Update 2 DEC 2007 – My attempt to upgrade WordPress has left some formatting on this post messed up. I am aware of it, and I’ll fix it as soon as I find some time. I’m kind of busy at the moment.
Wow, I have been super busy since I last blogged about my Europe backpacking marathon. Oh where was I? Oh that’s right, I was in London on my way to Brussels, Belgium. In French, Brussels is “Belgique” and Belgium is “Belgique”, so if I interchange the words, I still mean the same thing. Personally, I think the French equivalent sounds better on the ears :p
I got to meet up with my ex-girlfriend Caroline, from my college days in Louisiana. She showed me around the country a bit. It’s a small country, so we covered a lot of ground in just a few hours.
Belgium, among other things are known for their waffles. Here you see me munching down a Belgian waffle in the middle of some really important historic building. I did it for the waffles. And the priceless picture.
Here’s the building again, from a distance. I really like the flag flapping in the air. It almost looks like a little flame, just suspended in mid air by magic. The grass is very well kept, and it’s nice to just sit down and enjoy the scenery.
Downtown Bruxelles, the streets abuzz with people and food, enjoying the good Belgian life! Notice the pavement: someone had to arrange those bricks by hand. This was very common throughout Europe. Some of these places had to bricks laid there since hundreds of years ago.
A building, designed by a famous architect in all Belgium.
Caroline and me.
What do you eat in Brussels? You eat mussels and french fries, of course!! Did you know, french fries was invented in Brussels? (If it wasn’t, then all the Belgians just lied to me)
Yummy. Am I making you hungry, baby? Do you feel hungry? 
This is the famous “pissing” boy. According to local folklore, this boy saved the entire city from flames by — you guessed it, pissing on the fires. We could have used this boy in San Diego to fight the fires recently.
Belgian nightlife in the streets. Having a drink with Caroline.
The bartender’s antics was just hilarious. He didn’t speak a word of English, but as you can see here, we bonded just fine. Language is no barrier when you have alcohol as the lubricant.
A sight of Bruxelles after dark. I didn’t get a good focus because of the darkness, but if you look closely, there’s a statue in the middle, and the ground was sprinkled with little (LED? I didn’t look too closely) lights. It was really pretty, the lights on the dark ground made it look like there were stars on the ground, surrounding the statue.
One of _the_ main buildings you will not miss, downtown Bruxelles. Too bad my camera couldn’t fit the whole building. This was literally downtown, where there just wasn’t room enough for me to step back further to get a wider shot.
The statues carved on these buildings are amazing. They are very detailed and these things have survived for hundreds of years. These are actually all over Europe. The attention to detail and the man-hours the people spent back in the day on these things are just staggering.
Checkout my Canadian ice hockey t-shirt! Pretty cool, huh? Oh look. There’s some weird building at the back of the me in the picture. Odd, I didn’t see that there before.
This is the elementary school where Caroline teaches. Oh look, some kid is left behind. I guess he missed the school bus.
In general, cars in Europe are pretty small. Oh look, it’s Caroline! (I call her femme-bot, she doesn’t know it)
Hey whaddup, big guy!
This guy looks pretty cool with his flag and horse too. He must have been the guy who conquered Belgium, back in the day. The fearless horseman who beheaded thousands!
A historic church in Belgium.
Well, that’s it for now. After Belgique, my next stop is Paris. This is me parting with my femme bot at the underground train station. Ugh, what’s with the red eyes. Femme, you look like a vampire :/
For more pictures I didn’t include here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaysern/tags/bruxelles/
Watch out Paris, here I come!!