Kyle Hepp

December 8, 2010

I was urgently looking for some pictures of Seba and I in a swamp tonight, so I ended up going through all of our travel pictures. I stumbled across these little gems from Belgium and figured I’d post, since it was hands down one of our favorite countries that we visited in Europe and when I looked back through my travel blog posts, it seems I did not put up a single photo of our time in Brussels/Brugge. I did write up our first impressions, but that’s about it.

One of the bridesmaids from Nick and Heather’s wedding had invited us to stay with her while we were in town, so of course, being the polite people that we are, we took her up on the offer. Let this be a warning to future bridesmaids in weddings that we photograph — don’t invite us if you don’t actually want us to come.

Cloe was a great hostess! She took us to see a lot of the city and told us so much about her life there. It was pretty fascinating to hear a Belgian’s perspective on life. I’m of the personal opinion that we need more of them in this world — Belgians that is.

Here we are with Cloe at an antique street market. There was a ton of cool stuff. Unfortunately, most of it wouldn’t fit in our backpacks to take home.

We also paid a visit to the infamous Mannequin Pis. Cloe told us about how they dress him up in different costumes, that they change depending on the time of the year. Who “they” are, I’m not quite sure, but that’s such a cool idea. Santiago needs a statue that we can use to play dress up! The story on my homey, MP, is that someone threw a bomb at Belgium and before it could explode he and his sister peed on it and put it out before it exploded, therefore saving the entire city. I didn’t double check any of that with Wikipedia, but I did link to them, so do some fact checking before you run around spreading that rumor.

As you can tell, MP is an extremely well-known tourist attraction. His sister, however, not so much. She was so forlorn that we were able to get up close and personal to take a picture right in front of the statue. And I could understand why she’s not as popular. Looking at a little girl peeing is more obscene than looking at a little boy peeing. Maybe that’s why she’s behind bars.

We strolled around a part of the city that is popular with tourists to go and eat steamed mussels and other Belgian delicacies, but Seba and I don’t like seafood, so we passed. The open air cafes weren’t too popular since it was kind of a gloomy day.

We might have passed on the seafood, however, we certainly did not pass on the Belgian waffles. Eating them tasted like a cloud of happiness floating on your tongue. So delicious. And so good for you too!

I actually paid one Euro for this picture.

This is the main square of Brussels. It looks exactly what you imagine a perfect European fairytale city to look like. It’s truly beyond beautiful.

Hmmm, now that I look twice at the picture below, I’m pretty sure it shouldn’t be in this post. This is no longer Brussels, it has to be Brugge. Brussels didn’t have any canals! On a side note, we saw the blood of Jesus in Brugge. It was crusty and in a tiny little tube that we weren’t allowed to take photos of. Still, very cool.

Seba didn’t really like Brugge because he thought it was too touristy. I thought it was quaint and it was a nice, quiet, relaxing day trip. No complaints here.

Back to Brussels, I believe.

The entire city basically looks like a work of art.

Brussels is so random. That’s one of the things I loved the most about it. Take this statue of some legs stepping on a head, for instance. Where did it come from? Why is it here? What does it all mean?!

Doesn’t rain make fairytale Belgium pictures look even cooler?

And then of course, this totally random picture of hanging shoes, that could’ve been taken anywhere in the universe, is my favorite shot of all of Belgium