bye brussels • 10 comments • {a bust in the museum of fine art} We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Brussels. It was a charming city and we are hoping that we'll be able to go back soon to see Magritte's house, have some more waffles, and to explore the rest of Belgium. Some highlights: {the art} {fleurs} {this old lady with bright pink hair} {peculiar vandalism} {these dudes} {chocolate shoppes} {this man dressed as a baby} {waffle and ice cream vans} Later, Brussels.
steak frites • 6 comments • Before leaving Brussels, we knew we needed to have that velvety smooth mayo one last time. Since we wanted something a little bit more substantial than just french fries, we went looking for a sit-down restaurant. However, because we wanted to have an early dinner, it seemed impossible to find anything that was open. We don't understand how people in Brussels can get away with closing their stores/restaurants really early and also for large periods during day. What's their secret? After some aimless walking, we found Le Cap, a small restaurant that was just opening up for dinner. It had been so long since either of us had a proper steak, so we both ordered the same dish - sorry, vegetarians and cows. If it wasn't for well prepared filet mignons, we think it would a lot easier for us to give up meat. Steak frites is a really popular meal in both France and Belgium. A few years ago, it seemed that you could only find this dish on a bistro menu, but lately we've seen it everywhere. What you don't see everywhere is this beautiful mayo: The meal was lovely and the service at this restaurant was wonderful compared to the last one - so we left happy and fatter than when we came in.
le pain quotidien • 18 comments • Our friends suggested that we meet for brunch at Le Pain Quotidien - a small bakery that was founded in Brussels and is now a worldwide chain. The bakery is known for organic bread and it is unbelievably good. We ordered several different types of bread to share and ate them with a selection of delicious spreads: jams, chocolate, hazelnut (very similar to nutella, but better - if you can believe that's possible). Since the bread filled us up, we didn't try one of their famous tartines. With locations around the world, we're hoping we stumble upon another one soon!
manneken pis • 11 comments • Whose idea was it to make a statue of a little boy peeing and why is it such a landmark in Brussels? We have no idea. When we mentioned to people that we were going to Brussels, they said "Make sure you visit Manneken Pis!". We looked it up and kind of felt like perverts for looking at a naked child peeing, even if he was made of bronze. On the day we saw it, it was amidst a zombie crawl, so the statue was dressed up as a vampire that the zombies seemed to be worshiping. (?!) We walked by later in the day, when all the zombies had retreated from the streets, and saw tourists perplexed as to the purpose of the costume which had been left on the statue. So, the next time you're in Brussels, you can go visit the statue of the boy who is famously incontinent. The first photo isn't ours, we didn't get to see it without a costume. {source}
day of the (belgian) undead • 16 comments • Imagine having the tranquility of your chocolate shopping disturbed by a cacophony of moans and screams. This was the scene during one of our days in Brussels. As we followed the (fake) bloodied parade to it's meeting point, we determined that we must have inadvertently found ourselves in the middle of a Belgian zombie walk. With no fixed plans for the day we decided to hang around and join the crowd. It was as amusing to walk around and see the different costumes as it was to watch the confusion of other tourist and locals upon seeing the crowd. After some showboating for the cameras, and a briefing of the rules from the organizer, the walk started with hundreds of undead-costumed Belgians cramming onto the cobble stones streets of downtown Brussels. We remembered that we had "participate in a flashmob" on our wanderlist. Technically this zombie walk was not a flashmob, since it was an annual event and well planned in advance, but our participation in it was spontaneous, so we figured it would count. Alex volunteered to be a "victim", which consisted of being mock-infected by a large groups of zombies. Despite boo-ing all the rules before starting out, the participants were very courteous and helped the victims to their feet after dramatizing an attack. Of course, no self-respecting zombie walk would be complete without zombie-kids walking around, chants for "zombie rights" (in French), and simulated body part consumption.
