Day 200 (Thurs) - Brussels for the day … because I had nothing better to do!
After finishing my assignments for this study period yesterday I decided to go on a little adventure today. It took me just an hour and a half by direct train to get from Maastricht to Brussels. I’d seen a piece on the news about a cool ‘taxidermy as art’ exhibition there and thought “any excuse will do” right? Once in Brussels centre, I made a quick detour to visit the Manneken Pis statue – literally a tiny statue of a little boy peeing into a fountain. It’s infamous, and oddly today the little statue boy was dressed in a tiny tuxedo and top hat! Across from the statue I ceded to the temptation of a Belgian waffle, with melted chocolate and strawberries of course, and proceeded to eat it with my fingers as I wandered down the road towards a bus stop.
Little Mannaken Pis doin his thing!
To get to the taxidermy exhibition I had to catch a bus to the suburbs which took about half an hour but was actually a worthwhile experience, just to see how the streets and buildings change, not to mention sitting next to locals on the bus :P The museum was the quirkiest little place, hidden away down a side street. It was a small space inside, a warren of about 4 small rooms with cute Dutch blue and white tiles on the walls, ornate wooden display cabinets and the loveliest French speaking lady running the place who did her best with English for me. The exhibition itself featured stuffed frogs positioned as playing in an orchestra, a baby chimpanzee, a Dodo bird created like out of Alice in Wonderland, a giant elephant’s head/ear and a rather graphic but admittedly interesting video about the process of taxidermy.
froggy orchestra!
froggies chillin' out in the bar!
From there it was back to town to another museum, featuring works by Rene Magritte (the guy famous for his painting of a pipe emblazoned with French words saying “this is not a pipe”). We learned about Magritte and his work in art class last semester so it was cool to see more of his stuff and recognise some of its characteristics etc. It’s really crazy kind of surreal stuff, some dream-like, some just odd. I must admit I didn’t really understand much of it, but that doesn’t stop it from looking cool and being interesting. The most fascinating thing though was the type of people in this museum – it was FULL of school students on tours. Now a lot of Magritte’s stuff features nudity and some pretty full-on sexual themes – but here were these kids, no older than about 8 I’d guess, in groups of about 12, in their smart school uniforms, following their teacher from painting to painting receiving an education that I waited until 23 (just last semester) to get, and receiving it in French no less!
view from the Museumplein
After all that contemplation it was time for a tea break. I’d read in my Lonely Planet (thanks Jess!) that Brussels is home to one of the oldest arcades in Europe and inside was a brilliant little café run “just like Grandma’s house” so I headed there. And it was true – the arcade was gorgeous, old, golden and detailed. The stores inside were glamorous and expensive. And the café was homey but amazingly reasonably priced. I couldn’t resist the fresh raspberry cheesecake on the tart cart, coupled with a pot of tea, and settled in to read a book for an hour or so while Brussels passed by through the arcade.
old ornate arcade with glass ceiling
lunch!
There was time left for a little walk around the town centre’s cobbled streets and open squares before the train back to Maastricht. I had extremely good luck with transport all day and was home by about 9.30pm – a solid 12 hours “abroad”!
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