Brussels

A lot of travelers had warned me that they did not like Brussels, and I should skip it. This was very bizarre to me, as I ended up really loving the place. A man saw me walking with my pack, and helped me with directions to my hostel, also giving me some advice on local attractions. Upon entering my hostel, I was greeted by a large dog, who begrudgingly allowed me to pat him. The rooms were absolutely massive and the bed was the most comfortable I had been in for a long time. The breakfast was also quite good, with a dazzling array of sugary spreads such as Nutella, cinnamon spread and chocolate sprinkles. A short walk later and I was in the main square.

I started a walking tour, but since the English group was around 100 people with only one guide, and my Spanish is not so flash, I bailed very quickly and did my own tour. The smaller size of Brussels and the relatively few tourists was refreshing after Paris. To my delight, I wandered across many painted cartoon murals against tall two or three story buildings in the streets. Brussels was home to Herge, the creator of Tintin, and the city has adopted Tintin in many forms, as well as being a cultural center for all things comic. I visited an amazing comic book store with many popular French and Belgian titles I had never heard of. I also could not resist buying some Tintin souvenirs. The comic museum was also good, but not great. Sadly the official Tintin museum was a ways out of town and I did not have the time to visit.

The Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, an indoor mall/hall, contained a lot of various chocolate shops, and I sampled from most of them. Flavours ranged from raspberry and truffle to wasabi and chilli. I also wandered into a macaroon shop and bought a single salted caramel macaroon. Five minutes later, I came back to buy more. The shop assistant laughed when she saw me again so soon, and I told her that it was one of the best things I had ever tasted. I also had a great hot chocolate from the Leonidas chocolate cafe. The rest of the day was spent wandering around town and window shopping for awesome (but ridiculously expensive) nautical antiques. Brussels contained many of my favourite things, from Belgian beer, chocolate and Tintin, to comics, murals, nautical knick knacks and interesting alleyways.