Brussels diaries.. as promised

Day 1

We caught our 4 pm flight to Brussels en route Zurich. We arrived at our final destination 10:00 pm Cairo time. Our adjacent seat was occupied by a swiss gentleman who is a scholar of HIV and other incurable diseases, he was such a charming conversationalist. The inflight movie was “Fun with Dick and Jane” funnily enough a remake of Adel Emam’s “Esabet Hammada we Touto” 🙂

I got to go to the hotel sitting in the front seat of the VW Jetta. GORGEOUS!!! It was 9:30 pm Brussels time and still sunny. So we got to see the city. Feels like downtown Cairo but after going through the washing machine and dryer a couple of times.

We checked in and hit the streets. Our hotel is walking distance from Grand Place. Its a huge square with a giant Cathedral and Parisian cafes and chocollataires right and left.

I thought that the most significant symbol of Belgium would be chocolate related. I was really suprised to find its a young boy relieving himself!!!! Legend goes like this: in the 14th century, Brussels was under siege by a foreign power. The city had held their ground for quite some time. The attackers had thought of a plan to place explosive charges at the city walls. A little boy named Juliaanske from Brussels happened to be spying on them as they were preparing. He urinated on the burning fuse and thus saved the city.

On our walk balk to the hotel a car passed us blaring Amr Diab through its speakers. We got called to a waffle stand by a Palestenian sales man. The selection of waffles was to die for. I had a belgian chocolate waffle sitting on the cathedral stair benet3akes bel3araby fe Belgeeka.

Day 2

My French muscles are being stretched to their limit 🙂 Norah, how about that class. This was the first day of sessions. I woke up in the morning with an incredible sense of energy. As if I was fully charged, energized and ready to go. I dare say its the cool fresh air.

Sessions themselves are interesting enough, the presentations are good but I’ve noticed an interesting trend. Half an hour before the end of every session they take a very large round of questions, then they go out of their way to dodge answering them.

After the sessions were over we went back to the hotel (once again in My Jetta) and traded in our fancy threads for jeans and leather and were ready to hit the streets. We walked aimlessly for hours stopping to take photos of buildings.

I had ice cream at Hagen-Daz!!!!!!!! The scoop costs around 20 LE but worth it.

We shopped and bargained and discovered there were more Morrocans in Belgium than Belgians. We finally located a cinema, and I regret to inform you that I in an unprecedented act of bravery decided to see “The Da Vinci Code” the 9 to 12 show. This I would never do normally but we had missed the only available show. Here in Brussels you have to be careful or you’d end up watching the French version with Flemmish subtitles. Book much better than the movie. MUCH. I actually slept through the ending So much for “the night is young and so are we”.

Day 3

Last night in Brussels we had Paella, a Spanish dish that has spread through Europe like wildfire, its rice with seafood. Not bad, although in all honesty, highly overrated. Then again once an Alexandrian no seafood is ever good enough 🙂

A country could be without any natural resources that would attract tourism yet could create a tourist industry with good planning. Following such logic a country with natural god given wonders SHOULD be………

We totally exhausted our finances, to the extent that we were emptying our pockets to see if we could afford one last Belgian waffle. Our Palestenian friend actually gives us one on the house. Arabs are so nice to each other abroad, 3o2bal locally 🙂

Saw “Faliure to launch” on the return flight. Its a very airheaded movie. “”How to loose a guy in 10 days” is 100 times better.

I had a great time during my 3 days in Brussels but I wouldn’t stay any longer, there is really nothing much to do. I certainly would like to travel again, but perhaps somewhere new.