Brussels

Incongruous, surprising and actually kind of exciting. These are some of the words I was not expecting to describe Brussels as my first impressions were a bit mixed. But as the old saying goes don't judge a book by its cover and with Brussels a little digging goes a long way.

After taking a rather restless journey overnight on the Megabus me and my friend pulled into the city at rather an early hour. We were greeted to the sight of the city's beautiful lit Grand Place, the city's central square. With its gothic architecture, wonderfully intricate stonework and great selection of shops and bars, it really is the beating heart of the city.

After taking some time to wander around and have some breakfast, we set off to our hotel to rest and recover. Unfortunately we promptly found out our check in wasn't until 3pm, so we dropped our bags off and went to the first attraction on our list; Brussel's famous atomium, a metal museum built to celebrate the city's world fair day.

We were ever so slightly underwhelmed when we arrived, as while the structure was no doubt impressive its price, slight gaudiness and location left me feeling vaguely unimpressed. Much better (although thanks to bad sign posting slightly harder to find) was the entirely inaccurately recreated Chinese temple and Japanese pagoda in the nearby park grounds.

After taking this all in we decided to try our luck with the Arc de Triomphe, a beautiful and large arch build in the 1880's as a pavillon of exhibition. The building and statues surrounding it were impressive enough but what made it even better was the art and history museum it contained. Large and exquisitely presented, it was filled with a truely impressive collection of art, statues, and historical artifacts from all over the world. It literally was so big we were still finding new sections a good three hours into exploring it. Leaving it we were surprised and delighted to find that the park behind it had been colonized by brightly coloured parrots.

After we left we chilled at our hotel before going out for a lovely meal at a local (and cheap) pizzera. Afterwards we ended rolling into a succession of gay bars located around the Grand Place where we met a fellow Brit and enjoyed a good night out.

The next day I was hungover so while my friend visited a comic book museum I chilled out in bed. We met in the afternoon and decided to explore the Michaelis et Gudula cathedral. Inside was incredible, with beautiful statues, architecture to die for, and golden religious artifacts lovingly presented. What was even more surprising was that parts of the floor had been laid with glass so that you could actually see (and visit) the foundations of the cathedral excavated below.

We finished our two days in Brussels throughly impressed and ready to move on to Amsterdam.

Cardiff: A day at the museum

 Cardiff museum is located right in the heart of the city centre and is rightly considered one of the top tourist attractions for the city. Home as it is to a stunning array of status, stuffed animals. fossils, jewel like bug collections and actual gems and precious stones it really is a great place to spend the day getting lost.

I spent the day getting better acquainted with the history of wales' landmasses. Enjoying displays of the Earth's various prehistoric creatures, marvelling at the deep sea displays, squeezing through informative cave displays and ooooed and arrhed over a large section of stunningly displayed crystal and stuffed animals. As I wandered through the collection I could really appreciated the care and effort that had been put into creating this beautiful display.

After enjoying the natural history section of the museum I headed back out to explore its art collection. However as I did so I was drawn to a crowd of people gathered in the main entrance. To my delight I discovered a group of performers in renaissance inspired dress. With their voices they created an unearthly and spell binding song that reverberated its way deep into the heart of the building.

After they were finished I drifted up the stairs and through hallways covered in pre raphaelite art. It was the afternoon by the time I left and as stepped into the evening sun I was very glad to have spend a day at the museum.

Manchester

 On a recent trip to see a friend I traveled up to the city of Manchester. I've been up to this city a few times and each time I come away with many enjoyable memories or moment.

Whether its finding a new place to eat, visiting manchester art gallery or poking round independant shops like afleck's palace I always find something new and delightful to do.

In this case it was time to visit Manchester's fascinating history museum. Currently full to the brim

with exotic creatures, egyption statues and native american art. It was a wonderful place to visit and offered up a wealth of new photographic opportunity for me to explore.