Europe Trip: Belgium > Brussel! (05/06/07)

That's Brussels right below!Coming to the end of my Europe backpacking trip of 18 days, it feels a little sad. Brussels is my final stop before heading back to London...and the airport is new and pretty too... :) Welcome to the Brussels Airport!

It actually looks similar to the Hong Kong International Airport...don't you think so?

Belgium is the place where most of the world-class chocolate originated from: Godiva, Neuhaus, Pierre Malcolini, Wittamer...do these names sound familiar? :P Need not wait longer, I can already see the wide range of the dark angels at the airport shops...oh manz... *drool*

To the chocolate lovers, Brussels is spelled "P-A-R-A-D-I-S-E".

To the pretty ladies, Brussels is spelled "S-I-N-F-U-L"!

From the Airport, we took the airport train to the central where our hostel is located. I spotted this omni-potent vending machine at the train station. It is common to see vending machines these days, but not one like this that sell all sorts of stuffs including food, drink, snacks, lotions and other daily necessities. Don't you think we are looking at an automated world in the future? And here's the Brussels Central! (also known as Bruxelles Centraal)Brussels, although the buildings still carry the usual European style, has an history or historical changes which is shorter or less impactful than many other other European countries. You can tell this from the design of their buildings and structures, and this is also the reason why Brussels is quite a stylish place.Can you tell where do I took this photo?

(Hint: It is probably the largest fast food chain in the world)

Guess what this is a McDonald restaurant! Look at the chantelier on the ceiling...that's so beautiful! It feels like I have been to a high-class restaurant somehow.

A note to Singaporeans: In Belgium, where it is famous for its fries, McDonald's does not called it "french fries" but just "fries". That goes the same to many other European countries, including France. Yet in UK, fries is then called "chips". Hence, having fish & chips is the same as ordering fried fish fillet and french fries.Other than Chocolate, Belgium is also the place for the good and famous Belgium beers, with brands like Stella Artois, Hoeggarden, Duvel originated here. Besides beer, Belgium fries, waffles and mussels are also the famous dishes here.

Fritland is the place where Daryl recommends that it sells really good fries...and this is also the place that I bought my 5 packet of the super large fries for just 1 and 1/2 day here! :PGalleries Royales St. HubertThis is the place where the high class chocolates and boutiques are located...quite similar to our Paragon if you want to imagine the look of it...Belgium waffles!This is NOT called Belgium waffle but known as Legion waffles, which is the smaller round kind. Belgium waffle is the bigger rectangular shaped waffles. Both of them will be poured with the layer of rich Belgium chocolate fudge...awwww... *bleaming* :)'''Chocolate House!

It is actually just a normal chocolate shop along the street...but here you get to see them pretty often everywhere in Belgium...Look at the chocolate fountain! :DD

I guess I am right to call here Chocolate Paradise ya?What the horse pulling here is not a carriage that is seated with human but barrels and barrels of beer or whatever inside. I wonder if this carriage here is really meant to carry the barrels for business...or simply stationed here for the tourists to see... Manneken Pis!

Manneken Pis (Brabantian for little man wee), is a Brussels landmark. It is a small bronze fountain sculpture depicting a naked little boy urinating into the fountain's basin.

Grand Place The Grand Place (french: Grand-Place or Grand Place; dutch: Grote Markt) is the central market square of Brussels. It is surrounded by guild houses, the city's spectacular Town Hall and the Breadhouse (dutch: Broodhuis; french: Maison du Roi). The square is the most important tourist destination and most memorable landmark in Brussels next to the Atomium.

Brussels Town Hall

The facade is decorated with numerous statues representing nobles, saints, and allegorical figures. The present sculptures are reproductions; the older ones are in the city museum in the "King's House" across the Grand Place.Walking away from the Grand Place and back to the streets, you can see many MNC firms and banks in the CBD district of Brussels...and even sometimes a cute logo that would stand out of the place like this one...hahaha...lol

So don't forget to try the Belgium fries when you are there next time...they taste FANTASTIC!!!St. Michael and Gudula CathedralThe St. Michael and Gudula Cathedral is located at the Treurenberg hill. In Dutch it is called Sint-Michiels- en Sint-Goedelekathedraal, usually shortened to "Sint-Goedele".It is an archiepiscopal cathedral of the Archbishop of Mechlin-Brussels, the Primate of Belgium, currently Cardinal Godfried Danneels. It is located in the national capital and therefore often used for Catholic ceremonies of national interest, such as royal marriages and state funerals.Find this garden up on a small hill (don't know what place this is). Large area of the yard is planted with flowers, lavenders and neatly trimmed bushes...how lovely!The afternoon sun is not hot and glaring at all in Belgium, but gentle and warm. Looks like sunset right? :) Feel so relax just staring out to the greenish plants... *grinz*See the purple flowers...and maybe pink carnations in the background?! So pretty! :DDThere are many modern designed houses in Belgium. The whole place is very classy and elegant, pretty much close to the ones located near the city of London...nice...I suppose this is one of the government building of Brussels, bumped into this place while walking and trying to find a flea market that I realised only that it opens in the morning till about 2pm...haiz...God is always good...coz we found this hill top that able us to overlook the Brussels city...well this is our blessing in disguise ya? :PMost of the buildings in Belgium is low-rise and mainly consists of shophouses and terraces. Brussels is not big and you can almost have access to anywhere by foot...well I mean "almost"...

So do you want to visit Belgium too? :)

Europe Trip: Belgium > Brussel! (06/06/07)

Another thing to take note is that there are comic strips or comical pictures painted on quite a number of buildings in Brussels. Not just that, there is also a comic museum for those who comic lovers. I also found a few comic shops along the street while I was here...with all comics translated in the English version! :D

We left our hostel in the early morning and headed straight for the flea market!The scale of this flea market is actually rather a small one, selling mainly secondhand goods and antiques. There is already quite a crowd when we arrived here in the morning...well who don't like treasure hunting in the flea market right? :PFor me, the stuffs that are sold here is very much different from the flea market we had back home. You can really find those old European style collectibles, musical boxes and utensils that are overpriced in those antique shops you find in most Asian countries. Paintings, I noticed, are pretty much a popular item to be sold here as well. Oh manz...I feel like I am walking into the scenes in the English movies...ha! :DBrussels (french: Bruxelles; dutch: Brussel; german: Brüssel) is, not only the capital of Belgium, but also the capital of Flanders (consisting of both the Flemish Community and the Flemish Region) and of the French Community of Belgium. Hence, it is very often that you get to see shop names spelled in French or Flemish.

And if you ever bumped into this road stall when you are in Belgium, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you to have a meal there! There were people filming and interviewing some of the locals when we were having our lunch by the roadside here...needless to say the food is super delicious! :DThere are not much varieties of dishes on the menu but there are always people waiting and queueing behind the standing table, waiting to give their orders too. To make thing worse, the menu on the chalkboard is in French and there is NO English menu at all! Both Daryl and I really just play guessing games while we place our orders. In the end, we got ourselves a plate of silver fishes, salmon burger...

...and a escargot soup!

What attracts me to this stall that you can taste really high class seafood and super quality french food here...at a roadstall!!! You will be surprise the people who dine, standing to the table at the counter, are all well-dressed working group. Yet, the price for the food is very reasonable and in fact cheaper than most places providing the same quality of food...MUST TRY!!! :DAfter the nice seafood lunch, we headed for the icon of Brussels -- the Atomium!Built for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (Expo '58), the 103-metre (335-foot) tall Atomium monument represents a unit cell of an iron crystal (body-centred cubic), magnified 165 billion times, with vertical body diagonal, with tubes along the 12 edges of the cube and from all 8 vertices to the centre.

See there are many ways to 'play' with this crystal structure wor...hahaha...lolThis hamster running wheel look-alike is actually the wheel for spinning out the lucky numbers for the lottery! Hahaha....ooops! :PFrom the Atomium, we took the bus back to the central to look for the very thing we need to buy for our friends and family -- the Belgium chocolate (street)!The whole stretch of this street is dedicated to the high class chocolate and pastries.

Wittamer (above) is famous for their pastries and also chocolate as it is the brand that is used by the Royal family of Belgium. It was said that when there is functions for the Royalties, they would order the pastries from Wittamer. Just look at the range of cakes there! Awww... *drool*Guess how much this tiny piece of chocolate cake (with a gold foil on top) cost me?

[Hint: I bought it from Wittamer...to have a little Royalty experience.]

Well, the answer is EUR7.50 (approx SGD15) for a tiny piece of cake like this that you can finish it in just one gulp! Burnt a big hole in my wallet manz...OUCH! :S An expensive lesson learnt here: REMEMBER TO CHECK FOR THE PRICE BEFORE YOU ORDER!!!

But after tasting it, I can understand why the wealthiest and the royalties would order their pastries from. It is probably one of the best cake you can ever get in Belgium, or even the world.

But beating Wittamer's chocolate is this shop that has its own individual building -- Pierre Malcolini. Wittamer is more well-known for their pastries but not as much a specialist in chocolate. Whereas, Pierre Malcolini, after research, is the most expensive chocolate in the whole of Belgium. Wanna know why?THERE these are the Macolini's chocolate. In the shop, you will find the display of the chocolate is similar to those jewelleries display in the jewellery shops: Both looks like the precious treasures that the owner will risk his life to protect them from harm and patiently waiting for its rightful owner to buy them home...This is the box of chocolate from Malcolini that I exclusively bought for mummy and daddy. It costs me EUR17.50 (SGD 35) for this box of 250g chocolate (or 32 pieces in total).

I would say for this price, it is considered quite high for chocolates alone. But you will be surprised that there are lots more higher pricing chocolates here in Singapore, like Godiva is one of them. And if Pierre Malcolini's chocolate is ever sold here, I believe it will inflat by many times higher...heehee... :P

It's dinner time...and for the last night here in Belgium, I am going to eat my Belgium mussels!Look at the big, juicy Belgium mussels! Does this picture make you drool? Hahaha... :PLike the tourist street back in France, this street in Belgium is also a food street meant for the tourists as every restaurant offers you with the 3 course meal (entry, main, dessert) at approx. 12-18 EUR. So the only thing you need to choose when picking the perfect dinning place is the ambience and interior designs, the variety of food it offers and the friendly services.

For us, we picked this simply but elegant restaurant in which we even bargain for two free glasses of white wine before we enter...which the owner is more than happy to offer us! :)) After dinner, Daryl brought me to experience the Belgium beer at his favourite place which brews its own beer -- A la Mort Subite.

The shop is very spacious and surprisingly crowded even on the weekday. I ordered the draught beer (meaning the house beer which is poured straight from the barrels)...it taste great! I also tried a few other fruit beers from the shop coz I simply cant resist the fruitty taste of the beers.

Ladies, if you can't stand the bitterness of the normal beer, get yourself a fruit beer next time if you need to...though be aware too that fruit beer has a slightly higher alcohol level than normal beer too...so don't drink too much of it... *wink*

One last look at Brussels before going back to hostel. The streets are always packed with people dinning out under the big umbrellas, enjoying either a cup of rich coffee or a big glass of the good Belgium beer...and guess what the sun only sets around 11pm in the summer...woohoo! Reaching the train station early the next morning to catch the Eurorail back to London, marking the end of my 18 days Europe backpacking trip around 10 places and 4 countries:

Warsaw, Krakow, Ausztwich and Birkenau(Poland); Prague (Czech Republic); Vienna (Austria); Venice, Florence, Pisa, Rome (Italy); Brussels (Belgium).

Saying goodbye is always the hardest thing to do when you don't want it to end... *sobz*

A Glamzy Affair

Me & Shihui! :DThe starter for our 8 course dinner @ Pan Pacific Hotel...yummy!It was a night of fun for our company as there are performances, games and competitions being held by the host. In a way, it opens us to see the other side of one another that we don't see so often when we are working together in the office...

This is the "Bomb" game in which the 4 tables that are 'bombed' will have to select one person to be dressed up using the material provided. Lucky or not, our table is destined to put Ritawati to play the game...hahaha...lol And there...our four brave souls -- Sha, Jason Leong, Jeannie and Ritawatti! :P

And the result? Well, we couldn't decide who's the winner from their dressing so they were asked to sing a song...and Sha won from singing a Malay old folk song...coolz...*grin*

After the dinner has ended, we continue our phototaking session!

From left to right: Ling Hui, Shihui, Dawn and Me! :)All the jobs, cashcounts and CPA games really opens me to know more people from my company...it feels great and more of a sense of belonging here... Siew Tian is also the chio bu in our office with her great sense of dressing! :D
Joey, our HR lady!

She is fun, pretty and a lovely mother of 2! Thanks to her that we can always find the answer to questions in the office such as application of leave, medical benefits, staff welfare...and of course she is the one who helps the boss to give us our salaries and pay slips! :P

This is the first time for me to attend a company's dinner & dance. In the past, it is always associated with the school or even CCA. The feeling is different because we are not no longer students or youngsters who can fool around like nobody cares. For tonight's dinner, you are attending the dinner as an adult, meeting up with the people you work with everyday and even your boss whom your livelihood is depended on. And yet, besides the serious and diligent appearances they always put on in the office, you finally get to see the fun and wild sides of them...which can really surprise you much...

From the speech given by KKWong, one of our partner, our company's name "Foo Kon Tan Grant Thornton" will soon be changed to simply "Grant Thornton", following the name of our association which we are a member of it here in Singapore. Our logo will also be modified and certainly not blue (he says there are too many auditing firm using the same colour so we must have something different and outstanding...oh wells...). Our staff force has also increase from about 260 to 310 since June this year...and there are many more staff to come in so that we can hit our target to reach the 400 auditors next year. Oh gosh...that means no more space to sit in the office! *sobz* :S

For me, I kinda miss the old times. Or maybe, this is still something new to me that I don't get used to. While some of them went clubbing and drinking after the session, I decided to go home, for the very first time I went home so early after such dinners. It is not that I feel tired, I just don't want to go chiong and all those so much anymore. Those I have lost my interest for a long time now. It is actually a bit shocking after seeing how many colleagues getting drunk after the dinner, some laze around the hall outside the ballroom, some puke, and most wobble around feebly with friends beside them in case they fell...so is alcohol really a mean of socialising in the business industry? Don't know since when, I start to appreciate the joy of simply lazing at home, surfing online or simply staring at the TV and do nothing...

As I realise something last night, part of me keeps thinking about it which I shouldn't. It kinda bothers me much again. How I wish I never come to see what it is written. It will be good if it is true to what I think but why do I feel so sad? Isn't this a sign that I long to see for so long? Why is it so painful and fearful when such thing appears??

God, help me...let go and let it be if there is still such longing in my heart...