A Quick Trip to Brussels

  Okay, so last post about traveling for a bit, I promise to tell you some crap about Paris soon!  Anyways, J and I went to Brussels (Belgium) for a quick weekend trip.  We actually took a bus there!  The bus was quite nice and took a bit less than 5 hours for us to get there; it's also much cheaper than the train.  The best part about the ride was the free Wifi!  You would think there would be free wifi everywhere these days, but it sometimes seems hard to come by here in Europe.  For example, when you take the train to Brussels, which costs more than double the bus, you have to pay for the wifi!  Jerks.  Another cost saving tip for traveling in Europe is to stay at an Ibis.  They are always running specials and are usually the cheaper option to begin with anyway.  The rooms are usually pretty sparse, but J and I don't travel with the intent to spend much time in the hotel room.  We just need a place to crash, and Ibis fits the bill (and they are clean, which is a big plus).  Beware, though, when looking for a cheap place to stay as the places that are super, to-good-to-be-true cheap, usually have a couple catches, like no elevator when you are on the 8th floor or shared toilets (no thanks).   Anyways, we made it there safe and sound.

Beautiful old building in the town square.

  Brussels is a very small city, just as is the country - Belgium.  J and I were nearly able to walk around the entire city center in just one day.  We spent our time seeing the architecture, monuments, and parks.  We used geocaching as our guide!  There are a bunch of caches hidden all over Europe and Brussels was no exception.  So, first, what the hell is geocaching?  Check out this link to explore, but the short story is it is a game of sorts using GPS to find hidden "treasures".  Usually, the treasures are just a logbook to sign, but the caches almost always take you to a place of interest when searching for them in cities.  I think we saw all the major tourist spots in Brussels, along with some more rare locations, just by searching out caches.  We even did a small pub crawl through geocaching clues.

My first cache found in Brussels :)

  Truth be told, the popular thing to do in Brussels seemed to be beer drinking.  J and I were surprised by the amount of American hipsters hanging out there.  English was widely spoken throughout the city by all types of businesses (French and Dutch are the official languages).  So, it is an easy city for  mono-lingual Americans to navigate.  There are tons of good beer to sample, and we definitely tried our fair share.  It's weird that a country bordering France produces such variable and high-quality beer.  To try to find any of it in Paris (without breaking the bank) is impossible!  Oh yeah, the beer was cheap there too!  All of Brussels was very affordable.  Then again, anytime we leave Paris, J and I are amazed at how cheap everything is... perspective I guess. Also, "pee" themed artwork is really popular in Brussels.  The most popular tourist destination is probably the Manneken Pis.

Manneken Pis

And for a little gender equality, Jeanneke Pis.

And, what's a European city without some "You're a peeing" graffiti.  I'm hilarious! 

  It was a fun weekend and a nice getaway from Paris.  I wouldn't really recommend spending a whole lot of time in Brussels unless you are just traveling for good beer, but I'm sure there is a lot more to explore in Belgium.  It's also a great city for geocaching if that floats your boat, it does mine!  J and I are actually looking forward to taking more weekend trips to explore all the different cultures at our doorstep.  You all should come join us!! 

Sunset in Brussels.