The Day of Manneken Pis

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Manneken Pis, the famous Belgian statue of a little boy peeing. My Grandma was the first person to inform me about this famous little statue, and I completely understand the confusion on the popularity of this statue. Regardless, here it is! Manneken Pis. Upon checking the correct spelling of this statue, I found that there is an accompanying Jeanneke Pis… a modern statue of a little girl peeing!

Luckily, Manneken Pis was only a minute part of our glorious sunny day. Brussels has showered us with much rain and wet snow for the past few days, so suddenly, the sun is a real treat when it shows it’s face. This morning, Vesalius College gave a bus tour of Brussels, which revealed how much there is left to see and explore. Ema, Becca and I thought we had it all down, but there are many more sights now added to our (mental) lists!

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During our tour, we got off the bus to walk around this lovely park. Our tour guide then brought us down to this seemingly unimportant area of the park. She then informed us that the Czar of Russia, Peter the Great, got wasted and threw up in this very section of the park. Very interesting!

Following this, we got back onto the bus and rode through different sections of the city — all of which we plan to return to and take pictures of. We also learned quite a lot about Art Nouveau architecture in Brussels — much of which was sadly destroyed at one point in time. Fortunately, there is a good amount of Art Nouveau architecture left that we were able to see — much of what we saw was intricately beautiful.

The last major stop on our tour was at the Atomium, which was just a faraway view, so we plan to return, because within each ball is an exhibit to be viewed and at the top is a restaurant!

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After our tour was over, the bus was able to drop students off in downtown Bruxelles, which is when Ema and I experienced our first Belgian waffles and frites!

Below is a picture of my waffle, but there was no time for pictures with the frites… they were half gone before we thought of photos… Oops! (Did you know there are about 46 different sauce options for your frites? We got tartare.)

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After these wonderful eats, which I must say — très bon! — we walked our way to Grand Markt or Grand Platz again, took more photos of the beautiful architecture, and then went on our way to find Manneken Pis.

Tomorrow we plan to see the Marchè du Midi — considered one of the largest markets in Europe — and the Atomium by night.

Bonne nui

 

Hello! My name is Katie, I am an English major and double minor in Environmental Studies and Law and Politics. I am very excited to be living in Belgium with a host family for four months! I will be studying politics, law, and French whilst abroad and I hope to discover Europe and more about myself in the process!

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