dancing through Brussels [Halloween part 2]

If there’s one word to describe our time in Brussels it’s CHOCOLATY. I was in heaven. Can I live there?? (Though it’s probably better I don’t.) Brussels was definitely one of my favorite weekend trips. We ate a ton of chocolate, made friends, went sightseeing, danced with our new friends in the main piazza in front of gorgeous buildings… life just doesn’t get better!!

The morning started with a walk from the hostel to the Grand Place. Brussels is such a beautiful city and the Grand Place (and the piazza it’s located in) definitely is the pinnacle of the city’s beauty. After walking around the piazza trying to figure out what each building was (where is our art history professor Rocky when we need him?!) we headed to the chocolate museum. There were free samples left and right, a chocolate molding demonstration, and a rooms of where the chocolate comes from/the crazy things that can be made of chocolate. I loved every second!

the top of the Grand Place as seen from a side street

the museum

busts made out of cocoa... so cool!

painted chocolate mold (molded out of a Mickey Mouse mask!)

After spending a good amount of time in the museum we decided to take a break from all the chocolate eating and find the famous peeing boy statue. I had never heard of this statue before I went to Brussels, but you can’t walk more than 3 steps without finding a knock-off of this statue in some way, whether in a souvineer shop or in restaurants/shops as beer/chocolate fountains. Weird, but I guess they like it. We finally found the real statue and we didn’t even realize it because it was so underwhelming. I only knew it was the real one by the large crowd gathered around the fence looking at it. Once again, what is so special about this statue???

the peeing boy statue (they put clothes on him based on the season/holiday)

From the disappointing statue we walked to the beautiful Cathedral, a much prettier sight. And there were some really cool wooden animals outside!

the Cathedral! (unfortunately pictures weren't allowed inside, but it was beautiful)

What else was there to do in Brussels after the Cathedral? That’s a silly question… we ate more chocolate, of course! We walked from store to store checking out all the different types and kinds of chocolate, sampling different flavors from different countries. I think it’s safe to say that I’ve tried chocolate made from cocoa beans from all the major producing countries in the world. And in all different forms too! We had chocolate fondu, truffles, chips, mixed molds, bars, among many others! We were all getting really into our chocolate tasting, but no one was like Cailin who walked away from one chocolate store with chocolate on her face and her sleeves…

We went chocolate crazy!!!

mmmmmm yummy 😀

mixed chocolate shells... we saw how these were made in the museum!

It was Halloween weekend; we had to find chocolate pumpkins!

delicious truffles in a million different flavors! or so it seemed

Even the best things have to end some time and our chocolate tasting ended as the sun went down. (Don’t worry, we had done other things besides eat chocolate all day. We’re not that bad!) We took a night walk around the city to see how beautiful the buildings were lit up:

Grand Place again

small yet beautiful Belgian church

see? I told you! peeing statue with beer!

While in Belgium, I think it’s fairly obvious that you need to try some waffles. Waffles with Chantilly cream are the best! I wish I could bring them home with me! My dad makes a mean Belgian waffle with strawberries at home, but Dad, these are so light and fluffy and the cream is fresh… I’m sorry! We’ll have to find a recipe for these to make them at home.

There’s no better way to top off a day of eating chocolate and waffles than getting some exercise in, especially when that exercise is dancing! While Cynthia and Cailin went back to the hostel, Jackie stayed in the Grand Place piazza. We just sat in the middle of the square like the locals, taking in our beautiful surroundings and enjoying life, until these drunk guys that we had run into earlier came up to harass us again. After telling them to go away and ignoring them for a little while, one of their friends came up and started talking to them. He seemed much more reasonable (and definitely sober) so we asked him if he could get his friends away from us. He apologized profusely and shooed them away. After 5 minutes of the “new guy” hanging out close to us but far enough away to not be creepy, we decided to make friends and called him over.

Ethan (the new guy) was a 17-year-old Portuguese boy in Brussels studying to be a Protestant minister. He had successfully sent his drunk friends away and now was with a crowd of other students studying to become ministers. He introduced us to his sister Caroline, who unfortunately didn’t speak English very well so it was hard to communicate with her. Ethan, on the other hand, was fluent in Italian and spoke English very well so he became the translator for his sister and, later, the rest of the group. When his friends started blasting music from their Vespa, we stood up to watch them dance and sing along. Turns out that these future ministers had choreographed dances to techno Gospel music! Not only did we get a nice performance and learn a few new songs, we got a dancing lesson! They taught us their dance moves; Jackie and I joined in with their choreographed number as a large crowd gathered around us. I had SO much fun!!

Ethan teaching me the dance moves.

The whole gang doing the Portuguese (or European?) crazy for Jesus sign. 🙂

Making new foreign friends, being silly and dancing in a piazza, communicating in two languages to try to help someone understand you… these are my favorite parts about being abroad!