Beer, Chocolate, Churches and Comics, that’s a hell of a combination!
Welcome to Belgium and the great city of Brussels. Home to Beer and Chocolate! Not exactly a city geared towards healthy eating but that aside, the beer and food was great. Fries and waffles also for the win! Food aside, Brussels is another city with a lot of history and some hidden gems tucked away in a city that plays home to the power of the European union.
Unfortunately, I made a bit of a mistake with my train bookings and arrived in Brussels way to early. This ended meaning I had to wait around the hostel for check in and ended up wasting most of the afternoon. I made up for that by going on a beer tour in the evening and learning a ton about the history of beer in Belgium. Went out for a drink with some of the group after that and then back to the hostel for an earlyish night.
Sunday was unfortunately another rainy day, but I didn’t let that stop me as I began exploring the city in search of the comic book murals scattered around the various buildings and areas while also checking out some of the main sights. Brussels ended up being a very interesting city for me because of its association with comics of all things. The city plays host to some of my favorite comics and cartoons from my childhood, TinTin, the Smurfs, Lucky Luke and my favorite, Asterix and Obelix. There is apparently 49 comic strip murals painted around the city, without seeing the actual list, it is hard to tell which ones I found and which were just extra works of art. With that said, I know I definitely found 23 of them.
I was also lucky enough to come across a private exhibition known as MOOF, this collection is one of the biggest figure collections in Europe and the amount of history associated with the collection was amazing. The problem was I was short on time so had to move through quickly but still glad I got a chance to see such an amazing collection!
After a long day exploring the city, it was time to go back and rest. Walking around in the cold and wet ends up being more exhausting than you would think. The final day in Brussels I decided to take a day trip down to Bruges and look at this famous Medieval and Gothic city. A place that did not disappoint.
I could have spent another day looking around but I felt I covered most of what I wanted to see. So on to the next one, Amsterdam!
Marcus Powell has been living and working in South Korea since 2010. He is now on the road before returning back to NZ. Aside from writing his own blog, he is also a popular Club DJ, Gamer, Community manager, esports fan and anime enthusiast.
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