Jared had been busy beavering away with his assignments, and his reward for finishing was to come and spend a long weekend in Brussels with 2 other friends from Ireland, and our American friends we met in Paris who live in a different part of Belgium.
Well. Jared didn’t quite get the relaxing weekend that we were hoping for, but he did get an adventure.
TL;DR Jared crashed on the way to meeting me at the airport, and missed his flight.
The longer version:
<The ‘adventure’> Jared was supposed to meet me at our apartment and go to the airport together. He called me at the time he was supposed to be meeting me to say he was still an hour away as there had been a major accident on the motorway. Traffic in all directions was at a standstill for several hours. I arranged to meet him at a co-worker’s place by the airport instead, which meant taking some backroads to skirt around the city.
About 10 minutes later, Jared calls me and tells me not to worry about it because he’s just crashed the car, and he’s pretty sure he’s written it off. I obviously am worried, and check that he’s ok. Thankfully he is.
I have Jared’s bags and his passport with me, and so the way I saw it, I had two options. Take his stuff with me and make it so that he couldn’t come at all or entrust Jared’s things to the taxi driver who had been listening to this drama unfold.
By this stage, the taxi driver and I had quite the rapport, and so I took down a few of his details, gave him Jared’s number, and entrusted him with Jared’s passport.
I called Jared when I had checked in, and had gone through security to say that our flight was delayed by nearly 2 hours, and if he hoofed it, he should be able to make it no problem.
After a tense hour, and me going back through security to actually be able to find anyone to talk to, Jared made it to the check in desk, only for Ryan air wankers to tell him that there was no way that they could actually check him in. If I had checked him in on the app, in time for the original flight, then it could’ve been solved, but because he was never checked in, despite Jared being there hours before the actual flight left, there was no way they could get Jared on.
After spending over a hundred euros on the taxi for it to meet up with Jared with his passport, then going back to the airport when he should have just headed home, Claire, Doireann and I got the privilege of being 2.5 hours late, and looking at Jared’s empty seat all the way to Brussels. I was livid!
Jared spent a few hours at home attempting to sleep, then caught the red-eye over in the morning.
</adventure>
I went and met Jared at the airport, then we went and met the others in town for the standard walking tour start.
From our start in the main square, we saw the Mannequin Pis (Mona-Lisa-level overrated), a fancy parade from the order of St John, saw one of Brussels fancy malls where it is said that a pharmacist invented chocolate pralines to help give medicine to children, and tried fresh Belgian waffles.
We saw some churches (ABC – another bloody church!), and while we stood outside the opulent palaces of the Belgian King Leopold the second, the tour guide explained how the riches of Belgium were created on the backs of crippling cruelty and slavery.
Belgian Congo suffered some of Africa’s most barbaric treatment was at the hands of Belgian colonisers – it was they who implemented the trend to cut off the hands or arms of those who dissented, were unable to fulfill their harvesting quotas, or were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The riches went to not the whole country, but the King specifically, as he ‘bought’ Congo in his name, and so it was then a ‘private enterprise’.
The tour finished looking out over the city near the Jacquemart Carillon clock and the Brussels Convention Centre.
After refreshments at a nearby rooftop bar, we explored the Musical Instrument Museum – 3 floors of a vast variety of instruments, which you listen to on a headset at your leisure. There were a lot, but these are some of my faves.
It was very cool to hear some instruments from bygone eras, and from all over the world.
Afterwards, we met up with Doireann’s brother who lives in Brussels, and he introduced us to the local beer known as Lambic beer, which is from a nearby river, and contains things that mean you don’t need to add anything to it to ferment it – it ferments naturally.
We migrated to Delirium bar, which boasts over 2000 beers on tap, and I found beer that was palatable – one peach and one raspberry flavoured!
After some more wandering, we found a restaurant that was willing to take a group of 8 at 8pm, and feasted on mussels and wine. A lovely evening all round.
Thunder and lightning greeted us as we made it back to our AirBnB, rain pelting down on us.
Unfortunately, the storm the night before was merely a precursor to the rain of the following day. We had plans to go to Bruges, and the rain came along too.
After a shortly hour on the train we arrived in Bruges, and meandered around the mediaeval streets, finding jewellery, fudge, coffee, canal boat tours – and of course – more beer (Jared had the local Brugse Zot, very nice).
After some regrouping over food, we decided to divide and conquer – some us would go on the canal boat tour, others would wander the city.
Thankfully by the time our canal boat tour time rolled around, the rain had cleared. We admired ancient waterways and learned all about how Bruges used to be a major trading city, a hub in central Europe.
Claire and I ventured to Historium, opting for the additional VR experience as well. You follow the story of a young girl, and a boy who is an apprentice for a famous painter. On the boat that she arrives on is a parrot that the famous painter needs for a painting. The parrot escapes, and the pair then set about trying to retrieve it. You see the ancient Waterhalle which no longer exists, among other facets of life in Bruges’ prime from the 13th-18th century.
I really enjoyed it, and felt it brought history to life really well. It wasn’t interactive, but you got to follow a narrative, and you moved between rooms before you had a chance to get bored.
There was also a 10 minute VR headset experience where you flew over ancient Bruge which was also excellent.
We were supposed to go up the tower as well, but there was a long line, and we ran out of time to wait, instead settling for a lookout from the bar on the 2nd floor.
The quintessential thing to visit in Bruge is the bell tower, which is why of course, it was booked out, so I consoled myself with frites instead. Belgian fries… I don’t think I could live in Belgium, it’d be too dangerous. They are so so so good! Pair them with the Andelouse sauce, ketchup and mayo – delish.
Jared dragged the others on a whirlwind tour of the filming locations of ‘In Bruges’, including the childrens playground and ze alcoves, is this the right word, yes? Alcoves? (Line from the film).
We came across a church that has converted to a community drop- in centre and cafe, featuring a large sandpit and large swing (Lauren missed out on that). We then sheltered from a rain shower in a bandstand and made friends with some locals as we drank some bottles of beer. Then meet up with Lauren and Claire back at the main town square (Grôte Markt).
This is a church I can get on board with!
We returned to Brussels, and spent a lovely evening in, just chilling.
The next morning, after the frantic pack up, we headed to a chocolate making class.
What a delight! It was supposed to be 2 hours, but took nearly 3 because the tutor was…thorough.
We learned the art of tempering, and ensuring that there are no air bubbles in the chocolate. We made some truffles and also some fruity nutty brittle.
After a brief stop at Atomium – just enough to go to the restaurant and look out at the view, because very long LINES of people – we headed for the airport, snacking on our delicious chocolate as we went.
I learned a hard lesson about vanity presses this day – having sent out my draft manuscript for a children’s book to a bunch of publishers, I got an email saying a publishing company would love to work with me, but wasn’t willing to fund the production of my book, so I would need to fund it myself, through their company, because I was previously unpublished. This is basically an elaborate scam preying on the fragile egos of writers.
However, bubbles at the top of Atomium in the brief perenium of time before this particular bubble was burst were nice.
I look forward to being able to celebrate being published for realsies one day.
Le sigh.
Jared’s fave: Wandering the streets of Bruges
Lauren’s fave: music museum, and chocolate making. Rooftop bar was also class!
Brussels is a great base for day trips to quaint towns, but doesn’t have loads of things to do. It is quite a nice place to be though, and has lots of delicious things to eat – make sure you try waffles, frites, chocolate and beer.
Bruges is like stepping into a fairy tale. Book ahead if you want to go to the bell tower! Canal boats go all the time, so not really any need to book those ahead of time.
