Final Days

The days began to dwindle and before it could even sink in, I had finished my classes. I still had a week of finals left, but those were no more than a formality. With so little time left, I planned out a few things I had yet to do but still wanted to. It was my intention to do everything I possibly could before leaving this beautiful city and country.

In the evening following our last day of class, we had our last CIEE organized activity of the semester: a visit to the Royal Greenhouses of Laeken. The Royal Greenhouses are exactly what its name describes in that they are greenhouses and they are in fact royal. They are located on the grounds of the Royal Family's pristine living quarters. The greenhouses are only open for 3 weeks during the entire year, so visiting them is a highly anticipated event. We arrived about 8:00 on a Friday night, which was the last day that the grounds were open. Fittingly, there was a massive line awaiting us and we had to wait quite a bit before entering.

This is where the King lives

Once inside, we got tour a bit of the grounds surrounding the Royal family residence, which were unsurprisingly kept in pretty tidy condition. The grass was green and the hedges trimmed quite precisely.

Once inside the greenhouses, we were disappointed to find that the line we had witnessed in front had continued into the actual exhibit. So instead of being able to tour the grounds at our own pace, we had to cycle through in a queue at the rate of a snail. Being swarmed by hordes of people is not the ideal situation in which to see a bunch of plants.

As for the plants themselves, they were also pretty disappointing. There were a lot of various greenery from around the world, but nothing appeared extremely exotic or interesting. It felt like I had even seen much of the flora before. Perhaps the experience would have been better at an earlier time and not during its last opening of the year, but it ended up being extremely disappointing for me and others in the group. Alas, here are some pictures I took:

Photobombed by this guy

Unfortunately, I was still battling the cold/flu like symptoms I had been suffering from earlier that week, so I was not able to do as much that weekend as I would have liked. I visited a few of the local museums that I had yet to do so and stopped by a massive Food Truck Festival that was being held in the city center that weekend. I had hoped to make a significant indent in my list of beers tried during this weekend but was unable to. With just a week left, I found myself 20 short of my goal of 127 different beers. My last week in Brussels would prove to be a test of my resiliency and true love for beer.

I breezed my way through my first 4 of 5 finals, and managed to add a few more beers to my list over the next couple of days. Thursday was a national holiday in Belgium. For what, I could not tell you. So Wednesday night was our CIEE farewell dinner. It was held in a nice greek restaurant in the Sainte-Catherine district of Brussels, an area that I had actually yet to really explore. It features a picturesque little square with a series of cafes outside the Sainte-Catherine cathedral. 

Before dinner, I took the opportunity to take the elevator to the top floor of the 58 parking garage, one of the taller points in the Brussels city center, that features some of the best panoramic views of the city, where you can see everything from the Grand Place, to the Atomium and beyond.

I randomly ran into one of my apartment mates atop the tower, where we actually said our goodbyes as it was the last time we would see each other.

From there, I went to the restaurant for the farewell dinner. We had the entire cellar to ourselves, which proved to be a cool little venue for the event. The food was good, and I was able to enjoy a final dinner with the rest of the people in my program. Michelangelo said a few words and gave a toast:

Then my friends Molly and Natalie, the two of whom had developed an immediate friendship here, hosted the

I was honored with “The Ultimate Homie” award. This is a reference to something during the trip that you wouldn’t quite get. But to provide some explanation, it is a label given to me by another member of the program, Brandon. Brandon won the “life of the party” award. So I’ll let you use your imaginations on what being “the Ultimate Homie” means.

The night closed out with a slideshow of the many many many pictures taken by Michelangelo during our program events. You can watch it here:

https://youtu.be/eSxLGGdJB7I

We got Monica and Michelangelo to be all-emotional.

I got to take a selfie with Michelangelo.

Dammit Brandon

All of us finally got to friend Monica on Facebook and in typical CIEE fashion, we all went out afterwards. It was a fitting end to our semester together. 

This was the Grand Place that night

After my last final on Friday afternoon, I concluded my time as a student as Vesalius College. VECO student government through a little cookout at KK’s, the on campus bar to celebrate the end of finals. I took the opportunity to say goodbyes to the local students and some of the other study abroads that I had gotten to meet during the semester. I met a wide variety of people during my time here, and I’m going to miss quite a lot of them. Not all them, but a lot of them.

I spent my final weekend in Brussels doing some last minute sightseeing,

 buying gifts and souvenirs, and trying to accomplish my goal of drinking 128 different beers.

On Saturday morning, I took a quick trip to the Brussels neighborhood of Anderlecht, which is located on the west side of the Senne river, an area I hadn’t gotten to very much. Anderlecht is home to the only top division football culb in Brussels in RSC Anderlecht. I’m disappointed in myself for not going to see a game, but I took some time to explore the area and see what I could of the stadium, even though I couldn’t go inside. I visited the Team store and picked myself up a nice scarf for my collection of football scarves, which is now at 4! 

From there, I followed the metro to its terminus near the city limits of Brussels. I took a short walk in which I crossed the border into Flanders and stopped at the Neuhaus Chocolate factory outlet, which is essentially an outlet store for Neuhaus chocolate. The store provided big savings on buying any of the Neuhaus gift boxes or specific chocolate pieces in bulk. The store was also littered with free samples of all their chocolate which I took advantage of. With my tree nut allergy, I can’t enjoy a lot of the different pralines and chocolate, which feature a lot of hazelnut and almond fillings but I can still devour quite a bit, plus nuts suck, so I’m not missing anything.

(heavy breathing)

Afterwards, I returned to the city center where I finished up my gift shopping, picking up the stereotypical Brussels knick knacks in Mannekin Pis bottle openers as well as a couple bottles of the supposed best beer in the world: Westvleteren 12. The beer is not sold commercially, so you either have to fight the hordes to purchase it directly from the Abbey monks who brew it or purchase it on on resale. A bunch of the tourist traps in the center sell it for 18 euros a bottle. I was able to find one place where I could get it for 12. Of course, I had to pick some up for myself, although I would save it for later.

On my last full day, Brussels was hosting a Pride Festival, which proved to be the gay-est thing I have ever witnessed. I do intend to mean that in any negative way. It was a celebration of the gay lifestyle and I can’t think of a better way to describe it. The events going on were a blast. I passed some of the floats that were either just beginning or finishing the parade on Rue Anspach. 

The streets were swarmed with people, as enjoyable house music blared throughout. The rainbow flag was ever-present and people of all types seemed to be having a grand ole time. That night, a deejay took over the Bourse steps and played a set to a fun and energetic crowd. It was quite cool to see the shadow of a person dancing projected over the side of the Bourse.

 I finally got around to trying some escargot from a well-known local kiosk. I was not a big fan. Too chewy. Although I may just not known how to eat them properly. 

Later, I would enjoy some of my favorite staples of Belgian cuisine. The mitrailette is a type of sub sandwich you can get from any snack kebab place, which are everywhere. You get a bread roll, choose your sauce, meat and greens and then they top it all of with a serving of frites and sauce right on the sandwich. It sounds like a heart attack, but its magical and im going to miss it so much. That night, I would pick up one final cone of frites smothered in Andalouse sauce before heading home. I will never call them French fries again. They’re just fries at home. And if they’re good enough, I might just refer to them as frites. Nobody does them better than Belgium.

Bye Bye Frites

As the sun began to set, I took one final stroll along the streets of the city center. I passed some familiar spots and saw some I had yet to visit. I followed a map I had found of the various comic strip murals plastered all over the center. I had yet to see most of them, so this was my final opportunity to do so. I don't know much about these character but they all represent the vastly descriptive style of the Belgian comic strip. There were quite a lot of them:

I spent my last two nights in Brussels at the place where it all began: Delirium, because why would I go anywhere else. It was here that I ended up saying most of my goodbyes to the friends I had made during the semester. I was glad we could go out one last time at my favorite place. As I have said, I have met some cool people during this trip, many of who were in the CIEE program with me, and I couldn’t be happier to have shared this experience with them.

It was also at delirium, where I finally reached my goal of 128 different beers. The magical number #128 was one of the Delirium’s house brews called Pink Killer. It lived up to its name as it was pink and so damn sweet it almost killed me. I didn’t enjoy it, but that’s the beauty of Belgian beer. There’s such a variety, that you can find something from every spectrum and even if you don’t like beer, I guarantee you can find one in Belgium that you will, especially at Delirium.

I left a reasonable hour, but had to say one final goodbye to the most famous square in the world, which I had visited numerous times the past few months.

The next morning, I finished packing up my things, tried to figure out the best way to pack 10 bottles into 2 suitcases and cleaned out my apartment. I have collected a great deal of keepsakes during the semester, many of which came from Bars or beer paraphernalia, but I also  brought home with me all my ticket stubs from museums and some food products I am not sure if I will be able to live without.

For my last act at my apartment, I opened up a bottle of Westvletern 12 that I had purchased the day before, and sat down to for my last bottle of Belgian beer and the 132nd different beer I got to try in the Benelux countries.

I told myself I would save the best for last. and I’m pretty sure I did. It has a lot of hype to stand up to, but Westvleteren makes it case. It was by far the smoothest beer I have tried and was delicious. Was it the best in the world? Well, I can’t really say until I try some more outside of Belgium.

A sample of my beer collection at the apartment

I called one last uber and said goodbye to the apartment that had been my home for the previous 4 months. Goodbye to the White paining on my bedroom wall:

Goodbye random white painting

Goodbye to the Diamant tram stop. Goodbye to the local snack kebab, Le Durumier. And goodbye to my place on Avenue des Cerisiers.

It was a bitter moment, but the time had come.

At the airport, I ended up buying even more beer in the Duty Free shops, and marveled at the efficiency of European transport. The Brussels airport is nice, you can even demo a ps4 or play foosball at some gates.

My last view of Belgium

My last selfie in Belgium

After a brief layover in Frankfurt, Where I spent my last few euros on a pint of Hefeweizen and a pretzel, I said goodbye to Europe and made my way home.

I won’t say I returned to the US a changed person. I still feel the same as when I left. But I can say that the experiences I have collected over the past 4 months have been a truly humbling and insightful time in my life that was unlike anything else.

When I returned to my home, I cracked open a bottle of Shock Top, a Belgian style White beer, for my first legal drink in the US.

It was terrible, and in no way lived up to its proclamation of being Belgian styled. Welp, I guess I’m a beer snob now. Sorry, I tried not to, but actually I’m not sorry. Belgian beer is the best. Cheers.