Travelling.

It’s the feeling you get when you order hot chocolate at Starbucks, the man asks for your name and you answer: “Clémentine,” and hi says: “Oh, yes…” because you do it every day. When you feel so sorry for the dogs belonging to the man begging on the corner that you buy them food. That’s when you’ve fallen for a city and started to make it your own. That’s when the real journey begins. When you smile and they smile. When people in the little shops knows what you’re going to buy, before you buy it, when people come over to talk to you randomly on the street, when everything’s new and you need help to explore. This is when the journey begins. Love.

Mari Clémentine

Sweetest museum ever - Brussels

I sat in the sofa in our apartment and opened my eyes for the third time or so looking at the rain tapping the window. It hadn’t been raining the entire day, but it had been raining and I had gotten rather wet.

     It turned out our last day was a perfect day for museums and we started our morning at the Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate, which is located just of Grand Place and is just okay until the demonstration of how they make chocolate making it great. The boy doing it was so cute, and had such a horrible French accent it made everything super sweet – and we also got to taste! Hallelujah!

    We continued on to The Belgian Comic Strip showing us strips and stories of writers, the strip itself and different series. So as you may know both Tintin and the smurfs are Belgian and we had rather a lot of fun there.

    Next up: We’ve been chocolate shopping. It was the last thing we needed to do before leaving, cause as everyone knows: Belgian chocolate is the best. The only thing that remains now is to pack our bags as we’ll be heading home tomorrow morning and thank everyone we’ve met for a wonderful trip.

Mari Clémentine

Waffles and flats - Brussels

So yesterday I learned a couple of things:
1. Belgian waffles are really yummy.
2. The shops and museums here close waaaay to early (6 – 7 pm)
3. Don’t wear high heels if you’re not staying only in New Street.

I can’t say we did much progress with being cultural yesterday either, breakfast-coffee at Starbucks, chocolate tasting, Belgian Waffles at Grand Place and dinner at McDonalds. Well, we’re broke travelers, what can you expect?
    I did some more shopping and we were going to the chocolate museum, but as I now know it’s closing at 16.30. Who goes to a museum at 16.30 when the shops close at 18? I’m starting to sound shopaholic, probably because even though I write that I go shopping every day I haven’t really been buying that much. Well, well…

     It’s our last day in Brussels and lesson learned – no high heels. I rather wear flats because all of a sudden you’re walking a street that looks like this:

Mari Clémentine

Pasta Divina - Brussels

                                                  

Picture from TripAdvisor

So this post is really just me telling you all one more time that you should go to Pasta Divina, it's located in Rue de la Montaigne not far from Grand Place, and it's a quiet area. This italian restaurant is not big, but very cozy and has wonderful food. It's some of the best pasta I've ever tasted. Go there! The "mom" is in the kitchen cooking and the "dad" and "daughter" works as waiters. 5 stars!

Mari Clémentine

Much to do about nothing – Brussels

Seriously. Today I’ve done about nothing. We’ve been shopping for the first time in Brussels and we’ve been jumping from café to café eating macaroons and drinking coffee. Shopping. Shopping. Chocolate. It wasn’t until this evening the real fun started.

    We were just going out for dinner at a place called Pasta Divina, I had seen it the other day and really wanted some real Pasta Carbonara when we took a wrong turn and ended up in the middle of a couple of restaurant-streets. We were more or less attacked by waiters wanting us to sit down, but the worst, funniest thing ever happened when we had nearly made it out and a man suddenly blocked our way holding his arms out. I, of course, ran right into them, getting a long hug and kisses on the cheek and goodness knows, but he wanted one more and all togheter I think we spent 10 minutes hugging, another one showed up offering us free drinks and then free everything, but I had set my mind on Pasta Divina and that is where we ended up. Thank goodness, because the pasta was divine. It’s a quiet place located in Rue de la Montaigne, ran by an Italian family with the mother in the kitchen. Lovely.

   Heading home I found bongo-drums, a street artist and a slightly drunk man, nice enough wanting to show off his political knowledge about the European Union. He also was black, against immigrants to Europe and called himself Tom Jones – enough entertainment for the night for sure.

    Point being: Go out after six o’clock and you’ll find yourself in a dreamland of entertainment if you come open minded and is up for anything. Let the city catch you,

Mari Clémentine.

Hard Rock Cafe - Brussels

So for lunch yesterday we went to Hard Rock Café, it’s all new and located just of Grand Place and is absolutely fabulous. It has a microphone-lamp and a great art-piece made out of guitars. The staff is very friendly and the food is delicious. I guess this one knocked Venice of the toplist, sorry Venice… Hard Rock nr. 12 was a great experience, a must-go-to in Brussel if you like it.

Mari Clémentine