Jake
Strata Poster
I got back from a long weekend in Belgium today, and, it was fab!
The whole point of the trip was a visit to the European Union institutions, but, we also wanted to see Bruges, and I wanted creds, so we made 4 days out of it.
By the time we landed in Brussels (well, a Ryanair airport miles away from Brussels) and got to the Hotel it was 2am, but it's been ages since we've stayed in a nice place so we faffed around in the room for ages and didn't go to bed till about 5am. They had British TV <3.
Chocs <3
I had a nice long SOAK, then minced in a robe. Wanted to pinch it, but, you get spited 90 euros if you pike one <//3.
The next day we minced to the station to spend the afternoon in Bruges, walking past this <3
IN BRUGES, the girls got Waffles:
Then we wandered down here...
... and found a nice little cafe. Had a drink next to the duck pond. It was nice, but the water was a bit pewtch.
It reminded me of Venice. I had no Idea they had canals...
The Bell Tower, where the guy gets spited in the movie:
The trousers </3
Unusual...
After some more Mincing we went back to Brussels and sat in the Hotel for ages <3
The next day we went to Walibi, but didn't get to the park till 12 as we overslept. I thought this would be enough, but the park was PACKED so we didn't get much done. The Boomerang was closed, and I didn't bother with the Kiddie (which means when/if I go back I'll get 3 creds, seeing as Turbine is reopening), so only got 3 CREDZ.
<3
SPITE
Didn't BOTHER with the flume. We did the Rapids (which we queued an hour for), but, no photos of that.
Dalton was fab. Intamin 2nd gens <3
Plus, it had the man in THE SHORTS...
The SLC was death. Like the one at Garda it looked nice, but rode like rape.
The Woodie was the best coaster, but only because it's the best of a bad bunch. Turbine will take the title again when it opens (judging by how fab the one at Knotts was), I think.
The QUEUE </3
It had some airtime, but way too many (slow) turns for my liking.
For some reason I didn't take any photos of Calamity Mine, which was fab. The park have obviously done a lot over the off season because all the little details such as fountains were working, and everything was looking fresh and clean.
Before we left we did the Ferris Wheel.
This is the water park thing. Nice, but I expected more than couple of slides. Obviously we didn't bother.
Semi-group photo on the way out...
We had a good few hours, but to be honest the queues were too long. I don't think the Boomerang being closed helped much, and they've lost 3 coasters in the last few years without really getting anything new. There's a whole empty area of the park (over by Turbine), so hopefully they'll put some quieter rides over there in the new area to pull the crowds away from the other side. The attendance can't have been THAT high, I think the problem is just that there aren't enough rides in the park now.
Having said that, the park was a lot nicer than I expected (and have read about), so they must be doing something right now. So, at least they're heading in the right directsh I guess.
After getting back to Brussels we fluttered around a bit, spotting our Hotel on actual signs <3.
I hate the idea of a church, but, I can't help being impressed sometimes:
Cute park:
Some night pics...
We were upset to check out of the Hotel the following morning, especially because we had to meet quite early with the others at the Parliament building. A lie in would have been nice...
European Parliament, in all 23 official EU languages.
Inside. This is a brand new section of the building (as more countries join, so do more MPs, thus more space is needed).
One of the rooms...
Another EU Building. I think they said it was an annex of the Parliament...
About 5 minutes away was the European Commission, which we couldn't go inside, so we minced outside instead.
28 flags, even though there are only 27 members. OCD <///3.
We had a few hours before we had to meet back up in the evening, so went to see the Atomium. We'd meant to do it earlier but just hadn't bothered yet.
You have to change at WET ****.
I love this building. You can go up into the nodes, but we didn't have enough time or money at this stage to bother.
Back to Parliament we went. We didn't HAVE to go back, but half the class had booked flights for the night, and our teacher had worked hard organising it, so we felt guilty and went.
We basically went into one of the meeting rooms and observed a debate on sustainability. It's funny because the speaker is allowed to speak in any language (this one had Italian and English speakers), and they have a little box with an interpreter inside who has to translate on the spot and speak into a microphone. If you can't understand the language being spoken, you simply put your headphones on and select which channel you want. Some of it was in Italian so we had to tune in to channel 2 whenever a couple of the guys spoke.
Our flight was early the next morning, so at about 10pm we left for the airport and spent the night there. Ugh.
One last piccie...
The airport was pretty vile. THE DUST!
Oh, and, the excessive amount of table football tables. WTF?
Thanks for reading
.
The whole point of the trip was a visit to the European Union institutions, but, we also wanted to see Bruges, and I wanted creds, so we made 4 days out of it.
By the time we landed in Brussels (well, a Ryanair airport miles away from Brussels) and got to the Hotel it was 2am, but it's been ages since we've stayed in a nice place so we faffed around in the room for ages and didn't go to bed till about 5am. They had British TV <3.
Chocs <3
I had a nice long SOAK, then minced in a robe. Wanted to pinch it, but, you get spited 90 euros if you pike one <//3.
The next day we minced to the station to spend the afternoon in Bruges, walking past this <3
IN BRUGES, the girls got Waffles:
Then we wandered down here...
... and found a nice little cafe. Had a drink next to the duck pond. It was nice, but the water was a bit pewtch.
It reminded me of Venice. I had no Idea they had canals...
The Bell Tower, where the guy gets spited in the movie:
The trousers </3
Unusual...
After some more Mincing we went back to Brussels and sat in the Hotel for ages <3
The next day we went to Walibi, but didn't get to the park till 12 as we overslept. I thought this would be enough, but the park was PACKED so we didn't get much done. The Boomerang was closed, and I didn't bother with the Kiddie (which means when/if I go back I'll get 3 creds, seeing as Turbine is reopening), so only got 3 CREDZ.
<3
SPITE
Didn't BOTHER with the flume. We did the Rapids (which we queued an hour for), but, no photos of that.
Dalton was fab. Intamin 2nd gens <3
Plus, it had the man in THE SHORTS...
The SLC was death. Like the one at Garda it looked nice, but rode like rape.
The Woodie was the best coaster, but only because it's the best of a bad bunch. Turbine will take the title again when it opens (judging by how fab the one at Knotts was), I think.
The QUEUE </3
It had some airtime, but way too many (slow) turns for my liking.
For some reason I didn't take any photos of Calamity Mine, which was fab. The park have obviously done a lot over the off season because all the little details such as fountains were working, and everything was looking fresh and clean.
Before we left we did the Ferris Wheel.
This is the water park thing. Nice, but I expected more than couple of slides. Obviously we didn't bother.
Semi-group photo on the way out...
We had a good few hours, but to be honest the queues were too long. I don't think the Boomerang being closed helped much, and they've lost 3 coasters in the last few years without really getting anything new. There's a whole empty area of the park (over by Turbine), so hopefully they'll put some quieter rides over there in the new area to pull the crowds away from the other side. The attendance can't have been THAT high, I think the problem is just that there aren't enough rides in the park now.
Having said that, the park was a lot nicer than I expected (and have read about), so they must be doing something right now. So, at least they're heading in the right directsh I guess.
After getting back to Brussels we fluttered around a bit, spotting our Hotel on actual signs <3.
I hate the idea of a church, but, I can't help being impressed sometimes:
Cute park:
Some night pics...
We were upset to check out of the Hotel the following morning, especially because we had to meet quite early with the others at the Parliament building. A lie in would have been nice...
European Parliament, in all 23 official EU languages.
Inside. This is a brand new section of the building (as more countries join, so do more MPs, thus more space is needed).
One of the rooms...
Another EU Building. I think they said it was an annex of the Parliament...
About 5 minutes away was the European Commission, which we couldn't go inside, so we minced outside instead.
28 flags, even though there are only 27 members. OCD <///3.
We had a few hours before we had to meet back up in the evening, so went to see the Atomium. We'd meant to do it earlier but just hadn't bothered yet.
You have to change at WET ****.
I love this building. You can go up into the nodes, but we didn't have enough time or money at this stage to bother.
Back to Parliament we went. We didn't HAVE to go back, but half the class had booked flights for the night, and our teacher had worked hard organising it, so we felt guilty and went.
We basically went into one of the meeting rooms and observed a debate on sustainability. It's funny because the speaker is allowed to speak in any language (this one had Italian and English speakers), and they have a little box with an interpreter inside who has to translate on the spot and speak into a microphone. If you can't understand the language being spoken, you simply put your headphones on and select which channel you want. Some of it was in Italian so we had to tune in to channel 2 whenever a couple of the guys spoke.
Our flight was early the next morning, so at about 10pm we left for the airport and spent the night there. Ugh.
One last piccie...
The airport was pretty vile. THE DUST!
Oh, and, the excessive amount of table football tables. WTF?
Thanks for reading
.
