Brussels Weekend/ on the set of Law& Order: European Victims Unit

I spent this past weekend in Belgium with one of my friends from Wofford, Amy Green, who is studying in Brussels. I began my trip with a 6:45 am flight from Madrid Friday morning which was a little rough to say the least. I had to get a taxi to the airport because the metro wasn't even open yet. After my 2.5 hour flight I landed in Brussels covered in snow flurries. That should have been a sign to me how cold it was going to stay the rest of the weekend. I made my way on the train to the metro station and eventually to Grand Plac where I was to meet Amy when she returned from Amsterdam. Her bus ended up being late which gave me some time to walk around the city and see some sites myself. I mostly walked around the Grand Plac area and window shopped. Mom made sure to warn me not to enter Brussels' stores unless you intend to buy so I decided to only window shop. The rumors that Brussels is known for the chocolate, beer, and waffles are definitely true as the aromas of all three filled every street corner and made my mouth water!




Amy's bus finally arrived and she took me back to her homestay so we could drop off our stop and grab lunch. Amy lives in one of the nicest and cutest neighborhoods in Brussels. Her house is beautiful and very spacious for living in such a big city. On our way to the metro station we approached a scene of madness that shocked us both. Three men had robbed a jewelry store and forgotten the important step of having a getaway car and therefore tried to steal one from a lady parked along the side of the street. Unfortunately that lady was not willing to cooperate and ended up getting shot. We witnessed a scene of mayhem, ambulances, police cars, and closed off roads that left us both feeling a little uneasy. Although we were both a little shaken we got on the metro to head downtown to do a chocolate crawl. A chocolate crawl is probably what will be happening in my heaven when I get there. Instead of a pub crawl where one goes from bar to bar, we got to go from one chocolate store to the next and try different types of chocolate. I decided on my favorite chocolate shop, Passion Chocolate (even the name sounds amazing), and bought a box for my family when they come on Friday!! We decided we had had enough and decided to head home to get ready for dinner and the rest of the night. Chocolate Museum

We ended up going to dinner at this interesting place called Hemispheres which had a very cute bohemian style atmosphere. For the first time since I have been in Europe I was FINALLY able to eat tofu and it was just as amazing as I remember! We finished dinner and met her school group in the Grand Plac before we all went to the clubs. Grand Plac was absolutely stunning at night as the plaza was lit up and the beautiful architecture stuck out even more than before. Her program bought tables at the club for all the students so we had a great time. The club scene was a lot like Madrid's just on a smaller scale which was nice because I tend to get overwhelmed at the clubs here. After the club we went home and fell right asleep as we were both so exhausted from our travels.

The next day we woke up (around 1:30, oops) and were invited to lunch by the family Amy rents her room from. The family is very wealthy and has a chef that prepares all their meals so we were so excited to have a good and FREE meal. We sat at the kitchen table with her family and ate two Greek dished including a chicken and chick-pea dish and then a casserole with chorizo, beans, and a tomato sauce which was amazing. The family is very interesting because the mother is from Zurich and the father is from England. They also have a 7 year old named Alicia who is quite a ball of energy. We had great conversation and it was so nice to sit down to a family meal since I haven't had the opportunity to do that in 2 months. After lunch we all watched the movie Up and ate chocolate chip ice cream. Let me tell you that chocolate chip ice cream is quite different in Belgium. It is thick and rich and WONDERFUL. After the movie was over we got ready to go over to one of Amy's friends' houses to cook dinner. Her guy friend made pasta with a rosemary type sausage and sauce over top and salad and bread on the side. It was a great meal and I was very impressed that the guy knew how to cook so well. We then went out to an event that the city of Brussels was putting on called Museums of the Night in which select museums were open after hours and had djs and drinks and dancing. It was really cool to be in the museums in a different environment and still see all they had to offer.

After our tour of the museums was over I decided to try frites at one of the local stands. Frites are America's version of the french fry but better. They were a great late night snack and made me ready to go to bed! I returned back to Amy's house to try to get a little sleep before I had to leave at 6:30 am the next day to catch another early flight. I ended up having a full day of traveling as I had a connecting flight (which I almost missed) in Munich but it was well worth it after a wonderful weekend in the chocolate capital of the world!