Belgium

Coming to Belgium was exciting. Traveling around Europe with Mike and Tiffany was an incredible experience – one we will remember the rest of our lives. Yet it was also fairly stressful. We always had to find our hostel, find our way around town, ask multiple people for directions, find places to eat, etc. We knew Belgium would be different as it would be a week where Em and I could mostly just enjoy a reunion with Mom and Loel. When we got off the train we couldn’t see Mom or Loel as planned. So we walked around for about 10 minutes and finally Em said ‘There’s Paula!’ I looked over and saw them and Mom came running (and crying) over to give us hugs. It was great seeing them again. For the most part they didn’t seem so far away the past couple months because we really didn’t see them a ton in Provo and we can talk to them whenever we want. But it was still great hugging them and telling them in more detail lots of our experiences on the trip thus far.
This was Mike and Tiffany’s last day of their trip (as Em and are staying for one more week) so we went shopping in the area for some suits because missionaries in Mom and Loel’s mission said July was filled with sales on suits. We didn’t find suits but got some other great deals on clothes and then we headed over the the Grand Platz – Brussels’ main square. It was cool. It was lined with four buildings – each with their own distinct color and architecture. Some of them had flowers in each windowsill and others where comprised of multiple tall thin spires. We ate dinner at a greek place where we got great fritas (fries) and Gyros. The main site in the area (aside from the Grand Platz itself) was the Mannekin Pis – a strange small statue of a little naked boy peeing. Not sure why it is so famous, but it had a crowd – kind of funny. We then topped off the evening with true Belgian waffles. I was stuffed (I ate a ton at dinner) so I couldn’t enjoy mine as much but Em loved hers. I got ice cream on mine while Em got chocolate sauce and whipped cream – she loved it.