brussels

brussels and i didn't get along that well. its actually the capital of europe, as i learnt, and i think it suffers from capital city syndrome, ie boring. its a business city - too big and built up to be nice to wander about in, completely over-run with traffic and crazy roads. but not enough exciting things to do like in a real big city.

my hotel sucked too, pretty pricey and for no real reason. and the staff were completely uninterested. as were most people i came across! and their internet cost 5 euros for 15 minutes!!! ridiculous.

however it does have an amazing town square - said to be the most beautiful in all of europe...





this statue was just up from my hotel, its the namesake of the belgium national anthem.



i did a walking tour of art nouveau buildings, they were really amazing - but frustrating too because you couldnt see inside any of them!





love the details of the buildings...



however one thing the belgium people do know about, its chocolate. i went to a few shops - purely research of course... this one called pierre marcolini...



the shop's street level was like a chocolate gallery - to buy anything, you had to go to the upper level through a dramatic stairwell with black velvet curtains and downlights. it was like going to a chocolate bordello.

anyway, wasn't sad to leave brussels but sad that we didn't get along. i guess you can't be friends with everywhere you go

x