Belgium + Back

During the trip to Belgium, Haley and I spent quite some time exploring the city and using our maps to navigate. One thing we realized was that the roads were often split into section names so although streets may be mostly linear and seem like one long road it was named in parts making it extra difficult since we would be walking along one road and realize the road name we were following had now been given a totally new one, not to mention the intersecting alleys were often small and not listed on the free map we used.

We ended up having to turn back several times after we realized we had gone too far, and circumnavigated back to our desired destination. However, by the second day we realized a major mistake we made which was that there was a short cut from the Sleep Well Hostile a ways and then up a flight of stairs which would take us to the church/fetus decoration area. A trip that had cost us over half an hour yesterday had now become 10-15 minutes - great stuff! I'm really happy to have had a chance to learn navigating skills. Haley was a great mate :) We ended up touring around, taking pictures, eating ice cream and waffles, and visiting the comics museum (though sadly it was closed when we got there).

For research, I was paying attention to see the prevalence of Muslim women. The concentration was probably lower than Amsterdam by a little but I noticed a woman and her son on the streets asking for money which I didn't see in Amsterdam as of yet. Also I noticed a lot more full black garments worn with a black hijab than in Amsterdam. Which leads me to wonder if the Dutch ban of burqa has anything to do with Amsterdam's women trying to dress less traditionally and more colorfully to avoid legal consequences. Or on the other hand, Dutch Muslims dress more colorfully as a result of local culture or fashion trends. I saw quite a few in communities walking around. I took a few pictures of this as follows: