Belgium

So, seeing as Beljen and Priscilla decided to visit me in Vancouver last summer, I returned the favour this April and visited them. YES. First time to continental Europe. Very exciting.

Once I'd left Edinburgh I arrived in the Charleroi airport and headed straight to Liège to stay with Beljen's family. In order of sightseeing tours, I went to Brussels with Beljen's sister Emily, Bruges, Durbuy (allegedly "the smallest city in the world" but I don't know how anyone can prove such a claim), and Liège with Priscilla. There are so many photos and I don't want to post all of them so I've filtered them as best as I can.

Belgian beer is so, so good. Tripel Karmeliet is a clean, sweet, delicious one and probably my favourite of the bunch.. Chimay Blue was flavourful and satisfying and even more so when you discover that it's 9% alcohol by volume. I enjoyed drinking Leffe because it was fun to say the name in a dirty French accent. And Kwak was definitely worth trying because of the completely ludicrous vessel it was served in.

The overall impression of Belgium is pretty much what I expected: pleasant, but not particularly exciting. Being in a foreign European country was pretty great, but getting robbed in the streets of Liège was decidedly not. Bruges and Brussels were very similar experiences and I feel I will get the landmarks mixed up unless I divide the photos into folders by city on my computer. Anyway.. here are the photos.