Brussels - Day 3 & 4

No I am not getting lazier just that there is less to show and tell so I combined the 2 days...

I left Paris in the morning and boarded the Thalys the high speed train to Brussels... It was good thinking on my part not to fly everywhere I went since I would have been stranded in the Paris then due to the ask cloud..... Cute self check in machine... It verifies your tickets before you board the train... A lot of trust factor involved though...What is a person just boards?

Upon landing I needed a toilet break ASAP and found a nifty way of flushing... this should definitely be implemented in Malaysia to avoid everyone from stepping on the handle as long as it is below waist height... Inconsiderate ppl.... sheeh!!

Out from the Brussels Midi station and there was a morning market... It was such a nice market... everything looked so fresh!! yum yum!! Plus the best belgian waffle I had was here too but it smelt so good that we whallop it all down before we could take a picture... whoopsies...

Guess what, I bought 2kgs of strawberries for Euro4 only!! It was a steal...hehe!! Waaah...this is literally a crate-full of apples....

Now this took us so long find find... we were walking from one end of the market to the other... kept seeing ppl carrying fresh flowers but we couldnt find the stall... why? how come? then we found out...the market stretched to the other side of the station as well and the flowers were there... so pretty.... wish i could buy some back home.. :( but they would die within a day in Malaysian heat...

Finally after walking for so long.... the reason why we walked was because our apartment was not ready to be checked in yet...haha!! There one common thing in brussels though, they seem to think that a few kilometres walk is near...we went to the rental office to get our key and we were directed to the apartment... The lady says it's just a 15 mins walk from the place but since my mum's knee was not too well we insisted on calling a cab... wheen the cab came and we gave him the address again he say that is not far... so we said we were told... So he drove... and it was damn far... even by car it took 10 mins... what more by foot right? that happened with all the taxis we took... "But that is not far!!!" Jeez I am giving business and they are asking why am I not walking... haiz... Anyway... the apartment was the best lodging we had throughout our stay... Nice and big...spacious with full kitchen facilities although it was not easy working the electric stove..haha!! It came with 2 bedrooms, 1 toilet and 1 bath...

Then again mum was tired so we left her at the apartment and went to the Le Grande Place to look see look see... I can see why they call it so...it was really grand.... fuh!!!

Because mum was not around we thought it would be fun to rent some bicycle and ride around instead of walking and taking the subway... boy did we regret... most of the roads were actually cobble roads that look like this!! and we were riding like some drunken ppl... haha!! When you have not rode a bike for as long as we have, add the cobble stone to it... it's the recipe for disaster...haha!!
But we did manage to cycle and see the Little Minneskin Pis before we gave up on our bikes...haha!!! All the fame for just for a peeing statue...wonder why?

We decided to call it a day and went to grab some "Quick" which is their McD over there and had that for dinner.... One thing we noticed is that at places you least expect it there will be such paintings of cartoons all over town....

So the next day came and we woke up late since there was nothing to do.... hahha!! Headed over to the shopping street coz Whadaya know... Kipling was from Belgium and it was on 30% discount...haha!! So after our purchases we dropped by at Chez Leon which is supposedly famous for their mussel and we tried... We were told by all the websites and books that you cannot go to brussels or belgium without having some mussels and fries... Of course not forgetting the beer... They are the one country that doesnt serve Free Water... haha!! and the beer cost the same as water so what do you drink? BEER!!! We had beer every day and a different one every day... :) Alll I can say about the mussels was Yuck!! I dont know whether it's coz I dont like mussels to start off with or I choose the wrong shop... but it was not appetising at all...Eww....

Dont be fooled by the happy face...That was taken just before I took my first bite...

So what do we do after lunch...? We went to buy chocolate of course... We were recommended to go Pierre Marcolini.... "The best chocolate in belgium" says our taxi driver.. so we bought some..forgot to take pictures again.. whoopsies..haha!! Not forgetting the common Godiva and others.... Then we stopped by for tea at Wittamer which was also touted to be the best pastries shop in brussels... Okay so their cakes are pretty good... haha!!So this one is worth a try... :D

That night we decided to cook our own dinner since we had a kitchen...guess what we cooked? Maggi mee la...hahaha!! But it was Tesco Chicken Flavoured noodles which left us wanting for the real thing... Haiz.... :(