some lepak-time in Brussels!

We headed into Brussels today for a whole bucketload of fun!  There was the Singapore Embassy lunch hosted by the Ambassador (which we happily forgot to make pictures of because we were having too much fun meeting other displaced Singaporeans and enjoying the Thai makan - there was carrot cake and rojak too, but my focus was on the kueh salat they had on the dessert side of things...heh)

And we kicked the day off with a trip to the Vossenplein pasar malam - which amazingly is open everyday, and everyone comes by to see what everyone else's barang barang is up for grabs..

We had a short coffee pit stop.. (and that's my new summer jacket that I'm sporting)

and enjoyed the sunny, crisp morning air at a cafe on the perimeter of the square...
where anything and everything can be found!  I found some super cool fish-decorated dinner plates, but it was a bit too much for too many pieces that the owner wanted to sell them for..

and barang barang as far as the eye can see!
chronologically, we then headed to the Ambassador's home which was a bus ride out of the city centre and had a good lunch time there; and then headed back into the city and this time to the North where there was..

a stretch Porsche Cayenne SUV at the Japanes Tower
just across from the Chinese pavilion where a Moroccan wedding photo sesh was taking place!
by the time we got there, it was a bit too late to enter the buildings  - so we've promised ourselves to make it a point to come back for a bit of an adventure in these displaced Asian architectural pieces..
yes, the columns had gilded golden dragons...
and it was just super-cool to see them in the middle of the Royal Belgian Parks! (the short version is that they were constructed in the 1900s by the then King Leopold...fuller story here)
and we continued our little jaunt with map in hand..
looking for the ever elusive...
Atomium!  (yes, we've been here a year now, and its only yesterday that we took the time to come have a look at this super-structure from the '58 Expo...fuller story here)
classic tourist shot....everyone was doing it too...
and the form of the Atomium just makes for pretty pictures, no?
and after the big day out and about in Brussels, we headed back into the old centre for a chilled out drink in a brown cafe, followed by dinner at a most excellent pizza joint...

again no pictures of these, because we were absolutely gobsmacked by the sheer awesomeness of these places - and we were kicking back and enjoying the end of a super day in Brussels!!

We're convinced there's still a mountain and a half of cool stuff we haven't seen/heard/eaten yet, and are looking forward to our next trip back!