i’m sooooooo excited to FINALLY be posting photos from my backpacking trip through europe with my brother. it already feels like a long time ago, but luckily the many photos and videos + my travel journal bring me right back. we went at the end of june and traveled around europe for three weeks. it was such an amazing trip and i love getting to relive it!
first things first, we had an early flight on saturday, so after work on friday, i drove home to my parents’ house [where my brother was living until he started his job in august] to spend the night. mike and i did our last-minute packing and preparations, and the next morning, the parents drove us to the airport.
{pre-trip photos taken by mom. :) it was hard to believe the day was finally here! [also, no one told me my straps were hanging!]}
we had a 5-hour layover in philadelphia, which luckily is a pretty nice airport to hang around at, so we had philly cheesesteak sandwiches, charged our devices, and had a beer at one of the airport pubs.
{the big joke was that we were in the philly airport before arriving in europe and already lost! i mean, it IS a huge airport…} ;)
and then we boarded the plane and our trip began! our first city was brussels, belgium. brussels is known for chocolate, waffles, mussels, french fries, and beer – some of the most delicious things you can ingest in the world, in my opinion. we made sure we didn’t miss out on any of these indulgences. i was also fascinated with the medieval feel of the main square, or “the grand-place.” i love that europe has such a long history and so many beautiful old buildings, and i think brussels was the most medieval-feeling place that i’d been up to that point. even with all the activity that was going on in the square on the first day we got there, we couldn’t stop looking all around at the ornate buildings that surrounded us and felt like we were in another era.
so, to the beginning: we landed in brussels, waited in a long customs line at the airport, and then we took a bus and the metro to our hostel.
{our first hostel – the meininger hotel!}
{we had no idea what to expect from our hostel since we didn’t have a lot of experience staying in hostels, but it was a lot nicer on the inside than i was expecting it to be.}
{we were thankful to have a private room + bathroom for when we first arrived and were still jetlagged. it really only seemed to take one good [and long] night’s sleep to catch up with the time zone, luckily! but we did make ourselves stay awake when we first arrived to try to get adjusted…}
{after checking into the hostel and dropping off our stuff, we went for a walk…}
{…and had lunch at this really awesome little seafood place called de noordzee in st. catherine’s square where you eat at tables standing up. many people were sipping on white wine and it just felt so european. also, i had remembered brussels to be rainy and cold when we arrived [as i mentioned in this post], but it was in fact sunny the first day we got there…but we were in somewhat of a fog that day! the next day was unfortunately rainy and cold.}
{…and then we got coffee at a cafe nearby. we were exhausted and tired, looked and felt like zombies, needed a coffee IV, but we were so so happy to be there.}
{in the photo on the left, i don’t know if you can tell, but mike is standing by a mcdonald’s sign, and there’s a pizza hut across the street. definitely adds to the ambiance. ;) and on the right, the brussels stock exchange.}
{see what i mean about the main square? it was really, really neat.}
{totally felt like a different world…}
{there was loud music + tons of people in hot pink shirts in the square for some sort of fitness dance fest! it was kinda humorous.}
{and then we went to the chocolate museum! there were lots of samples…chocolate of peru and chocolate of costa rica and chocolate of trinidad/tobago, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, chocolate of different percentages of cacao, chocolate made at a demonstration…}
{…so we were in chocolate heaven. i’ve decided that chocolate museums are my favorite type of museum.}
{the guy on the left gave us the chocolate-making demonstration. and on the right, there’s that sun!}
{in the shopping center galeries royales saint-hubert}
{sainte-catherine’s church}
{that afternoon, we went back to the room for a little while to take showers and after that we felt so much better and more awake. this is the view from our room.}
{i loved the art at our hostel…each room number was painted differently and this piece was next to our bed – it’s a whimsical drawing of the city with lots of famous landmarks and even the hostel [the red circle with the “m” in it!].}
{we went back to the square to get a photo together now that we had freshened up and the pink-shirt people had cleared out.}
{how could i have forgotten what a nice day it was the first day we got there?! oh YEAH, because we were like the jetlagged walking dead… haha}
{we ate at a little greek restaurant called santorini and sat outside… we had belgian beer and i had a pita with gyro meat and french fries inside! that seemed to be a pretty popular item there. we didn’t feel too tired but knew it would hit us soon, so we headed back to the hostel, stopping in sainte-catherine on the way to get caipirinhas from a bar truck and watch a street performance. and then we went home and passed out!}
{…aaaaand we slept 13 hours! it was so nice to catch up on sleep. for breakfast that next morning, we went to this cool coffeeshop with a hipster vibe called bravo.}
{my favorite way to do breakfast in europe: a cappuccino and a croissant.}
{this was the rainy day. we went to the cathedral of st. michael and st. gudula, which was beautiful. mike donated a little bit of money and lit a candle there because it seemed like a thing to do when your name is michael!}
{those windows though…alllllll the heart eyes}
{we went to a little place and shared a grilled croque monsieur + a waffle with strawberries, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce for lunch. brussels knows how do waffles, that’s for sure!}
{and then we went to the cantillon brewery. it’s the only brewery left in brussels that brews their beer in the traditional way, using no added yeast. their lambic ales were unlike any beer i’d ever tasted – they were sour and dry. we really enjoyed trying them and the tour was great too. we also met a couple from austin who were on their honeymoon, so we talked to them for a while. it’s a small world when you think about it.}
{we had mussels with garlic cream sauce and fries for dinner [and beer of course!], and then we went to a famous bar called delirium that supposedly has more than 2,000 different kinds of beers. and we ordered a beer and chocolate flight! it was perfect. aaaaaand we watched the guy on the right fill up the largest beer glass i’d ever seen. going to this bar was a pretty fun experience.}
and that was the jist of our time in brussels! as you can tell, the trips to each city were short and sweet. next will be my nikon photos of brussels, and then we’re on to bruges!