The City of Manneken Pis

Just got back home from Brussels couple days ago. That city really rocks! Lots of parks, multicultural atmosphere, late drinking and all that chocolate :) Oh, and after spending last six months in London, I really appreciate the fact that I can walk almost everywhere...or take the tram. Trams always make me feel like home.

So I spent four days in Brussels visiting a friend (thanks Samuli for accommodating me:) and sightseeing the town. Took Eurostar train (yes, the one that goes under the Channel) from Waterloo to Brussels Midi and actually bumped into couple Finnish girls on the station. Why is that the Finns are everywhere nowadays?!? Well, anyway made my way to the city centre and managed to run into Manneken Pis while looking for a tourist information centre. After couple hours of sightseeing I was supposed to meet Samuli in EU district when it hit me: my Visa or Visa Electron wasn't working. So there I was in Brussels for a long weekend with 3 euros in my pocket!

Well, as you can guess, it happened to be Friday the 13th and I felt it all right. After having hysteric laughing attacks (never thought calls to bank could be that hilarious) at Samuli's place I decided to take a nap and wake up only after everything would be working again. And that actually worked. In the evening I was able to get some money out of the ATM and we decided to hit the town with a bunch of Samuli's flatmates (and I really mean a bunch - he's living in this warehouse with 15 other people!). Couple pints later we ended up in this random house party filled up with interns of European Union, not to mention the booze. So first my glass was filled up with Martini by Samuli's Italian flatmate and later this crazy Creek girl kept pouring Ouzo for me. And they say Brussels can't party!

After the wild Friday night and the day filled with shopping we decided to stay in on Saturday and watch a movie. Yay telly and satellite dish! So Sunday morning we were ready to take a train to the coast and hit the beach :) Weather was gorgeous like in every day I spent in Belgium: +26 degrees and sunny. From Oostende we carried on with coastal tram (which actually goes through whole coastline, 67 km) to De Haan. The beach was gorgeous though a bit crowded...And so was the train back to Brussels so we chose to get out of the train in last minute and have a frits while waiting for next one.

After the beach it was time for happy hour and pub quiz. We sucked so bad! But in our defense I have to say the questions were terrible. Who knows the motto of EU in Latin? Or which star signs represent fire in Western astrology? (Okey, we figured that one out: Sagittarius, Aries and Leo) But it was a great fun anyway. And so was Monday as well. I wandered around the town, chilled out in the parks and bought some souvenirs (yes, chocolate from Godiva). What a perfect way to spend my last day in Brussels :)

So I strongly recommend Brussels as one of the places to have serious fun. Never mind the Eurocrats and other men in suits. Appreciate the parks, delicious chocolate, funny comic strips and pubs and bars that never close...In varietate concordia!

PS. I've decided to add in the end of the each post a song/songs that I've been listening or heard in my mind while writing. So it's like a soundtrack :) I was listening Ayo's Joyful and especially a song called Life Is Real while writing this post. The previous post, Casual?, is associated with John Legend's Number One and Music with The Rakes' We Danced Together. Enjoy!