September 5-6 - Brussels

I know I switched it up a little with Berlin. I missed Brussels by accident. We went here to go to the Brussels beer festival. It showcased different Belgian beers, which are extremely strong and wheaty. You can actually be a Belgian beer if you have a license from a Belgian beer brewing company, although they say true Belgian beer has its unique flavor from the water in Belgium.

The first night we got there, we had a doner kebap and wandered around. We happened across a really interesting converted train station to art gallery and bar. Then, we migrated to another bar with a white guy with dreads who recommended to us some sweet Belgian beer. It was filled with smoke. Later, we went to an Irish pub which was playing 80's music.

The next day, we started off the day with Belgian waffles and watching a parade go by for the beer festival. The waffles were too sweet, in my opinion, and didn't taste at all like Mrs. B's waffles. The beer festival was already going strong and we grabbed a quick lunch, then went into the festival. This was the beginning of a long day of drinking. We started off with a Trappist beer, which I think was delicious. I had a Rochefort 8, a sweet, malty beer. I only bought 9 euros of beer caps and ended up spending all of them. We met a couple who was from Texas and had some escargots.

Sometime during the day, we met some rather obnoxious Aussies and Brits. They were all dressed up in costume and seemed like they pre-gamed the beer festival. They were funny at first, but then just got a bit annoying. Ally, Tom Tom and I wandered off later and met a bunch of Dutch guys who were prepared for the festival and brought in a giant bag of food from the Netherlands.

Eventually we found Tom Faussett and Kyle again who were chatting with some girls. I said they were big boys and could take care of themselves so we went to get dinner and left them to their antics. Little did we know that wasn't such a good idea. We had a nice dinner and went back home. I had an early night because I was exhausted. Tom Tom went out and later came back. We heard Tom Faussett and Kyle get back and Kyle saying "I think I got beat up really badly... Do I have a fat lip?" I assumed he and Tom got back together.

The next morning, Ally and I wake up first and take our showers. As I get out, Kyle sits up and asks us what he was doing last night. I thought he was joking. Later, he's taking pictures using his camera of the bruises he has all over his body. Somehow, he got into a huge fight and lost Tom Faussett during the night. He also lost his camera. Tom Faussett lost his wallett (which was just in front of the hostel) and was waiting for Kyle as he got back. It was nuts. We probably should't've let them be, but they seemed so normal when we left. During Sunday, Kyle and Tom were recalling bits of their night.

Two other highlights of Brussels were the pissing boy, which was very small and very strange... perhaps not worth seeing more than once, and the atom-shaped worlds fair structure. this one was very large and very strange...not really worth seeing again.

We did have Belgian fries, which I don't understand how much better they are. They tasted a lot like fries in the States...

I think Brussels was awesome, but not really worth more than a weekend, even with a beer weekend. There's probably far cooler things in Belgium.