I was going to attend an international student meeting in Netherlands in early April. But as I had been in Netherlands before I thought what new I could add to my trip. So I decided to spend couple days in Belgium before the meeting as I haven't been in Belgium before. So in April 3rd my flight from Helsinki to Brussels rose up in the air. I was flying with Air Baltic so I needed to change planes in Riga. I had only like 40 minutes time to spend in Riga airport which was more than enough.
My flight arrived to Brussels in early evening. Weather was sunny and warm in Belgium, it felt like summer already. In Brussels I was going to couchsurf again, this time with a guy called Hans. Hans lived near Gare du Midi train station so I took a train from airport to there. I found his house quickly and easily. He lives in St Gilles neigbourhood which is very beautiful area in my opinion. Hans had his ex-roommates visiting him and I had nice time talking and eating with them. After the guests went home we went to sleep.
Next day I started my extensive sightseeing tour. My plan was to visit in every World Heritage site in Brussels so I started doing that straight away. My first mission was to find Victor Horta Museum, part of the Major Town Houses of the Architect Victor Horta World Heritage site. My host Hans didn't know it's exact location and neither did know his ex-roommates but they knew which part of the city it's located and what tram goes there. So I decided to follow that tram line and I hoped that I will end up in the right place. I really enjoyed walking through St Gilles, houses there are really beautiful! And it's hard to imagine that it's considered as a dangerous part of the city. Soon I was in the area where the Victor Horta museum was supposed to be and soon I realised I didn't have any clue where it could be there. But when I was about to ask help I noticed that I was on the right street! That was lucky! And soon I found the museum but it was still closed! The museum didn't open until afternoon and it wasn't even noon yet. So I needed to think what should I do before it opens. I was quite far from the city centre so I didn't want to go there. I looked at the tram map and I decided to go visit the Africa Museum in the outskirts of Brussels. I first took a tram to Montgomery and from there I walked little bit to Stoclet Palace which is also a World Heritage site! Unfortunately the palace (it's more house than palace) is not open to the public because it's still a private residence. I took couple pictures of it outside and then I took a tram to Tervuren where the Africa Museum is located.
Tervuren is actually outside of Brussels and the tram was going through forests which was new to me. It was very peaceful at Tervuren and so green! It was still snowy in Finland but here the spring was full on! I found the museum easily, there didn't seem to be many other visitors, only school groups. I was surprised about the looks of the museum, I didn't know it had such a huge and beautiful garden and the museum looked like a palace. There was nice elephant statues in the garden. The museum had very nice collections of African items and animals. Only problem was that there was only little information in English but the lady at the ticket counter said they usually have English brochures but they had run out of them at that time. But my Frech and Dutch skills were good enough to understand the main points of the information. After I toured the museum I went back to tram stop and I headed towards Brussels and Victor Horta Museum.
I arrived to the museum half hour before it opened. There was couple people waiting for it to open. I went get something to eat first and I found nice baguette shop which was called Krusties, if I remember right. They had quite cheap prices and nice customer service so I recommend them! I took the baguette with me and I went to wait up for the museum to open. The museum is not big as it used to be a private house. But it it was really nice looking and I recommed to visit it if you have time. It didn't took me long to go around it so I went to see other Victor Horta buildings which were nearby. In the end I found myself next to the Palais Justice, a huge court house. I was surprised how great views over Brussels you could see from the court house. From there I continued my walk towards Grand-Place. I passed the famous Manneken Pis on the way. It had started to rain a little bit so there wasn't that many tourists trying to take pictures with this peeing boy. Grand-Place was only a short walk from there. All I can say about Grand-Place is that it's beautiful and full of tourists. After taking pictures of the Grand-Place from every direction I started to walk back to Hans's place. On the way I bought some chips, which was my basic food during my stay in Belgium.
At Hans's place I got text message from my Finnish friend Mira, who was working in Brussels. She asked if I would like to come with her and her roommates to a bar. As Hans was busy on that evening I decided to meet Mira and her friends. Later I met Mira at metro station and we went to a bar near her home. I had very nice time there, talking with Mira and her friends and sampling different Belgian beers. Kwak and Gueuze were my favourites. Mira and I were both going to the Netherlands to the same student meeting so we were planning about our trip there. She also invited me to the Eurocrats Thursday's afterwork party which I definitely would attend. I left back Hans's place and when I came there he was already sleeping and sleep was just what I needed also after that long day.
