Chocoholic

1. I’m back from Spring Break! I am back at school with loads of homework and studying to do. Last week went by so fast and I can’t even believe that my first year of college is coming to an end.

   
   

   But let’s take a step back to the start of Spring Break. This may be a little bit of a surprise, but I went to Belgium and The Netherlands last week. I rarely tell people my travels simply because they are never set in stone but luckily this one was a success. And with that said, I have some pictures to document my vacation.

   
   

   We left Saturday evening meaning that we would arrive in Brussels in the morning. Call me crazy but sometimes I enjoy airplane food. I don’t think I actually enjoy airplane food itself but I like the fact that the flight attendants bring you food. You basically don’t have to lift a finger. For dinner I had chicken and polenta with a salad, dessert I had an ice cream sundae, and breakfast was fruit and yogurt.

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   I watched two movies on the plane: Wreck-It Ralph and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (I know, completely different movies). Both movies were pretty good for completely different reasons. Because we would essentially miss bedtime, I slept a little on the plane. With the lack of sleep, surprisingly I didn’t have jet lag that day.

   
   

   Arriving in Brussels, Belgium we headed to our hotel: Aloft Schuman. Let me say that this hotel was one of the coolest hotels I’ve been to. I’ve never set foot into any of the W hotels, but apparently Aloft hotels are like the swankier babies of the W hotels. The decor of the Aloft Schuman was colorful and modern. One thing I will say is that the weather was a lot colder than I thought it would be, so I wished our hotel would have been closer to the city center than it was. Luckily the nearest metro station wasn’t too far.

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   Thinking of Belgium, the first thing that comes to mind, or at least my mind, is chocolate and waffles. Before coming to Brussels I did a little research about the best chocolate stores. From my research Leonidas, Mary’s, Pierre Marcolini, Galler, Elisabeth, and Maison Dandoy (for waffles) seemed to pop up frequently and so these were our first stops. 

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   The macaroons were some of the best macaroons I've had so far. My favorite macaroon flavor is rose and Pierre Marcolini's Rose macaroon was absolutely delicious.

   

   
   

   After accomplishing our main goal in Brussels, we decided to explore a bit. We walked through Les Galerie Royales and ate frites.

   
   

   Hôtel de Ville de Bruxelles

   

   
   

   Little courtyard off of Hôtel de Ville de Bruxelles. One of my favorite pictures because of the vibrant colors of the flowers, the cobblestone flooring, the architecture, and all the little aesthetic details from the lanterns to the curvature of the flowerbed.

   

   
   

   Still in the courtyard. Can you spot the top of the Hôtel de Ville de Bruxelles?

   

   
   

   

   
   

   The 'ketchup' sauce was way different than the ketchup in the U.S. It was slightly sweeter and the color was more brown.

   

   
   

   We had made a reservation at a place that was apparently one of the better places in Brussels, but unfortunately they weren’t open that day. We decided to instead find some place on the street and came across La Marie Joseph. Food was good; I ended up getting a fish platter with salmon, sea bass, sardine, cod, and something that I don’t remember. The place had a cute but misleading environment. There were chicken decorations everywhere, but what they served was primarily seafood.

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

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   After sleeping in, we started the day by going to brunch at a place called Belga Queen. The interior was amazing and definitely something that you don’t come across often in the U.S. Appetizer was rabbit; I’ve never had rabbit before but it tasted similar to tuna. Steak was the main dish honestly it was pretty good.

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   Only in Brussels for a day and a half, we checked out of the hotel and spent three hours in a train headed to Amsterdam. Our train was in the evening so we would be missing dinner but luckily we had gotten a couple of sandwiches for the journey. For being bought at a store in the train station the salmon, pesto, and cream cheese sandwich was actually really good.

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   Arriving in Amsterdam later in the night, we immediately went to the hotel and hit the hay, but not after we took a couple of photos of Amsterdam at night.

   
   

   

   
   

   Amsterdam Centraal

   

   
   

   

   
   

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   I hope you enjoyed the first two days of my vacation. Day two was pretty short so I didn’t think it was worth its own post. But, stay tuned for my post of Amsterdam. Trust me, the pictures are pretty awesome!