Weekend of exploring in Brussels

[January 14-16]
After finishing our classes on Thursday we had our first weekend free and decided to spend it in Brussels to get to know the area better, which ended up being a great decision! On Friday afternoon we had a guided tour of Brussels that lasted about three hours and was amazing! An adorable old man took the group of Clemson students through all of the different parts of Brussels and for the first time we started to learn about the place where we would be living for the next four months. He had so much knowledge about the history and architecture of the buildings/areas and also had many entertaining stories! Below are a few pictures from the tour to hopefully give you a taste of my surroundings:

King's Palace

 The running park

 More pretty buildings

 Aerial view of Brussels

After our productive Friday tour Laura, Tricia, and I decided to walk around ourselves during the day on Saturday and take in the sights. In addition all of the stores in Belgium are only allowed to have sales in January and July, so during our wandering of Brussels we ended up venturing towards the stores as well. There was a covered market with different stands of local goodies and we all made our first purchases. I bought a headband (my favorite :P ) along with Tricia and Laura bought a new scarf! We also realized that Saturday is a very happening day because all of the streets were packed with people and it was entertaining to see everyone out and about. On one street we stumbled upon this old man that was playing guitar and singing Rolling Stones! It was such a hoot because he was so animated and had a huge crowd surrounding and watching him. Then we walked past this statue and almost jumped out of our skin because it was actually a person! It was the craziest thing ever and so naturally we had to pose for a picture with this creature.

 Yes, he is real

Our wonderful Saturday ended on the perfect note because we went to a local Chocolate store called "Chocopolis". When we first walked in we had the nicest woman take care of us and she let us all sample one piece. I chose a coffee flavored dark chocolate, and it was more than amazing! They make all of their own chocolate right in the store and have over 50 delicious flavors to pick from. After being able to have a free sample we all thought that we needed to buy at least one piece (and I didn't take much convincing at that) so my second and final piece of heaven was a tiramisu because the woman helping us recommended it. None of us wanted to eat anything after our chocolate because it was so delicious.

 Belgian Chocolate really is the best

After having a such fabulous weekend the roommates and I woke up Sunday in high spirits and had a great run in the park. It was a beyond beautiful day and we wanted to soak up as much sun as possible!! The only possibly bad thing about Brussels is that it is consistently gray and rainy most of the time so it was rare to be able to see the blue skies. The running park is three metro stops away, however we decided to walk back to our hotel to spend a little more time in the sun! We already had so many stories to reminisce on so the walk was more than enjoyable. 

We have classes this week until Thursday and then will  have our first weekend excursion to Amsterdam! There are about ten of us going and we will be taking a round trip bus from Friday to Sunday. We are all very anxious for our first travel trip and have no doubt that it will be exciting =)