So, we got to brussels and walked through the sketchy area that our hostel was situated [i'll rant more about it later, since apparently i already wrote about it at some point. so disorganized]. We decided to get a room, to counter the horrors of our previous night in amsterdam, but we weren't allowed to check in until 2pm. We had about an hour to kill, and grumbling hungry stomachs to fill. I asked the reception for advice on a good place to get belgian food and she sent us towards the 'grand place' and said anything around there would be good.
We picked one, kind of arbitrarily, but it was one of the first ones to have moules frites on their menu [my main reason for wanting belgian food]. We got two draught beers that were soooo good. Ugh, belgium, you do not disappoint with beer. We ordered a spaghetti scampi -- some sort of creamy spaghetti with an interesting variety of seafood mixed in, and mussels with escargot and a side of frites. so. fucking. good. Like, maybe, probably, the best meal of the trip. Kind of expensive, as expected, but filled us up nicely before we continued out to adventure and check in.
I checked the stars I placed on my map and noticed there was one really close to where we were. It was called menakken pis, and I couldn't remember what it pointed it. Regardless, we headed towards it to try to figure it out. First guess - little chocolate shop. We went into this chocolate shop that was filled with only asian people, and a lot of chocolate, of course. Like, so many asian people that you'd assume a tour bus stopped there and they all just piled in. It was kind of weird and super crowded, so it took me a while to to get samples from the lady who was giving out samples. I grabbed two and we dipped. Delicious, but not worth the efforts. Then, across the street there was an intersting looking bar. Maybe that's why I marked it on my map.. Closed, and we had no interest, so whatever. As we started to leave the area I remembered what Menakken Pis was. Well, I was reminded from the souveniers being sold in the store next door. Tis this weird statue of a peeing baby. Mildly interesting. It was right next to the chocolate shop, so we just happened to miss it before. it is pretty tiny. I took my requisite photo, and then we went back towards our hostel, picking up an assortment of beers on our walk back.
We checked into our absurdly tiny and misshapen room, and had a few beers while we decided what to get up to. I was really set on trying to hit up a trappist brewery while in Belgium, but we realised that they're rreally far and most tours were meant to take place over multiple days. Whatever. Not worth it. We settled instead on going to a brewery tour that was pretty close to where we were situated, so we could fit it into that day. Cantillion Brewery, the land of lambic beers.
It was a pretty weird experience since it was a self guided tour. You got a little book to read through each room you passed, and a brief introduction about Lambic beers before moving forward. So Lambic beers are pretty sour and they rely on spontaneous fermentation. Traditional lambic beers don't have expiration dates, and are aged for a few years before being put into production. The taste changes over time and no brew tastes necessarily the same as another brew. There are modern versions of lambic beers that don't use the same spontaneous fermentation techniques, but try to mimic the taste. these do have expiration dates and are less sour, so if you ever wanna know the difference, there's your quickhand guide.
The tour itself was fun and simple. I felt a bit like we were intruding in someone's place of work though in a few of the rooms. Liam and i switched off reading the pages as we entered each room, and we constantly contemplated stealing one of the many stacked beers we passed. At the end of the tour you were given a tasting of a lambic brew and then you had the choice between either one that was the mix of 1 year, 2 year, and 3 year brews, or a raspberry one. They were alright. I don't think I would buy them, but not too bad. Kind of champagne-y I guess. We each got a different one for the second beer so we could try both. The whole area was filled with people who seemed more in the know, speaking french and eating cheese, so I felt particularly out of place and touristy.
When that was done we were a bit drunk from our beers of earlier and I was really itching to take a nap. We passed out for a long while and awoke at about 10pm. We hugn out a bit and contemplated going out, but shot down that idea pretty hard. I was keen, but liam passed out almost immediately. Much needed rest was had and we were up early the next morning planning our day trip to bruges.
We left the hostel to catch a train and then realised we were totally confused as to what station we were going to, so came back to recheck the situation. This time we were going to leave from midi, not centraal, and got some sandwiches at a cafe in the station before getting on our train. I got some sort of prosciutto and mozz panini, and liam got a sandwich that had egg in it. We got ont he train and sat in a 4 person table area with another couple. Liam was sitting really cozily with the dude next to him, who was lazily splayed out and taking up a lot of room. We definitely should've swapped locations. Liam put away his sandwich, which i thought was abit weird and made me question whether or not i should finish my sandwich, or save it for a snack whenever liam decided to finish his sandwich. I figured my warm panini was more time sensitive so I polished it off and we continued to trek. The couple near us got off shortly after, and then liam took back out his sandwich, saying that he didn't want to eat eggs sitting so close to someone. there we go. there's the reasoning.
When we got to bruges LIam we suggested we venture into that muffin. Because of metabolic reasons, I had half of it and pocketed the rest, only allowing him to eat it 35ish minutes later. I caved and gave it to him early because i hate saying no, especially to such a frivolous thing, and then we fed the crumbs to some swan. I was super nervous though so did a really shit job of feeding it to the swan. I mostly jsut made a mess of crumbs on this dock we were standing on.
We were then headed towards a diamond museum. Liam had read about it and heard that they do diamond polishing demonstrations at noon. It sounded cool so we went to check it out. More of a store than a museum, the polishing was actually meant to start at 12:15. We asked a few questions, saw the price, and realised that it wasn't something we'd be too keen on doing. After joking about propsing to me outside the museum, we carried on.
Next stop was the Belfry. A pretty awesome, giant structure tat you can pay to climb up, if desired. We didn't do this, although in retrospect, we probably should've. Liam wanted to. I dont know what happened. A little past the belfy brought us right to the markt, or center area. This was a pretty small region, sort of similar to the center squares of a lot of the cities we had been to prior to this. There was a little ice skating rink in the middle, lots of shops surrounding the area, and great views of the overall architecture. We contemplated going to ice skating for a litlte while longer than I usually participate in such a contemplation. I've gone ice skating once in my life, when I was somewehre around 10 years old, and don't particularly remember enjoying the event then. Now I'm feet taller and way less trusting of my balance-ability, so ice skating isn't a craving I ever have. We nearly did, but decided not to, and continued on our way, stopping to get two christmas beers in this awesome giant beer shop.
I picked the delirium christmas beer [which I now realise is called delirium noel when purchased in the states] and Liam picked some christmas beer with some slutty chick on the label. Nothing new. We brought them to the bar-like counter near the display cases of beers to pay for them, but then were shuttled to the main counter in the attached store. Liam headed to find the bathroom. When I paid for them I asked if the woman could open them for us. She opened mine, no problem, and then she opened the otherone and it started bubbling over and foaming allover the place. Liam was back at this point I think, asking me if i had 50 cents to use the toilet [here, let's throw a little rant in right now. I'm so unamused by having to pay for toilet use in europe. Like, yeah, I get that it's a service that someone has to clean up after, but then who's paying for it in America? How come I've never had to pay for toilet here, nor nearly anywhere else for that matter? It's annoying! I don't carry change around when I'm at home, so I can't imagine people that live in europe have their pockets filled with gold dubloons enough to let them use the restroom. Idk.], watching me clean up the foamy mess and taking some of the beer. When he went back, I brought the beers to the empty barish like table in the back [not really a bar.. more like a little seat that happens to be inside of a shop] to sip on my beer and wait. After a minute or so the man who had been in this section of the restaurant before came over, and told me that I wasn't allowed to drink those at the bar, since they were purchased from the wall, and not from the fridge. I have no idea what the difference was, but assumed it must be price, so I tried to explain that I was just waiting for my friend to finish up in the bathroom, but he had such a look of disgust. I continued to feel uncomfortable as I sat, and when Liam emerged he immediately read my body language and asked what was up. I gave him his beer, and we left as I was telling him how unwelcome I felt in this silly shop. WHATEVER.
So I marked these two kinda random spots on the map, that were sillyy museums I didn't actually thing we'd end up paying for entry for. The first was the Frietmuseum and then the Chocostory. Fries, and chocolate. They were 7euros and 6euros each [and unsurprisingly owned by the same people.. or at least had a joint deal], so, obv not going in. I grabbed two chocolate pellets from chocostory before leaving though. Those kinds that you would melt. Whatever. It was whatever
We were getting hungry so the next goal was to find food. i wanted to keep wandering off of the main path since bruges was so small and I figured things would be cheaper if we didn't go to places in city center, but most of what we were passing lookedl ike it was just super residential. We went into this little designer Bike shop that was pretty amazing. I was holding back from going inside, being obviously tourists not going to buy anything, but liam reminded me that that shouldn't matter, and we went inside. It was awesome. Beautiful cruisers mostly, thoughtful leatherwork. Just beautiful bikes overall. We talked about clip in shoes and admired this bike that had a 6pack basket and wine bottle holder. Then we were off, walking towards where the trainstation was, where I thoguht it might be a bit cheaper to exist but stopped first at some cafe that was called Venice something, or something. We split a chocolate waffle and a ham and goat cheese sandwich. So belgium. This chocolat ewaffle was pretty intense, with bananas on top. Not ad hard as the one we got in amsterdam, but still very chewy compared to the fluffy waffles I'm used to at home. The sandwich was delicious. Goat cheese is so good. We went onwards, down a bit towards the station and finally gave in to our chocolate cravings. We stopped at this little store and got a bag of truffles. Holy fuck. So amazing. We were blazing through the package, but then got to some art gallery, and liam wanted to go in.
i felt like such a fuck folding up the loud crinkly wrappers of the truffle, stuffing them into my pocket, in this vacant echoy art abyss. It wa actually a really epic gallery. We walked around, whispering, admiring the art. There was one collection that was really cutout, photographic, and dark. I liked this one most. When we did eventually leave, Liam immediately proclaimed that the gallery was heaps better than the modern art museum we checked out in Amsterdam. We kept snacking, got some more beers and sat on a bit of a stone wall, looking at the Markt. it was nice to sit and relax, and then I really wanted to get fries, so we pointed out a little spot with outdoor seatign right in the square, so liam went in to get fries while I sat outside trying to hide our beers. He got a large fries with tartare and ketchup. We got tartare and mayo, but that's fine. I was cool with that too.
Eventaully we decided to head back towards the train station, and by proxy, back towards brussels. As expected, we picked up a few more beers before leaving Bruges [for the train, y'know] and I was pretty set on looking for another chocolate shop, to find something hopefully as decadent as that first bag of truffles that we tore up. We found some shop, and i saw a little variety pack of more expensive-looking truffles, and hoped this would be the right choice. The other people in the shop, an older american couple, were trying to purchase their own set of chocolate but I heard the man seeming unsure as to waht his pin was on his credit card, and confused that he had even been meant to set it up. They had not enough money, and out of the goodness of my heart, and self proclaimed prophecy to ensure that all the world has chocolate, I asked if I could give them some euros for USdollars so they could get chocolate. That was a mistake. I only had about 60 euros left before flying to london the next day, BUT in all due respect, I couldnt imagine they'd be asking for anything more than 10 euros. 62. Sixty Fucking Two Euros these stupid americans were about to spend on, what turned out to be, an awful chocolate shop. I said I couldn't, and didn't have enough. then the woman said she had some, and maybe with what I had it would be enough. she had 15. I was obligated now with the 50. Rats. It took them so long to figure out how much they owed me, with the internet help of the store owner. So much time wasted, such a shitty money situation to now be in, and a package of assorted chocoaltes later, we escaped and tried to figure out how to get back to brussels. We guessed and picked a train, which ended up leaving when we thought it was supopsed to. Sweet. During the ride we ate the chocolates, which were all bad. Like, awful. I kept eating them hoping they would improve, but not at all.
When we got back I was pretty exhausted. Liam was dealing with travel shit on his computer and I was moping about not going to Mini Europe. I wanted to go straight there from the train since I figured it would close at some point, but Liam was stressed about looking things up so I conceded. Mini Europe did close, and we definitely would've made it, but WHATEVER. I'll get over it one day. I napped a little bit i think, sorta dozing off in frustration and boredom, but eventually liam was finished. We went to the lobby to get out of the room and because I wanted some absinthe, which would require cups and a spoon. The front desk didn't seem to care about us drinking there, even though I only asked if we could have beer. I kept making stupid remarks about being a beersneezaholicrex. Not sure why.
We had our absinthe, and tries to offer some to this girl sitting near us [unsuccessfully] and then decided we should venture out for food. We walked for ages looking for an ATM to make up for my stupidity in giving chocolate money to those fools. We got almost as far as the Grand Place, and delirium cafe, which is wehre we were heading. Finally, an ATM. We took out money and then walked almost all the way back to wehre we were staying because we wanted to get cheap palistinian food, native to the little section of town taht our hostel was situated in. We ended up at a cheap vegetarian falafel place. It was really good! Youf ill your own salad and then get a falafel pita. No complaints there.
We turned around once again and went back towards the grand place. A grand place it is! It was really cool to be there in the emptiness of the night, prancing around, finishing the beers we had been carrying for our walk. The lights were extravagent and blue, and there was a massive christmas tree. I'm not sure it lokos like this all year, but it's possible. so grand.
Then we headed to the delirium Cafe, which was my top sight to see in Belgium. We had to get rid of our beers before entering the alley way that it is situatid in, and then we ventured into this awesome bar/club. Good vibes, live music, and a great beers selection. It was actually way cheaper than I thought it would be, at about 4 euros per draught beer [we got a mix of regular and dark deliriums]. The music was a selection of cover bands that were all pretty bad, but the song choice was good enough to forgive the fact that it soundded like these people's first time playing their instruments. We didn't stay too terribly late, with an early flight in the morning, and eventually made our way back to enjoy our own room for one last night.
We picked one, kind of arbitrarily, but it was one of the first ones to have moules frites on their menu [my main reason for wanting belgian food]. We got two draught beers that were soooo good. Ugh, belgium, you do not disappoint with beer. We ordered a spaghetti scampi -- some sort of creamy spaghetti with an interesting variety of seafood mixed in, and mussels with escargot and a side of frites. so. fucking. good. Like, maybe, probably, the best meal of the trip. Kind of expensive, as expected, but filled us up nicely before we continued out to adventure and check in.
I checked the stars I placed on my map and noticed there was one really close to where we were. It was called menakken pis, and I couldn't remember what it pointed it. Regardless, we headed towards it to try to figure it out. First guess - little chocolate shop. We went into this chocolate shop that was filled with only asian people, and a lot of chocolate, of course. Like, so many asian people that you'd assume a tour bus stopped there and they all just piled in. It was kind of weird and super crowded, so it took me a while to to get samples from the lady who was giving out samples. I grabbed two and we dipped. Delicious, but not worth the efforts. Then, across the street there was an intersting looking bar. Maybe that's why I marked it on my map.. Closed, and we had no interest, so whatever. As we started to leave the area I remembered what Menakken Pis was. Well, I was reminded from the souveniers being sold in the store next door. Tis this weird statue of a peeing baby. Mildly interesting. It was right next to the chocolate shop, so we just happened to miss it before. it is pretty tiny. I took my requisite photo, and then we went back towards our hostel, picking up an assortment of beers on our walk back.
We checked into our absurdly tiny and misshapen room, and had a few beers while we decided what to get up to. I was really set on trying to hit up a trappist brewery while in Belgium, but we realised that they're rreally far and most tours were meant to take place over multiple days. Whatever. Not worth it. We settled instead on going to a brewery tour that was pretty close to where we were situated, so we could fit it into that day. Cantillion Brewery, the land of lambic beers.
It was a pretty weird experience since it was a self guided tour. You got a little book to read through each room you passed, and a brief introduction about Lambic beers before moving forward. So Lambic beers are pretty sour and they rely on spontaneous fermentation. Traditional lambic beers don't have expiration dates, and are aged for a few years before being put into production. The taste changes over time and no brew tastes necessarily the same as another brew. There are modern versions of lambic beers that don't use the same spontaneous fermentation techniques, but try to mimic the taste. these do have expiration dates and are less sour, so if you ever wanna know the difference, there's your quickhand guide.
The tour itself was fun and simple. I felt a bit like we were intruding in someone's place of work though in a few of the rooms. Liam and i switched off reading the pages as we entered each room, and we constantly contemplated stealing one of the many stacked beers we passed. At the end of the tour you were given a tasting of a lambic brew and then you had the choice between either one that was the mix of 1 year, 2 year, and 3 year brews, or a raspberry one. They were alright. I don't think I would buy them, but not too bad. Kind of champagne-y I guess. We each got a different one for the second beer so we could try both. The whole area was filled with people who seemed more in the know, speaking french and eating cheese, so I felt particularly out of place and touristy.
When that was done we were a bit drunk from our beers of earlier and I was really itching to take a nap. We passed out for a long while and awoke at about 10pm. We hugn out a bit and contemplated going out, but shot down that idea pretty hard. I was keen, but liam passed out almost immediately. Much needed rest was had and we were up early the next morning planning our day trip to bruges.
We left the hostel to catch a train and then realised we were totally confused as to what station we were going to, so came back to recheck the situation. This time we were going to leave from midi, not centraal, and got some sandwiches at a cafe in the station before getting on our train. I got some sort of prosciutto and mozz panini, and liam got a sandwich that had egg in it. We got ont he train and sat in a 4 person table area with another couple. Liam was sitting really cozily with the dude next to him, who was lazily splayed out and taking up a lot of room. We definitely should've swapped locations. Liam put away his sandwich, which i thought was abit weird and made me question whether or not i should finish my sandwich, or save it for a snack whenever liam decided to finish his sandwich. I figured my warm panini was more time sensitive so I polished it off and we continued to trek. The couple near us got off shortly after, and then liam took back out his sandwich, saying that he didn't want to eat eggs sitting so close to someone. there we go. there's the reasoning.
When we got to bruges LIam we suggested we venture into that muffin. Because of metabolic reasons, I had half of it and pocketed the rest, only allowing him to eat it 35ish minutes later. I caved and gave it to him early because i hate saying no, especially to such a frivolous thing, and then we fed the crumbs to some swan. I was super nervous though so did a really shit job of feeding it to the swan. I mostly jsut made a mess of crumbs on this dock we were standing on.
We were then headed towards a diamond museum. Liam had read about it and heard that they do diamond polishing demonstrations at noon. It sounded cool so we went to check it out. More of a store than a museum, the polishing was actually meant to start at 12:15. We asked a few questions, saw the price, and realised that it wasn't something we'd be too keen on doing. After joking about propsing to me outside the museum, we carried on.
Next stop was the Belfry. A pretty awesome, giant structure tat you can pay to climb up, if desired. We didn't do this, although in retrospect, we probably should've. Liam wanted to. I dont know what happened. A little past the belfy brought us right to the markt, or center area. This was a pretty small region, sort of similar to the center squares of a lot of the cities we had been to prior to this. There was a little ice skating rink in the middle, lots of shops surrounding the area, and great views of the overall architecture. We contemplated going to ice skating for a litlte while longer than I usually participate in such a contemplation. I've gone ice skating once in my life, when I was somewehre around 10 years old, and don't particularly remember enjoying the event then. Now I'm feet taller and way less trusting of my balance-ability, so ice skating isn't a craving I ever have. We nearly did, but decided not to, and continued on our way, stopping to get two christmas beers in this awesome giant beer shop.
I picked the delirium christmas beer [which I now realise is called delirium noel when purchased in the states] and Liam picked some christmas beer with some slutty chick on the label. Nothing new. We brought them to the bar-like counter near the display cases of beers to pay for them, but then were shuttled to the main counter in the attached store. Liam headed to find the bathroom. When I paid for them I asked if the woman could open them for us. She opened mine, no problem, and then she opened the otherone and it started bubbling over and foaming allover the place. Liam was back at this point I think, asking me if i had 50 cents to use the toilet [here, let's throw a little rant in right now. I'm so unamused by having to pay for toilet use in europe. Like, yeah, I get that it's a service that someone has to clean up after, but then who's paying for it in America? How come I've never had to pay for toilet here, nor nearly anywhere else for that matter? It's annoying! I don't carry change around when I'm at home, so I can't imagine people that live in europe have their pockets filled with gold dubloons enough to let them use the restroom. Idk.], watching me clean up the foamy mess and taking some of the beer. When he went back, I brought the beers to the empty barish like table in the back [not really a bar.. more like a little seat that happens to be inside of a shop] to sip on my beer and wait. After a minute or so the man who had been in this section of the restaurant before came over, and told me that I wasn't allowed to drink those at the bar, since they were purchased from the wall, and not from the fridge. I have no idea what the difference was, but assumed it must be price, so I tried to explain that I was just waiting for my friend to finish up in the bathroom, but he had such a look of disgust. I continued to feel uncomfortable as I sat, and when Liam emerged he immediately read my body language and asked what was up. I gave him his beer, and we left as I was telling him how unwelcome I felt in this silly shop. WHATEVER.
So I marked these two kinda random spots on the map, that were sillyy museums I didn't actually thing we'd end up paying for entry for. The first was the Frietmuseum and then the Chocostory. Fries, and chocolate. They were 7euros and 6euros each [and unsurprisingly owned by the same people.. or at least had a joint deal], so, obv not going in. I grabbed two chocolate pellets from chocostory before leaving though. Those kinds that you would melt. Whatever. It was whatever
We were getting hungry so the next goal was to find food. i wanted to keep wandering off of the main path since bruges was so small and I figured things would be cheaper if we didn't go to places in city center, but most of what we were passing lookedl ike it was just super residential. We went into this little designer Bike shop that was pretty amazing. I was holding back from going inside, being obviously tourists not going to buy anything, but liam reminded me that that shouldn't matter, and we went inside. It was awesome. Beautiful cruisers mostly, thoughtful leatherwork. Just beautiful bikes overall. We talked about clip in shoes and admired this bike that had a 6pack basket and wine bottle holder. Then we were off, walking towards where the trainstation was, where I thoguht it might be a bit cheaper to exist but stopped first at some cafe that was called Venice something, or something. We split a chocolate waffle and a ham and goat cheese sandwich. So belgium. This chocolat ewaffle was pretty intense, with bananas on top. Not ad hard as the one we got in amsterdam, but still very chewy compared to the fluffy waffles I'm used to at home. The sandwich was delicious. Goat cheese is so good. We went onwards, down a bit towards the station and finally gave in to our chocolate cravings. We stopped at this little store and got a bag of truffles. Holy fuck. So amazing. We were blazing through the package, but then got to some art gallery, and liam wanted to go in.
i felt like such a fuck folding up the loud crinkly wrappers of the truffle, stuffing them into my pocket, in this vacant echoy art abyss. It wa actually a really epic gallery. We walked around, whispering, admiring the art. There was one collection that was really cutout, photographic, and dark. I liked this one most. When we did eventually leave, Liam immediately proclaimed that the gallery was heaps better than the modern art museum we checked out in Amsterdam. We kept snacking, got some more beers and sat on a bit of a stone wall, looking at the Markt. it was nice to sit and relax, and then I really wanted to get fries, so we pointed out a little spot with outdoor seatign right in the square, so liam went in to get fries while I sat outside trying to hide our beers. He got a large fries with tartare and ketchup. We got tartare and mayo, but that's fine. I was cool with that too.
Eventaully we decided to head back towards the train station, and by proxy, back towards brussels. As expected, we picked up a few more beers before leaving Bruges [for the train, y'know] and I was pretty set on looking for another chocolate shop, to find something hopefully as decadent as that first bag of truffles that we tore up. We found some shop, and i saw a little variety pack of more expensive-looking truffles, and hoped this would be the right choice. The other people in the shop, an older american couple, were trying to purchase their own set of chocolate but I heard the man seeming unsure as to waht his pin was on his credit card, and confused that he had even been meant to set it up. They had not enough money, and out of the goodness of my heart, and self proclaimed prophecy to ensure that all the world has chocolate, I asked if I could give them some euros for USdollars so they could get chocolate. That was a mistake. I only had about 60 euros left before flying to london the next day, BUT in all due respect, I couldnt imagine they'd be asking for anything more than 10 euros. 62. Sixty Fucking Two Euros these stupid americans were about to spend on, what turned out to be, an awful chocolate shop. I said I couldn't, and didn't have enough. then the woman said she had some, and maybe with what I had it would be enough. she had 15. I was obligated now with the 50. Rats. It took them so long to figure out how much they owed me, with the internet help of the store owner. So much time wasted, such a shitty money situation to now be in, and a package of assorted chocoaltes later, we escaped and tried to figure out how to get back to brussels. We guessed and picked a train, which ended up leaving when we thought it was supopsed to. Sweet. During the ride we ate the chocolates, which were all bad. Like, awful. I kept eating them hoping they would improve, but not at all.
When we got back I was pretty exhausted. Liam was dealing with travel shit on his computer and I was moping about not going to Mini Europe. I wanted to go straight there from the train since I figured it would close at some point, but Liam was stressed about looking things up so I conceded. Mini Europe did close, and we definitely would've made it, but WHATEVER. I'll get over it one day. I napped a little bit i think, sorta dozing off in frustration and boredom, but eventually liam was finished. We went to the lobby to get out of the room and because I wanted some absinthe, which would require cups and a spoon. The front desk didn't seem to care about us drinking there, even though I only asked if we could have beer. I kept making stupid remarks about being a beersneezaholicrex. Not sure why.
We had our absinthe, and tries to offer some to this girl sitting near us [unsuccessfully] and then decided we should venture out for food. We walked for ages looking for an ATM to make up for my stupidity in giving chocolate money to those fools. We got almost as far as the Grand Place, and delirium cafe, which is wehre we were heading. Finally, an ATM. We took out money and then walked almost all the way back to wehre we were staying because we wanted to get cheap palistinian food, native to the little section of town taht our hostel was situated in. We ended up at a cheap vegetarian falafel place. It was really good! Youf ill your own salad and then get a falafel pita. No complaints there.
We turned around once again and went back towards the grand place. A grand place it is! It was really cool to be there in the emptiness of the night, prancing around, finishing the beers we had been carrying for our walk. The lights were extravagent and blue, and there was a massive christmas tree. I'm not sure it lokos like this all year, but it's possible. so grand.
Then we headed to the delirium Cafe, which was my top sight to see in Belgium. We had to get rid of our beers before entering the alley way that it is situatid in, and then we ventured into this awesome bar/club. Good vibes, live music, and a great beers selection. It was actually way cheaper than I thought it would be, at about 4 euros per draught beer [we got a mix of regular and dark deliriums]. The music was a selection of cover bands that were all pretty bad, but the song choice was good enough to forgive the fact that it soundded like these people's first time playing their instruments. We didn't stay too terribly late, with an early flight in the morning, and eventually made our way back to enjoy our own room for one last night.
We woke up at the crack of the fucking morning, pre sun, pre functionality, pre packed and tried to gather the scattered belongings from our closet sized room. This was dug a weird room. We decided to treat ourselves after the horror which was our top bunk lawnmower and near bunk fuckers in Amsterdam, so got a proper (psh) private room. The shape of the room suggested that whomever built it only realized there would be space for a bedroom afte all the other walls were accidentally put up. We had two twin beds, lazily smashed together, posing as the ultimate death trap for falling through the middle as they moved in our sleep. the whole bathroom was a shower, which like, as far as design goes, I'm all for it, but the functionality does not exist. Our window led to a ladder, for easy entry I suppose. The hostel itself was located in a seemingly sketchy, extremely Pakistani, area. This meant good prices and good food options, but we were confused about the life of Brussels when we first got in. Anyway, yeah.. I'm writing super out of order so if that was repetitive, sorry but I can't be fucked editing or rereading any of this horrible garbage.
Yeah, so we gathered our belongings and left all of our illicit and non-fly-friendly shit (ie the rest of the absinthe, some herbs purchased in Prague, and a bunch of empty Belgian beer bottles) in the room (you're welcome) and raced to the station.
No worries, yet again. We had a good few minutes to wait before getting our train to (hopefully) the airport. All seemed to work out even though I was desperately trying to fudge our eurail passes to include this day as a travel day incase someone came along to check. No one came along. Whatever.
ANYWAY, Check in was super quick even though we had some trouble finding the check in table, weirdly located in a whole separate section. I suppose that's what you get when flying budget airlines like easy jet. Next was customs. Liam had been worried about his visa situation all trip, and though we got through to prague no problem (and everywhere else thereafter) this was the next obstacle. Leaving the schengen area would finally let them (THEM) know that he had fully overstayed his welcome. He had printed out all these documents to prove he had the funds to exit, had flights out, was doing something while he was there, and all the details of the bilateral visa waiver that gives residents of nz some special potential privileges while traveling in the schengen region, but I could feel his fear as we approached customs. Right before we got up to the window, a new window opened up and Liam went to wait on that line. He was his second passport check and maybe it was the good mood of recently starting, or the Liam's devilish good looks and charm (just to see if you're reading this, Liam) but customs took maybe 15 seconds, and he was in. Cleared.
When we were in the airport we were looking for a toilet and became confused by the fact that the sign for bathroom and the sign for elevator looked strikingly similar. Some sort of rectangle with two people standing. strange.
It was fun flying with Liam for the first time, even though the flight was really short. In the little introduction safety talk, we were told "if you hear brace, brace." Thanks guys.
Liam found all the belgian air staff to be quite attractive. eyeroll
When we were in the airport we were looking for a toilet and became confused by the fact that the sign for bathroom and the sign for elevator looked strikingly similar. Some sort of rectangle with two people standing. strange.
It was fun flying with Liam for the first time, even though the flight was really short. In the little introduction safety talk, we were told "if you hear brace, brace." Thanks guys.
Liam found all the belgian air staff to be quite attractive. eyeroll
Review of Belgium: absurdly good food. I feel like everything we consumed there was top notch. The beers were also amazing. Being able to go to a mini mart and get relatively cheap, amazing beers was such a godsend, and such a refreshing change.
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