Belgium is Random

Bonsoir mes amis ! This weekend I went to Belgium and have I got some good stories for you. I was in Brussels for the most part, although I did spend a night in Hasselt (more on that later....)

Bonjour Bruxelles ! 

Brussels is so cool! It's very small, and has a much chiller vibe than Paris (my host brother is trying to read over my shoulder and I just had to try to explain "chill" in French. I said a mix between "cold" and "cool.") If I had to pick one word to describe the city I'd say "eclectic," because there's definitely a lot of interesting things brought together in one place. For example, they play music in their metro stations. I was waiting for a train at 8 am on a Sunday morning, and I was listening to Britney Spears. (Side note: there's nothing to check your ticket for the metro, you just buy it and then go in the open door. At least that's how it seemed to us.) Another interesting thing is that they have two official languages, French and Dutch, and everything--I mean everything--is in both. Even the names of the streets! Which is quite confusing if you're an unsuspecting tourist trying to find Rue du Moulin and you're lost on Molenstraat (why? because it's the same street!). For a small place there are a lot of great things to do.

Despite all that, we actually went to Belgium for a concert. But not just any concert, my friends, for Sensation WHITE (thus named because everyone that goes has to wear white). It's a concert that takes place in different locations around Europe a few times a year, and it brings together Europe's biggest House music DJs for one night of pure madness.

You know how I said Belgium is really random? Well it's also not very organized, and the train schedule was not so clear, which meant that Diana and I arrived a the station at 10:50, approximately 20 minutes after the last train had left for Hasselt. It's about an hour drive from Brussels, and with no trains we were pretty much out of luck. Fortunately for us, there are always people willing to help out (read: prey upon) poor stranded girls in a foreign country, so a guy offered us a taxi for the low price of 50 euros a person. He brought us over to three other girls who had also missed the last train, and I asked them if they were going to take the taxi. They looked at me with panic in their eyes and said "engleesh?"

And that, mes amis, is how I found myself hurtling through the Belgian countryside with a Venezuelan girl on my lap. Two of the girls were visiting the third, who is studying abroad in London, and they were in Brussels for Sensation. They didn't speak any French, and our taxi driver, Farid, didn't speak any English, so it was an interesting ride to say the least. We finally made it to the concert and danced four sparkly, bass-filled hours away with 10,000 other people dressed in white. I didn't bring my camera, but I googled imaged it so you could get an idea--

More ridiculous adventures ensued trying to get back to the train station, but we finally made it and took the 6 am train to Brussels, along with a few thousand others. We must have been quite the scene--kids in all sorts of crazy white get-ups sleeping on the floor of the train, strewn across the seats and plastered against the windows. Needless to say we slept most of the day away, but we did manage to get out and see the sights the next evening. We made it to the Musée des Beaux Arts, Musée de Belvue (a museum of the history of Belgium), Neuhaus (chocolatier), and Delerium (one of the most famous beer places in Belgium). The chocolate was some of the best I've ever had, and although I'm not the world's biggest beer fan I have to say that the beer was pretty good itself. 

Grand Place

Musée des Beaux Arts

Musée Belvue

Yummmmmm

Monday morning we headed to the Atomium, which was built for the World Expo '58, which was hosted by Belgium. In fitting with the rest of Belgium, it's really random, but also really cool--

The Atomium 

View from the inside

Can you find us?

We checked out the expositions in the different orbs and the view of Brussels from the top, which was pretty cool. The rest of the day we wandered around, stumbling upon a few cool things and ending up at the Koekelberg Basilica, the 11th largest church in the world. 

Koekelberg Basilique

Don't forget you can click on these pictures to make them bigger : )

And that pretty much does it for Belgium! Minus the taxi part it was a great success, and even that was actually pretty fun. Now I'm back in Paris, and this weekend I am going on a private midnight tour of the forbidden sections of the catacombs! Don't worry, I'll tell you guys everything. Hope you're taking care and enjoying the little things. À la prochaine fois, mes amis !