I have been in desperate need of some inspiration for a new blog post, and what better inspiration than going travelling for a month! It’s been months since I last posted, partly because I’ve been quite busy recently and also because I have been lacking in inspiration of what to write about.
On the 1st of July, me and my boyfriend left home for a month to go and explore Europe interrailing and it is one of the best things I have ever done! I honestly can’t recommend this experience enough, so I wanted to write some posts about the places we went and the things we did. As we went to so many places and did so much, I am going to break it down by each place that we went so that it is not a crazy long post about everything we did in a month.
Today’s post is about our first stop, Brussels! I will be doing another post with tips and tricks about interrailing, with everything from booking everything including information of what passes we got etc to tips for when you are there, so I am going to leave that information out of this post. If you are interested, keep an eye out for that post in the future.
As I’ve already said, we left on the 1st of July. A good thing about the interrail pass if you live in the UK is that on the first day you can use it within the UK. This means that you can get a train from wherever you live to London, where you can then get on the Eurostar across to mainland Europe. We took the Eurostar to Brussels. The journey was a long one from our home in Newcastle down to London, and then across to Brussels so when we got to Brussels the first thing we did was found somewhere to sit outside and have a drink. We also had to wait to check into our Air BnB so we had some time to kill. When we eventually checked into our Air BnB it was around 5pm so we both had a shower and got ready to go into the centre of Brussels. My first impression of Brussels was not the best, it seemed very industrial and urban with graffiti everywhere and a lot of grey buildings. However, the closer we got to the centre it started to grow on me more. Dirty-looking graffiti turned into spectacular wall murals and boring streets turned into cobbled ones with little independent shops. The first sight we saw was the Mannekin Pis which is so funny, it is basically just a statue of a boy having a wee but it is one of the biggest sights in Brussels! I couldn’t believe how many people there was standing taking pictures of the hilarious fountain. If you follow the street where the Mannekin Pis is, you eventually come to the Grand-Place of Brussels which is the main square in the centre. This is one of the most beautiful places in Brussels, everywhere you look there is a huge breath-taking buildings and the atmosphere is amazing with street performers and restaurants all around. The square becomes even more spectacular at night when it is lit up a stunning magenta colour. We ate at one of the many restaurants on the streets around the square, and we even tried the traditional ‘carbonnade flamande’. This is a beef stew, kind of like beef bourguignon, which is actually really nice. Speaking of Belgian cuisine, we of course tried proper Belgian waffles which were delicious. There are shops selling them all over the city, with pretty much any topping you can imagine.
The next day, we explored more of Brussels and it’s stunning architecture. There are some amazing buildings, such as the Palais de Justice and the Notre Dame there. You can get a beautiful view of the city from the top of the hill, where the Palais de Justice is located. The Royal Palace of Brussels is definitely worth a visit, although it is in a strange location on a roundabout. This roundabout must be one of the most interesting ones I’ve seen as every exit has important and beautiful buildings you can see from the centre of the roundabout. You can also visit the European Quarter where the EU buildings and parliament are located which is very interesting to see. This is also a nice area of Brussels, where you can find a lot of nice bars and restaurants. Another thing I liked about Brussels was there are a lot of beautiful green parks, including the Leopold Park which is located near the EU parliament. Of course, certainly the largest attraction in Brussels is the Atomium. This is a must see if you are visiting Brussels, but I would also highly recommend paying to go inside. I thought it would just be a lift straight up to the top, but once you are inside you realise that each circle within the Atomium has a different exhibition inside and each pole connecting them contains an elevator into the next one. The exhibitions are really interesting, and the view from the top is breath-taking. It is definitely worth the money to go inside, and it was definitely one of the best things we did in Brussels. That night we ate one of my favourite places the whole time we were away, a restaurant called Baogo. This place serves burgers, made with bao buns and served with spicy chips and it is honestly one of the best things I have ever eaten. Another place I would really recommend visiting is the Delirium bars. There are ones for pretty much every alcohol you can imagine, beer, tequila, vodka etc. Basically they just serve drinks of every flavour and type you can imagine, but they also have an amazing atmosphere until the early hours of the morning.
Brussels was not one of the places I was most excited about, but it was a real pleasant surprise. I’m not sure I would go back, but I would definitely recommend it as an interesting and beautiful place to visit with a nice atmosphere and unique things to do.
Emily Ashton 