Austin, DFW Metroplex, Brussels & Tel Aviv in 52 hours.

I’ll try to make this short. On my way back to Tel Aviv, I had a 12 hour layover in Brussels. Naturally, I got out of the airport to check out the city. I decided to just stay in Brussels and not get to far from the airport, rather than check out some other Belgian cities. I was given many suggestions for what do and see while I was there. (Thank you, Aaron.) Surprisingly, I did it all. I started off by buying a map and sitting in a park to plan out my day a bit. (Cathedral of St. Michel et Ste. Gudule)

Then I went to the Comic Strip Center, which is actually a museum of French/Belgian comic strips. Did you know that Tin Tin and the Smurfs are originally Belgian? Me neither. In fact, this year marks 50 years of Smurfs, so they had a pretty cool display.



Afterwards, I went to check out the Manneken Pis statue. It was a lot smaller than I had imagined and it was almost comical to see all these people there, trying to get a picture with this small statue of a little boy peeing. I got one, too, of course! On the way there, I walked through the Grand Place, which used to be the main town square and is where town hall is today. (Town Hall)

It’s quite amazing to see these huge, old, regal buildings being used for shops and restaurants today.
For lunch, I went to a little stand and got sausage and fries. So many people has raved about the fries and talked about how necessary they were to my trip. They tasted like fries. I didn’t think they were that exciting.
Next, it was Belgian beer time. I went into a friendly-looking bar ordered a Leffe Blonde. My roommate, Allie, loves it, so I thought I’d give it a shot. It was pretty good. More exciting than the fries. The fun part was the bartender who loved that I was from Texas and grabbed a straw hat he had hanging on the wall, put it on, and got goofy. “Yeehaw, Texas!”
Before going to the furthest place on my map, the Royal Palace, I got a waffle, loaded with a thick whipped cream, strawberries and chocolate sauce. Definitely the best thing I ate all day!
I’m glad I fueled up because I got so lost trying to go to the Royal Palace. Every part of Brussels is set up like a grid, except the touristy center. I almost gave up, but finally asked someone instead. I got lost again, but finally found signs that helped me. It took 45 minutes to get there, when it was supposed to take 15. Later, the walk back to the train station took all of 5 minutes. I kinda felt like an idiot. Anyway, the Royal Palace was free, but you couldn’t take in your camera.
They had all the rooms set up with portraits of each of the royal personalities that lived there at some point. It was pretty amazing...and exactly how you’d picture a palace: elegant, ornate, lots of gold. The throne room was the best. It was huge and the throne area was up in a balcony thing, so the king/queen would be looking down at everyone else. I was so exhausted after all of that I fell asleep as soon as I sat down on the plane! And now I’m in Tel Aviv and slowly getting back into my routine. In another week or so, everything should be back in full swing!