Last Days in Belguim

My last trip to Brussels was bittersweet. Part of me was sad to leave because I've had such a fun time with my sister, Ron, Lil C, and S, but the other part of me was happy to get away from the freezing weather. While in Brussels we first went to the Cartoon museum. I had saw a segment on it on the travel channel and it looked pretty interesting. The only disappointing part about it was that all the comics were in French and there were no English translations. The pictures were very cool. Comic drawing is such an art. The variety of it was more than I ever imagined. I also saw the first version of the Smurfs, which are originally from Belgium. I used to love the Smurfs as a child.

We than went to the St. Michael's church. It was a really beautiful church where Belgium royalty get married. There were displays of different nativity scenes that were created by different ethnic communities. It was crazy to see all the different ethnic groups that live in Brussels. There were nativity scenes created by Italian, Germans, and Greeks.


After that we headed toward the Mannekin Pis. It's a statue of a little boy peeing. Legend says that Brussels was under siege by a foreign power and the attackers had thought of a plan to place explosive charges at the city walls. A little boy happened to be spying on them as they were preparing and he urinated on the burning fuse and saved the city.

We had lunch in a really quaint pub and then went and bought chocolates from a really fancy chocolatier called Pierre Marcolini. I tried their chocolate and still have no idea how people actually like it.

On the last day, Ty took me to the train station and we said goodbye. I really hate having to say goodbye to my sister. I love her very much and consider her to be my best friend.
Well, Ty put me on a train whose last stop was the airport. Well, it's last stop was some small town, not the airport. I was in the train wondering why it was at a stand still until an older man got on and told me that I had to get off the train. He said that I had to go on another train to Brussels Nord and then take another train to the airport. So I lugged my 50 pound suitcase and windmill up and down the stairs and missed the train. The station was totally deserted and freezing cold. It was still dark and no where on the train schedule did it say that any of the trains went to the airport. I couldn't help but panic a little since I speak no French. I actually cried a little which never happens when I get lost. The same man came to the platform and he took me to the next train station where I missed the next train. After lugging my suitcase to one platform, he ran to tell me that I needed to go on another one. I finally made it to the airport. That man was an angel. I got to the airport an hour and a half before take off. If I had to have gone to LAX, I would have been screwed. The flight was torture. It took 14 hours to get back home. Salina and her boyfriend, Frank, picked me up from the airport and we went to In'n Out which was a nice homecoming meal. It's tradition when I return home from traveling.

Brussels is an amazing, quaint city. I miss my sister and her family and Ron very much but I feel so fortunate to have had the experience of spending the holidays with them.