Tour D’Europe (Part Un)

 

PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just like dah “toilet” yah lol I was har nat ready for this flight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look nuh I was for sure ready for the trip but the extra 2 hours on the 5+ hour layover added to the 8 hour flight was just too much.  Then having arrived in France that too was not without its drama ‘cause for 1 we missed the train to Brussels, 2.  It took forever to locate the “blah Blah” car to take us there 3. even with the assistance of the GPS,  the driver took a wrong turn and 4. he ended up rear ending someone just before we got dropped off SMH despite all of that, I was glad to have experienced it with literally my brother from another mother a.k.a Shirley fuss bwoy a.k.a Ryo a.k.a Mario a.k.a (SOTAS – mi still await pon the release).

A likkle back story bout Mario and I.  See, we grew up together, his back yaad was facing my front yaad and I spent most of my time over his house since it was so many of them (just 5)! Lol!!!!!!! You know the love was real as no matter what sickness (I distinctly remember measles and mums) they had and despite many warnings from my mother to make sure I don’t bring them home I would still be over there ramping and chatting it up with them and of course Shirley; PLUS he was there for the “lift yuh leg up” drama (LOL – he will never allow me to be great and just forget that story).  Love that woman to death like she is my own mother.  Both our mothers were kinda sorta single parents (long story) and looked out not only for each other but also us as children. One thing was for sure, they instilled the importance of education and making sure that we lived up to our potential.  Which is why this trip was suupppeerrr important to me, not just to explore, but to see my friend and bother in his element and confirmation that WHAT IS FI U CAAN BE UN-FI-U!  You see, if you know me, then you would know the back story as to how Mario ended up Europe.  MI PROUD CAAN DUN!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway back to this Brussels leg of the trip, so after all that we finally got to the “hotel” or loft that we were staying.  Don’t get me wrong, I only air quoted hotel cause it really felt like someone’s home that were staying but we loved it seeing that it was just 5 mins away from Grand Place and was smack dab in the middle of the city!  What we didn’t like however was the tear up sheets lol I mean bed linen and a few other things that were or were not provided!!!!!!!! Now having gotten some what settled the first thing was to find food before our night excursion.  An mek mi tell you, Mario love a junk food, which doesn’t work for me since mi a try eat clean! Sas crise, I think we walked out all of Brussels trying to find a real meal considering the “plakka plakka” (lol I thought of my mother when that word first came to me on the flight) that I got on the flight.  We eventually settled on this place called “Wok to Walk” that Mario swore by; mind you people he didn’t even eat all his food!

Then it was time for our night time adventure! Yup, a pub crawl!!!!!!!! Six bars, one night!!!!!!!!!! BTW this is where Mario and I learnt to take a selfie with buildings that were tall! LOL yup, we there trying to figure out how to get the extreme top of the building (Grand Place), when braps we saw a girl angling her phone down to take the pic and we followed in quick succession; that was too funny. This was awesome, the first bar (Celtica – http://www.celticpubs.com/celtica/celticabxl.html) was littyy (as the young people say) and we turned up with the strangers on the tour so much so that endless people started coming in the pub/club and then we had to leave.  Oh yea, the beer was boss too, cold and noice (MAES).  By the time we got to the last bar (The Big Game – https://www.facebook.com/Thebiggamebrussels/?rf=747592401983166) we were fully pop dung, so we said our good byes then made our way home and even that was fun, as we stopped for French fries and mayo…yum yum in my tum tum.  Of all the bars we went to, we both agreed that the one called Cartagena Salsa Bar – https://www.cartagenasalsabar.be/ was our least favourite.

Day 2!!!!!!!!!! It was time for our hop on and off tour BUT first breakfast; and sure enough guess what Mario wanted?! McDonalds!!!!!!!!!!! I had to hold firm and tell him that we going to have a real breakfast.  Sure enough as we left the apartment, we saw a tour group and at my urging we decided to follow them into a nice little alley (Les Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert) where we discovered so many luxury stores and chocolate shops (LOVE) especially Mokafe and Delices du Roy.  Mokafe was pretty good, for €12 we got a pretty decent breakfast (OJ, eggs, croissant, greek yogurt with fruits, tea and a loaf of bread with cheese)…we couldn’t even finish it – well I couldn’t, as for Mario him can nyam like a farmer arse and if you ever see how the bwoy mawga (skinny).  We also went back for breakfast the next day to try the waffles, seeing that we heard from another tour (while sitting there the previous day loll we eaves drop a lot a lot) that they were known for their OMG waffles and sure enough it was AMAZING (I also learnt that plain Belgian waffles are my thing, all the others are just too sweet for my palette). 

Then it was time for the adventure!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course we had to run to catch the bus lol.  At Mario’s urging we stayed on the bus to see all the attractions, so that we could determine which stops we would make on the second round trip.  Typical me, I didn’t listen so we ended up spending too much time on this leg.

Now as you can tell, travelling with the two us (Mario would say ME) is endless drama.  Case in point, having completed one leg/line of the tour, it was now time for the other one…and that’s where the drama unfolded.  To transfer to the buses you need your ticket and as we came off the bus I began looking for the tix to go on the other bus; of course no tix. So we ran across the road and asked the driver if we could search the bus to see if we left it there…sure enough no tix.  We go back across the road figuring I would empty my bag to see if it was there, thinking too that the bus we saw waiting for the other line would leave us; when low and behold as I am repacking my bag the tix appeared (I still don’t know where in the bag they were and if you saw any of the pics you know my bag was not that big)! You know the stress/disappointment must have been showing on our faces because as we ran across the road to catch the bus for the second leg of the tour even the driver for the bus asked us why we looked the way we did, while telling us it was the last trip for the day so we didn’t get to hop off the bus at all.

After a day of sightseeing and endless photos (of me of course lol – mi nuh know why Mario nuh like tek picture) my favourite attractions were Cinquantenaire, Notre-Dame Au Sablon (I discovered how much I love the architecture of the churches in Europe – I can spot them a mile away).  My least favourite was the Manneken Pis!!!!!!!! As the Saint Lucians would say CHOOPPPPPPPSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lol I mean we came off the tour bus to go an look for the thing and ended up doing everything else, only to realise that it was just this little thing tucked away in an alley, that were we paying attention the night before on the pub crawl we would have seen it.  When I tell you endless people was standing there trying to get a picture I just stood there wondering WTF it was and what was the importance?! The only good was that it was located in an area where there were endless chocolate and cheese shops!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We also found an excellent store with amazing knicks knacks and trinkets (Mi figet the name and mi caan find the receipt BUT lawks dem expensive, matter a fact the ENTIRE EUROPE har EXPENSIVE!!!!!!!)

Finally it was time for dinner, even that was not without drama…after walking around aimlessly trying to decide what to have we ended up at Drug Opera – dinner for 2 with a bottle of wine and 1 glass of red wine ran us about €36.  That was certainly a good way to end the day and the trip.  Only two things I am sorry that I didn’t get to do was to go to the Atomium and to visit the museums in the Cinquantenaire museum. Other than that I had an amazing time and despite what Mario says mi love Brussels!!!!!!!!!!!  I love how there are so many stores just tucked away around Grand Place and the place is really one big circle so its hard for your to get lost.  Once you make your way back to Grand Place you can always “re-route” from there.

Now back to PPPPAAARREEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stay tuned for Part Duex!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Check out the following if you decide to make a trip:

1. Pub crawl – excellent way to experience the night life (€10 p/p) – https://likealocalguide.com/brussels/tours/pub-crawl-in-brussels?utm_campaign=marketplace_click&utm_medium=tours_page_normal&utm_source=brussels&utm_content=tours
2. Instant Photo Tour (€35 p/p – you get an camera with this) – https://likealocalguide.com/brussels/tours/instant-photo-tour-of-brussels?utm_campaign=marketplace_click&utm_medium=tours_page_normal&utm_source=brussels&utm_content=tours
3. Mokafe (no website but Facebook page is – https://www.facebook.com/Mokaf%C3%A9-1565011460451527/?rf=157310774330302)
4. Delices du Roy (no website but Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/delicesduroybxl/)
5. Les Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert – http://www.grsh.be/en/magasins-de-luxe/
6. Hop on and hop off tour – http://www.citysightseeingbrussel.be/en
7. Drug Opera – http://www.drugopera.be/en/home
8. Train – https://www.izy.com/en/homepage

You can also browse the website https://likealocalguide.com/ to find more activities for the cities that you may be planning on visiting. Oh a blah blah car is basically travelling with someone who is going to where you are but probably needs company and you pay a small fee (like u really a gi dem gas money).  Another thing I love was the number of options to travel between the European city…you will see on our trip to AMSTERDAM!!!!!!!