the sensational land of chocolate, beer, and waffles... BELGIUM

This past weekend, my friends and I went to Belgium. The main reason we went was for a giant music festival there called Sensation, but I also wanted to go because my dad had told me it was one of his favorite European cities he had been to. It really is a cool city, it's very stereotypical european- the architecture, the streets, everything. Despite the mediocre weather (cloudy and gray, but luckily the rain held off til the end of the day Saturday), we still got to enjoy a nice walk around Brussels. Our hotel was close to the center, so the first night when we got there, we went to a bar Delirium, that everyone had told us to go to. Here, they have a billion beers (well, the most they've had at once was 2004) on tap. Belgian is known for its beer, so of course we tried a few. After, we went and got UNBELIEVABLE french fries, which apparently Belgian is also known for (frites, as they say. they speak some weird language, Flemish, a combination of French and Dutch. There were quite a few instances when communication was an issue). I am utterly confused as to why french fries are not called belgian fries, as these fries were 100 times better than any fries I ate in France.

Saturday we woke up and of course the first thing we wanted to do was get a Belgian waffle. We assumed that, like crepes in France, the best, most authentic waffles would be the ones sold at the stands in the streets. Well, I don't think we would have gone wrong anywhere we went, but the waffle I had was absolutely delicious. Drizzled in chocolate sauce with vanilla soft serve on top. Yum.
After enjoying our waffles (I think I got more on my face than in my mouth, but oh well), we shopped for a bit (mostly window shopping, and a few last minute items for Sensation that night) and walked around before heading over to the Chocolate Museum. Sadly, the chocolate museum was a letdown. I thought there would be more samples than there were, and there was basically nothing there at all. The museum was tiny. We didn't stay for the demonstration, which probably would have been interesting, but we got bored walking around before it was even close to starting. Oh well. We settled for stopping in some unreal chocolate shops and of course purchasing some belgian chocolate to take back.

After buying chocolate, we went to the only landmark I had heard of in Brussels, Mannekin Pis. Why is this such a huge attraction? I have no idea. It's hilarious, but bizarre. It is literally a statue of a young boy peeing. It's also tiny, I expected it to be bigger. Brussels is OBSESSED with Mannekin Pis. Every chocolate store has chocolate versions, some in a variety of colors. There's fake statues of it all over. It's very odd. The statue was dressed up for St. Patricks day, which was cute.

Before going back to the hotel to get ready for sensation, we explored the Red Light District. Now, I haven't been to Amsterdam yet (I am going in a few weeks), but I was told this area is comparable, mainly because of the prostitutes in the windows. This was the strangest thing I have ever seen, I literally could not stop staring, NOT because I was checking out the women, but because this concept fascinated me. This was basically a street consisting of stores with basically naked women standing posing and dancing in the windows. Unbelievable.

We then went back to the hotel and changed into our all white clothes. We were taking a train to Hasselt, for an electronic/house music festival called Sensation, where the dress code was white, except for neon accessories. This festival was UNREAL. the amount of people there was absurd. Thousands. Yet, of course, I still happened to bump into GW people. Really confused of how this keeps happening to me on the other side of the world, but hey I wont complain! Anyways, we then caught an early train back to Brussels before heading home. It was another exhausting, but terrific weekend.

the real mannekin pis .... a giant fake mannekin pis

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