a belgian valentine's day

For a last minute trip where we knew little details aside from the time and place of the airline flights, three chicks from Oklahoma, Seattle and Texas sure had a blast exploring our way through Belgium. We originally set out planning this little excursion because we wanted to go to the Avicii concert in Antwerp, which is a smaller city right outside of Brussels. By the end of our stay in Belgium we were so thankful that we got to see more than just Brussels! Brussels is a beautiful city, but to get the full experience of Belgium I definitely think seeing another city such as Antwerp, Ghent or Bruges is necessary.

before Avicii- I'd say we we pulled ourselves together pretty darn well for getting ready in the airport bathroom ;)

 I also experienced my first hostel! Everyone there seemed to be going to the Avicii concert as well so it was fun running around meeting them and getting hype for the concert. We became fast friends with three other Americans who are studying abroad in Madrid and spent half of our weekend wandering around with them.

our hostel 

AVICII

I think I could write a whole short story on how good the Belgian waffles are, but I'll spare your sanity and just tell you that I'm very obsessed with them. There's a little joke in Belgium about the different kinds of waffles- tourists always go for the ones loaded with strawberries, ice cream, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, etc. while the locals just snack on the plain ones that have sugar baked inside of them. My very first one had to be the tourist kind with extra chocolate sauce and then after that I settled down and went for the gaufre liège which still knocked my socks off. 

waffle # who knows how many at a flea market we visited 

One of the best parts of the trip was definitely the last night. Per recommendation from Raf, our favorite Brussels local, we went to this typical Belgian restaurant and had a lovely hardy Belgian meal of mashed potatoes and sausage and pumpkin ravioli. Then we stopped for some ice cream and skipped our way back to the Grote Markt to catch a glimpse of it all lit up. 

 Belgian waffles, don't you worry. I'll be back someday and we will reunite and it will be joyous.