Brussels small town charm helps overshadow the fact that it's the capital of a small country of Belgium as well as the capital of Europe. In my short time in Brussels, I was able to see much of it as this city is easily walkable. Brussels is what I kind of imagined a typical European city would be like. Walking around the city, I saw plenty of locals and tourists munching on the infamous waffles and fries sitting at very quaint coffee shops. The city is extremely well designed in the sense that the main city center is blocked off completely for pedestrians. Even the train station that I came from was a 5 minute walk to my hotel.
Easily the most photographed building in Brussels. You could see it from any vantage point in the city. Gotta admit, it's cheating taking photos of it because it always looks good.
One thing to note was that the infamous Grand Place, the main square where are all the beautiful buildings are at, is amazing at every time of the day. I lived 5 minutes away and every morning and night I would always go check out the bustling square. The town hall (I think is the tallest building in Brussels) was amazing to see at every angle. It was a little sad how few parks Brussels has and even then, the parks were disappointingly boring.
All of Brussels prettiest buildings lay in one tiny square.
Oh man do Belgians love their waffles, fries, and chocolate. It was kind of funny seeing the stores on the street, "oh a fries shop, waffles shop, sweets shop, another fries shop, another sweets shop..." However, the fries that I had in Brussels were probably the best fries I had in my life (I think I ate fries for like 4 meals/snacks). They were perfectly cut, double fried in beef fat, and served with all kinds of delicious sauces that make me never want to go back to boring ass ketchup ever again. Authentic Belgian waffles were a bit hard as most of the stores sold crappy and cheap waffles that were aimed at tourists. The real waffles that I did have were also easily the best waffles I've ever had. I've never realized there could be such complicated textures and aromas from such a simple pastry. As you can see, I didn't really get to eat my daily intake of vegetables and fruits (well any vegetables for that matter). That's gonna be regretful later.
This city looked so generically European.
Although I stayed in Brussels for a short time (4 days), I realized that this was plenty of enough time to explore the city. I would even go to say that some parts of the day I got kind of bored. I enjoyed the food and walking around the city, but I guess it was a little too dull for me. However, it was a nice reprieve from big city life.