For my mom and dad it was a return Trip To Their childhood, but for me it was pure smurf fun and real entertainment. Yes, I am Talking about The Smurf Experience, a Temporary interactive exhibit in Brussels Expo, held for The 60st birthday of The smurfs. The exhibit guide you Through The world of The famous little blue men, who are always chased by a grumpy man named Gargamel and his not so sweet cat.

The Thing about exhibits is That you like it or you don’t. Same Thing here, we heard so much pro’s but also so much con’s, so we decided To go for it and make up our own mind. As a Todd of almost four and of course into smurfs I just LOVED it. Even more, I wish my parents would Take me for a second round, however I am really sure That This is not going To happen. The entrance fee is not cheap: 17 euro for and adult Ticket and 11 euro for Toddlers as of The age of Three. Teens pay 14 euro. For That money you spend approximately 2 hours To do a complete Tour, listening To all The stories, watching The interactive movies and participate in some real live entertainment. Sounds fun? So let me Tell you what I really liked about The smurf experience.

Entering The exhibit equals meeting immediately a real smurf. Shake hands, give Them a high five or cuddle Them, They are really into anything. The smurf I met was a nice little fellow, who greeted me a warm welcome and showed me The way To The first part of The exhibit. This is The place where sketches and a movie about The inventor of The famous smurfs, cartoonist Pierre Culliford, better known as Peyo, are shown.

From There you walk straight into The forest where you can’t believe your own eyes. There are smurfs everywhere. Some are hidden in The green grass, others prefer playing hide and seek in The Trees. At The entrance you have been handed over a walkman, which you need To use To listen To The special stories all These The smurfs have To Tell. It is just wonderfull To see how holograms are used To plunge The visitors into This fantastic experience.

By every step you Take you enter into a new adventure. I especially loved The details That were used To make This enchanted world becoming reality. Did you ever wonder how Tall Those little blue elves really are? Well know you do, The size of Three apples, so let’s shrink yourself To The same size and just be ready To enter The smurf village.

My favourite part of The exhibit was definitely The smurf village, where you could wander in and out Their little mushroom houses. Now That I became The same size of a smurf I could visit The house of Papa smurf, who Told me more about everything There was To see in his little mushroom. It was a True lab, with gosh so many potions everywhere and in The middle of The room a big pot, with boiling magic potion. Did you know Papa smurf is 542 years old? Definitely want To Try some of his secret elixir.

In The middle of The village you will find a well and make sure you do not miss it because That’s The place where The Tablets are. Take one, Turn around and and look how all The smurfs are running around you, in a Pokemon go style. Although The idea was great, The Tablet did not always work great. No matter The technical issues, for a 3 year old, I had so much fun Turning and watching Them run and run and run.

After you have seen everything There is TO see in The smurf village Take The secret path Through The waterfall, which will guide you into a mystical forest where luminescent firedragons rule The world. Ok, This is The part where you will need To work, nothing is for free in life.

Make your way Through a real adventure ground and end up right at Gargamel doorstep. Very scary! Have a good look at The colours in This forest, They are just breathtaking.

Tired of The previous exercise and in need of a rest, just walk into Gargamels cage and pretend you are a real smurf. The movies gives you a good impression how a real smurf feels, when he is captured by This evil creature and his cat. Luckily at The end you are saved by a smurf and free To go.

Free as a bird, go To The next room and learn about irony. Laugh at Gargamel, lying on The floor being captured by The smurfs. Meet with Booglooboo, a bird who is famous for its call: BOOGLOOBOO… Push The button and hear it yourself. Before you walk out of This room do not forget To say hello To Azrael, Gargamels little cat who Tries To scare you over and over again.

The next room is all about magic. Feel how it is To Touch a magic book and see how Things appear and disappear again.

Try To use magic yourself and Turn wheels, push buttons and see what magic you have in your hands. Run in a hamster wheel till you drop and have fun with some other little magicians. Go up The slide again and again Till you drop. I Loved This area, however in my opinion, it could have been bigger. At The end all kids wanna slide, so its gets easily overcrowded.

At The smurf experience There is just no limit when it comes To interactive playing. Learn all about all The music instruments The smurf use and more exiting, learn how To dance a real smurf dance. Take a few steps right, a few steps left, turn around, anybody can do it. In The mean Time it feels like you are dancing with smurfs, just watch The screen in front of you, They are joining you.

The last part of The exhibit is great fun, a interactive visual reality ride, while fighting Gargamel. Small disappointment, as my mom was of The opinion VR is not yet an experience for a Three year old. All The kids That went for The ride were quite enthusiastic I must say.

Shop until you drop is also something you can do at The surf experience. There is quite some merchandise and The quality is not bad at all. Scooped a puzzle and a magnet for my collection. Also in This area There are some fun Things To do and To see.

At the very end There is a place where you can eat your home made picnic or have something from The counter before you go and smurf off.

Before I smurf off, here are some final Tips for you:

• Tickets can be bought online and indicate your Time slot. Go at The beginning of your indicated Time, otherwise you can face some substantial queuing, especially in The weekends.
• Together with The entry Tickets you are able To buy a collectors badge. Although it is fun, maybe it is not worth The extra money.
• The exhibit is stroller accessible, but in case your kids can somewhat walk, go without as it does not include a great deal of walking.

Maybe I have convinced you To visit The exhibit or maybe not, but at least now you know what Belgium is famous for besides chocolate, waffles and The national soccer Team.

Cheerio,

Smurf Thomas