Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Our trip to Brussels 30/11/07 - 2/12/07!

Hi there, people, I just wanted to show you a few impressions of Rita and my trip to Brussels last weekend! It was marvellous to visit Emilie and David, my former room mate in Vienna again, and this time they had chosen a different place for a reunion! Last year over Easter, we went to Paris to spend some great days there with the two of them and the twins Brice et Sebastien (also former mates from Vienna!) - and this time it was Brussels!
When we left from Vienna, everything went really well and we arrived in Brussels perfectly on time, got our luggage and were picked up by David. We arrived at his flat and met Emilie, Vincent (David´s brother) and his girl friend, Charlotta.
Then we went out to get some food. David and Vincent knew a really nice place where we could have food at that late time of the night. After all, it was already past midnight when we got our meals - but it was worth it, because they were definitely delicious! Rita and I shared some Iranian lamb, which tasted very much of aniseed! Wow, interesting! Look at it, there we´ve got it on a couple of pics.

After this delicious meal, we decided to stay out and went to a little bar - the atmosphere there was just groovy, with a lot of Caribbean music from the 80s and 90s we all had a really good time, ended up going to bed at 5 in the morning!
So, when we got up at around 9.45 the following day, we were quite tired! But, as the day was outstandingly beautiful, we had to seize it! Here are some of the sights we discovered throughout our tour:










left to right: Manneken Pis - Rita in the Gallerie Roi Hubert - Baker´s Guild on Grand Place

After meeting Emilie and David for lunch, which was, as you might guess, amazing, we walked on trough beautiful Brussels and enjojyed David´s knowledge about the place. We were quite tired by the time we got back home - but we were invited to a party of David´s friend Alain. So, off we went to a suburbian apartment with Portuguese, English, French and Belgian people - well, there were also two Austrians but I mean, we knew them in advance! :-)
It´s a pity we did not take any pics there - however, we took some from the way home... it was good fun, thanks, Alain!
On the pic, you can see Jose, a Portuguese interpreter in Brusses - a very nice chap - but everyone there was just really interesting and good fun to talk to!
The follwing day started even later!
This time, we only got up at around half twelve and had breakfast together, then went off to see some more of Brussels. So, Rita, Emilie, David and I discovered the Royal Palace (below),

the Palais de Justice, the old England House, now a museum, saw some of the fantastic comic art designs on the walls of Brussels and so on and so forth. We had some super crepes and salads as well as some lovely last drinks at another atmospheric restaurant, waffles at the Christmas Market and eventually returned home at around 4.45pm. Then we were invited to Vincent´s place for some Gloeg (Charlotta´s Swedish) and had to catch our train to Brussels airport!
The trip would have been perfect, if not for the return journey! First we nearly chose the wrong lane for check in (twice, actually) and then we unexpectedly had to wait as well. Due to an airport "traffic" jam we started an hour late and, thus, arrived in Vienna an hour later than expected also! My brother Christoph was not very happy about the delay and, when we tried to pay the parking fee, we encountered another problem: the parking ticket did not work anymore - so I went to find someone who I could give some money to - successfully, of course, and when Rita and I finally hopped into bed at home in Linz it was around 2 in the morning! But.... time does not matter when it comes to experiences and weekends like that!
We would like to thank Emilie and David again for their kindness and for showing us around so patiently - I hope you had a good time too, friends! Ok, I´ll be on here again soon, check out the blog again some time before Christmas!
Oh, for more pics, see my flickr page...
ERF