Brussels

 Last week went by crazy fast; we had two and a half snow days (Caen does not get much snow so when it does, the city can't cope). It felt like I had just gotten back from Paris when I left for Brussels, Belgium Friday night. We stayed at he Youth Hostel Van Gogh; apparently Van Gogh used to work there so you know, I guess thats cool :)

Brussels was a pretty calm trip. The majority of the time we were eating or just wandering around. The waffles are as good as they say. My favorite were the ones that had pearl sugar cooked in them. And they were only one euro! We also tried the famed fries, and ate seafood at Noordzee. We could not leave Belgium without trying the chocolate (Godiva is Belgian if that gives you any idea of its amazingness). The Chocolate Museum demonstrated how to make pralines. I definitely prefer eating the chocolates to making them. There is a lot of waiting involved in the making.

Above: Liege Belgian Waffle

Below: Fish soup and fried fish from Noordzee

We also visited the famous Grand Place; I wish we had been there in Spring when it is filled with a carpet of flowers, but it is still really pretty without them.  Manneken Pis is just around the corner, and way smaller than I thought he would be. There are huge remakes of him everywhere, but he is tiny. There is a woman whose job it is to make little costumes for him. They keep the costumes in the National Museum. He is a national hero. Legend says that he peed out some fire and saved the city. Belgium is a weird but wonderful place....

 We also stopped by the Atomium. Which was way bigger than I thought it would be, but also very strange looking. It is a giant cube made of metal balls and sticks.

Atomium

Getting back to France was a little crazy. We got to the train station early and saw our train had THA next to it, which the information worker informed us meant our train was canceled. Then the train office told us we were being transferred to a train that was leaving in five minutes. We sprinted to the train, but when we got on there were no more seats left, because there had been another canceled train. So my friend Skylar and I sat on the floor of the barroom car for the duration of the 90 minute train. Needless to say, I am happy to be back in Caen!