bruxelles!

bonsoir! i am in BRUSSELS/ BRUSELS/ BRUXELLES/ however you want to spell it. that seems to be the theme of this city - any language you want, you've got it.

brussels is totally awesome. i'm staying at a lovely b&b in the Forest region, which i think is in the south, but you know me and my directional capabilities.

a few things about the city before i post pics of what i've been doing:

•  it is the "cultural and political capital of europe", meaning this is where all of europe comes together to discuss/argue/cry/whatever.
• it feels more suburban than amsterdam and less urban than paris. meaning there are a TON of beautiful parks to wander through whenever you want. 
• dogs! everywhere! they are all adorable.
• the official language of belgium is dutch, but the majority of people speak french, so all of the streets are in dutch and their french equivalent. for example, the street i'm staying on is: RUE MARCONI STRAAT. the first half in french, the second half in dutch. almost everyone speaks both and english as well.
• cathedrals everywhere! they are all beautiful. . . 
• the escalators stop and start based on if there are people using them or not! how crazy!
• the metro system is AMAZING. everything is super clean and new. the seats are leather! very user friendly, as well. i think there is even a museum dedicated to public transport.
• speaking of museums - there is a museum on every street basically. politics, art, religion, musical instruments... you name it, brussels has a museum for it.
• food: pommes frites (with a lot of toppings), belgian waffles! (i love the ones DIPPED IN CHOCOLATE. you read that right.), beer - delirium.

ok picture time! i got in last night and just wandered sans camera because i'm a dummy. but, today i went on my usual museum/cathedral walkabout. you'd think i would be bored of this by now, huh?

my street

museum, i think

architechture

square

people live here!

when in doubt, museum

gold!

this was pretty incredible.

some kind of museum

eglise st. katharine

i went to the magritte museum! it was great - three floors dedicated to magritte. very interesting life and output. i took two pictures and then got yelled at, so this is all i have:

this is probably illegal

a tree stump

then i went to the royal palace

palace

palace!

entrance to a park (normal)

look at that palace!

i went inside!

purdy

chandeliers EVERYWHERE

very ornate

huge room with... asian instruments?

i'm probably going to live in a similar place one day

ok, i was getting confused.
why the sudden asian instruments?

mirrors

cool chandelier

turns out it was ALSO the museum of musical instruments!
fate.

tibetan singing bowls

then i turned the corner into a room full
of crazy "technology"...
think kids museum with a weird green ceiling.

national palace... it was different than the royal one.

their version of notre-dame

i think it was actually called "notre-dame" something

stained glass, of course

someone started playing organ!!!

it was a beautiful moment

i walked around for another hour and got lunch (people are speaking to me in french! it is great). then i came home for my nap, as usual. then i went out for another walk!

not sure what this is.

view from the highest point in brussels! 

gold

palais du justice - it was under construction,
but you get the idea.

eglise st. chapelle

"just another european cathedral"

old meets new

more church

this was a really, really old church.

i ended up back at st. katharine... without knowing it.

belltower

as cool as brussels is, i think i saw most of it today. so, i think i'm going to go to bruges tomorrow. picture a postcard from a pretty place with rivers and flowers and magic. that's where i'm going. i'll have photos to post, of course.

yay!

PS : i've made a youtube playlist for anyone interested in listening to what i listen to on all of these walks! check it auttt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hzgS9s-tE8&list=PLTOb7eM3DoA21LFxcbIi3y0xNBQMLjEQ6