La Mia Vita in Italia: My Weekend in Belgium… Waffles, Beer, and Lots of Chocolate!

Belgian Waffles

Most of the group hanging out near the Grand Place

Chocopolis!

This weekend I took my first trip outside of Italy and went to Belgium! I traveled with a group of seven other people from my program to the cities of Brussels and Bruges. We left Italy and took a train to the Pisa Airport on Friday morning, and then I took my second international flight to Brussels. It was a beautiful day in Italy when we left, it was sunny and in the 60s. But unfortunately when we arrived in Brussels it was in the high 40s, dark, and misting. Although, we weren’t going to let the gloomy weather get us down. After all, Brussels does not pride itself on being on beautiful city. Instead it actually prides itself on being ugly, at least that’s what the Brussels map we received at our hostel said. Goofy, but I guess when you’re known a city known for chocolate, waffles, and beer, ugliness doesn’t really matter.

We checked into our hostel and then went out to explore the city. The first things we saw were a plethora of chocolate shops and pubs. And shortly after that we saw lots of waffle stands! I couldn’t resist and bought a Belgian waffle immediately, it had strawberries and powdered sugar on top. It was great! We continued on to look at some of the more historical aspects of the city. We found the city’s stock exchange and right in front of it was a huge protest! The protest was for the EU to start taking action in Egypt. There were a ton of Belgian TV and radio stations there, so it was really exciting to catch a glimpse of the protest especially since Brussels is the capital of the EU. We continued wandering and found Brussels’ famous central square called the Grand Place. It is surrounded by the Brussels town hall, some large towers, historical buildings, and of course…pubs. It looked stunning at night because all the surrounding building were lit up. (Yes, there was something beautiful about ugly old Brussels.) We headed to some chocolate shops after the Grand Place. My favorite shop was one called Chocopolis, mainly because of its fabulous name and the free delicious samples we got. After all our wandering we decided to take the rest of the night to enjoy Brussels’ nightlife. We went to a bunch of different pubs, ordered their famous fries, and talked to some locals. Everyone was very friendly, and a lot of people knew English, which was nice. And I ended the night by seeing my friend Claire who’s studying abroad in Seville for the semester. She was with a friend for the weekend in Brussels too, so it was great to see a familiar face from Madison.

The next day we headed out of Brussels and into the town of Bruges. Even though it was another dark, misty day out, as soon as we hopped off the train I was overwhelmed by the loveliness of Bruges. The town is filled with cobblestone streets, lots of little shops, horse-drawn carriages, a canal, swans, plazas and more. It was picturesque to say the least. One of the best things about the town was all of its chocolate shops. There was even more chocolate in Bruges than in Brussels! Practically every other store was a chocolate shop, so of course we went into just about every one. My favorite shop there was called Chocolatier Dumon. I bought an assortment of white, milk, and dark chocolate. It is by far the best chocolate I’ve ever had, it is melty, sweet, and incredible! After all that chocolate we headed to a café for lunch (suggested by the chocolate shop owners), which was called de Medici. Their suggestion was perfect, it was an adorable cafe with an awesome menu. I ordered a smoked salmon brie and honey panini, it was delicious. We headed to see some of Bruges’ towers and churches after lunch. We saw Michelangelo’s famous Madonna and Child in the Church of Our Lady, which is the only Michelangelo piece to leave Italy during his lifetime. We also saw Bruges’ famous Bell Tower, which is featured throughout the movie In Bruges.

We headed back to Brussels in time for dinner, and were able to meet up with Claire again. We ended the night at Delirium Café, a highly acclaimed Brussels bar with over 2000 beers from all over the world. Delirium beer is said to be one of the best of those 2000, so I tried it, and it definitely met its reputation. We headed back to our next hostel, which was actually a hotel. It was really nice to have a real bed and a private bathroom after staying in the hostel the night before. Although, sadly we couldn’t enjoy it for too long because we had to leave at 7 am to head back to the Brussels airport and catch our flight back to Italy.

Overall, I really enjoyed Belgium. It was a nice change of pace from Italy. It had a super friendly atmosphere, wasn’t too touristy, and of course had absolutely amazing chocolate! It was a very successful first trip outside of Italy.

Next weekend I have a program trip to Rome. So another weekend of traveling, but I’m excited to be staying in Italy. I missed all the pasta and beautiful scenery this weekend. It feels good to be back.

Hope you’re all staying warm back in the states!

Mi mancate e tanti baci!

-Laura