I realized that posts about one of the best things of my Belgian adventure are still missing, so I should fix it right now. Six months is a time long enough to make some trips so I also tried not to waste any opportunity to travel and I’ve made a lot of nice trips with lots of experiences. It’s known that Gent, thanks to the great position it has, is a very good starting point for traveling. No wonder that during my Belgian mission I’ve managed to visit 4 capital cities, namely Amsterdam, Luxembourg, even Paris and naturally Brussels.
Paris
I would expect the biggest “wooow” for Paris from many people. Yes, Paris is a very nice city, I can agree. We spent there the whole weekend, but it was still not enough. There is a big problem behind. I labeled Paris as The City of Waiting and Deja Vu. The reason is simple, if you want to visit Paris, you have to take into account that you will have to wait. A lot. And everywhere! Yes, even for the toilet! And moreover, in the season, holiday period and such, it is even worse. And why is it the City of Deja Vu? I already know why the word came from France. During that weekend I felt a few times like I occurred in a situation in which I had been before…hmm…strange…again the same queue, again the same people….
Anyway, we made 674 steps to get to the top of the Eiffel tower and were so lucky that we managed to see Paris both at sunset and in the dark. This was an absolutely amazing experience, you have to experience that!!! And I also spent the most money ever in McDonald’s. We made a boat trip, saw Louvre (well, I actually waited outside so, yes, hate me but I didn’t see Mona Lisa live because, you know, it’s just a painting to me) and Notre Dame (unfortunately also only from outside). It was a nice time 🙂
Amsterdam
Amsterdam – what to say to that?……ehm….Amsterdam is awesome! If you have never been there before, you definitely have to go there! If you are thinking about your next trip, go for Amsterdam. This is probably the best city I’ve visited so far (well….okay, I think Prague is still the winner 🙂 ). I really love it. I think it’s so interesting because Amsterdam is different, weird, controversial, cosmopolitan, as you like. But still very nice. Frankly speaking, on the other hand, I wouldn’t live there. There are quite a few reasons why not to do that….
Amsterdam, in fact, is an overcrowded city, with lots of tourists, which is not yet a problem itself, but as I already said it is also controversial. And controversial is the right word. As everybody knows, Amsterdam, as the capital of the Netherlands, is so famous for its benevolent approach to many debatable issues. Yes, you can run into a lot of famous coffee shops, you will surely not miss the Red Light District with all those nice girls wearing very nice clothes, showing (almost) everything (nice 🙂 ) in the windows. (author’s remark: 10 minutes for 40€, 2011 😀 ). But at the same time, you also encounter very strange people, a lot of drug heads, dealers, mafiosos, perverts, psychopaths and other kinds of aliens. And crazy bikers 😀 It is very dangerous.
Anyway, Amsterdam has a lot to offer. The typical houses near the canals (grachten), sometimes looking like about to fall down, the typical houses on the canals – houseboats (sometimes looking like about to sink down 😀 ), and the typical romantic canals themselves just make this city special.
Cologne (Köln)
A very strange English name for this city. I rather use the German expression. So we’ve also been to Köln (Cologne if you want) which is situated not far from the borders. We went there in the winter right before Christmas to see the famous Weihnachtsmarkt. Yeah, those markets were pretty nice. We drank Glühwein, kept the cups as a memory and enjoyed the real Christmas atmosphere. On the other hand, though, this city just didn’t wowed me. But perhaps many people liked it. I think that I don’t find it that interesting because it’s very similar to the cities or towns in the Czech Republic. There is nothing new for me and seems quite boring then. For me it’s just a big city and that’s pretty much it. It should be added that, unfortunately, we missed probably the most beautiful spot of Cologne – the romantic view from the Hohenzollern Bridge.
Brussels
The biggest disappoitment of all is definitely Brussels. Maybe it’s not the worst city of Belgium, because especially in the Walooon part you can find quite a few ugly ones, but…..I don’t find it nice at all. Well, everybody has to visit it, because this is the core of Europe and there isn’t much more than say – I have been there, I’ve been to Brussels. However, at least for me, nothing special and not much worth seeing. Well, okay, if you go there, go to the historic center. That’s nice, that’s typically Belgian. But apart from that this city is a concrete jungle, full of high buildings, skyscrapers, homeless people and high unemployment rate.
I’ve visited all the “famous” places like Atomium, which is quite nice and I would say it’s worth visiting once in your life although the entrance fee isn’t the cheapest. I have also seen the famous “Manneken Pis (Pissing Boy)“, which I actually bumped into for the first time just by chance, because that famous guy is so small and hidden that you don’t even know. By the way did you know that there is also a Pissing girl (Jeanneke Pis) in Brussels? 🙂 Actually, there is also Zinneke Pis (a pissing dog, I guess Belgians like to pee), but I’ll let you find this one on your own. In the end, I also looked into internals of the European Parliament. Well, it’s the European Parliament, you have to go there.
There is, of course, much more. I have written here only about the places which usually allures people most. I would strongly recommend to make a trip to Luxembourg. It’s a nice city, small but very nice. I liked it. If you want to see and experience something different (something different for Belgium), then you can go to the Walloon part of the country and pass by Dinant or Namur (Namen), for instance. From these two places I have also a funny experience 🙂 They are different because you can see also some hills over there! A little bit different landscape can be seen also in another Walloon city – Liege (Luik). And don’t forget to visit the lovely, fairy tale city of Bruge (Brygge), of course!
