Paris was nice, but I had been there twice before so I wanted to explore and venture into the unknown. I knew I was heading to Amsterdam to meet some friends early on in my travels so after looking at the train line came an interesting idea. Why not stop a few days in Brussels?

And so I did. The next three nights were spent in this lovely Belgian capital where the beers are tasty and the fries are to die for (think “Frites Alors!” but 10 times better and a quarter of the price!). But I have to admit that besides the food and the wonderful mixture of travellers I met, the city was a tad disappointing. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s beautiful, but there’s an eerie clash of building styles that’s a little too similiar of Montreal’s “artsy”-ugly buildings thanks to its 1980s economic boom mixed in with beautiful historic early 20th-century architecture. Yuck.

Oh, and Manneken Pis is just tiny!

Otherwise, everyone is friendly and the city is very clean. I spent most of the time wandering around aimlessly on the streets and riding the trams to just discover some hidden gems, to which there were many. I found the treasure pictured above in the city’s predominant church.