Sojin Josephson

A few days before I left for Brussels, Belgium, I met this American boy, who studies in Sweden, on the metro home from the A.C. Milan soccer game. For 80 percent of the ride, he told me how much he didn’t like Brussels and how overrated it was. Well, I think he’s overrated. After eating and drinking my way through Belgium, I have a great love for the country.

After Stas and I paid 17 euro to get from the airport to the tram station and then took the tram 18 stops the wrong way, we finally found Melissa at our hostel and ventured out to the most exquisite square I’ve seen yet. I had one of those “Wow, I’m really in Europe” moments standing there in the middle of Grand Place that night. It reminded me of an elaborate mixture between Munich and Prague, so I was bound to like it. I could feel the different cultural influences the first few minutes I was in the city—a mixture of French and Flemish, and I loved being a part of the historic yet youthful atmosphere of Brussels.

Here are a few of the things we did:

• The SANDEMANs walking tour—incredible, maybe even better (sorry, Jon) than our Munich walking tour.
• Ate a lot of Belgian waffles—the best in the world. My favorite one was with whipped cream and strawberries on top.
• Atomium—highly overrated
• Délirium Café—a bar in Brussels that has over 2,000 types of beer (it’s in the Guinness Book of World Records for longest beer list) representative of over 60 countries. There are multiple floors and the place has an energetic, young vibe. Stas, Melissa and I met up with two guys from our Milan International program that were in Brussels the same weekend and had a great evening.
• On Sunday we took a day trip to Bruges, which is about an hour and a half outside of Brussels. It was the cutest place with a lot of history and shops. We walked around a huge vintage market, ate more waffles and took a canal tour.
• I accidentally spent 18 euro on about 8 marble-sized pieces of chocolate. I just pointed at random ones thinking it would be under 10 euro, but serves me right for not asking the prices beforehand. Apparently it’s the chocolate shop just under Mary Chocolatier, which serves to the royals.
• In bad French/awkward stammering in English, we ordered a bowl of what we think was dried shrimp instead of bread. The antennae were sticking out everywhere and it looked like a bowl of grasshoppers. We debated the entire dinner on how to dispose of the contents in the bowl so we didn’t seem rude, but eventually the waitress understood and took it away.
• After waking up at 3 a.m., we took a taxi, a bus, a plane, another bus and the metro before we made it back to our apartments, but the trip was well worth it.