La Belle Belgique

    So last weekend was excursion #2 with the International Parisian Youth Club.  First we visited Bruge, a small canal town near the Atlantic coast that is known as the 'Venice of the north.'  I was surprised that hardly anyone seemed to speak French; it was either Dutch or English.  Belgium is officially a bilingual country, but in Bruge all of the signs are in Dutch and I heard a lot of people speaking this odd language.  I must admit I find French much more beautiful!

    Bruge is not only home to a bunch of canals, but also a béguinage (a community of women whose husbands went off to war and who didn't want to renounce their marriage by becoming nuns) which had a beautiful garden of daffodils in full bloom, the Church of Our Lady (home to one of the few Michelangelo sculptures that is located outside of Italy), a very beautiful Hotel de Ville (town hall) - not to mention a lot of delicious chocolate shops.

    After a few hours in Bruge, we headed over to Brussels.  For dinner, I went to a restaurant recommended by one of my French professors back at Wesleyan who is from Belgium.  I got croquettes aux crevettes (fried rolls containing shrimp in a creamy, cheesy sauce), and frites (fries), both specialties that originally come from Belgium!  I also had one of those well-known Belgian waffles, which are definitely better in Belgium than the kind they serve us at the dining hall at school.  And of course, I made sure to stop by the chocolaterie that my professor recommended.  I got a few chocolates to bring back for Thérèse-Marie (and a couple for myself too!).

    The next day, we explored the Grand Place, which is the

 beautiful square located in the middle of Brussels.  We then went to check out the Belgian Center for the Comic Strip.  Comic strips are considered a real art both in Belgium and in Europe, and so we found a lot of familiar favorites - most notably, smurfs! (which are hilariously called schtroumpfs in Dutch).  After the museum, we grabbed some sandwiches and went to picnic in the adorable, duckling-filled Leopold Park, which is located in the part of town where the European Union buildings are found.  Many of the EU's institutions meet in Brussels, and since I'm taking a class all about the EU, I had to hunt down as many of the buildings as I could.

  Before piling back on the bus, we found a great view of Brussels at the top of a parking garage (!), and I snapped as many photos as I could from there.

     I have to say that I was really impressed with Brussels.  There is a real mix of architecture that Paris is often lacking... you find art nouveau buildings and sculptures next to ultramodern glass-and-steel skyscrapers next to classically beautiful gothic cathedrals.  The people and food of Brussels also reflect this eclecticness - I've never seen so many ethnicities and heard so many languages spoken in one place!  Belgians are also self-proportedly aisé, which means 'laid-back' in a way that hints that people of other cities are NOT laid-back (hmm Paris, maybe?).  Basically Brussels was a breath of wacky, diverse, Wesleyan-ish fresh air!