When a few girls invited me along to Brussels after finding a cheap flight, I quickly agreed to go. Not knowing what there was to do or see in Brussels, I did some research and asked around and there was one thing everyone’s answer had in common: the food. In fact, no one even offered a suggestion of any non-food-related activities, so off we went for waffles, fries, chocolate and beer. To get to Brussels, we left school around 7:30pm to catch a city bus to the bus station. Our bus from there left at 8:30 before arriving 5 hours later in Madrid. There were no other bus options so we had to splurge on the premium bus service, which certainly lived up to its name. Not only were we served a small meal on the bus, but were treated with cozy leather seats and personal tv screens. Unfortunately, they only offered tv programs and movies in Spanish (even the ones that were originally produced in English), but considering we are here to learn Spanish after all, we can suffer through the awkward voice-overs to practice our Spanish. After arriving at the airport at 1:30am, we had to wait there until our flight left at 6:30. We attempted to sleep, which turned out to be rather uncomfortable. Once our flight was about to leave and we got in line to board, I glanced behind me and saw someone I recognized; a guy I went to school with in Stoughton and was in the grade below me. We sat and stared at each other for a moment before affirming that he was who I thought he was and finding out that he is studying in Madrid and also found the cheap flight to Brussels that weekend. Instead of staying in a hostel, we decided to rent an apartment for the weekend via air bnb. It was nice to have our own space for awhile and take a break from our beloved host families. We got to the apartment, where Tori and I would be sharing a rather small bed and Juthie would be posted up in the 4-year-old’s room, and set off into town on barely an hour of sleep. As far as sight seeing, there is not a whole lot to see in Brussels, but there is certainly a lot to eat. Our first stop was naturally for waffles where I introduced Tori to cookie butter, something I usually eat by the spoonful but apparently serves as a Belgian waffle topping as well. After that and wandering around the city a bit more, we sought out their famous french fries, which we excitedly ordered with a spicy sauce for lack of any spicy foods in Spain. For dessert, we treated ourselves t
o a few famous Belgian chocolate truffles and headed back to the apartment for the night. On Saturday, we got an early start and met up with Tori’s cousin, who studies near Brussels, and his dog Simon, who stayed in the backpack when he was too tired to walk and got zipped up when we went in restaurants or other public “no dogs allowed” buildings. We went to see atomium, which is basically a big metal structure in a deserted area and costs a lot to enter, but was worth seeing. From there, we wandered around the city a bit more before going to Delirium, a bar which holds the world record for the most different types of beer (2,004 in 2004 with an aim to reach 3,000). After trying a few surprisingly strong beers there, we walked (with minimal stumbling) to the main plaza to find more waffles and eat them cross-legged on the ground like the Belgians themselves. This was probably the best thing I have ever eaten, topped with bananas and smothered in chocolate and cream:
regularjackkerouac 