Belgium...Brussles
As you might know in Malta I enjoy the game of Bowling. I together with four other ladies was invited to go for a tournament in Belgium to represent Malta for the European Women's Championship held in Brussels. Belgium is part of the Western Europe and find different people speaking different languages from French, German and some Italian. One thing I noticed around Belgium is that there was practically no signs in English, all was in French, even round the train stations and bus nothing was easy to understand. This for me was a let down since Brussels is the city of Europe.
Belgium shows a relative flat topology, with not so many high points. Brussels city center is not as green as one would think but from the outskirts of Brussels, there is plenty of open spaces filled with cows, horses and others animals.
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| Beautiful horse in beautiful Brugge |
Since Belgium forms part of the European Union, the Euro currency is used. Something I noticed is that Brussels is slightly more expensive than what you would find in Malta and definitely more expensive when compared to Easter Europe. From food to public transports tickets. If you want to go out for a meal for just a main course and a bottle of water you are expected to pay around 25 Euros if you where to eat meat price would go up to around 30-35 Euros. Public transport tickets are at 2.50 Euro per ticket.
Belgium is specially known for waffles and chocolate. While walking in Brussels city center you definitely cannot miss either waffles or chocolates as there are plenty of outlets selling them. Specifically for waffles just make sure they are freshly baked and simple indulge yourself in one. You can take waffles plain, or else with toppings like fresh-cream, ice-cream, chocolate syrup, strawberries and more, in simple they are simple delicious. Personally as not a big city girl fan, while touring Brussels I was slightly let down as for me there was nothing which struck me much about Brussels city center. The one thing which was beautiful was the Grande Place, known as Grote Markt, which is the main central square of Brussels. This square is surrounded by very old buildings which date back to the 17th century. The magnificent architecture of the King's House, and the Town Hall is beautiful with large pilasters and amazing Baroque style stonework, finished with a touch of gold decoration.
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| Brugge |
Going to Brugge is relatively easy, however when we attempted to go to Ghent we almost ended up on the other side of Belgium. The tricky part is that there are two places with similar names, Ghent and Gank with travel distance of four hours from Brussles center. We asked the dispatcher if this was the train for Ghent and he must have understood us saying Gank, so we went up on this train. We where discussing between us as we somehow had an doubts that we were on the right train. A kind man heard us talking and he asked where we want to go, we said GenT.... to this he told us quick quick get of the train as this departs in a second to Gank four hours. I don't think my feet ever felt so light. We quickly went off the train and as soon as the last one of us stepped down the doors closed and train started moving....Long story short... do make sure your train is for Ghent and not Gank. Once we took the correct train the trip was only 30 minutes long. Ghent is similar to Brugge but slightly larger. It is vibrant city and with a lot of beautiful places to see. A lot of small coffee shops and restaurants. Once again the smell of waffles overtakes any other smell my nostrils could smell. In Ghent there is a castle called Gravensteen. Gravensteen is a word in Dutch which means 'castle of the count'. This castle dates back to the middle ages and sits at a 9 meters altitude.
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| Ghent |
On the outskirts of Brussels close to Brussels Expo there is also the Atomium and Mini-Europe which are both nice places to visit while you are in Brussels. The Atomium is one of Brussels landmarks. It is monument, 102m tall and 18m of diameter. It is made out of stainless steel and has spheres connecting one another to form the shape of an atom. If you go up the Atomium, you can
actually enjoy a nice lunch or dinner with an amazing panoramic view of Brussles. This monument was built to show the faith in scientific progress. Near the Atomium there is also a great
park on the side of it where you can enjoy some lovely walks and jogging.
Five minutes away from the Atomium there is also this really cool place called mini-Europe, here you can find miniature landmarks of all the places whiten Europe. The miniature landmarks are at a 1:23 scale. The price to enter mini-Europe is of 17 Euro. There are several landmarks which consist of Westminster for UK, Rila-Monastery for Bulgaria, Gellert Baths for Hungary and many many more. To walk around Mini-Europe, it will roughly take two hours, that said, since we didn't want to miss our plane back to Malta and were in a rush, we managed to do the tour in an express way and took us only an hour. At the end of the tour you can have a snack at their restaurant.
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| Westminster miniature landmark |
Brussels was definitely nice experience, I would definitely go back to see the green-side of Belgium this time and tour more places since this time was rather limited. Brussels was a great city and waffles and chocolates surely did make the trip even nicer :) Any particular places you would recommend when visiting Belgium?
As for the competition I mentioned in the beginning this was the first time Malta participated with a team and we believe that for the first time it went well.. It definitely could have been better but we learned a lot and expect better results on our next trip.
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