Going to speed-recap the last couple of weeks in the next couple of posts, and hopefully get everything up to London (last weekend) hashed before leaving for Paris. So - third day in Belgium didn't carry the same urgency to see things, as I was still in Brussels. Somehow managed to get lost trying to find a church I'd walked by with P the night before. (In the process, had a really awkward encounter. I mean, getting hit on in Europe - except in Germany, apparently - is kind of inevitable, and sometimes it's really bizarre, but this one really took the cake for creepiness.) And the church wasn't even open.
Finally made it out to the Palace of Justice. Unfortunately a part of it was under renovation, and it wasn't open (since this was a holiday Monday). Still pretty cool though!
How magnificent is the sky? ^ Super hot weather the three days I was there, and the sky was so blue and clear it was unreal. (You can see the trail from an aircraft having recently taken off too!) The whole bumming around alone thing is... kind of lonely, to be honest, and it definitely sinks in more with time. You see things and think of who would also enjoy them, or have comments about sights that you'd make to particular people...but there's nobody else there. I spent a decent amount of time just chilling in parks that day too.
Being a student of political science, of course I had to check out the politics-related, European Union, European Parliament, etc. stuff. Wandered into Cinquantenaire Park (as a result of semi-going-where-the-wind-blows and semi-got-lost). Lots of people sprawled out on the grass, tanning, reading, chilling...super peaceful and nice. Tried speculoos ice cream (ordered en français, bien sûr!)
So Av. John F. Kennedy leads up to this ^, and I want to take a photo. There's a couple in the way, and finally they move; I get my camera out and up, ready to snap one. They look at me, holding the camera. Then they pounce in front of it and started making out. I don't even know. (Saw a lot of couples in Belgium, actually.)
Also hit up
Parc de Bruxelles, Parc Léopold, chilled by the water, got lost on the way to the Parliamentarium, swung by the Palais Royal... And then it was back to Germany for me. (Crazy enough, a girl who'd been on the same train on the way there was again on the same train coming back.) Alas, didn't get to everything this time around (e.g. missed out on the Atomium), but there's always next time!
I was pretty boring the weekend after that. Stayed in town thinking I would get lots of life-admin stuff done, but it mostly just disintegrated into sleep, watching videos and doing not much of anything. Grabbed coffee with J, who's from Finland, on Sunday.
Friday afternoon we had a retreat at work. Decided by vote, we went on a boat trip down the Rhine, checked out a tiny village called Unkel (which turned out to be
really tiny - we'd walked the entire main area in like ten minutes), came back, and grabbed dinner at
Tuscolo. The pizza was massive - bigger than my face! So yummy. Didn't partake in the wine though, as I was setting off for the Netherlands the next morning :)
Nom that pizza looks SO good
ReplyDeleteSo jealous of your jaunts! The photos are lovely.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right that getting hit on in Germany is much less common than other places in Europe. But I still always felt like the German boys were more forward than the Americans. ;-)
This brings back some memories (I've been i Brussels twice on day trips). My favorite is Grand Place - I just remember being so mesmerized by the buildings!
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