Waffles, Chocolate and Seinfeld

A few weeks back the town I am living in, Hilversum, had a 'Hilversum Alive' event. Live music all over town, beer gardens, street markets the whole deal. I had seen signs for it around but had forgotten about it until I stubled accross it one evening with a friend. We had gone out for a drink and to hear some live music, but it ended up being a great night. Though I suddenly remembered my age. I may seem young but I get tired early. I am learning this more and more and have thought about fighting it, but I'm just not sure it's worth it. Though this weekend it was. The next night I went to a going away party for a family I have met here. They are moving to Portland so hopefully I will see them again in the future. But until then, it was a fun send off and another late night. I tell you, the kids these days and their tom foolery and shananigans.
Later that weekend I went out for the afternoon with some friends and fellow aupairs from the area. I had my first freshly baked stroopwaffle at the market that day. I had had them before, but just the prepackaged ones. Hot off the grill, this was a yummy treat. It's basically a very thin waffle with a honey/caramel yumminess in the middle.

This past weekend was CANADA DAY!! Since the two youngest of the three children I take care of were actually born in Canada we made a big deal. They painted flags, we wore all our red and white and made a yummy Canadian flag cake. It was a great day with lots of activity. Friday night I went to Amsterdam with Rebecca (the blond in the picture above) who is from Ontario and Mirjam who is an Aupair from the Netherlands. We had seen an article on line about places to celebrate Canada day around the world and there was a place in Amsterdam with a special deal. So one of the girls planned it out and we headed there after work on Friday night. When we finally got to the place the people who worked there had no idea what we were talking about. We ended up making fun out of the night anyway and went to four different places that night. Though all of this meant another late night. I'm a glutton for punishment I guess.

The very late night didn't mix well with my plans to get up earlish the next morning to catch the train to Brussles for a quick trip. I ended up getting to Brussels around 1:30 in the afternoon that Saturday. As I walked away from the train station I walked into crowds of tourists walking to the sound track of this guy...

He was crooning to old blue eyes singing New York, New York. He busted out beach boys and elvis too. A good welcome to Belguim. I made my way through the tourist area of the Grand Place. It is a square surrounded by huge amaing buildings and filled with people. 

After checking out the Grand Place I found my hostel to check in then made my way back to check out the surrounding shops. From what I could tell the people of Brussels must only buy chocolate and souvenier's because those are the only stores I saw. It seemed that way anyway.

The hostel was cool, but these huge light fixtures in the common room were a highlight. No pun intended.

Another highlight was when I was waiting to check into the hostel and a Seinfeld episode came to life right before my eyes. Remeber the episode when George fights with a guy over a parking space? He was backing in and another guy went in nose first. That happened! THe guy got out and started yelling and everything. After a little bit the nose first guy backed off and the reverse guy (George) moved on in.

 After settling in I went back the square and found a few other must see sights. This one was a little confusing to me at first, but google and wikipedia straightened it up for me. TOns of people were gathering around and rubbing the statue and taking pctures. So I jumped in and figured I would educate myself later. This is a statue of Everard 't Serclaes who was made famous for recovering the city from the Flemish in the 1300's. It is supposed to be lucky to rub it, so tons of people were gathered around rubbing the statue. That's why parts of it are shinny gold and the rest isn't.

 I was excited to find the Manneken Pis. As you can see below, it is a statue/fountain of a little boy peeing into a fountain. The actual little boy is only like a foot and a half tall. And you can see that somewhere a long the line they started dressing the boy in ifferent clothes evey few weeks. The clothes are now in a museum somewhere. This fountain is a national treasure and the souvenir shops  are filled with mini ones, chocolate ones and crude cork screws of it.

Over the two days in Brussels I saw a lot and would love to go back since it's so close. Maybe next time I will join one of these segway tours...

 I gotta say the smell of the Belguim waffles mixed with all the chocolate filled the streets beautifully.

I continued to explore the city and spent some time at the Cathedral. It is a beautiful building surrounded by modern buildings. But it is gorgeous.

 After the Cathedral I hit up the tenth floor of a parking garage. The roof top is an incredible place to view the entire city. This is the Grand Place from afar.

Day 2 I took a walk through the other end of the city. I followed the plan on a map handed out at the hostel. I gotta say, not the best route for a tourist travelling on her own. There were some scetchy areas, but all in all it was great and took most of the day. I went through this market/fair area that was just getting going for the day. It is along the toxic water of the canal and they have fake beaches and lots of great smelling food. I stopped at the place on the right and picked up some cool jewlery.

 A little down the road was this ship in a bottle. The greatest ship in a bottle I've ever seen.

 Since I was travelling on my own, I made friends quickly. This guy had a really great heart. Get it, lion heart. Well when your travelling alone you have to find ways to amuse yourself.

 The lion was one of many statues around the botanique. A beautiful botanical garden area focussed around this gorgeous building.

 Yes that's right, while alone I took this picture. People seemed to enjoy my lake of shame with my self portraits. But it was worth it if I could make just one of you smile. And thus ends my journey to Brussels.

I tried to make it to a few more stops, but was a little confused with the metro and was very tired. I will be sure to rest up and preplan my metro and tram routes before my next trip to brussels. It's only a few hours by train and very do-able for a weekend.

I have a couple of day trips and short weekends near by planned for the next couple of weeks, but it's time to save my pennies for my 2 week UK/Scandinavian holiday in August. Should be a good one.

I am aware that I post a lot of pictures, but you should see my facebook. I post a lot more there, so check them out if you just can't get enough. Love and miss everyone back home and can't wait to hear the good news of new baby Balzer. :)