I spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday feeling faintly uncomfortable visiting Brussels wearing a suit on a trip organised by the student association URIOS, whereupon we visited various institutions related to the European Union. This is despite the fact that in my previous entry on my trip to Brussels a weekend ago I said something along the lines of: "I won't be going back in a hurry". Well, I take some of that back.
I don't know why, but Brussels appealed more this time than it has before. Perhaps it's because we had an itinerary that kept us busy, or perhaps it's because we travelled quite far from the touristy centre. But whatever, I now don't dislike Brussels as much I once did. I still think that that Grand Place looks garish by day, but by night, I fully admit that it's pretty stunning:
There were 30 of us in total and it was nice that exchange students were, for a change, in the minority, so I got to meet and talk to some really great Dutch students as well as getting to know other people better. I'll save my observations on the EU and the people and places we went for Part 2 (so people can skip that boring bit), but suffice to say, I came away slightly more contented about the work of the EU than I was when I went in - I'm now the owner of a EU flag lapel brooch - but I still have major reservations about the European Project.
The trip itself was fun and it was good to travel with a group of people instead of individually. There's a street in Brussels where all of the tourist restaurants are located, and knowing we had a group of 30 people gave us quite a bargaining chip, so we had a great time playing the different restaurants off against each other trying to get the best bargain. We settled on a 20% discount in the end, and the following evening we got free drinks, so if you're going to Brussels, and plan to eat, group together, it'll pay off! There's also a bar that listed in the Guiness Book of Records as having the most types of beer available, with a massive 2400+ varieties! Suffice to say, no-one managed them all, but judging by the numerous hangovers, I think some tried!
We stayed in two different hostels and both were decent enough. We were slightly perturbed by the fact that upon asking a police officer for directions to the second one we were told that it was in a 'dangerous neighbourhood' and that 'women shouldn't walk around alone'. Luckily it turned out to be fine and we had no problems, but we all felt a little conspicuous as a group of 30 suited people.
So, a really fun trip. Unfortunately I continually forgot my came lra so I have only the two above photos to show. A lot of the time though was spent lining up photos of the group, so hopefully I'll have access to them in the near future (discreet hint to Sophie). Some of the EU buildings were pretty amazing as well. Hopefully they'll appear, along with more, in Part 3.
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