BRUSSELS

September 20-22

I went to Brussels for a class trip with my IR class, “Britain and Europe- A New Beginning”. We took the Eurostar from London St. Pancras to Brussels Midi on a Sunday afternoon and got there around 8p Brussels time (one hour ahead of London). The trip went smoothly.. a little over 2 hours through Northern France and into Belgium. After checking in at our hostel (not the greatest place I’ve ever stayed, but I wasn’t expecting much), a group of us headed out in search of food. A lot of places were closed in the area we were staying (I guess since it was past dinner hour on a Sunday and we were kind of in a business district), but we eventually found a pretty decent African/European fusion type place and I had some delicious Poulet Yassa (a Senegalese chicken dish).

The next morning we got to check out NATO headquarters, which was pretty cool. We sat through a few presentations that ranged from semi-interesting to actually educational. I definitely knew more about NATO’s function and past operations after walking out of there and I guess it’s pretty sweet to know that I learned that information while actually being there.

After NATO we went to the European Parliament building, one of the two places where the EU Parliament meets (the other is in Strasbourg, France, if you care to know). We sat in on a lecture and got to take a brief tour around the place before going to the BU Brussels center (which I didn’t even know existed.. BU is everywhere, apparently) for another presentation and some dinner.

We had some time to explore Brussels after that, so we headed to the Grand Place (pronounced GRAHN PLAHS, if we’re going to be technical), which is absolutely gorgeous.. see my pictures. We walked around a bit and checked out a few bars in the area. The next morning we went to a presentation at London’s European Office, where they lobby for funding and support within the EU bureaucracy for the city of London and its interests. We had the entire afternoon free to sight-see afterwards, so we checked out the Royal Palace of Brussels and all the shops/food near the Grand Place. Obviously I sampled Belgian chocolate/fries/waffles and beer as well.. it was basically a ‘get fat in the name of culture’ few days.. no complaints from me. ;)

The rest of my Brussels pictures are here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031111&id=1330800210&l=0b75a4f3a2