Eurotrip, Part IV

In was raining hard on the sixth day, and we were planning to walk through the attractions of Brussels. We slept in, and had a late breakfast, then planned where to go. First, we went to the Jardin Botanique (Botanical Garden), but it was raining, so we couldn’t go out and take a look. We decided to head to the Centre Belges de la Bandes Desinees (Comic Museum). We didn’t know exactly where it was, and when we asked for directions, people were very vague. So we walked around aimlessly until we hit upon a shopping mall. It was a pretty big one with tons of shops and a huge department store. The top level was fully loaded with gadgets, CD’s, DVD’s, and any other electronic equipment you’d need. They even had an Apple store. Of course, the prices were just as huge. J Beside the mall, there was this long street full of high-class shops. We walked through it, just window-shopping, then decided to continue our search for the Comic Museum. The street signs in Brussels are so vague and misleading. They’ll tell you something is one way, but they don’t tell you that you have to turn on the next street, so you follow the sign, and just keep going until you’ve gone too far. That’s what happened to us. Fortunately for us, we ran into this big square that’s been deserted. It used to be a plaza, and we could see remnants of the Marks & Spencer sign, and other stores on it, but all the stores were empty and closed down. We took shelter there from the rain, and ate our packed lunch (the roti from the night before). After we were fully rested, we spent another hour walking around aimlessly looking for the Comic Museum until we came upon this Media Library (where they had tons of CD’s and DVD’s for rent for free!), and asked for directions. The lady there didn’t speak English, but good thing I understood the French she used, and within 5 minutes, we were at the Comic Museum. It wasn’t what I thought it was. Not the comics that I read, like Superman, Batman, Spiderman. Not Marvel or DC. But the ones that I grew up with, like Smurf, Asterix, and Tin Tin. These were the European comics. They had some statues that I took some pictures of, but we didn’t bother paying the entrance fee to go in and look at their other stuff, which mainly consisted of original artworks of those characters. After the museum, we headed to a place called Grand Place, which had a lot of those old, Victorian-style buildings. We took some pictures, and walked around a bit, then finally turned into this street where they had tons of fancy restaurants that served seafood. We walked through all the restaurants, comparing prices, and looking for one that we liked. We finally settled on one that was relatively cheap, but had very few people. We ordered the seafood platter (which consisted of oysters, shrimp, clams, crayfish, all served cold), and a bucket of cooked mussels. The food was pretty good. Once we finished eating, we walked around some more, and browsed through the many chocolate stores there, and finally buying some to take home. When we got home, we packed up our stuff, then rested, watched tv, then went to bed.

On our last day there, we slept in, had a late breakfast, and just bummed around the hotel. Our flight was at 3:30pm, and we didn’t have plans for the morning, except to go back to the Egyptian place for lunch, which my dad really loved. We left at around 10am to go to the Egyptian place to get take out and eat at our hotel. Unfortunately, the place was closed. We thought it would open around 12pm, so we walked around some more, and decided to visit the Jardin Botanique, since it was such a nice, sunny day out. We got a chance to take tons of pictures there, and finally, around 11:30am, headed back to where the Egyptian place was. Around 12pm, it was still closed, and dejectedly, we went back to the hotel. We got our stuff, checked out, and took the train to the airport. It was another 15 hour trip with 2 stops, one at London, and another at Hong Kong. By the time we got back to Manila, it was already 4pm. My uncle Val and aunt Naty picked us up, and dropped us home.

All in all, it was a nice trip. Too bad it rained a lot. But we got to explore most of the place, and saw everything at the Expo. Now, it’s back to work.