Bruxelles in a day and a half - Day 1

Hey there, cyberpeople!! ;)

Yes, I know, I've been sucked into a vortex for the past month and a half, but I'm back! And ready to share some interesting stuff with you guys!! ;)

As some of you might know, I've had the chance to go to the amazing Bruxelles for... well, a day and a half, but still! :D I tried to make the most of the time I had, and discovered an absolutely beautiful city, full of hidden treasures that of course I only merely began to discover... 

Our hotel (I was in fact accompanying my mom to a Congress about Dermatology, but any excuse works, right?) was next to the Jardin Botanique / Kruidtui Gesu, which was really really beautiful, and there I took the chance to take a couple of Chictopia pics.

The first outfit was actually my “travelling” outfit, and the photo was taken early on Friday morning as soon as we made it to the hotel. I think it’s both my favourite outfit and my favourite picture in a long time, because I think it reflects pretty well the style that I like (well, a part of it), and also the morning light was really nice, which I think really enhanced the picture. 

So anyway, here you have it:

Mango camel coat

Bimba & Lola grey leather bag

Sandro black blazer with padded shoulders

Bimba & Lola electric blue skinny jeans

Vintage silk foulard

Camila's suede leather loafers

Vintage Norma Kamali sunglasses (my mom's!!)

If you want to see the full Chictopia post, you can go here.

So anyway, as our hotel was so near the city centre I decided to just walk everywhere I could. I had prepared my trip a bit in the 2 days I had before leaving, and thanks to that I knew more or less where I was going. What I've been doing lately when preparing my trips is buying the Moleskine blank city guidebooks, that I fill before I go with as much info as I can manage to find in the net or in other guides, and what people advise me to visit (this time, my trip advisor was Katerina, a fellow student of Fashion Design who's actually from Belgium... thanks, dear!! ;) ), and so I write everything down, and locate all the addresses in the maps that already come in the guidebook. That's what I really like about these Moleskine books: they come not only with basic & general practical info, but also with a subway map and an overall view of the city, that's then divided like a grid with the zoomed maps of each area. I find that extremely useful, because planning my itineraries becomes super easy.

And finally these guides are tiny (A6), which makes them very comfortable to carry around! ;)

So I started by walking down the Rue Neuve / Nieuwstr. (of course everything's written both in French and in Dutch!!), which wasn't bad depending on the time of the day (I don't recommend it in Saturday afternoons... it's packed with people, and so not worth it!!), but extremely boring because they were all chain stores we can find anywhere else in the planet. It was something like: Zara, H&M, C&A, Bershka, another Zara... You get the idea. Well, they had COS at some point, which was nice (finally some quality!! :D), and where I bought a pretty and super soft blue dress, and a really cool beige top with a pristine white dickey or bib (thanks, Cindy!!) with tiny pleats on it, which I wore later that very same day to go out for dinner:

Sandro black blazer with padded shoulders

Bimba & Lola grey leather bag

Aninoto grey high waisted pants

COS ivory top with white pleated bib/dickey

Nice Day Nice Things plaid scarf

knitted cardigan from unknown brand

Camila's suede leather loafers

Marithé+François Girbaud watch

Check out the full Chictopia post here.

I should probably point out how unbelievably COLD the weather was so that you can better understand why my smile looks a bit strained in these pics... I was just f-r-e-e-z-i-n-g, and I had trouble to keep my teeth from chattering! ;) So as you can imagine, I also wore the Mango coat over the blazer, it just isn't in the pics.

So anyway, the Rue Neuve gets more and more interesting as you go on, especially when it becomes the Rue des Friperies and then du Midi, where the shops are smaller and you can find boutiques, and the cutest places to grab something to eat - bistros, crêperies or amazing bakeries with great options for lunch. You really don't feel like you're a couple of streets away from la Grande Place, a big touristic destination.

If you ever go, I really recommend those: 

· Les gens que j'aime (15-17 Rue du Midi) - Small bistro with cool music, great food and trendy crowd. Prices are not extremely cheap, but not at all expensive. They also have wifi, and a decoration that I really liked, very much into the old&used vibe, but with pretty details. I had a tomato&mozzarella salad (it came with the most amazing toasted bread I've ever had in my life!!) and a lasagna (also incredible... *-*), and both were delicious. 

· Paul (I don't know the exact number, but it's on the Rue des Fripiers, between Rue Grétry and Rue du Marché à Poulets) - Incredible bakery, with anything you can imagine from huge braided brioches (I took one home with me and have had a slice of it with butter for breakfast during this whole past week! :D), to a wide choice of cereal breads, macarrons, and all sorts of cakes and tartes... :) Pastry heaven!! (PS: The hot chocolate is to die for as well! ;) )

In the area is also an amazing store called Mr. Ego (29 Rue des Pierres) which I found completely by chance right after having lunch at Les gens que j'aime, and where you can find a hip and colourful mixture of styles for mostly clothing and accessories, but also some really cool jewelry and watches. 

I couldn't help but indulging in a watch, a beauuutiful dress (see it here) and a pair of jeans (which I really needed! ;p see them here), because everything they had had that special something that just might make us resemble the very trendy crowd that browses through the racks of the store...

I also did go to the Grande Place (wouldn't have been able to say I'd been to Bruxelles if I hadn't!! :D), and it's just so bewilderingly beautiful... It really surprised me. I don't know what I expected, but what I saw really took my breath away. The complex beauty (the kind I like... ;) ) of the architecture was truly mesmerizing, and whole stories of old times popped up in my head just by standing there, looking around me...

At F Rubbrecht (Grand-Place, 23) I bought some handkerchiefs embroidered with the very famous lace from Belgium. I was surprised at their being so inexpensive! I think they were around 7 €, so I bought 4: one for me, one for each of my Grandmas, and one for one of my dear aunts. I don't know, maybe they were and it's just me who, true enough, has zero experience in handkerchief shopping... :)

The whole area around the Grande Place is just so cool and beautiful. Here you have a few pics to get an idea:

So anyway, when my mom was done for the day with her conferences, we went for a little stroll before dinner, and checked out the wonderful Galeries St. Hubert... They date back from the 1840s, and they're a cool thing to see. I especially liked the Librairie des Galeries, it had such an exquisite selection of beautiful books... *-* I was just mesmerized by a huge tome called something like: "Five centuries of Indonesian textiles"...  (yaayy! I found it!! this is definitely gonna make my christmas wish list... :) check it out here).

We had dinner at a Thaï-Vietnamese restaurant, and it was ok, but it's not really worth my recommending it... (too much cilantro in everything!) But anyway! I think what was really amazing about that evening is the night view of the Grande Place... *-* Isn't it just magical?

I leave you with these images for today... :) Stay posted to know about my second day in the beautiful Bruxelles (flea markets, new acquaintances...)!! And don't forget to comment, I'd love to hear from you... ;)

[All photos are by me. I'm happy if you decide to copy and keep them in your computer as reference, or post them in your blog or anywhere you want. But you MUST put my name or a link to the blog somewhere, saying where you took them from. Not putting anything is in my opinion almost as bad as saying you took them yourself.]