Home again, home again

I just got back from Prague and Kyle will be there until Wednesday morning. Kyle and I have now decided that we don't want anyone to visit us in Brussels--just go to Prague and we will come and visit you there. It was pretty depressing to come back to Brussels tonight. The man who was sitting across from me on the train home from the airport was only in Brussels for a few days and this was his first visit here. When he asked me what he should do with his time and where the cool places to go are, I felt horrible when I replied, "Ummm, well, there is the Grand Place, and, umm, the Sablon area. Brussels also has a really big forest. But past that, Brussels has a pretty slow pace of life and I can't think of too many things for you to do."

I enjoy my time in Brussels, but that is mainly because of the friends I have made, not the city. The most common thing you hear about Brussels is that it is a good place to live because it is so convient to get to other places from. If your selling point is how easy it is to leave the place, that is not really saying much about the city. Tonight it was hard to come from a city that has done things so well-- ie: beautiful buildings, clean streets, tourist attractions, a large and varied array of shopping (especially considering they are recovering from Communism) and return to Brussels with its gray, drab buildings, rain, dog poop all over every sidewalk, people constantly cutting you off in line, and lack of any store open after 6pm. At least I'll have the memories of Prague!

We took tons of pictures so it will take awhile to sort through them, but in the meantime, here are just a few...

It was about 28°F the whole time, so we stayed really bundled up!

Just a fraction of the beautiful architecture that covers the city.