For our second (and last) day in Brussels, we visited the Atomium, Mini-Europe and then went back to the city centre (where we found H&M).
The Atomium was built for the 1958 World Fair which was in Brussels that year. Other than that it's honestly quite useless lah, but still impressive. (In all honesty the Eiffel Tower is useless too. In its day it did serve as some antenna or communications thingamajig but that's it).
You can go up and into the balls by the way! They're connected by escalators.
View of Mini-Europe, which is just beside!
Next we went to Mini-Europe, which consists of mini models with exact details of real monuments throughout Europe. I kept the guide because it has some interesting facts about the countries.
Sweden: In 1967, Swedish motorists changed overnight from driving on the left to driving on the right.
(the whole of Europe except Britain has the driver on the left)
Finland: There are more saunas than cars in Finland.
Belgium: The average Belgian consumes 7.3kg of chocolate annually.
(guess that's why they're so famous for chocolate!)
France: At 1568 working hours per annum, the French are the least industrious people in Europe. (HAHAHAHA) French men are on average 1.72m tall, and French women an average 1.65m.
Italy: The Italians spend the most on clothing.
Sorry I took this in the beginning when I was still excited and trigger-happy. Now I can't find which country this is for in the guide. Good job if you know.
(Edit: Oil rig in Belgium -_- by default there are a zillion more monuments for Belgium than there are for any other country. I mean geez, an oil rig??)
Not sure which country, but it looks like Copenhagen to me so Copenhagen it is.
Atomium in the background!
Monument of Freedom in Latvia.
Haha Belgium -_-
Cute huge brolly!
Eiffel Tower!
Big Ben! (London...)
Still large.
Arc du Triomphe (Paris).
The church Sacre-Coeur at Montmarte in Paris. It's on a hill so you can see really far! I visited it ages ago with Sonia.
(Honestly my first thought when I saw the model was... "TAJ MAHAL!" Haha yeah India's not in the EU yes thanks.)
French airport. Don't see what's so monumental about it but whatever. Something about deregulation of airspace in Europe.
Column in Barcelona in memory of Christopher Columbus (brought noodles to become spaghetti, what a good man he is!).
My poodle ring (by here I was getting sick of monuments, there are way more I didn't take pictures of).
Boat because got robot dolphin jumping out of the water.
Leaning Tower of Pizzaaaa
Berlin Wall. (There's a segment of the real Berlin wall beside this, but not in the photo so...)
Haha mini wedding. This is the Spire cathedral in Germany.
Baths found in Budapest (Hungary). Found this quite funny because of all the fake mini people swimming.
Umm should be Greece but it looks a little different from what I expected/the photo in the guide. Wind blowing my skirt.
Ah yes Brussels has lots of colourful people! Like tons of Africans, Arabs, Muslims etc.
Ordered steak tartare so that they could try it. Steak tartare is basically raw beef.
OMG they have so many flavours there! In Singapore I think we only have like Funghi, Quatro Fromagi and Spinach or something?
Bought 3 more bikini tops from H&M to add to one I had already bought at H&M London. And Leonidas chocolate, so much cheaper in Brussels at only S$7+ for a box of 16 chocolates?
So overall Brussels is a really pretty city, but there is nothing much to do there. Everyone I've spoken to about Brussels (from my sister to Londoners) say that 2 or 3 days is definitely the most you'd need in Brussels, and thereafter you wouldn't visit it again. And no we didn't see the famous peeing boy statue. Somehow didn't come across it.
Left fairly early the next morning (before/around lunch) for... Paris! Next blog post. Tata, I've a headache from too many prawns for dinner.
Colorful people? " Like tons of Africans, Arabs, Muslims etc"
ReplyDeleteand why did u have to mention that the girls who pickpocketed u were "Hispanic" curly hair, dark-skinned etc
haha. wow.
haha.
ReplyDeleteColorful people? " Like tons of Africans, Arabs, Muslims etc"
Muslims isn't a race, its believers of Islam, and most Arabs are Muslims.
why too scared to reply our comments
ReplyDeletewhy too scared to reply our comments
ReplyDeleteThe Atomium looks pretty claustrophobic. Sidenote: yeah, what's with the "race" references? Wow.
ReplyDeleteAre you people retarded? There are no race references unless you want them to be. "Colourful" people isn't derogatory in any way and obviously there is a distinct colour difference between a white and a black right?! But that doesn't mean anything beyond the difference of their skin colour?!
ReplyDeleteIt's just like how in Singapore we have lots of colourful people too, and to emphasize this point I wouldn't say I saw lots of Japanese and Chinese because in essence they are the same colour and I honestly can't even tell them apart. Just like how to me all Angmohs look the same. But I can say that Singapore has a colourful mix because we have Angmohs, Chinese, Malays, Indians etc and we all have very distinct colour differences AND THAT DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING MORE THAN THAT. Just because you are racist and don't want to admit it to yourself doesn't means everyone else is thinking in the same closeted way.
And if I said I was pickpocketed by a tall middle-aged Chinese dude you wouldn't think twice about it right?! Or if I said a blonde blue eyed girl stole from me, it suddenly wouldn't seem racist at all? So just because it wasn't your own race or the "superior White man", me mentioning it means I'm being racist?? You wouldn't find it an issue unless you yourself are racist already.
ReplyDeleteAnd btw the only reason I mentioned that they looked Hispanic is because I've heard about the problem of gypsy rings and their operations in Europe so that was just me alluding to the possibility that they're gypsies (and you wouldn't think that unless you already know about this issue like some of my taggers did). At most all you can say is that I'm stereotyping lah, that all Hispanics are gypsies, but I wasn't being racist and saying like pickpockets can only be non-Whites or smth?! If he looked Scandinavian I would have said Scandinavian (although like I said, all angmohs look the same to me) and if he looked Asian I would have said Asian?
So it's the same thing. If a White said he was pickpocketed by a White, it would be fine. But if he said he was pickpocketed by an Asian, it would suddenly be racist although it can be just a passing descriptive reference -_- it doesn't mean anything unless you want it to.
Bravo Sophie. Well said!
ReplyDeleteI dont think she was emphasizing on the race part. Just the mistake where you mentioned Muslim, because Muslim isn't a race. It's a religion and anyone from any race can be a Muslim.
ReplyDelete