Brussel Sprouts (Day 52)

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It's off to Brussels today. Caught the noon train and half an hour later I was in another country ready for the last stop on Part 1 of the vacation. Almost half way through it amazingly. Found my host's place with ease and soon we were getting acquainted. I am couch surfing here with a couple of American girls who are getting their masters degree here in Brussels. Both are students in International Relations and Brussels is kind of the perfect place for this as it is the home of the EU and subsequently a bunch of NGOs, think tanks and the like. There are really only two things in Brussels I wanted to see (Grand Place and Mannekin Pis) so I headed over to the centre city to do my touristy things for my trip here. The Grand Place is pretty amazing I have to say. You come into the square and you see this beautiful building across the square from you and you think oh there it is. But the whole square is like that, from any angle. A bunch of beautiful old buildings that all look like they could be a city hall or something. The Mannekin Pis is right nearby and as dumb as it sounds it's hard not to enjoy it. Just a statue of a little boy peeing into a fountain pool but what's not to love about that. From time to time they dress him up and today he was dressed in an Uncle Sam outfit with a hat that said "YES WE CAN". Got a laugh out of me at least. Stopped by a cafe to kill some time and also to start my quest to drink as many good local beers as I can. Started out with a Kasteel today and will go from here.

Spent the night out with my hosts and a few of their friends (all real nice and a great time out) at a few bars in what appeared to be a pretty popular place to go out in. The beer really is fantastic here but you have to realize that it is often twice as strong as the stuff back home. Particularly Duvel which is quite popular here and the taste masks the strong alcohol content well. It can hit you pretty fast ha. Had a good time at this jazz bar as well with some crazzzzy Belgian guy that came up to us and wanted to show us his dance moves ha. The man could move I have to say. He also looked like a grade A psychopath though so it didn't last too too long. Brussels is a pretty cool place so far from what I can tell. Might not be a ton to see but it makes up for it with the food and beer. Not a bad trade off.

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Photos

gp
grand place

knight
knight's tale

gp2
and again...

brussels
brussels