Last weekend in Brussels

With one last weekend in Brussels, I felt obligated to hang out with the Romanians and not just meet on Thursday, get a drink, and then skip out because of work the next morning. I met them at a little smoky dive bar called Café Central in downtown Brussels. It was very near the Irish pub I visited a few weeks before with my American friend (Stephanie) and Greek friend (Anna).  It was an interesting place, besides all of the smoke. I was introduced to a bunch of Italian guys, one whom had a girlfriend that looked so much like my friend Chrissy that every time I talked to her that’s all I could think about. Freaky.

We ended the night at a club up near where we all live called Spirito Martini which was in an old church. If you have ever been to Club Opera in Atlanta, the setup is very similar except all of the stonework and stained glass windows are authentic (from what I could tell). It was supposed to be a trendy, packed club, but when we got there very few people were dancing and the music wasn’t loud at all. We had a few more (expensive) drinks and called it a night.  Thanks to Mădălina, Ana-maria, Adina, Ioana, Alex, and the rest of the people I can't remember or whose names I can't pronounce.

The next morning I got up relatively early to meet Stephanie and a few of her friends (Danish Daniel and Ukrainian Yagna) at the train station for Antwerp. It was the last major touristy city in Belgium I hadn’t gone to, so I had to check it off the list. I had some ideas in mind from my guidebook, so we got on the train for the 40 minute ride and planned out the day. I was on a mission to find Westvleteren beer and take a tour of the city’s sewers.

The vibe in Antwerp is totally different from Brussels. There is a giant shopping district through the main part of the city. The road ends at one point and it becomes a giant pedestrian thoroughfare. A few hundred years ago, Antwerp became the largest importer of diamonds from Africa, and to this day 80% of them pass through the city.

Of course, there was a church in the center of the city. You had to pay to get into this one, but it housed 4 paintings by Rubens that were spectacular. Here is a picture one of the masterpieces. After seeing the church, we wandered along the river and through the not impressive red light district as the girls pretended not to giggle. Here is a picture of the city – we walked through a tunnel underneath the river to see the Antwerp skyline from the other side. It was a cold and windy day which made most of our outside activities consist of walking quickly with your head bent down to shield the wind.

Based on the reviews of the canal tour, I wanted to go and convinced everyone else to check it out. We were on a bit of a time crunch because Stephanie wanted to go to the American style supermarket on the outskirts of town (she is studying in Brussels and wanted some food to cook). We got to the building and it looked innocent enough from the outside. When you entered the ticket area you could see the steps spiral down below floor level and fade into darkness under the street that we came in on. At this point it was 2 or 3 in the afternoon and the supermarket closed at 5. We could pay 5 Euros (or so) to peek down into the sewer, or pay 15 for the full tour that lasted 3 hours. Since it didn’t fit into our plan, we all decided to just leave (although by now we all really wanted to take the 3 hour tour – it looked really cool and I would recommend anyone to check it out if they get the chance).

We convinced Stephanie that there was too much else to do and her supermarket trip wasn’t that important, so we got pints of Westerleven Trippel (my favorite beer from the trip) at a local pub. Lonely Planet said to try a certain pub in Antwerp for the elusive and highly reviewed Westvleteren trappist beer, but they just laughed at me when I asked for it. No luck. We gave up and went to the Rubenshuis, the former house and studio of Antwerp’s most famous artist, Rubens. It was only 2 Euros to get in, so definitely worth it. A few of the pictures were good, but a lot of his really amazing works are displayed in museums and churches mentioned before.

To wrap up the day we did some shopping (yes, even me). I failed to get the two things I was really looking forward to out of the city, but I definitely prefer Antwerp to Brussels. The group talked about going to get a drink in Brussels when we got back, but I was beat. The hope was to take a nap and meet back up with the Romanians, but after I got home and talked to them they weren’t up for it. I spent a night in and rested up for my last bit of sightseeing in Belgium.

The first thing I did on Sunday was use the metro – for the first time after being there for six weeks. It was pretty easy to figure out, and I went to the northwest part of the city to see the Brussels Atomium. It was built for the World’s Fair held here back in the 50’s, and resembles a giant atom. I paid the highly overpriced 12 Euros to go inside, and took an elevator to the top floor. The views honestly weren’t that great. You could see a lot of the city, but all of the cool buildings were far enough away that it didn’t strike me as impressive. The coolest part was just walking around the outside of the Atomium and looking up at the massive structure.

I caught the metro back into town and walked around a little more. Then I peed on a church. Haha, let me back up. So I’m walking by a church and I see this partitioned part on one side where a few guys were facing the wall. On closer inspection after they left, these were indeed “urinals”. Metal dividers had been put up and a pipe at the top dripped water down the wall. I said, “Don’t mind if I do,” and peed on the church.

My last stop of the day after eating another delicious waffle was to the two museums in the city. The Magritte Museum (think man wearing a bowler hat with an apple in front of his face) was appealing to me because he was a contemporary of Dali and had a very similar style, just not as twisted. The Beaux Arts Museum held the Hals painting I mentioned in an earlier post of a man that might be one of my ancestors.

It turned out that the Magritte Museum was sold out, so MAKE SURE TO RESERVE TICKETS ONLINE if you want to go. The Beaux Arts ticket was only 2 Euros and the place was relatively empty. Surprisingly, I saw a few works in the modern section that I recognized. They had a Dali, Van Gogh, David, Seurat, and of course my sought after Hals. See the resemblance? And to those that have given me crap about the scarf: it was cold, rainy and windy, and I don’t care. :P

I ended the day watching UK win in overtime (I found a streaming site online) and then went out to dinner with John, my replacement here in Belgium. He’s a Scottish guy and pretty cool although he’s a bit older than me. We got to know each other over a few pints and got ready for my last and his first week of work.