, fries, and waffles.  I mean, sure, there are other things – the Peeing Boy, for instance.  But the fries are really where it’s at.  They’re really the same as any other type of fries, but they have all these sauces that go along with it (not just ketchup…).  And waffles have all kinds of toppings.  You can get them with Nutella (a European favorite), fruits, chocolate sauce, sprinkles, whipped cream, and combination of those!

Other than the food, there aren’t too many sites to actually see.  The Peeing Boy is a fountain of, well, a peeing boy.   The statue is actually called Manneken Pis (which actually means Little Man Pee according to Wikipedia…) and there are at least half a dozen stories as to why the statue is there but my personal favorite is the one about Duke Godfrey III of Leuven.  Way back when, Duke Godfrey’s troops were fighting the Berthouts.  The Duke was only two years old at the time though.  The soldiers, for inspiration, put the Duke in a basket and hung him from the trees about the battle.  From there he peed on the opposition and eventually, Duke Godfrey and his troops won.

Other than Le Petit Julien (the French name for the Peeing Boy), there is the Grand Palace, which was inconveniently off-season when I was there (insert sad emoticon here).  The comic strip trail is also very cool.  While I didn’t follow the whole thing, I did catch the trail every so often.  Basically, the comic strip trail is a trail made for tourists and takes you through the city via murals on the sides of buildings done in “comic” style.  For those of you who didn’t know (don’t be ashamed, I didn’t know all of this till after my visit either!) Belgium is well known for being the creator of several famous comics strips including Tintin and the Smurfs.  There is actually a museum dedicated to the “9th art” as some call it.

The one thing you CANNOT miss when in Brussels is Delirium.  Delirium is easily Brussels’ most famous bar, and for good reason.  While it looks small from the outside, the bar is actually 3 floors and boasts a selection of 2004 different types of beer.  There is dancing, a ton of cigarette smoke, and a wide variety of patrons – I saw boys who barely looked 16 there as well as a few people with hearing aids (seriously).  And the beer is not in the least disappointing – I was happily drunk off some apple beer for most of my time there.

And then there is Bruges.  Bruges is a town about an hour outside of Brussels.  Though it’s rather small and I can’t imagine that many tourists stay there, you absolutely must go there if you make it to Brussels.  It’s a very picturesque place – like something out of a fairy tale.  I even saw horse drawn carriages when I was there.

There are tons of chocolate shops lining the streets, a lot of shopping (hello Zara!), and a church that supposedly has some of Christ’s blood.  While I didn’t make it to the church with Christ’s blood, I did go to another that had a statue sculpted by Michelangelo – it’s one of the few of his works that can be found outside of Italy so I’m quite pleased that I got to see it.  Bruges also has a bell tower that you can climb from where you can see the whole town/village.  It was rather gloomy during my visit, so the view wasn’t spectacular, but for €4, I’d still say it was worth it.  And if the only complaint you have about a city is that the weather wasn’t the greatest, well, that’s not really saying a lot, is it?