As two districts go they could hardly be more different - even though they lie side by side in the same city. The Sablon is one of Brussels' smartest areas with its broad boulevards and elegant shops while in the Marolles you're more likely to find rough and ready bars, workshops and immigrants from Spain, Portugal and North Africa sitting out b...

Our trip to Belgium was awesome! We left REALLY early on Thursday morning. The train ride was a painless 2.5 hours compared to all of the miserable hours I spent on buses in Costa Rica! Once we arrived, we had briefings at the EU Parliament and then across town at EU Council. I basically learned that the EU wastes a TON of money on translators e...

Day 1, we were still amazed at making it all the way to Belgium from San Francisco. Everything had gone smoothly, but we were dead, dead tired. After the non-stop flight and a TGV train and one taxi ride, we made it, with a heavy dose of jetlag. Mark actually made it out of the house for a quick trip to the market, and we happily dined at the ne...

Was a good first night in Brussels, although I have to say Belgium was disappointing. We have basically been on tour of the Garden Spots of Europe - Zurich, Amsterdam, Munich, Barcelona...Belgium was a step back. Really run down and dirty - more so than the Czech Republic even. You would think the center of the EU, with hundreds of millions of i...

Well, we made it to the land of so many famous foods! It's a good thing we're only here for 2 days, because I'll probably still gain about 5 pounds of waffles, Belgian chocolate, and beer. Anyway, we really enjoyed our time in Berlin! Yesterday was a bit more laid back, and the highlight of the day was probably a museum called the Berlin story. ...

Lots of Belgium chocolates. First taste of non-English Europe. Found we don't know any french, even the numbers which we thought we did.

3. Health Everybody is warning us about going to India. Tales of Malaria, Typhus, Rabies, Hepatitis and many other diseases are standard when talking about travelling in the Indian subcontinent. We are especially worried about malaria, since a very good friend of mine (Kinga) died recently from Cerebral Malaria in Ghana. And maybe some of you mi...

So Brussels seems like a cool town, but we've only been here for less than 24 hours. Bad thing is, I think we are done. We got in late last night, checked in, and went to bed. This morning we woke up, saw the Grand Place square, saw the Mannekin Pis, and wandered for a bit. We plan on going out tonight, getting dinner, and heading to Amsterdam i...

We didn't have a whole lot of time here. Spent most of it touring the museums and sites. Walking through a small street with my friend, we came upon a waffle stand. "We're not leaving Belgium without having a Belgian waffle," I told him. They were delicious of course.

Visited Brussels. Bought Godiva chocolates, Tintin Comic books and met up with someone I met at Cambridge, Sarah from Michigan. I saw her as well as her Belgian friend, Florence. In Brussels, I was accosted by the only hobo in that city who told me to go back to my country, which I sarcastically replied, "Bien sur, je vais retourned au Canada!"....