Just another day in Brussels

When I moved to Brussels 9 months ago I jumped head first into YoungLife things. There was so much going on and I didn't really get a chance to get to know this new city moved into. SO one of my goals for the summer here is to get to know the city a little better. For me that means plopping myself at some point in the city and just letting myself get lost for a few hours. Today was my first try. I took the tram and the bus( I had not up to this point taken the bus in Belgium!) and made my way down to a part of the city I don't usually go. I walked around for a few hours just exploring, window shopping, taking pictures, and enjoying the sunshine. Brussels really is a gorgeous city. For me it is important to be able to get around easily in the place where I live and I also want to fall a bit in love with Brussels so it was a really fun day.

I started near Place Flagey and this is a picture looking up one of the streets off the Place. Again- can I say how beautiful this city is? The next picture is just a building like many others that I came across. I love how there are these little traditional brick houses in between stucco ones.

A cool thing I came across was that the Royal Palace was open for the public and it was free. Here is the outside and some of the garden. I was a little disappointed because we didn't have access to any of the private rooms but it was still pretty cool to go in.

Another picture of some cool brick with a cool sign in front- There are so many little alleys with little shops- it would take years to explore but where I found this little shop is near the antiques part of town-pretty fun

Near the end of my exploring- I found this really cool skate park. It was quite a hot day so not too many people where there but it was fun to stop and see some of the tricks. This guy was the best there. I even showed him the picture I took of him since he stopped right near me- gotta make new friends everywhere:)

This next one is by far my favorite shot of the day. I was trying to get this guys feet as he was doing his trick but got a way cool shot of his shadow and his board- if that doesn't rock- you're crazy!!

Tonight I got invited by some friends to join then in one of the city parks for outdoor aerobics. Now I am game for anything once but even i thought- what???? So I met my friends at the park and wouldn't you know- over 300 people are there for aerobics in the park. It was one of the funniest things I have ever been a part of. So we are all standing in this large circle around the instructor- we are maybe 10 people deep around her as she begins to warm us up. It was funny enough at that point because we couldn't really see her so we were guessing what she was doing by what the people in front of us were doing and that was a bit chaotic. Then she has everyone start running around her in a big circle- think trying to make a whirlpool but on grass. Then we switch directions- I mean who taught this lady the hokey pokey and told her it was aerobics. SO after an hour of laying in the dirt(the grass was a bit sporadic) and laughing our heads off- we were done. I mean where else can you get over 300 adults to roll around in the dirt and do the running man and call in exercise- it was GREAT!! and apparently they do it every Tuesday and Thursday in the park- there may have to be a return trip!! This is me doing one of the crazy moves I'm sure.

This is us all circled around the instructor- Rebecca and Katy are in the brown and white shirt there- they had been several times and were the ones to invite us.

Here is a video of us running in circles!! fun times!