To be honest, I already forget a lot of what I thought and wanted to say about Brussels - that's what happens when you wait a day. Brussels is very stately and beautiful and left me not at all surprised that the EU is headquartered there. The weather was sort of crappy in a windy-and-cloudy way, and we took a hop-on hop-off bus around to all the major sites. This was a good idea that I do not regret, but the fact remains that all my pictures are gray and/or blurry due to the sky and the maniac driving of our bus guy - he was not into staying still so that tourists could snap pictures. Also a problem with sitting in the top of a double decker bus is that power lines get in the way of all your coolest pictures. Lame. We decided to embrace the fat that we were not in Amsterdam and act realll touristy - complete with moving in herds, excessive camera snappage, unabashedly speaking English to clerks*, purchasing things that say "Belgium" on them. Once I was in the tourist mindset, I felt compelled to buy things, which was dangerousss. Y'all are going to get some pretty sweet Belgian souvenirs - if you are lucky, some of the copious amounts of chocolates that I purchased (fun fact: I spent more on chocolate in Belgium than I spent on taking the bus to and from Belgium). We established a tradition of jumping in front of pretty things that we see - hence the photo above. There were lots of statues wearing face masks, I think in some sort of statement about pollution. See an example of this in the photos I posted on Flickr. There was some graffiti I loved, true to form, and a square where I was entranced by steeples and bright lights, and a street performer who contorted his body like whoa and had an awesome band (complete with French horn!) with him, and I spent close to an hour spying on and trying to videotape on my dinky camera the hijinks of some break dancers in the Gare Noord. The best thing about them, possibly, was that they were doing their thang to jazzy funk music and Sniper. I wish I had been brave and just gone up and asked them if I could tape them - that I was not means that all my stupid little videos have people walking fast in the forefront and fuzzy dancers in the far background. It's all very low rent and voyeuristic, but it's Brussels Captured, which is what I was going for. The Gare Noord is in sort of immigrant suburbia, I think, and it smells very strongly of urine and does not seem to have trash cans. All train stations are underwhelming after being in the vicinity of Amsterdam Centraal multiple times a day - not only is it majestic and beautiful, it is also clean and otherwise pretty pristine. It was cool hearing French spoken around me and being able to eavesdrop other things besides numbers (which is all I can eavesdrop in Dutch). I attempted to ask a guard for a map in French but started with the wrong construction, blushed, blanked, said "sorry" and rapidly got switched to English, much to my chagrin/relief. We saw the Mannekin Pis, which is tiny but ubiquitous. Dinner was the best 4 euros I have spent on a meal since I have been in Europe, I'm pretty sure - "Pitta Grecque," which is fries doner meat tzatziki tomato cucumber wrapped up in a pita. God, I am still thinking about that sandwich.
Anyway, yeah, I went to Belgium for the day - that is so surreal. Yesterday I spent hours buying cool postcards and walking and eating with Alex and Christy. I also mourned Heath Ledger and had what may be the best grilled cheese sandwich of my life. It set off Hallie and Christy's fire alarm and I felt bad, but it was sooooo worth it. At night cooked a good dinner representative of at least 4 food groups, downed some traditional Dutch dessert that I remain skeptical about (vla - it is kinda like flavorless watery pudding), had some good times chatting into the wee hours with friends + compatriots. Now come Sunday and Monday of Xtreme Homework - I have so so much to do.
*Sidenote - curiously, I heard more English in Brussels than I do in Amsterdam. Bizzare.
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