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It was a comical day in Brussels. Mostly because I started my day at MOOF (Museum Of Original Figurines). I was taken in by the giant smurf on a mushroom. It was actually pretty cool-Comics and cartoons I grew up watching were represented including the aforementioned smurfs (Vanity was the best), Tintin (I used to read these comic books believe it or not) and Asterix (admittedly have not read many of these but Im still familiar with the plotlines and characters). It was a refreshing change from morbid histories of towns, persecution, violence etc. My next mission was to find Mannekin Pis and his lesser known 'sister' Jeanneke Pis. They are both handily located near the Grand Place. I had located Jeanneke Pis on a map before embarking as she is supposed to be really hard to find. Yip, she was hard to find. She is located down a back alleyway on a wall behind a red grate. Even when I found the street it took time to identify her location. There she was, in all her glory, small and with a cheeky look carved on her face, squatting to pee (figured out the translation yet??). Mannekin Pis is a tourist hotspot and was easy to find thanks to the signposts and hoards of people taking photos. He is a little boy taking a whizz into a pot. There are numerous versions of why he is famous from being a statue of a boy who pissed on a fuse which prevented the city being destroyed, to a boy who peed on a witch's house who in turn, turned him into an ever urinating statue. The list goes on. He is the much more famous of the two and has numerous outfits brought by visiting dignitaries to Brussels. His wardrobe is located in the National Museum (which of course I had to visit). NZ does not appear to have provided him with an outfit yet (that I could find anyway-someone inform John Key!). Places like Tahiti, Japan, Mexico etc all have. He is a finely dressed wee boy (pun intended).
And they day was rounded off with waffles and belgium choc.
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