After saying byebye to dad and mum on 25 July, jw and I were on our own for the rest of our Europa trip. Woohoo. 2 weeks of er ren shi jie. Been waiting eagerly for it to come, although it was also very much enjoyable spending time with his parents, Uncle Will and Auntie Julia. I was really excited the moment we stepped into Nijmegen train station, all ready to embark on our journey to Brussels, Belgium.

It was a short one-hour train ride and due to the overcrowding, we had to stand all the way right outside the WC in the train, along with at least 7-8 other passengers. Keke. Wow. Dear was saying it was very smelly, I thought he was referring to the stench from the toilet, but neh, he was actually saying the guy beside him. Either had BO or was sweating too much from trying to hook up with some other gals on the train. =) I like the feeling of us dragging our luggage and carrying our barang barang in the middle of a foreign place, both trying to navigate. Sometimes we had differing opinions, and sometimes we got really exhausted, but the most important thing is that we didn't give up on each other and we held on together throughout our journey. Poor jw had to carry my luggage up and down COUNTLESS number of staircases though, considering that 99% of the metro stations we went had no elevator. Handicapped-unfriendly. *shakes head* At Brussels, we also bought our train tix to Paris for the next day. Yesh, we were only gonna be in Brussels for 1 day, so every moment was precious. Guess where we stayed here???? TA-DAH! Yeah, HILTON!! It wasn't that ex, think bout S$100+. But Wow, we had a king size bed and a superb view and the TV reads "Mr Low, Welcome to Hilton.. " The bathtub was the best we had too, even the lights were automated.

Soon after we checked in and had a good bath, we set off to explore as much as we possibly could before sunset. We took the metro to Heysel station (yeah I took pics at the station cos it resembles Hazel and me and jw said we will compete and see who found more of our friends' names, keke). We managed to visit MINI EUROPE, which is something similar to Madurodam, but hey, this time round it introduces all the countries in EU. Wow. That's alotttt. I realised my geography is really bad (yar, i knew this long ago lar) and I really don't know alot of the countries' capitals.


At Mini europe, we took tonnes of pics and videos so that we could let Mum and Dad see. That was the plan lar. We also played this game where you put in 1euro coin and you can use a steering to control a mini boat, main purpose is to navigate it through the two poles and you win. Ehhhh. Jw is a sailor ley, how to fight with him... But the dumb thing is I didn't recognise which was my boat till like a few min after we had started. (I tot I was the red one, but neh, it was moving because jw's boat kept bumping into it. My 'real boat' was somewhere behind knocking into the rocks because i keep turning the wrong way) Sometimes I'm really silly. =( We also played a trivia game where you have to guess the capitals of the EU countries, and the fastest finger gets the most points. Well. Hmmm. I tried my best. Haha. There was yet another game that measures your weight. Mine was 47 and jw was 61, till he took off the backpack and became 58. Ehhh. Our bag was 3kg. That's ok. what's more worrying is that jw is only abit heavier than me and maybe one day he can't piggyback me no more. Sob.

We saw the mini Eiffel here. Hee. And we said we muz take lotsa pics and then compare it with the real Eiffel when we see it tmr. Well. What a difference. But like Madurodam, I muz really say that Mini Europe was quite impressive in terms of the details they pay attention to. I bet everything was built in almost perfect proportion to the real monuments. At Mini Europe, every station had a button which you can press, and everytime you press, something happens. Like a volcano will erupt and the ground shakes (it scared me wor), or their national anthem begins to play, or the lightings come on, or some boat/car starts moving. It was indeed quite fascinating. =p


We also saw the Atomium, which looks exactly like this pic. Alas our timing didn't allow us to enter it as it was closed by the time we toured Mini Europe. I also wanted to visit Planetarium, where you can see the galaxy, the stars and all the solar system stuff. But after much effort locating the place, we were only able to take pics at the already closed entrance. Haha. Haiz. It's ok. Maybe one day we will be able to visit these places again.. =)

Now, the best part of Brussels had to be the Grand Place. We were both simply amazed when we reached there. Beautiful, magnificent, gorgeous beyond what we could possibly describe. We were surrounded by buildings which overlooked us with such splendor that we could just spend so much time absorbing that sensation we felt. Wow. Yesh of cos, we took many many videos and pics, and we stayed there for longggg. There were so many people sitting in the centre, doing nothing but just admiring the surroundings with their friends. It's like, there's a sense of tranquility here that I can't find in S'pore. =) I was determined to visit the Manneken Pis (the wee wee boy) since we were in Brussels, but we decided we will come back to the Grand Place after that to admire it again. Woho. Jw was so stunned by the beauty too. What a perfect place for us to be at, together, the first day that we were alone. =)

Right. So we did really find Manneken Pis. =p It wasn't that far from Grand Place. & on our way there, we actually met this human statue dressed up as Van Gogh (there was a real Van Gogh statue beside it). Initially I didn't know which one was fake, till he moved. Wooo, scared me again. But I was quite fasincated by him and guess wad, he motioned for me to go over and ask jw to take pic for us. But he grabbed my shoulder and neck with such force that it hurt abit and I was quite overwhelmed by his friendliness. Haha. Then he asked jw to come into the pic and his friend next door to take a photo for us. Wahhh. Both of us had the same thought that the guy might run away with our camera, but luckily he didn't. (ehhh, not that the camera is still with me now lar. waha). But well, nothing's for free in this world. In the end he told us to give him 2euros. well well. Alritey. Yeah. So the pic on the right is the wee wee boy. Sooo many pple were there too, taking pics of it. He's not dressed up today, probably because it's summer time. Sometimes they dress him up according to the seasons or festivals. It's quite fascinating how things like this become national tourist attractions and people from all over the world travel here just to see it right? Like jw says, it's just a statue. But in Denmark he did the same thing too, and walk for kilometres just to see the famous little mermaid statue. Keke. Maybe our Merlion has the same appeal to tourists too!

Back to the Grand Place. Wow. Ain't it pretty? We bought some Belgium chocs and munched it over beer. I tried some cherry beer and jw tried their local brand beer which was really smooth and not very ex. The feeling was just amazing. Peaceful, loving. & to our surprise, at night, there were lighting performances every half an hour. It took place at this tall, white tower which jw felt was the prettiest building there too. I couldn't really grasp what the narration was about, but it was good enough watching the lightings. We would just lie down in the middle of the square, looking up at the tower, and nodding in mutual agreement that the moment was so perfect. Can you imagine us lying down there, right in front of the building? Keke. Yesh, we did.

Boy oh boy. We had a good night's sleep on our king size bed that nite too. Jw said muz cherish cos he really dunno how the rest of the hotels will turn out to be like. Hehe. well. Doesn't really matter to me so long as he's here. & I guess we can overcome all odds together, right? Yar. I really didn't know what was in for me for the rest of the trip. Wahaha.

Be back for the next country.. Paris.. our favourity city of all.. Tata..