Following the "
An Overdue Post (Part 1 - Amsterdam)," here it is finally the second part of what I can share from my trip to Europe in 2015. I must admit I am way not too diligent if I want to consider myself as a travel blogger, so.. no, I am not a travel blogger :) My travel posts are for the sake of my own travel diary. However, as I normally write about the trip so long after the trip itself (it took 2.5 years till I actually post this one!), obviously I'd have forgotten most of the details. LOL.
After spending about 1 day, 1 night in Amsterdam, Mita and I continued our trip taking a Eurolines bus to Brussels, Belgium. My first impression upon arriving in Brussels was the people were not as warm and friendly of those in Amsterdam. The station staff were not too helpful when we asked for information about the city bus. We ended up trusting the screenshot of the route shown by google map to go to the hostel we had reserved, taken few hours ago while Mita still had an internet connection in Amsterdam. We got on the bus, but after a while I started to feel suspicious that we might have taken the wrong bus as the trip shouldn't be too long. I asked a man who turned to be the first nice and friendly person we met in Brussels. He helped us confirm with the bus driver and we found out that due to a train strike on the day, most bus routes were altered. The man and the bus driver told us which bus number we should take. Fortunately, we arrived safely at the hostel. As it was dark already, not long after a quick rest, we went out to see the Grand Place. After that we decided to spend the rest of the day in the hostel and browse for all the information we need for the next day.
The next day, we traveled to Ghent and Bruges which will be part of another post :). We finally had a proper sightseeing around the city of Brussels on the third day of our stay in Belgium. We joined a free half-day guided-tour offered by the hostel. The tour was worth it, as it was free (although we gave him a tip at the end of the tour), and the key to be able to see as many as possible in a half-day tour was to walk very very quickly. hahaha. It was a bit hard for Mita and me to keep the pace of everyone else and we got left behind few times so we had to run to catch up sometimes. But it was fun, the guide was super expressive and nice. Please have a look at the pictures below for some of the spots that we got to see.
 |
| The Town Hall of Bruxelles in the Grand Place |
 |
| Where Karl Marx used to stay and where he wrote the "Communist Party Manifesto" |
 |
| (left) The 'petite' Manneken Pis, (middle) Zoomed in Manneken Pis, (right) Jeanneke Pis |
 |
| Rue des Bouchers |
 |
| The Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula |
 |
| The Royal Palace |
 |
| The Monument of King Albert I far away |
