First, it is important to note that Belgium has two official languages, French and Dutch. This means that all signs in the city are in both languages. The languages certainly don't stop there though. When we went to a flea market Saturday morning, conversations between two people could be in three or more languages! I don't even know how anyone could keep that straight. I can barely speak English sometimes. :)
Furthermore, the French is different from France French, so even if you think you know it, chances are you don't and they will probably not understand you if you try. From the get go, we were in a pickle. I knew enough French to get us by in France, but if it is not even the same French and could possibly even be Dutch, how were we supposed to communicate? Most of the time we gave up and just spoke English. Maybe that's terrible, but when there are two official languages and you can't even speak their proper form of one of them, you have to find some common ground somewhere.
Beyond the languages, the people of Brussels are proud of their ugly city. Seriously, Brussels is not a pretty place and certainly isn't the capital of sightseeing. It surprised me that the capital of Europe is such a drab town.
So needless to say, in the beginning of our trip, we already felt like it was a lost cause. We spent Saturday morning doing the little sightseeing there was, all while being confused about the language. When noon rolled around and we were already finished with the plans we made, we were unsure what to do next.
Have no fear though, the trip made a move for the better when we found the tourist part of town, and tourist in Brussels means food.
We snacked on food the entire weekend. Fries, waffles, escargots, mussels, chocolate, and beer made up our nutrition. It was (mostly) delicious and gave us the experience we were looking for. The city wasn't much to write home about, our hostel was clean and acceptable for what we wanted, the people weren't the nicest, but when it came to the food.... that was their selling point for us.
Belgium certainly was a different kind of trip for us. It was wonderful and quite the experience. I'll probably never go back there again, but it is what it is and overall, I'm very glad we went.
Phillip and I with our street escargots - probably our least favorite food we ate there.
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