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| Me at the Mannequin Pis with Lucas Benedetti my impromptu guide. 2010 |
While I have been to Brussels before, the last time I was here I was far from alone. I didn’t realize how I dependent I was on my guide. Without a guide it didn’t take me too long to realize that I was in trouble. I went through customs, pulled out my reservation and the directions I had printed off Google Maps only to find myself with conflicting instructions. Not really knowing what to do I fell back on my missionary habits and started stopping people at random and asking for help. The first two people I stopped were of very little help as both spoke Flemish (for those who don’t know Belgium is a bilingual country). The third person to answer my cry for help did so in Italian and I was completely lost. Finally I stopped someone who spoke French and while they were able to offer some help it would turn out that their directions took me down a less than direct route. In this case however I can’t complain. The nameless stranger was kind enough to actually ride the bus with me (luckily it was close enough to his destination that it wasn’t much of a detour) and point in me the right direction. I am always surprised to see how kind complete strangers can be. I feel like we publicize quite a bit of negativity in the world when in all reality there are a lot of good people who are more than willing to help. I was grateful to have found someone who was so willing to help.
Having successfully made it to my hostel I settled in for the day and headed out to retrace my steps from the last time I was in Belgium. The mannequin pis et my favorite gauffrier were at the top of the list.
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| Le Mannequin Pis is a monument that I may never understand. They even go so far as to dress him up for the holidays. Follow the attached link for some light reading on the subject. |
After having made the long trip alone I decided that it was time to treat myself to a little something. I took the time to do a little bit of research and the “Nuetnigenough” (the greedy glutton) came highly recommended. I decided to indulge and was not disappointed (see attached photos). I will provide a brief list of what was ordered.
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| I started things off with a brick of gruyere cubed and then lightly salted. It was my first re-exposure to real cheese. I couldn't have been happier. |
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For "le plat principal" I was served duck fricassee with belgian frites and a light salad.
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| And for the dessert i had some speculoos ice-cream. If you don't know what speculoos I would highly recommend you change that. See you local waffle house for details... |
After a delicious dinner i decided to take advantage of the previously mentioned waffle shop. It's hard to say no to a second dessert when you travel alone. All in all it was a great day.
FIN
