Easter in Brussels

After spreading all of my bag out in the hotel room (and not caring about it because we don't have roommates!) we ventured out for the city center without any real plans in mind accept to find a waffle. We managed to make it down to what seemed like the main part of town, and eventually found a waffle stand where we got a waffle with hot chocolate sauce on it! There was a chocolate shop next to the waffle stand (we had no idea at this point how many chocolate shops there were in Brussels) do of course we had to go in. The next few hours are blur of streets, markets, chocolate shops (every shop gives you free samples...did I mention that?) and french fry stands. When we felt like we had covered enough ground to justify going home, we went back to the hotel to relax before deciding what to do for dinner.

 Turns out we didn't want to venture far from our hotel room (I'm ashamed how much I enjoyed laying on a bed in front of a tv for a while) so we went across the street to a grocery market thing where we got salami, cheese, a loaf of bread, chips, waffles, the most delicious spread in the world called speculous spread (like spice cookies all mashed up in a peanut butter consistency. It would make week old stale bread wonderful), and a coke. We gathered our supplies and had a picnic on the floor of the room while watching some American show that had been dubbed over in French and went to bed happy campers at 11. 

The next morning was Easter Sunday and so we wanted to get out and attend a service at one of the churched in town. It was such a wonderful way to spend the morning and even though the service was in French and Dutch, it was still comforting and calming. The only word in English the whole time were "Christ has risen" and "happy Easter " but those are about all you need I suppose. My favorite part was when you turn and greet your neighbor. It was a joyful few minutes, turning this way and that to say hello and shake hands with everyone around us, all strangers of different languages but united by the place we were in and the holiday we were celebrating. 

After service, we wandered around some more in search of the famous Mannekin Pis, the small statue of a peeing boy. At the time, we didn't know why he was famous but we knew we should probably find him and see what the fuss was all about. Turns out, the fuss is over nothing. The boy is about a meter tall and its just on a corner in a touristy neighborhood. A national landmark? Maybe. Interesting? No so much. We aimed to soothe our disappointment in chocolate and it was precisely what we did. It may say a lot about what I really associate with Easter, but the chocolate stores smelled just like Easter, even at home. It was uncanny. The chocolate tasted a hundred times better though. They say it's from the fact that they only melt the coco butter and chocolate once but whatever it is, the Belgians do it right. Dark, milk, white. Mixed with nuts, carmel, cookies, fruit. Pralines, truffles, Squares. In the shape of bunnies, chicks, eggs. If its Belgian, I will eat it. Nom. Nom. Nom. 

Bags of chocolate in hand, we went out to find another Belgian tressure: french fries. It sounds strange, but the French fry was invented here and then in the first world war when Americans were here and first tasted the snack, they were mostly sold by frenchmen in Belgium, ergo, the "French" fry. Here they are special because they are still fried in animal fat and fried twice! The first time is at some lower temperature and then renee you order them, they fry them again to make them extra crispy and addicting. They serve them in a paper cone if you are taking them to go, or in a paper boat with a teeny tiny fork if you are eating at the stand. The cherry on top is actually the sauce. Normal ketchup will just not do, so there are about 8 different options, all mayonnaise based. We ask for a recommendation and got the "kind of spicy" one and it was scrumptious. After more sightseeing (or looking at the outside of things since most places we closed) we went back to the hotel and again settled in for a picnic and a little bit of tv watching (BBC nature documentaries mostly) before another  great night of warm, soft, uninterrupted sleep.