Brussels, Bruges, Belgium. Say that five times fast!

This past weekend, 8 of us went to Belgium. We booked a flight to Brussels, but also ended up going to Bruges for one day as well. Now I am sure many of you think that traveling with 8 people is a lot, but we usually travel with 28-29 people, so 8 was the perfect amount. 6 girls 2 boys, all in one hotel room. Our flight was Friday night at 9 oclock, but since we were going to the small airport in Rome, Ciampino, it was going to take us a while to get there, so we left our apartments at 530. First we had to take a bus to the train station, which took about 40 minutes, then we had to take another 40 minute bus ride, this time on a coach bus, to the airport. It took us about 2 hours just to get to the airport. Note to self. Flying in and out of Fumicino is much easier and less complicated to do! We got to the airport and noticed that it was a warehouse, literally. There were maybe 10 terminals all in one big room. We had to sit on the floor to save our seats for the plane. The plane ride was only about 2 hours, but we left about 45 minutes late, so we didn't get into Brussels until 12am. Little did we know that the public transportation stops running at midnight, so we had to scramble and find a cab. Luckily there was a nice man that would drive us to our hotel for 15 euro each, even though the cab was another 50 minute ride. We got to our hotel and had to figure out how 8 people were going to sneak into a hotel room that was supposed to be for 2 people. We traveled in twos and it worked out. The hotel room had one giant bed, a couch, and some comfy chairs. So each night 3 girls slept in the bed, a few on the floor, and some on chairs. We didn't get much sleep, but we knew this going into it. Even though we were exhausted Friday night, we walked around Brussels for a little to see what the night life was like. We were determined to find this French Fry stand that was open till 6am, and we miracurously walked into it. Belgian fries are known for having mayo and curry ketchup on them, but we decided to go for regular ketchup and salt. Yum yum yum. I was expecting "waffle" fries, but they were still amazing!


After the amazing fries, we went back to our hotel, but was locked out. They gave us a key that did not fit into the key holder, so we waited outside for about 20 minutes until the guy from the front desk heard us and let us in. It was 3am by this point, so we were determined to sit in McDonalds till about 6am when the hotel would be open...thank god someone came to let us in. We figure out our sleeping arrangements for the night, and went to bed.

The next day was to be spent in Brussels. We didn't really know anything about Brussels, so we walked around aimlessly for hours seeing the entire city. We found a cute French place to eat lunch, but the menu was in French so we didn't know what we were ordering. I got a cappuccino that had whipped cream on top to my surprise and some chicken dish. And of course we had fries for our sides. Some people ordered a Belgian beer, but I was too tired to drink. I wish I had gotten one cause it was really good!


After lunch, we just walked the city and saw everything we could. We were looking all over for the "palace," but to our surprise it was right in front of us. The palace was not what I was expecting, but I guess it is the "monument" to see in Brussels. It was drizzling and windy on Saturday so it kinda put a damper on our day, so about every few hours we would sit down eat some food and drink a beer. We were craving chocolate and waffels, so we found a cute caffe that would satisfy our taste. The beer menu had all sorts of beer to drink we sweets, so we figured we should try a beer with waffles/chocolate. I heard to get hot chocolate in Brussels, so I got that instead of a waffle. The hot chocolate is made with steamed milk, and then you put as many chocolate chips in the drink as you want. I love chocolate, so I added almost all of my chips to the milk. It was unbelievably rich, but amazingly good! I got a beer that was raspberry flavored, it tasted like raspberry champaign punch, but with a beer aftertaste. I am not the biggest beer drinker, but I will drink this beer anytime! It is my new favorite drink! We devoured our hot chocolates, waffles, and beer and decided to head back to the hotel to get ready for the evening.


We went to this one restaurant for dinner, but they couldn't serve us till ten, so the owner told us to go down the street to this other place and eat real Belgian food. Below is the menu of the restaurant. All in French, but the waiters were so nice that they helped us decide what to get. I got chicken and potatoes, some people got a beef stew, some got ribs, and other typical Belgian courses. The meal was amazing, especially the mashed potatoes! It was cheaper than we expected and well worth the cost! In one day alone, I had three great meals! We finished up dinner and went back to the hotel to get ready and go out to a bar. The pregame was so fun, we played a card game, and of course I lost, "the adopted one" in the family. Since the hotel was for 2 people, we made up a family. Chloe and Thomas were the parents, and the rest of us were the kids. I am not sure how I got to be the "adopted" child, but oh well. We headed out to a bar around 12 called Delerium Bar. Not what we were expecting, but still very fun. It was too smoky for us to handle though, so we didn't stay there long. Of course we needed to get late night food, so some of the girls went and got fries at the local stand while me and 3 others went to Greek town and had some delicious pitas! I haven't had a kebab or pita abroad yet, so I was in craving some the minute we saw Greek town! It was amazing! I need to find some type of Greek town in Rome and get myself a kebab at least once every other week! It was a wonderful end of the night because we were getting up in about 4 hours to catch a train to Bruges!



Bruge is a town about an hour away from Brussels. We took the train at 9am and got there by 10 so we could spend the entire day exploring Bruges. Bruges is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in Belgium. It is located in the northwest area of the country. Again, we didn't know much about Bruges except that it has good beer and amazing chocolate. We got off the train and was on a mission to find good chocolate and the chocolate museum. Bruges has roads and roads of little cafes/tea rooms and over 50 chocolate shops. Many people take horse rides around the town to see all of the shops and restaurants. We stopped in basically all of the chocolate shops to see what they offered and sometimes bought a treat for the walk.



Our first adventure of the day was seeing the Chocolate museum called the Choco Story Chocolate Museum. This museum is composed of several rooms describing the story of the transformation of the cocoa bean into chocolate and to promote the health and quality aspects of Belgian chocolate.

Here is a link of how chocolate was made.
http://www.choco-story.be/ENG/history.htm

Below is a picture of actual sized cocoa beans. The coolest thing I learned from the museum is the fact that dark chocolate is composed of more cocoa than sugar, while white chocolate is composed of almost half sugar and no cocoa. That is why dark chocolate is so much better for you! Pictures are shown below with how much sugar is needed to make each chocolate. The last part of the museum was a demonstration showing how to make chocolates with fillings.


White chocolate. Milk chocolate.

Dark chocolate.

Here is a link on how to make certain chocolates:
http://www.choco-story.be/ENG/recipes.htm

We saw a woman make pralines, which is a famous Belgian chocolate. At the end of the demonstration, we got samples too! So yummy!! Check out the website if you want to make some chocolate though, it seems pretty easy!

First layer of chocolate, hazelnut filling, top coat of chocolate! YUM!

After the wonderful pieces of chocolate we ate before noon, we got some lunch at a cute little cafe where you could make your own sandwiches, salads, and panins. Next was the Brewery tour at De Halve Man. The De Halve Man family brewery has been running since 1856. On the tour, we got to see the cooking and brewing cauldron and other instruments that are used to make the "Straffe Hendrik" beer. We were shown how to make beer using the old traditional breweing methods of Bruges. We also got to go to the top of the brewery and see the whole city of Bruges. After the tour, we got to taste the homemade beer, but it had too much of a bitter aftertaste so I didn't like it. With over 450 varieties of beer, Belgium is a specialist beer. Each beer is served in its own appropriate beer glass. The most famous of Belgian Beers is the Lambic beer, a non malted wheat beer that is dry, tart and naturally effervescent drink that is better aged, even though my favorite beer is Mort Subite Extreme Pramboise aka raspberry flavored.




We moved to an Irish pub after the brewery and had some more beer. Basically this day consisted of beer and chocolate. We went to a little restaurant for dinner and had some more typical Belgium dishes. We celebrated Valentine's day together as a group. It was very cute. After dinner, we had to take a train back to Brussels and get to bed because our flight this morning was at 6am which meant we had to get up at 315. We hung out for a little, had another beer and went to bed for about 3 hours. We got up at the right time, got a taxi at 4am, took a two hour plane ride and got back to Rome by 1030. It was a long day because I had three hours of class today, but now I get to relax and do nothing for the night except blog. Brussels and Bruges was a great trip! It is a place that not many people get to go to and I will remember the beer and chocolate forever. I told myself I am not allowed to eat chocolate for 2 weeks because I consumed way too much this weekend. I love chocolate, a little too much!

(Favorite beer!)
76% cocoa! That is a lot! So yummy! We finished the whole thing on the train...whoops!

Ciao
-Marisa