Eat A Waffle!

“You should eat a waffle! You can't be sad if you eat a waffle!”

-Lauren Myracle, ttfn

The second day in Brussels started with another 9AM lecture about the European Monetary Union (riveting stuff, right?).  But at least we got our own sign for the conference room in the hotel that was reserved for us.

#IAmStern

After the lecture, we had a few hours to grab lunch and walk around before our official tour of Brussels.  Since we hadn't eaten waffles yet, that was the first task on our list.  Also since we hadn't eaten waffles yet, I got two in the span of 7 minutes (#foodienotfattie).

#2

#1

The waffles were divine.  I also got to use some of my 7 years of French to order them.  It was an overall satisfying experience.

Walking back to the hotel, we came across this beautiful building with an LED billboard on top of it.  I just loved it so much, especially since I'm into the combination of modern and ancient.  I felt like it made such a statement about how Brussels is a modern city rooted in its history.  But that's just me.

#oldmeetsnew

Once we got back to the hotel, all the BPEers piled into the bus and we started our tour.  First stop, the Atomium!  This is Brussels' equivalent to the Unisphere in Queens.  The World's Fair just seems to bring out the best of a city's innovative architecture and sculptures.

Pictures of people taking pictures of people
taking pictures of people

Our next stop on the tour was The Grand Place in Brussels.  The detailing on the buildings were stunning, and upon entering the square I was actually taken aback.

Funny story, it actually took me forever to take this panorama because my friends are jerks and kept photobombing it.  But I finally got a decent one that showed all the buildings in the square without somebody's distorted head/limb/body in the picture.

After showing us the Grand Place, our tour guide let us wander around so we could explore for ourselves.  Alison really wanted to go see Manneken Pis, which is a statue of a naked little boy peeing into a fountain (quite amusing).  It's a famous Brussels landmark, so we had to go see it.

Confused selfie with famous landmark

We weren't expecting the statue to be so small, or dressed (obviously a prank).  The funniest part was that a chocolate shop across the street had a chocolate Manneken Pis for sale that was larger than the real life statue.  Belgians and their chocolate...

Finally it was time to return to London.  We headed to the train station in Brussels and went through passport control.  The first checkpoint was fine; I just showed the lady my passport and she stamped it.  Then there was a second checkpoint which required me to fill out a UK Border Agency Landing Card.  I was not impressed.  It's not like it was long, but it just interrupted the flow of the process considering there were 35 of us BPEers.

The power of a US Passport

And, when we got back to St. Pancras, we had to go through Customs again!  We were all very confused (what did we go through in Brussels?), but at least we all made it through and back to London safely.  Going to Brussels was a much needed trip, but so was the 10 hours of sleep I got the night I got back into London.

Rachel