Chocolate, Waffles, and Fries Oh My!

Next stop Brussels! Friday after class my journey to Brussels, Belgium began. Five other girls and I pitched in to share a private hostel room right in the heart of Brussels. Since this was my first experience with a hostel I was a little worried that we were about to walk into the sketchiest place and have to figure out a different sleeping arrangement. Luckily it was perfectly normal and honestly one of the coolest places I’ve stayed in! Once all settled in we decided to explore a little and realized we were staying right by the Grand Place. We walked in and were all in shock of its shear beauty and grand ornate features. After getting ample amounts of pictures we picked a local restaurant to try and were warmly greeted by a sweet old man sitting at the table next to us. We figured he was a local and asked his advice on what to order and after a few minutes of just talking our waiter informed us that he happened to be a famous Belgian poet! We were all in shock and immediately looked him up and sure enough he was who he said he was and asked him if he would write us a poem. Sadly he just chuckled and politely declined but continued to talk with us all through the night. From dinner we went to a local bar that had advertised having a drag show later that night and we were all so intrigued and ready to continue our crazy night. Once in we ordered drinks and went up to the balcony to watch the show which was hosted by one of their local drag queens named Ivana who was hilarious. The show included covers of songs, music trivia, and tons of dancing. After being thoroughly exhausted we walked back to our hostel and called it a night! 

Hostel Living!

Grand Place

The next morning we ventured to the Royal Gallery of Saint Hubert to grab some waffles from Maison Dandoy and scout out all the fancy Belgian chocolate. From there we went back to the Grand Place and then saw the Manneken Pis which on that day had been dressed up as a Spanish man during the running of the bulls. Then we took the short train ride to Bruges to check out the picturesque small town. While there we simply wandered down the streets ate incredible muscles and had many photoshoots! Once back in Brussels we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed to a local pub to sample some of Belgium’s finest beers and I actually might be starting to acquire a taste for beer. With the night still young we decided to check out more of Brussel’s night life and went to a club called Zodiac. Online Zodiac was described as a disco club that was a local favorite. Once there we were told that they were only going to be playing techno music and expected to hear EDM remixes of popular songs. We got inside and unfortunately it was pretty empty but just thought that it might be too early in the night and decided to grab a beer and head upstairs. From there we were able to see the few people on the dance floor dancing to some pretty bad music which was nothing like we expected. We happened to notice one guy in particular who’s dance moves can only be described as spastic and was constantly running into people while attempting to get others to dance with him and he failed every time. After staying for no more than an hour we knew Zodiac was a major bust and had to get out as fast as we could. In order to salvage the last little bit of the night we found a waffle stand and scarfed them down before going to bed. 

Waffle with speculoos from Maison Dandoy

Photoshoot in Bruges

Canals of Bruges

Sunday morning was started off with people watching while eating a coffee and a pastry from a local café. We then went back to the chocolate shops to get something sweet to take home. Our last item on the agenda was to go visit the Royal Palace and it also didn’t disappoint! Of all of the places I’ve visited so far Brussels has been my favorite and I hope I am able to go back! Thank you Brussels you did not disappoint!

Royal Palace of Brussels

All the chocolate you could ever want!