jazreeltan: November 2012

26th - 28th August 2011 Brussels, Belgium

Hmm, Brussels.
Took a train from Amsterdam to this neighbouring city. We visited few museums (if any at all), didn't engage in much tourist-y activities, covered some of the must-sees when we stumbled upon them by chance, not purposely..... We were pretty exhausted by the end of our trip at Amsterdam.

Well, may I summarize our time in Brussels in just a few words. It was FOOD IN FULL GLORY. Waffles, chocolates, frites, beer, mussels and sometimes bread. Amazing time taking in the sights and the food.

Bloody happy.

Since I can never get this right in words, the pictures will do the drooling. I mean, your drooling. Ahhhhh Brussels is some sort of heaven :)

Arrived at Brussels Central Railway Station

Giant boxes of tictac which won us over! to snap a photo, that is.

we can now find this in Singapore.

Galeries St Hubert

Stunning.

We started walking.. walking.. walking.. in search of our b&b hotel (?) As said, it was 'near the central station' so we decided not to take the metro. We walked for over an hour with our heavy backpacks. So near yet so far :/ It was nice covering Brussels on foot without wanting to rush through attractions and sights though.

Architecture in Brussels has vivid and clear lines, sharper than that of Antwerp (passed by along our way). Modern with a twist. i love it. I think the earthy tones play a huge role too.

Jacquemart Clock in Brussels

LOOOK AT THE SLOPE WE WERE ON.... oh man............

So exhausted that I didn't take a picture until our time out.. This time taking a metro!

How clean :)

UH HUH FRITES IN BELGIUM.

Tasty double fried, sometimes fried in beef fat. These stripes of golden brown potato..

Crispy on the outside moist and fluffy on the inside.

Can't resist fries. can't can't can't. sighhhh

Belgium waffles - with massive spam of whipped cream, sliced fruits and chocolate sauce. Looks very pretty and sinful. Not my kind of waffle. I like my waffle simple(r).

Liege waffle.

THE waffle. Denser and chewier than the typical fluffy waffles we've had.

This waffle is very unforgettable.

Our Shannon will always go the extra mile for sweetness tsk whipped cream + full-bodied maple syrup

CHOCOPOLIS is chocolate heaven. I wonder what gave it away. hehehehe

Sue's mini mini seasalt caramel macaron from Chocopolis!

Loving how there are always handicrafts on sale. I love love love handmade. Anything handmade marks dedication and love of the artist. Work of His hands indeed.

The sugar galore went on endlessly as we weaved in and out of the streets. Think everything sugar..

Nougats, candies, cookies, chocolate, praline, truffles, waffles.

oh my goodness.

Chocolate fountain which was...... not very sightly hahahahah

Town Hall (Hotel de Ville)

So gothic. It was also the first building we saw upon entering the Grand Place.

The Grand Place is magnificent. Indeed.

Mind-blowing, ain't it?

Same same as Amsterdam but so different.

Sugar madness goes on..

Everything was just so neatly stacked, screaming "buy me homeeeee". Pity I had a few more months before going back to Singapore. These fresh goodies cannot be kept for too long :(

Eelin and her bear craze hahahah siaodingdong

Turkish desserts look INCREDIBLE. But they are way too sweet for my liking.

BLOCKS of nougat O.O

so sweet so sweet there's a bee :/

OMG SPECULOOS I LOVE

PAUL which was all over Europe, I likened it to Delifrance of Singapore. hahahaha. So, I tried nothing from them until a few trips later to Paris. Well ugh, it was horrible. PAUL was.

Settled at Chez Leon for dinner because Shijie recommended it and really, the staff here do not solicit for customers. Walking down the lanes in Brussels in the evening was a pain because almost restaurant had waiters standing by with their menu, "MUSSELS? VERY FRESH. WINE?" blah blah blah.

nah, I really didn't enjoy that.

Chez Leon.. large dining area, dim lights, friendly waiters and staff. This might not feel like the most traditional place to dine in, but it was comfortable being there! It felt like 'home'!

Baguette for.....

MUSSELS! The soup was so good we dipped all of our baguette slices, scooped them all in. Right to the last drop. Slurp*

Each order also came with a side of frites. oh my frites. ahhhhh huhhhh yum yum.

The aftermath. *burp*

Empty pots, bowls in the middle holding all of our empty mussel shells. That was goooood.

One pot? make that FIVE. hehehehehe

Sue also spammed some face cream on Shaun after dinner hahahahah

Diet with chocolates. I wish!

Day two!

Somehow, every part of the above photo looks 2-dimensional. hmmmmm

The Royal Palace of Belgium (Palais Royal)

I've clearly taken a liking to these buildings on steep slopes.

Museum of Musical Instruments (MIM)

For my sister Maggie because she was from the school band :)

I love this workshop, whatever it was for. For show, maybe.

Harp

BAGUETTE!!! As long as my legs! well, i am in love.

Look at how huge one sandwich was! yum yum yum i love sandwich!

Roast beef goodness.

This looks incredibly good. I can't remember how it tasted, though.

Brilliant art on the wall :) I love Europe and its surprises.

Manneken Pis

... which was extremely tiny. We would have missed it if not for the fact that everyone was crowding around it. We weren't even looking for it.. and when we saw it, we were in awe, slightly unimpressed and disappointed. Manneken Pis wasn't prettily dressed for us :(

This giant Manneken Pis was interesting with the waffle in hand!

I miss a liege waffle. can't find anything that is close to this ever since Brussels. so so sad.

:O practically swimming in syrup!

These were so good that Sue picked hers up from the floor when it fell!!!! Couldn't watch a fantastic waffle go to waste and would risk getting all sorts of food poisoning for a fantastic liege waffle.

we just can't get enough~~~ I can still remember our happy faces when we paid and took the waffles over. Simple things in life.

Most handicapped but never-give-up car of the year.

London in Belgium.

Cutie in Belgium.

Leopoldo II in Belgium.

On our way to the Dinosaur Gallery at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.

Finally at the museum (which, I felt, looked amazing on the outside).

Glad that we didn't make it in time to visit the museum (an hour prior to closing wasn't enough, so we were denied entry). I'm not the biggest believer of dinosaurs and the likes. Still looking for someone who can educate, then convince me.

Liking how pets and animals are allowed in public (and in the public transport systems)

FRITES AGAIN before we return for Lund the next day :(

Shaun the Asian tapping on free wifi. White woman with frites looking at crazy Asian boy.

We had to live on wifi for all of our trips because our Sweden-based mobile line refused to work in other parts of Europe. It was, however, a blessing because it meant that we could focus on living in the present and not keep checking back on social media updates.

We were absorbed in living for the moment. Always always, #thebesttimeofmylife.

Water rationing everyday for all of our trips because tap water was non-potable, drinking water was expensive / difficult to find. You could live on cheap beer, but we can't. Water water water...

(Random, Why i love Sweden: Tap water tastes like crystal.)

FLU POWER FLU. I thought it was funny, hence the picture. But google the storyteller painted a different picture for me. Now I see FLU POWER FLU and think, "wow, how powerful is this".

L'arcbiduc

Lovely lovely place that anyone should visit when they're in Brussels. Fine music, great atmosphere.

The upper floors are not secured with glass panes, just some metal railings.

(i freaked out for a while, fearing that I'll slip off anytime)

I like Brussels enough though I haven't been to many museums/sights.

Brussel's pretty unforgettable for me.

my orangettes..... orangettes.... orange & chocolate will never go wrong.

artiste of the day!

Talented and cute guy is talented and cute. Plays guitar, violin and sings.

Soon, it was the final showdown back at Chez Leon. We love this place / too lazy to find a new place.

love the floral kitchen glassware being a part of the large overhead candlelight!

feasting everyday. loving it.

CASE CLOSED. yummy

Tired + Asian boy emo by the stairs because we were going home to Lund tomorrow!

Travelling was fun and felt like we had 50 hours a day because the daylights hours were so long. We hung out all day till we were tired. Yet we refused to return because it was considered 'early' at 9pm when the skies looked blue like it was 5pm.