As Facebook may have told you, I recently had a birthday. 22 years and 10 days ago, I arrived on Columbus Day. In honor of this momentous occasion, which comes just once a year, I decided to treat myself.
I went to....
Okay, no, not Hogwarts. I went to Brussels! But my first stop was the Harry Potter Exhibition, which I found out was in Brussels shortly before my trip (so no, Mom, it was not one of the reasons I went to Brussels - although it might have been if I had discovered it sooner!).
The exhibition started with an introduction in French (Welcome to Poudlard, Muggles) and a sorting ceremony. I'm far too shy to volunteer for that sort of thing, but we all know where I belong anyway.
After that, they show you a video montage from all the movies, and then you move into the exhibit where they have built replicas of the sets and brought in props - some which were used in the films and some were remade for the exhibit. I walked in to the first room, saw the set for the Gryffindor dormitory and got immediately teary-eyed.
Harry Potter is so special for my generation because it's something we grew up alongside.
My dad read the first Harry Potter books to me as a bedtime story before I could read chapter books myself. We went as a family to see the first film when it came out in theaters, and later on we saw Goblet of Fire together in IMAX even though I was the only one left in the family who was still reading on at that point. I attended midnight book release parties for the last 3 books in the series, and I have a vivid memory of chatting up a high school crush in the movie theater at 3 am after having just watched the midnight premier of the last Harry Potter film (or what we thought at the time was going to be the last Harry Potter film - little did we know...).
To be honest, I can't even remember my life pre-Harry Potter.
But, I digress...
The Exhibition has been all over the world, so it was a stroke of luck that I happened to be in the right place at the right time.
It also happened to be going on just 5 minutes away from Mini-Europe, which was one of my other intended destinations....
This is a mini replica of the main square in Brussels! There were 52 replicas from all over Europe, including the bullfighting ring in Sevilla (my heart).
Afterward, I rushed back to the center of the city in time to go into a little chocolate factory. I ate dark chocolate from the Ivory Coast, a fresh salted caramel chocolate, and AVOCADO white chocolate (OMG. omg.). I had chocolate for lunch. #Adulthood
Oh, right. Pokémon Go. The fountain was a Pokégym.
While I was in the park, there was also someone doing free hypnotism sessions, but since I like my wallet and my cell phone I decided to watch from afar.
Originally I was going to go to Bruges on my second day, but there were so many things in the center of town that I had yet to see, so I stayed in Brussels and spent the day walking through the center. I saw the Mannekin Pis, the famous statue of the little boy peeing into the fountain.
Had an out of body experience with this cheeseburger.
Took a selfie with the city....
And found a BETTER park. No pokémon here.
It was the most relaxing weekend, which is what I love about traveling alone.
While I also love being in France, it can get really overwhelming sometimes. It hit me last week that I'm taking 5 college classes completely in French...and they're hard!
So yeah, Ryan Gosling, I will take breaks and treat myself when necessary.
Where I'm treating myself next: Arles, then London.
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