Happy Hump Day!
The Bomb Life, as always, has been busy busy busy! A few weeks ago, I went on a rare Girl’s Trip to Brussels, Belgium, followed by a stop by my old favorite, Paris!
I’ll admit, I am 1000% about my business 99% of the time. While I love my friends and have maintained close bonds with many for over 20 years (I am loyal AF!), I typically only show up for big events: baby showers, birthdays, you get the drill. A girl’s trip “just because” was not on my bingo card, but I went and discovered that, gasp: there is more to life than work. And also…great friends are PRICELESS! I truly hit the friend jackpot.
Enough of my sappiness! My friend Angela loves to vacation in Europe, and I had never been to Brussels before, so I decided to join her!
Where to Stay
Night 1, we stayed at Hotel Amigo, a 5 star hotel that welcomes dignitaries and EU politicians (there was a summit there of some sort on day 2). My other friend Margaret decided to join us on Day 2, so we sashayed over to The Dominican, which was very swanky and had a great bar area.
Both hotels were lovely, but after our next door neighbor knocked on our door for laughing too loud at Hotel Dominican, I’d choose Amigo as my first choice any day!
Where to Eat
Eat Belgian chocolates and waffles (the best waffle was at Maison Dandoy; best chocolate was Chocolates Gerbaud). Grab affordable bites washed down with cherry beer with puppet decor at Poechenellekelder. Have a swanky meal at Restaurant Lola. If you add any of those hot spots to your ‘to do’ list, you can’t go wrong!
What to See
Aside from stopping by Manneken Pis (random brown/black/bronze statue of a boy peeing into a fountain), we enjoyed the Museum of Fine Art and also walking around the Grand Place & Galeries Royales. Y’all, I am used to coming to Europe for Fashion Week, so packed a bunch of heels and ONE pair of sneakers. DON’T DO THIS!! Bring flats or boots so that you can walk all day and take in the sights pain free.
Other notes about Belgium: They speak French, Dutch, and of course English! For fellow Francophiles, it’s extremely cool to have another place where you can parlez francais, but most people will respond to you in English. The weather was pretty bad while there…there was a mixture of cold rain, moments of sun, and even hail! Yes, we had to run from a hail storm. But who knows, perhaps Brussels has beautiful weather in the summer?
The people were generally polite, and aside from a woman who yelled at me at the Museum of Fine Arts for not forming a line properly (?), people were kind. Not overwhelmingly warm, but welcoming.
Have you been to Belgium? What was your experience?
Let me know below and stay tuned for my Paris Recap!
Love & Light,
*For my day in Brussels, I wore a red Sweater dress by Frankie Shop, Pantaboots from Shop Akira, Fendi shades from Style Eyes Optical, and a Petite New Yorker Bag in Soho Red by Silver & Riley.
**Images: Iphone and BNedShots who you should definitely shoot with should your travels take you to Belgium!
