A day in Brussels

First of all, I do apologize for not posting last week. It is merely because I was hella busy preparing stuff for my visa appontment. For some information (this post will be full of information, can you believe that?), if you are a NON-EU foreigner living Germany, you must have a date with Immigration Office or what they call Ausländerbehörde in german at least once every two year, if you lucky. Some of us can go there once a year or once every 6 months to take care of our permit. Long story short, Ausländerbehörde (ABH) is just a nightmare.

But, If I tell you truth, I was very busy only from Monday till Thursday. The rest? I was just lazy as hell. I mean, after exhausting preparation and appointment in ABH in Thursday, I just wanted to chill and do nothing (like every other day). So as a result there is no post for last week and I try to compensate it this week.

So let’s move on and forget last week!

Unless you are my friend in Path (another social media platform which is very popular among Indonesian), you must not know that I was in Brussels around two weeks ago. The reason why I went there was just because round trip ticket Berlin-Brussels-Berlin cost 10 euro with RyanAir. So without even thinking, I bought it and went there of course with my lovely boyfriend. Another info that I must share, I was just having day trip to Brussels without staying overnight. So basically, we went there Saturday Morning and came back Saturday night. Reaction from people? They went nuts.

I don’t know why that the idea of having day trip to another country makes them questioning a lot. I mean for what? Most of them asked me the same question like: why you don’t stay there overnight? Isn't that tiring? Why? Bla bla bla and bla. And my answer was pretty much the same: Why should I stay there overnight? I mean as long as I can do things in my list and cover the city in a day, there is no need to stay overnight. Plus it is cheaper and you can have a rest at home as much as you want without waking up in the morning and worrying that you can oversleep and pass the check out time.

So yeah, I was having a day trip to Brussels and the outcome was pretty good. I mean I have to say that Brussel is full of tourists but it was pretty cool city (like any other european cities). We were joining free tour VIVA Brussels and it was pretty cool thing to do. Tips #1: For all of you who likes to save money on a trip, join a free walking tour in every city you visit. It is (almost) free and you can cover the most important places in the city in only 2,5 hours. Pretty worth it.

And of course, the blog won't be complete without me telling you about what I have eaten in Brussels. For me my visit to Brussels won't be official before consuming three things there: Waffles, Frites, and Mussels. Oh don’t forget to taste Belgian beer also! So without further due, let me tell you the story about what I consumed in Brussels below:

Frites or French Fries

Fries or Pommes Frites or Frites are pretty popular food among tourists or maybe Belgians. I mean most of them must try at least one portion of frites in Brussels. For some of you who don’t know, french fries wasn’t actually invented in France. It was originally from Belgium. But the reason why it is called French Fries is because most of Belgians speak French so some american soldier just decided to call it French Fries. Not sure this part of history was 100% true but at least that was what our tour guide told us. If you think this is wrong info, then blame her not me (kidding).

The resto or a place that I was visit for fries is called Fritland. Surprisingly, it was pretty packed and apparently pretty popular among tourists. The taste? Pretty ordinary for me. It was just fries with mayonnaise. That's it, nothing special. I mean I am not sure which one is considered good fries when my preferences is crispy one? And Fritland didn’t do some justice to all those potatoes. It was somehow oily and too bland me for me. The mayo? Bland as well. However, my bf liked the fries. Okay I have to say, he is weird this time. Hahahahahha (sorry mas bule).

Waffles

According to our tour guide, Dora, you need to eat Belgian waffles without any topping because that’s how Belgian normally eat. Me? I didn’t care about it and just ordered waffle with Nutella topping. Result? It was goddamn sweet. I mean the waffle itself was already super sweet and again with Nutella? It was crazily sweet that I couldn’t even eat half of it. The rest? I just gave it to my bf, of course.

Tips #2: you can find pretty cheap waffle in area near Manneken Pis (that famous pee boy statue). Most of the store sell waffle for 1 euro and you can add topping as much as you want. The topping costs varies from 80 cent to 1 euro. So the more topping you have on your waffle, the more money you need to pay.

Mussels

When I read in the internet, it is said that you need to try mussels if you are in Brussels. So we did it. The place we went was a pretty recommendable place called Chez Leon. Chez Leon apparently famous among locals as well since they do serve pretty decent food. I mean the taste was not that WOW but indeed pretty fresh. We ordered some menu set that consisted of 500 gr mussels, frites (of course) and beer. Price? 15 euro for that set. Somehow, I kinda regret for not having more mussels in Brussels but well, I don’t wanna spend 30 euro only for mussels so I just moved on and eat some chocolates. (Remember I was in Brussels where you can find chocolatier every 10 metres).

Bonus: Delirium! 

Delirium is a bar that recorded in Guinness Book of Record as a bar that has the long list of beers in the world! In 2016, according to my tour guide, Delirium has around 3000 selection of beers. You can find any kind of beer from chocolate beer to cactus beer. I wanted to try cactus beer, but sadly It was sold out so I was trying grapefruit beer and the taste was pretty good! Definitely a must visit place when you are in Brussels!

Conclusion:

My Brussels trip was indeed a nice one and I covered everything that I wanted to do only in one day. However, my highlight in Brussles was actually not the city but the airport. For me, I really liked the airport. It is not as majestic as Dubai airport in UAE or sophisticated one like in Qatar. It was in a good size of airport (not that big and not that small) and pretty comfy. So if you are in Brussels, don’t forget to visit Brussels Airport (if you go there by bus, I mean).

P.S.: in case you are wondering whether my visa appointment went smooth or not, well, even though the lady that accepted my documents were unfriendly at the beginning, she gave me 5 years visa! So yeah, it went pretty amazing!