Day: 62

My day started this morning at 3 am when the guy sleeping above me decided he should begin snorring with wild abandon, and destroy any semblance of a decents night sleep for the rest of us in the room.  I kicked his bed a few times, but to no avail, the rest of the night was just a series of falling asleep and waking up to him snorring. To top the night off, someone had turned the radiator all the way up so the room was so hot I was nearly sweating. When I finally rolled out of bed at 9:30 this morning, still groggy and missing my free breakfast for the second day in a row (they stop serving at 9), and when I glanced out the window what did I see? Rain, and lots of it.  Ok, I thought, it’ll clear up in a couple of hours, just like it has been for the last few days. No big thing. Anyhow I don’t really have any plans for the day.

I started working on some writing and photo editing on my computer for a couple of hours, sitting on the veranda while watching it rain and hoping it clears up.  After a while the rain got slightly lighter and I made a dash to the internet cafe around the corner to get everything uploaded and published online.  At this point I was still hoping that the day would turn out nice (or at least less wet), there was a chance, maybe.

Around noon I went back over to the hostel to put away my computer and see what was going on.  Liam and Dan were about to head out through the rain to see Mannekan Pis (dress as a Boy Scout today) and some statue of Jesus laying on his side, both within 100 meters of each other but about a kilometer from the hostel.  I had seen these sights before, but I had to do something with my day, and besides I was hungry and it was a good way to find some lunch. After our walk through the rain, the Brits were less than impressed with the statues and just settled on finding lunch with me.  Lunch and a beer later, it was still raining and we were thinking about going to the movies to fill this dreary afternoon unfortunately nothing in English started until seven. We decided to go back to the hostel and possibly make it back to the cinema this evening.

As soon as I was back, the disturbed night of sleep I had last night hit me and I crashed for a few hours. When I woke up, it was still raining.  I got up and showered, and decided to wake up some people at home with phone calls because I still had my phone card with like 150 minutes and I am leaving for Ireland tomorrow and this card won’t work there.  I woke Joanna up with my call and she got me caught up on her life and all the Islands gossip and I told her some stories about the World Tour so far.  We talked for about 45 minutes then she had to get ready for her day and I had to get the Brits so we could go down to town through the rain and get a movie.  We made it through the rain and watched The Constant Gardener.

After the film we went on a waffle hunt, it was Dans last day in Belgium, he hadn’t had one yet and knew his life would never be the same if he missed out on this experience . We meandered the streets in the rain for a few blocks and found a little shop selling waffles, we both ordered waffles covered in chocolate, and started our walk home through the downpour.  I made it back to the hostel a little after 10 and wasn’t really in the mood to drink (everyone gasp!), so I read for a little while and called it an early night.  At least the snorring guy had left our room, even if the rain never let up for the whole day.

Day: 61

I know everyone swears by Amsterdam for being the party city of Europe, but unfortunately my drug of choice isn’t weed.  I love my drinking and I don’t think I could have settled in a better city for my habit than Brussels, it is easily the beer capital of Europe.  Most of you may probably think of Germany as soon as beer comes to mind, but they are known for quanity (It’s good I won’t lie) not quality, if you want the best beers in Europe you have to head to Belgium.  I have so many choices it’s slightly dangerous, yet so tasty.

I woke up this morning and gathered my camera to go out to take some pictures, it was too bad that it was overcast and gray and I only found a few thing to take any pictures of, like the Mannekan Pis (See Jo’s comment yesterday for a history lesson).  But I did go in the museum and learned all about the history of Brussels, how the city was founded, and saw many of the costumes of the Mannekin Pis (which they always dress up as hundreds of things and have fun with). No pictures unfortunately because the museum wouldn’t allow it. Rain looked like it was on the horizon, so I just grabbed a panini and headed off back towards the hostel.

After reading for a while (this months National Geographic, which I bought in the airport when I left Prague) and watching the hail, I got to talking with Dan and Liam. We decided to head out and have dinner then go back over to Delirium (same bar as last night) for a few more random rounds of beer.  For dinner I had a bowl of mussels and fries (a Brussels specialty), and mentally prepared myself for another night of drinking.  When we arrived at the bar it was less crowded than the night before, most likely because it was Sunday, and our first round only took 15 minutes to get.

The hours of the night moved quickly and before I knew it I was chatting up all sorts of girls and getting them to pose for me.  Some of the young ladies I have pictures of I don’t even really remember talking to.  After about twenty minutes away from our table I take a glance back and what do I see? Liam (21) and Dan (20) hitting on these two “healthier” women (30 and 32) from New York who came complete with the “We’d fuck them up” (actual quote) attitude.  I left the boys to there own vices for a while and found a table of hot Finish girls to talk to for a while.  After a while I realized I was too drunk to carry on any sort of decent conversation, so I set a new goal of trying to save the boys so we could head off and get a kebab and stagger back to the hostel.