So we have finally hit Europe on our epic 2 month adventure! It felt great to have the bags back on, although mine is significantly heavier than anticipated, and it wasnt long until I was walking once again like the boy who doesnt want to go to his sisters ballet class as Ray would put it. We found the hostel easy enough, with all that practice in London the metro was a piece of cake.
We spent the first night wandering around visiting the Manneken Pis, as everyone says 'he is much smaller than I expected', ate the local dish of fries (deep fried twice) and mayo, and saw some amazing architecture in the Grand Place. The Grand Place held some amazing buildings especially the hotel that was meant to be bombed (it was the target and all) but remains standing to this day. As with most of the cities there were an abundance of beggars and after all this time it is still a hard sight to see.
Our second day started off with a trip to the Cantillon Brewery where it takes 3 years to brew one single bottle of beer (more like champagne than beer) which wasnt all that pleasant to taste. It was still pretty cool to see how this tiny brewery uses all original equipment for such a time consuming process. We again embarked on the Metro to see the Atomium, a massive blown up molecule of some sort of metal. Didnt climb up in it but it was still impressive to see close up.
The finale for our time in Brussels was a pub crawl, after our farewell in London I never thought I would want to hear those words again, but there we were waiting for the tour leader in the rain, bringing the group to a tiny 9 people, staff included. The €20 we spent was well worth it with all drinks included for the night, needless to say we were all not feeling the greatest the next morning. A quick look through the camera revealed Ray winning the drinking competition, a giant mojito and absenith shots. The train ride to Bruges is going to hurt!
L&R
