Austria: Brussels, Belgium

We left France really early to arrive in Brussels, Belgium in the afternoon. After having time to reflect on my travel period, Brussels is one of my favorite stops! The town was very lively, even on a Sunday evening. There are beautiful buildings around every corner, statues, parks, etc. And of course, there are tons of Belgium Chocolate shops everywhere! (It really is the best chocolate I have EVER had in my entire life! I bought a couple boxes to share with everyone at home and I'm having a hard time resisting the urge to open them now and eat it all! Don't worry... I'll wait!) The only downside to Brussels were the amount of beggars--there were more here than any other location which really surprised me.

The information desk attendant gave us the wrong information about where to take the underground metro to our hostel, and it took over an hour to find the correct location. Other than that frustration, the whole trip in Belgium was wonderful! The next day we did a walking tour around all of the important, impressive buildings in town. We also went back to the chocolate shops, of course! I tried a Belgium Waffle, which was also delicious.

We found out that the train station was experiencing a strike, and that the entire station was shut down and no local or international trains were allowed into Brussels. One of the girls in our hostel had been stuck in France for days, and she had heard that the Belgium strike would end by nighttime before our train out to Amsterdam, and she was right! (Thankfully!)