The end of my time in Brussels was an interesting experience. Friday afternoon, Alex and I adventured to the outskirts of the city to go to the site of the 1958 World Fair and go to the Atomium. It was an interesting place but it was also pretty good to be able to see where the world fair was hosted on the site in Chicago doesn't exist anymore. Or at least I don't think it does. I may be wrong about that. Getting there was a little of a trek because it was on the other side of the city but thankfully there is enough public transit that the only thing was to wait on the train since it was literally the last stop. It took probably about 40 minutes to get there but the trip was worth it. The Atomium was relatively cheap and provided a great view of the city. The only bad part about this was the fact that it is Brussels in January so it was overcast and there was not a lot of visibility, just barely being able to make out Grand Platz in the distance which was not that far away. The rest of the Atomium was interesting since they had different exhibits on the progression of technology. Unfortunately, we figured it was going to take a lot longer than it actually did (it maybe took us an hour) so we still had all of the afternoon to figure out what to do.
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| The Atomium |
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| Alex in the Atomium's escalator |
We decided to go back to the city center and somehow navigated the trains since neither of us knew how to get to the city center from the Atomium. By this point, it was maybe 2 or 3 pm so there was still lots of time to kill and we wanted to figure out what we were going to do for the rest of the day. Eventually, we made our way to one of the bars on the side of Grand Platz so we could stare outside at the pretty square since it was probably the clearest day so far since I got to Brussels. One of the biggest difficulties was since Alex is there for school and spends most of her nights watching movies or hanging out with friends, what to do on a weekend night ended up being one big confusing jumble.
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| View of Grand Platz from the bar |
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| One of the many Belgian beers with its specialty glass |
We finally decided to go back to her place and we would go to the gym and see where we were after that, but this is when things got interesting;
The deal with the gas and their electric was that the person who lived there before them never shut it off so they were living on the mystery person's bill and since it was after the new year, it just happened to be on this lovely friday that this caught up with them. Alex's roommate was home when we were out and when we got back around 5:30 pm, she comes out of her room and tells us that the power and gas have been off for the past three hours, but it is just their apartment and not the entire buildings. Only for some reason, she did not think to tell Alex or call anyone to see what was happening and instead sat in her room on the internet, which still worked because it was building wide not apartment specific. Since it is Europe, things actually close on weekends, unlike the US where they are open later on Fridays and Saturdays. This meant that there was no way to take care of this issue until Monday and my flight out was on Sunday. Alex was flipping a shit, rightfully so because she was pretty stressed. I would have been in the same boat as her because I would not have been so worried about myself but rather the guest that was staying with me and what to do for the next three nights. Thankfully, one of her friends had extra space and was able to put us up for the next few days until Alex could figure out her situation and my flight home and I could finally get out of her hair. Going to the gym was probably one of our better ideas since we managed to get off some stress and it wasted a good amount of time, so by time we got to her friend Jamie's place, we watched episode 9 of Game of Thrones, nearly giving Alex a heart attack and called it a night.
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| Looking across the Maas River |
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| Stadthause or City Hall |
It was decided on Saturday I was going to go to Maastricht alone since Alex had to figure out this whole situation with her heat and everything, making traveling a little more difficult. Having already traveled by train once, I would say I was experienced so it was no problem getting my ticket and taking the two-hour train to Maastricht. One of the main reasons I wanted to go other than the fact that I heard its a cute town was so I could say I had been to the Netherlands also, bringing the tally of countries I had walked around in (a gas station in Croatia does not really count even though its stamped in my passport) to 6. For this city, I had no guide book or anything and there was not very much English spread around so I had a kind of difficult time figuring out what to do. One thing I did learn on this trip was how to wander around cities and own it. After finding lots of large church-y buildings, one of which I am pretty sure was the city hall, I made my way to the Basilica of Saint Servatius (b. beginning in the 11th C), which was operating similarly to a Museum with lots of Christian relics that continuously confused me. Since many of the signs in the city were not in English, I don't know why I expected the signs in the Museum to be. Regardless of not knowing what most things were, I was able to piece together some things and most of it was attractive to the eye without having any idea what purpose it served. The nave of the church was beautiful, with an extremely high ceiling, lots of columns, stain-glass windows, and an always impressively large organ.
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| Main entrance to the Basilica of St. Servatius |
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| Inside of the choir hall |
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The really large organ
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| The south portal |
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| Horn made out of Ivory |
No matter how many churches I go into, the size of the organs will always amaze me. After spending maybe an hour and a half exploring the Basilica, I wandered around the city some more and the owner of the weird Italian restaurant I ate lunch at recommended going to a bookstore that was converted from an old church around the corner; an 13th century Dominican Church that is now Selexyz Bookstore. She said it was voted one of the most beautiful bookstores in Europe and I could understand why. Pictures are the only real way to do it justice, which is something I will upload over the next few days since I am concentrating on just writing down what I actually did before I completely forget. As expected, I explored the city even more and wasted time in a bar since there were still several Belgian beers my dad recommended that I had not tried yet. At this classy little joint was the only time over the course of my trip that I got asked if I was over 18, and even then the bartender asked as he gave me the beer and I just laughed at him. So I am going to say this does not really count as being asked my age… I then wasted a little more time in a cute coffee shop and read more Game of Thrones until the train I wanted to take arrived.
Back at Brussels, Alex's friend Jamie had people over so I got to meet more of her friends and had real homemade food while being able to just hangout with random people and talk. Not a bad way to spend a night since I was essentially a hermit after the sun went down. Vrijthof Square
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| Vrijthof Square |
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| Looking across Vrijthof Square square. The Basilica in font and St. John's behind. |
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Weird sculpture in Vrijthof Square
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| Church converted into Selexyz Bookstore |
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| Eating area of Selexyz Bookstore |
Sunday isn't really much to talk about since Alex had to do work and I had some last minute gift-getting to do. We went back to Alex's apartment after getting breakfast at a little grocery store and went our separate ways. She went to a cafe that she likes and I went to the city center and managed to finally get a Belgian Waffle with chocolate sauce since this was my last opportunity. We met up later at her cute coffee shop, I tried blogging but it got deleted since it would not automatically save and went back to her place so I could pack all my belongings and get ready for my departure the next morning. The night was spent at Jamie's yet again watching TV shows on her computer, this time being Legend of the Seeker, being a surprisingly high budget Lord of the Rings-esque knock off series with terrible acting at the beginning that slowly got better over the twos seasons. I watched it back in high school so Alex was the only one who had not seen it, so that was how we wasted the night away.
Monday morning was easy enough since there was an express bus stop a block away from Jamie's apartment that took me right to the airport and was easy enough to manage. On my flight, I sat next to a sour looking Belgian kid who was going to Florida and across the aisle from some Hasids. I looked over at one point and he had his talit over his head with his tefillin on, and my only thought was 'awww its good to be back'. The flight was easy enough and my mom picked me up, bringing my trip to a close.
It was great being away for so long but also refreshing to be home. I can't say I was overly homesick over the course of being in Europe but there were some things I missed, mainly independence. This may sound ironic because I had more independence there than I do at home or school but it was a different kind. With the exception of Bruges and Maastricht, I was always with people on my trip or Alex and had other people to worry about in terms of things to do, places to go, and food to eat. I missed being able to do whatever I want, cook whatever I wanted, and not have to worry about other peoples needs.s
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