my aunt’s house is in the south of Netherlands, near the border of the Netherlands and Belgium. it is even closer to Antwerp than to Amsterdam. then it’s a good chance to visit Antwerp, one of the big cities in Belgium. left home in the afternoon after little michael finished his class. uncle drove us and the journey took only 30 minutes. the sky was so bright on our way to Antwerp, but turned to a bit cloudy when we reached there. fortunately, there wasn’t raining so we could enjoy strolling around the centruum. but i love Antwerp. so classy and vintage! so so love. there are a lot of food and Belgium souvenir stalls along the way. i came to think nothing beats Belgian waffle. ah, too good to be missed. i didn’t really know the history of Antwerp. all i know is that it plays an important role in the economy and cultural life of the previously known Benelux country (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg). its position near the sea has become the key of its role.

Happy easter! i miss this blog already. hihi.. still on holiday now, but i got the chance to connect to internet in my aunt’s house.

Aunt and family picked me up at the Bruxelles-midi-zuid station. I was completely mesmerised by the beauty of Brussels. Brussels, capital of Belgium, is a small and vintage city with the beautiful architecture. The highlights of this country are the Belgian chocolate, Belgian waffle, beer, manneken pis statue, Tin Tin story, atomium. Belgium is a bilingual country, speaking both French and Dutch. The south area, which is closer to France, uses French. On the other hand, the northern people speaks Dutch. However, all the streets marks are written both in French and Dutch. Speaking English is more acceptable here than in France.

1. atomium, was built in 1958 as a monument for an Expo. It represents the structure of iron crystal. i won’t go for the chemistry stuff any further otherwise i will be the most boring blogger. haha. lots of people come to Belgium make their way to this place. we can either go by elevator or staircase to reach each balls. at the top there is restaurant where you can enjoy the view of Brussels from the top, making it looks like miniature. each balls has exhibition. and i love the things exhibited there. such as the development of fridge and vespa, from the very vintage one. ok, i might look like a weird one. haha.

2. Belgian chocolate shops. Belgian chocolate is something that i can never ever resist. i am a sucker to chocolate, isn’t it very clear? hehe. one is never enough. and belgian chocolate really has a thing. loveeeeee it!

3. random building along the centruum.

4. market square. i loveeeeee this place. square in the middle, surrounded by beautiful old buildings. this is (i assume) the heart of Brussels. no wonder, many tourists hanging around. hehehe. too bad it was raining so hard.

5. restaurant area. still in the centruum. i did try spanish cuisine in a spanish restaurant. the dish’s name is paella. nice one.

6. manneken pis. at first i didn’t really know the history about this statue. but it’s very famous and has become the trademark of Brussels (and Belgium, maybe?) as we can see, it’s a statue of a little boy peeing. here is the detail history.

7. manneken pis in belgian chocolate statue.

the weather has been very ugly these past few days. rain on and off. and i am totally convinced that i hate rain during holiday! well, actually i hate rain when i’m doing outdoor activities. i couldn’t really snap a lot of good pictures. but no matter what i still enjoyed the city very much. i wish i could go back again someday. i found it so difficult to answer the question how many days i need to explore a city. maybe it would take at least a week in the same city. one or two days is never enough for me, seriously. but yeah, it was quite an experience.