When I had originally booked my flight to Brussels, Belgium I thought 24 hours would be long enough in the city before heading back to London. I did get to see everything I wanted to, but I wish I had spent more time in Belgium! The city truly surprised me and has become one of my top 5 favorite places I have visited now! Every country is amazing in it’s own way and brings a different experience to the table however, I feel as though Belgium is often overlooked. People always want to see the same countries: France, Italy, London, Greece… 
but Belgium with it’s beer, chocolates and frites (I have never eaten so many fries in my life!). I found Brussels to be a city of culture, beautiful architecture and humor.
My boyfriend, Elliot, who is from the UK, and I arrived in Brussels on a flight from Rome around 8 O’Clock at night. From the airport we had to take a train into the city, so we arrived there about 45 minutes later. Outside the train station were strange port-a-potties that smelled terrible! My first reaction to Brussels was not the best.. After a bit of wandering around and asking several people we were able to find our hotel, Floris Hotel Ustel. Our room was beautiful, and the hotel provided free breakfast which included croissants, eggs, bacon and coffee. We were starving by the time we arrived so we went to eat at a restaurant two buildings down, Bar BQ. The price wasn’t terrible especially due to it was one of the only places open so late and the food was great. Most of the menu was in French, but I understood enough of it to get by and I ordered a Belgian Dish, which I understood was Chicken with Frites. It was delicious! We then had a beer before returning to our hotel.
The next morning we had breakfast in the hotel before heading out to explore the city. We walked to where the Brussels town hall is and the entire square is breathtaking! From there we went to the Chocolate Museum, where you can see how Belgian 
Chocolate is made and can eat all the chocolate you want! You can try chocolate from Peru and Costa Rica as well. It’s a fun little museum that is definitely worth a visit.
After the chocolate museum, we went to check out the Delirium Cafe which is SO COOL. There are several different bars with sort of an alleyway between some of them, which – as we learned later that night – is very, very, popular at night. Near this area is one of the pissing statues of a little girl. All I could think is how strange it is that this city has two very famous statues one of a little boy pissing and the other of a little girl…. 
We decided to search for the more famous statue Mannekin Piss. We grabbed 1 Euro Waffles and were on our way to find the statue. It was not too difficult to spot where the statue was due to the decent number of people crowded around the gated statue. 
I was surprised at how small the statue was.. maybe a foot tall! Much larger replicas were found all over the city from outside the waffle shop to inside chocolate stores. 
There are several legends about the statue and it’s origin. After seeing the statue we headed to the beer museum where we were able to explore the small building then enjoy a pint for five euro. You were given a choice between two types of beers – I tried the dark and Elliot had the light beer.
Afterwards we took the underground from the station to the Atomium. To much of my dismay it is the number one thing to see in Brussels so we just had to go to the top. 
Thankfully there is an elevator that takes you straight to the top where you have an incredible view. BUT – afterwards you have to take escalators and stairs through each of the different “Atoms” which are each designed as separate museums, and i absolutely hated all of them. I just want to be back on the ground! The escalators took you from one “atom” through the tunnels which attach to the next “atom.” I hate it.
After the Atomium we walked over to “Mini-Europe” which has over 350 miniature buildings from 80 European Cities. It’s adorable and really cool, there is everything from a mini-parthenon (greece) to a mini-eiffel tower (paris). After mini-europe we stopped by a cafe in the area outside the entrance for frites a beer before going back to the station on the underground. 
When we got back to the station we wandered over to a nearby park and sat by a huge fountain for a while, afterwards we stopped in a few chocolate shops looking for souvenirs and I tried so many free chocolates I felt sick. We then decided to look around for somewhere to eat, which was a nightmare because there are so many tourist traps and restaurant workers that try to pull you in off the street. We eventually ended up choosing Chez Leon, which was still touristy but almost 
everyone eating there was French or Belgian so I figured it could’t be too bad. We were each given frites and mussels with a beer for 16 Euro – A deal that some other restaurants were doing for 20 or 25 euro. The food was good so I’m not knocking the place – but I definitely would try to eat somewhere less touristy. Afterwards we went for a pint back at the Delirium bar before heading back to our hotel to pack for our departure the following morning.
Brussels, in my experience, is a somewhat more expensive city but is definitely worth a visit. I enjoyed it’s more relaxed nature especially after coming straight from the hustle of Rome. If I had not been given the chance to study abroad in London, and could not choose Paris – Brussels would definitely be my next choice.
Runaway Blond 