Part One: Brussels, Belgium

So in May 2005 I went to Europe for the first time, something I've been wanting to do for as long as I can remember.

I landed in Paris, took a train straight to Brussels, and hopped on the metro to go to my hostel. Luckily I'd had lots of practice with the Toronto and Montréal subway systems, and so this wasn't a foreign concept to me. After I'd uneventfully found the right metro stop, my first real taste of 'Europe' was walking down Rue Neuve, a street lined with many familiar American, European, and yes, even Canadian, chain stores. I was a little disappointed; I could have been on Bloor Street in Toronto.

After settling into my hostel and taking a short nap, though, I set out towards central Brussels, where things seemed less familiar. I quickly discovered a maze of winding, cobblestoned streets lined with restaurants, each with a host standing outside beckoning seductively, trying to entice you to eat there. One was particularly aggressive, and I, jetlagged, sleepy, and confused, got startled and dashed away, unsure of what was expected of me. He called after me to apologize. I ducked into the first place that seemed less imposing, a falafel shop.

The next morning I set out early and got to see the city in relative peace before all the tourists invaded. (During my travels I had to come to terms with the fact that I too was a tourist, and sometimes I even like doing cheesy, touristy things.)



Place de La Monnaie:



Policewomen patrolling the early-morning streets:



A Belgian candy shop (the combination of neon lights and thought of sugar this early in the morning made me slightly nauseous):



Coming through an alleyway to La Grand Place/Grote Markt, the main sqaure (interestingly, most places in Brussels have both French and Dutch/Flemish names, which can get confusing):



Setting up before the crowds hit:





I just couldn't get over the building facades:





Next I headed to the Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée, the Comic Strip Art museum!





Belgians are apparently known for comics, and around the city you'll find life-sized comics peeking out at you from the sides of buildings:





Afterwards I headed back towards the center of town, where things were getting busier:



If you've ever been to Victoria, BC, you may have seen the buskers who pose as statues and startle tourists. Well, it turns out they have them in Brussels, too:



Here is the famed Mannekan Pis, or Pissing Boy. This is supposed to be the big tourist attraction of Brussels, and it's hilarious once you get there because it's actually a relatively tiny statue surrounded by a huge mob of tourists:



Here we have ice cream trucks; there, they have waffle trucks:



At a chocolaterie called Planète Chocolate, I saw how real Belgian chocolate is made:



The other thing Belgium is famous for, of course, is its beer (gueuze). I'm not exactly a beer drinker, but quite took to Kriek Sour Cherry, À La Mort Subite:



They had a few other kinds of fruit beer there too; I also tried peach.



In Brugges a few days later, the owner of a beer shop told us that À La Mort Subite (or Sudden Death) was so named because a long time ago the undertakers from the morgue next door used to go there to drink after their embalming work. Now there's a popular label of beer, which apparently you can even get in Canada, named after this beer cafe:



After a couple nights in Brussels I was ready to keep going, and broke in my Benelux rail pass:



Self-portrait while carrying a heavy backpack (a feat, no?):