We got to Belgium late and walked around for a good half hour not having a clue of where we were. We ended up back at the train station until we found our bearings and headed to our hostel which wasn't too far away. We were pretty centrally located close the main square, a busy main street, and all of the bars and restaurants. We hadn't had anything to eat that night and were starving, but it was too late and everything was closing as we got there. So we had to wait till morning. Being hungry and also the fact that it was late, we didn't do anything that night.
The next day we woke up pretty early to eat the really bad breakfast that was free to us before leaving and actually eating a real breakfast. When we took off around nine we noticed that we were early. It was a Saturday morning and you would think that there would be a lot of people around and stores open but that wasn't the case. I don't think most of the places opened till around ten. The first thing we did was stop by the main market Square. We were a little early. Most places were still closed and there were not any people. We stopped in a really nice cafe type place and had the waffles that are popular in Belgium. They were so good we went back the next morning and had them again.
By the time we got out of there the square was more alive. More places were open and street artists were out. It really is a beautiful square. But the lighting was bad and it was very closely enclosed so it was hard to get pictures of.
From there, we went to see the famous peeing kid (fountain), that was one of the top sights to see apparently. We were very disappointed in the fountain because it was the size of my head. Definitely not something I would recommend seeing. But we saw a plastic one holding a waffle and we had some fun with that. Also, standing there a Ferrari parked right next to us. It was probably a late 80's model but I honestly have no clue. The guy driving was very proud of his car.
We walked around some more without a plan of what we were really doing, but saw some nice things along the way. The first thing we saw was a little park area and government buildings situated on a hill. One thing about Brussels is that it is almost built on two levels. At one point you can walk up and down some streets and go in stores and then directly above you you can take some stairs and do the same thing. As we kept walking up we got some really good views of the city.
Up near this building they have a really big park a lot of joggers go to. It was very interesting because on the tour map it explained the park and said that it was known for, "rough gay sex at night." Luckily we went through it during the day and didn't see any of that going on.
We continued up the hill and went into a very nice church that had beautiful stain glass windows. It was the Sablon Church and we actually saw a baptism going on as we were walking through and touring.
When we made it to the top of the hill, which actually didn't seem like a hill, we had a great view and literally could see everything in Brussels for a few miles. We had to take an elevator to get down because we wanted to see the market that was at the bottom of the hill. Our luck, the elevator got stuck at the bottom and we were locked in the elevator with about five other people for around 25 minutes before someone came and helped us. Thankfully there are buttons on elevators to contact people in those situations. It also really helped that there were people that spoke french or else we probably wouldn't have gotten out of there. It turns out the market was actually a really crappy yard sale and just had junk.
We went and got lunch and was introduced to my first doner which means rotating roast. It was delicious. A few of us our actually starting our own doner store in Blacksburg when we get back.
The meat is delicious.
After lunch we made our way to the chocolate district, which is the second thing Belgium is known for. Walking into these high end stores is liking walking into Louis Vuitton. These are what some people consider the best chocolate in the world. We went to a place called Pierre Marcolini. This is a fairly new store and has some of the tastiest and most different chocolate coming from coca all over the world. We got lucky and Mrs. Marcolini actually came to talk to us about the chocolate, where it comes from, and what makes it so unique. We got free samples from chocolate all over South America. They have a very strong taste.
She also drove a really nice car (Bentley).
What we did next, had to be my favorite part of the trip. We went to see the Atomium, which is a really big modernized structure built for the the World Fair. They have a rotating restaurant we wanted to eat in but they were booked and you need a reservation in advance. We got there at a really neat time though and got to see it during the sunset and then light up once it turned dark.
We perfectly executed a pyramid on Kyles camera in the 10 seconds before the camera took the photo.
I know I might get yelled at for this part, but for dinner we went to McDonald's. I have to admit though, and we all agreed, it was the best McDonald's we have ever had. It was very high quality, if that's possible.
We went out to a bar that had really cheap drinks that night as the warm up for the club were planning on going to. But it turned out we just stayed there the whole time. They had a club on the second floor and it was a lot of fun. Great music and a lot of people. We even met some American's there too.
That pretty much sums up our trip. I did go see St. Michael Cathedral too before we got on the train to go back to switzerland.
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