Brussels by Day (Oct. 13)

Thankfully I had time to cruise around the downtown in Brussels before jetting back to Copenhagen on the 13th. I also was lucky to have some excellent people to explore with namely Juan, Hady, Luca, and Jen. Jen and I actually had the same flight back to Copenhagen (she lives not far from me but in Sweden). Traversing around a new city is so much fun with new friends and people to explore it with. We took our fair share of silly pictures including this one. We were trying to mimick the poses in the fountain.
















I am not sure what the story is behind this gold sculpture (of Christ I am assuming) but rumor had it from the other tourists that touching the gold of the statue would bring good luck. Who doesn't need good luck? I made a few passes at it through the big crowd mainly to enable Hady to take a good picture but, can one have too much luck? With my exam week quickly approaching I don't think so....

















As many of you are aware Belgium is known for two star products. The first (men should know this as do I) is great beer and about a million different flavors. I went to one shop with 250 different beers on the shelves. The second is chocolate, and in the downtown you can't miss it - just follow your nose. Many places had melted chocolate fountains and gave entrants to the shop a biscuit or cookie to dip in the chocolates streaming down. I bought a few boxes (though did not eat them all thank Buddha) to share with friends and for my sister's birthday. The price was right and the taste was great. This pic gives you an hint of what I am talking about.

















One of the famous sculptures in Brussels (although unbeknownst to me until I was there) is the Manneken Pis. It is a TINY statue (that one can't get close to due to a gate around it) of a little boy peeing. A related funny story about the statue the day I was there was our attempt to meet up with an Italian colleague Luca. Since we all had cell phones operable in Europe but wanted to avoid expensive calling and language confusion we tried to coordinate meeting through text messages. Luca, in an effort to save time using the English prediction option on the phone translated the darling Manneken Pis name directly into English, saying he would meet us at the "Child Piss". For some reason this crude translation strikes me so funny every time I think of it. Here is the statue in case you are curious.





















Finally the end of the day was nearing, our late lunch was over and it was time to say goodbye to some of these wonderful new friends I had the pleasure to spend the day with. I was hoping to meet up with Hady last week in London but it didn't work out. Surely I will see Luca again since he is now living near Padova where I will be studying close to for 2 weeks this summer. The goodbye to Jen was prolonged until we disembarked at the airport in Copenhagen and she headed off to Lund (Swedent) and I to my apt in Frederiksberg. Surely I will see her again in the coming months and can hopefully introduce her and her boyfriend to another colleague of mine living in the same town. Here is my last snap of Brussels....