Trifter

I recently went to Brussels in Belgium for a holiday with my parents, in fact at the moment I am still there. The main reason we really came was so that I could practice my French, but that idea went out the window when we discovered that a. most people here speak English and b. Dutch is the other main language here.(I don’t speak one word of Dutch!). Whilst staying here we discovered many things about the city, some good, and some bad, but I’ll write another article on the bad things later.

The food in Brussels is amazing. Most famous from Belgium of course is the chocolate; As you walk around the city it is clear to see how much this affects the citizens and their work. There are hundreds of Chocolate shops including Godiva and Leonidas. As you walk down the small ally that leads to the Manequin Pis you are constantly being wafted with the smell of fresh dark chocolate. Every other shop seems to sell chocolate souveneirs and small chocolate models of the Manequin Pis. To see a picture of him look at some of the pictures I am going to put on in a couple of days. My favorite item of chocolate I have seen here is the slabs. You can buy huge slabs of chocolate, all different sizes about two or three inches thick, and in various sizes depending on what size you buy. You can normally buy this for around 15 euros per Kg.

Another of the beauties of Belgium is again culinary. The waffles that are cooked here are increadible to say the least, they have around 100 plus different toppings you can have, ranging from icing sugar all the way up to a huge mound of starwberrys, bananas, cream and a dollop of ice cream(you get the choice of flavour) covered in dark chocolate sauce. Of course there are not good for your waist line, but great for you happiness. They are quite expensive but are filling enough to just eat one for a meal. A plain waffle costs around 3 euros and the huge ones I mentioned come in at around 7 euros. I must add however that they are well worth the money and I would throughly recommend you try at least one on your trip.

Image via Wikipedia

Staying with the food idea another thing Belgium is famous for is it’s frites or fries. They are like normal American fries, but they are cooked better and served in a traditional paper wrap. If you want to enjoy them in the traditional way the locals do, you should eat them with a mayonaise sauce. There are hundreds of shops that sell them, where you can take them away and eat them whilst looking around the sites or you can sit down and eat them inside the restaurant.

Image via Wikipedia

Moving away from food now the Manequin Pis, which is situated in Brussels just down the road from the Grande Place, is a popular tourist attraction. It is the statue of a young boy who is in the act of urinateing, which as been made into a fountain. The boy is said to have used his God given functions to put out a fire which was engulfing the town. On special days during the year he is dressed in different outfits, realting to the day. On the Beligum national day he is dressed up in the national dress. He has worn hundreds of different outfits and you can see these on different souveniers, such as 4 different packs of cards and many books filled with them.

If you are looking for these things in a holiday destination them I would recommend Brussels and I hope of you do come here you have a great time and enjoy your stay.