Maybe last weekend is a good place to start. After being here for a month, I finally made it to the Atomium. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed. The Atomium was originally built for the World's Fair in 1958. It is absolutely gigantic and on the outside of the city. Seeing the Atomium was pretty cool, but I'm not sure it was worth the 8 euro to go to the top. There were random exhibits inside each sphere, and I didn't really understand how they fit together at all. Still, I guess its cool to say I've been to the top of the Atomium and the view was magnificent. You could see all of Anderlecht's (Brussels' main football team) stadium. I've heard Belgian football is definitely lacking and judging by their absence in the World Cup this year I'm going to say it's probably true, but regardless, I'm still dying to go to a game. Hopefully, it will happen in November.
The Atomium
view from the top
After the Atomium visit, Paige and I took her friend who was visiting from Paris on a tour of the city. It was a rare sunny and warm Saturday afternoon in Brussels, so we went to a cafe in the park off Ave. Louise (kinda like the Brussels version of 5th Avenue), drank cappuccinos and enjoyed the sun. I still miss the sun like crazy. I get so jealous when I look up the weather at home, and see its 94 and sunny there while its 54 and overcast here... It doesn't take me too long to get over it though. I get to look at things like this... every day.
L'Hotel de Ville at Night
View of the City from Mont des Arts
Deliciousness!
After dinner we met up with Will and Casey and a few other people from Vesalius and somehow ended up at a karaoke bar. After Casey brought the house down with her rendition of "What's Going On" by 4 Non Blondes, one of the other guys with us who is from Birmingham somehow convinced me it would be a good idea to sing "Sweet Home Alabama" with him. I swear, every Belgian in that place and the Irish guys who were there for a bachelor party knew every word to the song. Seeing a bunch of Europeans singing along and dancing to Sweet Home Alabama was by far the funniest thing I've seen since I've been here.
Paige is from California and has been promising all of us a Mexican fiesta since we got here, so Thursday night we all went over to her apartment for sangrias and fajitas! Delicious!
The rest of the week was kind of lame, just a lot of school... Except Wednesday Casey, Jules, and I discovered an adorable coffee house and gourmet bagel shop in Luxembourg Square that is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. I know a coffee house and bagel shop doesn't sound like anything too exciting, but bagels and mochas are non-existant here, so a coffee house and bagel shop was quite the find. I got the most delicious bagel I've ever had. Hummus with eggplant, tomato, and spinach. Yum!!! The owners of the shop are American and everything is in English, which is also quite helpful! I actually ventured back after mass at Eglise St. Nicholas this morning, just to get a mocha.
Eglise St. Nicholas
It's only mid-September and it's already starting to get much colder here. Yesterday and today have both been in the fifties all day. Thanks to this lovely drastic change in weather, I've had a not so lovely cold for the past week, which is FINALLY starting to get better. I'm slightly dreading the continued decrease in temperature. If its this cold in September, I can only imagine what November and December are going to be like.
Paige and I leave for Paris on Friday and I couldn't be more excited. This will be my first trip outside of Belgium since I've been here. We're staying in a hostel near Sacre Couer in Montmartre, which is my favorite favorite favorite part of Paris. The Jimmy Buffet concert is Friday night and then we have all day Saturday and Sunday to explore. I can't wait!!!!!
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