I heart Tintin

So I’m just going to put it out there, say it straight off.  Brussels is a bit of a hole.  Ok so maybe I wasn’t in the best area of town – Brussels Nord station smells like piss everywhere except in the toilets and on the 5 minute walk from the station to the hostel you would pass at least a couple of hookers.  Although in saying that, it was only a couple which is no worse than wandering down Grey St in St Kilda.  I also went to the touristy areas and while there were some impressive old buildings, everything still looked dirty and decrepit, and there was a lot of rubbish in the streets, that kind of thing.   In comparison to other European cities it’s a bit shit.  It's funny, even in the tourist brochures they’re like we know our city is a bit crap, but we like it and if you don't - leave, we don't care. 

Brussels

mmm chocolate

My friend Emily is studying in Leuven which is about a half hour train ride out of Brussels.  We had a bit of a walk around the town there, it's way prettier and cleaner than Brussels and has a nice big square where all the bars and restaurants are.  We had dinner at a pizza place with a couple of her friends and somehow ended up telling ghost stories.  Someone was like ‘oh we’ll all be too scared to sleep tonight’ and I said ‘well at least I’ll have the comforting sounds of seven other people snoring in my room so I won’t be scared.’ and Meenal replied, ‘Yeah until you turn on the light and realise you’re alone!’  I got goosebumps; she totally creeped me out!  

I also took a day trip to Gent.  It's a lovely town for walking around, like Leuven cleaner and better maintained than Brussels and it had a great castle.  The kind of castle that you could totally imagine living in.  It had a fireplace so huge you could stand in it!  I stopped for a nice lunch of beer and waffles as any good tourist does.  I had 3 different beers in my stay in Belgium, which means there's at least 1997 that I haven't tried!

 

On the first Sunday of the month the Thai Buddist Temple in Waterloo has a Thai food market.  I went out there with Emily and a few of her friends who were all really nice, especially Alex & Niells who not only gave me a ride out there, but stopped off at a few tourist spots on the way home for me!  The food was absolutely yummo and we spent ages there eating and talking crap and then eating some more. 

So one of the best things about Belgium besides the colossal beer menu is Tintin!!  Those of you who knew me in high school may remember I was a bit of a Tintin fan.  I almost became a journalist because I liked the cartoon so much; instead I became a programmer because I wanted to be like Penny from Inspector Gadget and have a computer book.  Anyway, it was good to get out to the Herge museum.  Perhaps it would have been a little better if I read a bit of French though as although the audio guide was in English there were a lot of original cartoons and they were all in French.  Still a cool museum though.