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Exploring Brussels before 2024
How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?
#belgium #brussels #christmasmarket #travelblogger #adventure
It all started from a planned trip to Krakow. A friend and I wanted to go explore a city we’d never been to, whether popularized by ourselves, by someone we know, or not famous at all. After days of seeking out what to see and where to stay in Krakow, we decided to change the route. Not even because of unrealistically high air fares, but because this meant having to be at the airport before 5AM. We kept calling this journey Krakow, although we didn’t even get close to Poland. We left it for a completely different time. And how did we decide to go all the way to the north-west of Europe, you wonder? In the middle of December? Simple, we wanted to see something completely new. And Brussels, Antwerp and Eindhoven seemed like an amazing idea. Which it turned out to be, of course.
The fun thing about this area, is that everything is well connected, only up to a few hours away by bus. Another great perk is that bus fares here cost as much as they should, in the civilized world – and you will not be charged $30 for a two-hour drive, as if they were driving you to Hawaii. This was a no-brainer. We decided to go to Eindhoven center for breakfast, have a quick walk around, and continue on our path to the capital of Belgium, and Europe. Eindhoven was fun, and I will share more information about it in future posts. Although we had everything planned out, one thing was really not working in our favor – the weather. For the duration of our first day in Brussels, it was raining incessantly. And, of course, the rain stopped right after we bought our Brussels-branded raincoats.
Our first stop was the Comic Museum. You would not actually believe how full of museums Brussels is. And did you have an idea that the Smurfs and Tintin are Belgian? Right, me neither. It’s a question of passion towards certain activities and what we have interest in seeing. As two young people who love spending time in museums (I know, you now find us boring, right), we really enjoyed our time in the Belgian capital. Something utterly off-chart was noticing that no one at the entrance checks the tickets. There are sales booths, and once you buy the tickets, you can simply go in. On the contrary to the rest of the world, where it’s expected to go through multiple lines of inspection in order to enter a cultural object. The entry fee was completely reasonable, at 13 EUR / $15.
We kept going, in order to explore as much of the city as possible, despite the weather. Did you know what the mascot of Brussels is? All this time, I was certain it was Atomium. Turns out, it is the statue of a peeing boy, called Manneken Pis. This statue is dressed in different outfits, based on the message the boy is sending out to the world. In fact, there is a museum dedicated to the statue and its clothing styles. By the time we went for it, the closing time was already in session. And unfortunately, the road did not take us to this square the following day. I’d pay actual money to see all of the clothing of Manneken Pis. By the way, have you noticed the world-famous Belgian p*nis-shaped waffles? You can buy them in countless shops around this fountain, this is actually what the shape was inspired by.
Bad weather was unable to ruin our experience of traversing the city for exploration of landmarks. We were fascinated with the number of museums, including not only general categories (such as art), but also very distinct and unique ones, such as the Museum of Rene Magritte. Countless edifices seem endless in magnitude, especially older city buildings and cathedrals in arched and gothic style. Everything is made of white marble, and quite frequently gilded in ornaments. The Royal Palace, the Sundial and even whole squares give out the impression of exactly what 90% of the world tells you Rome is. Grandiose, white and gold, ornamented in intricate details, showcasing the unraveling of history. Stay tuned for my next post, to see how Brussels and Rome compare – in experience and atmosphere, not in quantitative, geo-political data.
There was an unshakeable feeling all around this splendid, magnificent city of wonders. Remember the spirit that can be felt all around Barcelona? Remember the vividness and liveliness of Vienna? In one of the upcoming posts, I will share about a northern city with a similar distinction. However, it is not Brussels. In Brussels, everything is just that beautiful! And, unfortunately, nothing more than that. We were unable to shake the feeling that we were walking through a magnificent gilded marble shell, with a huge emptiness on the inside. Here it is completely uncommon to recognize the locals. Belgium (and its capital in particular) have become such a global conglomerate of peoples, that it’s easy to conclude most of the locals are of African descent, rather than European. This feeling is prevailing for the rest of the country as well, but in the capital, it seems to explode, like an epicenter.
The second day around was in the sign of two major modern museums, the calling card of Brussels – the Atomium and Mini-Europa. I have my pros and cons that have to be shared with the world. You can buy an entry for one or both of these attractions, or even one including the Plastic Museum (pass!). Multiple entry tickets are, apparently, cheaper than two combined. And nothing here is that bad, that you’d want to skip it. It’s just questionably good. The Atomium – I could’ve staked my life that it is just a statue. Fortunately, no one ever asked me to – it is a multi-story building with a museum inside. What museum, you wonder? Why, of course, the museum of the Atomium! Similar to Manneken Pis and his clothing, this is a building with a museum, showing you how it itself was built. A waste of brain cells, or a genius business move? The view from inside of it is fair, but the nicest part to see is the Mini-Europa Park. Is it worth going in? I can’t tell with certainty – for those of you who like to take good photos… It’s still not 100% worth it. I’ll let you guys be the judges of that. I’m not impressed going into a light-show museum. Yet, I’m not sorry having visited it. And what is this brutalist building opposing it? Welcome to Belarus… I mean Brussels!
Now, Mini-Europa Park is definitely the best of the three options. Should you only have time to visit one, I definitely suggest this one. The Atomium won’t, and the Plastic Museum cannot be as fun. The greatest upside of Mini-Europa is that it’s absolutely stunning. What exists inside is definitely worth the awe and a standing ovation. The intricate details even resemble the ones from the above-mentioned gothic and baroque art styles. What’s worrying is not what is inside, but what isn’t! With all due respect, the park ought to change its name to “Mini Pre-Brexit European Union”. That said, it’s clearly comprehensive that sites of London take up quite a portion of the park. And it is surrounded by yellow lines on the floor, separating the UK from the EU. Probably the author’s notion of how to not break the existing exhibit but rather leave it in. Another aspect of the UK exhibition I really didn’t like was the depiction of Scotland – unimportant and small, as if London were everything encompassed by the Kingdom. The authors honestly could’ve made this better and more friendly to the eye.
Each country in Northern Europe is represented to the tiniest detail, including villages. This section of the park can be named Mini Belgium, Mini Netherlands, Mini Lithuania, and so on. Not that there is anything bad about it, this part of the exhibit is amazing! But take a look at other countries, especially to the south. Other than the UK, France, Spain (*only Madrid) and parts of Germany and Italy, the park treats the rest of the EU as nothing special – which is 100% opposite of truth. The representations of London, Paris and Madrid take up the biggest surfaces in Mini-Europa. But let’s take Paris as an example – only the Eiffel Tower and Montmartre are grandiose, as if the city had nothing else to offer – again, which can’t be further from the truth. At the moment of writing this post, I’ve not yet visited Madrid, so I cannot give a clear comment on this city, but Barcelona was done a huge injustice. The only visible object from this city is the exhibition of the Columbus Statue. And sure, the statue itself is amazing and lovely, it should be there. But absolutely not before the works of art of Antoni Gaudi! La Rambla and the Marina, as well as Barceloneta cannot be missing from Mini Barcelona! This is what I meant by saying “I’m worried with what’s not there”.
Some countries were represented as absolutely nothing in particular. I dare not talk about Cyprus and Malta, or even Portugal, that, in comparison to the prior two, looks like the Chrysler Building compared to rubble. The exhibitions of continental Mid-European countries, such as Hungary, Slovakia and Czech Republic, really don’t give out the feeling of anything you’d ever want to visit. Fortunately, the Blue Church of Bratislava is depicted in this park – which helped us decide we want to visit this city the following week. More about it in the upcoming posts!
The worst part about the park is, again, what’s missing. If the park is called Mini-Europa, we’re expecting to see much more than just the countries of the European Union. Again, not that there’s anything wrong with exhibiting them, but Europe as a continent has much more to offer. In fact, I’m positive that incomparably more beautiful sights can be found in European countries not depicted, such as Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Monaco, Switzerland or Türkiye.
All in all – two hours well spent. I absolutely encourage you to visit Mini-Europa and share your impressions with me.
The time for moving forth has come. Brussels has left a strong impression on me, with a strong affection towards coming back and traversing unseen museums, as well as the city in a warmer time of the year. However, we were ready to leave for the Diamond Capital. As soon as we got to the bus station, it started to rain heavily. It slowed our travel a bit, but it was still much better to be inside, in a warm bus, than to experience the downpour live. I cannot wait to tell you more about the northern city that fascinated me, or how the capital of Belgium compares to the capital of Italy. Which story would you like to hear first? Let me know in the comments.
Calling all travel agencies and agents. Do you want to have your travels set up for success? Are you planning to not worry about organizing tours ever again, while doing it in a productive and straight-forward fashion? Would you like to have predefined outlines for each of your trips? Are you ready to run tours off the beaten path? Don’t hesitate – reach out to me, and let’s make your success our common story.
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