Finally, we've arrived in Brussels. Once again, a metro ride down to our hostel area and took a walk to our youth hostel. Was really worried that the hostel would not be good as we didn't know much about it, plus we would be separated into female dorms and male dorms. I've never stayed with strangers in a hostel before so I was a little worried, but to my pleasant surprise, the hostel was really good! It was there that we met our first foreign friend, Becky. Becky was from the US and we kind of like hit off and invited her to join us for dinner, but she declined and instead, suggested drinking later that night which we agreed. Back to the hostel. Our dorm was actually 2 levels. First floor had like a dining table and the toilet. The second floor was all the beds. It was really cool. Plus the hostel had a nice cosy bar and a table tennis table. Haha. :)

The dorm



The table tennis table!


After settling down in the hostel, which meant laying the sheets and claiming beds, we headed out for dinner. The area around our hostel was like an office area, thus there wasn't like much restaurant open, but we were so famished that we decided to just pop into the nearest one that was open and it was a Lebanese restaurant. Had a nice and filling dinner and the boss was just very funny. A very nice guy. Therefore, we decided to tip him with our change and he invited us back to his restaurant the next day so that he can treat us drinks. Like WOAH! We only tipped him 2euros lah!

Appetiser


Starters we ordered


Main dishes! Quail, Mixed Grill, Lamb and Chicken


Pita (Lebanese Bread)


Us and the nice owner


After our dinner, we went back to our hostel which was a mere less than 5min walk away, and settled down in the bar and went to call Becky down to chat and drink. Ordered my first alcohol on the trip and I gave it to a bottle of Hoegarden. Quite cheap. 1.30euros. Much cheaper than in Singapore. After that I had another bottle of Jupiler, which is a Belgian beer, so I tried it since Hoegarden was sold out by the time I ordered it. While in the bar, we met lots of interesting people. Firstly, Becky was totally nice and fun. There was this 1.97m German guy. The bartender was very nice and this drunk Belgian tried to hit on Karen. Haha! The night was really fun. We somehow ended up talking about Hokkien and they asked me to take out my MP3 player so that they can hear some Hokkien songs and the bartender went to play it out! Cool right? I had my MP3 player plugged into the speakers, which means the whole bar was hearing my playlist. Haha! I'll probably never ever have the chance to have my playlist being broadcasted like that. They will probably complain that I have bad songs. Haha!

The bar and my drinks


The Bartender


The German guy, Rainer


Us and Becky!


Our second day in Belgium was spent walking around aimlessly. It was not like Paris where they have like really really famous sights, so we just followed the map to this monument place took some photos and left. Belgium is really littered with chocolate shops and waffles shop. Everywhere I turn, I see a chocolate shop. Drools!

Monuments that I didn't know


Flowers for Mum :)


So as we walked down the streets of Belgium, we snacked quite a bit. First was waffles from a shop. Delicious! I had dark choc for mine, while James had white choc and Karen and Bernice had sugar icing. Really good waffles! After waffles, we had raw mussels. At first, I was scared. Thought that I wouldn't try. But when I saw it, curiosity got the better of me and I decided to try. It was FABULOUS! For a person like me who doesn't eat shellfish, the mussels were GREAT! It totally had no weird smell, or the xing wei, it was totally fresh and nice! We also had fries from a nearby stall. Huge portion and nice as well. After walking around the area and doing major shopping, we decided to head back to near our hostel to check out one of the Belgian restaurant that was recommended by Lonely Planet. It was raining and the restaurant didn't open that early so we were all stuck under some roof and waiting for the restaurant to open. Luckily we waited, cause the food in the restaurant was good, had a big portion. I had beef stewed in beer and served with some apple sauce that was really nice. Bernice had the nicest chicken I've ever eaten and Karen had this nice stew that tasted heavenly. James had liver or kidney, which I tasted but didn't appreciate. And the starters was nice. Some salmon thing. The best part about the meal? The dessert! The ice cream was, as how Karen would say it, ORGASMIC! Too bad we only ordered one portion. It was heavenly! Nicest ice cream I've eaten in my whole life. I was really full from my beef, but when the ice cream came, I couldn't stop! Gosh! HEAVEN!

Food Galore!

Waffles


The FABULOUS MUSSELS (and fresh too!)


The fries


Dinner (Starters, Bernice's, Karen's, James' and mine)

The orgasmic dessert that was their speciality!


After dinner, we decided to head back to the Lebanese restaurant as I realised that I left my umbrella there the previous night, so we headed back to get it since it was near our hostel. While I was trying to get my umbrella out, it got stuck and the door bell kept ringing, which caused the boss to come out and invited us in. But since he was busy then, he made us promise to go back to the hostel first to put our stuff, and then head back to join him for drinks. Therefore, we ended up back at the restaurant, paid for a drink and chatted with him. But we only paid for 1 drink. In the end, he served us 2 portions of mint tea twice, served us food, gave us more drinks and chatted with us. Seriously, this was the fullest night of my entire trip. Even James was so full that he had to go puke.

I had more Hoegarden and a glass of draft beer


Lebanese alcohol that is 53% and turns milky when water is added




Day 3 in Brussels, which is also the day we are leaving for Amsterdam, we packed our stuff, checked out early and carried our backpack for more walking at a flea market. Technically, I think the place was a market where the locals bought their foodstuff and ate things. Therefore, it was where we had another round of raw mussels and James tried his blood sausage burger and Karen a hamburger, which according to them, was really great. We headed down further and went in search for fries that were highly recommended in the map. It was just a normal looking road side stall and we ordered our fries and Bernice ordered a fish burger. Let me tell you this. The fries were great! The sauce, Samurai Sauce as they call it, was really good! And the fish burger, HEAVENLY! It's a simple fare, but it was really really really good! Totally loved the food! After our fries, we walked some more and rested in a park where we took wacky photos again before heading down to our train station by foot.

Flea Market


More mussels!


Blood Sausage



Fries!


Wacky Photos


And that's it for Belgium. For our Holland escapade, in the next post! :)

Day 2 in Paris was kinda boring. We woke up at like 8am to have breakfast at the hotel, since it was free breakfast, so must eat! Nothing special. The usual of bread and spread and orange juice and coffee.

Day 2 in Paris was more walking again. This time we went to this shopping place called the Forum des Halles. It was quite a decent shopping place and we spent some time window shopping. After which, we settled down in a park outside the shopping area and "suntan-ed" a bit. Had some of the left over bread that we koped from the hotel breakfast. After the rest, we continued our walk to the Louvre Museum and stopped by some pastry shop to have some macaroons.

The park


Pastries!


Reached the Louvre Museum and it was freaking huge! And packed too. We actually wanted to go in, but it was mid-day already and we figured we had other places to cover too. Also, James and Karen weren't interested in the paintings and sculptures, so we decided to give it a miss after we took many wacky photos.

More pictures for my lack of words


With that, we headed down to the famous street of Champs Elysees and also to see the Arc de Triomphe. After a long walk (the Louvre is so huge that we took a long time to walk pass it!), we unknowingly reached Champs Elysees and boy oh boy was I disappointed. The street was just any normal looking street with trees and further down, all the shopping boutiques. Blah! It's a long and hot stretch of road that has nothing to see! :( So disappointed. Even the Arc de Triomphe was like a blah in the middle of the road. Haiz.

Champs Elysees


Arc de Triomphe


By the time we had reached the Arc, we were all so tired and worned out that we decided to take a metro back to near our hostel, grab dinner and go back to the hotel to rest. Looking at the clock, we had already walked for like 7hours! And the previous day at least 9hours, not including the stairs I had to climb!

Dinner was kebab and the portion was huge again with drinks. But it's quite expensive. 9euros for all that. :(



Day 3 in Paris, which is also the day we are leaving Paris for Belgium, was spent in the train station since we didn't know how the train works for international travel. But we managed to finally eat our crepes and escargot. The crepes were so-so only, but the escargot was not bad. At least it didn't have any smelly smell that I expected it to have. Quite nice!

Crepe! And Escargot.


With our last meal in Paris, we headed on a train to Brussels, which was quite fast, 1hr20mins. On the train ride, we managed to see a rainbow stretching across the sky. Beautiful! About Brussels, till the next post!