brussels overview

the green protesters

yummy beer!

all that chocolate

galleries st. hubert

beautiful gardens

that's us!

so pretty

peeing boy

the wall that is attached the the modern building

it's after 8pm!

big, tall, gothic building

my new favorite beer!

protesters

our room

when we got off the train, we tried to figure out where we were, but we weren't on the map, so we ended up taking a taxi. the driver was insane! he was cutting people off, people were cutting him off. we almost got whiplash because of all the slamming on the brakes. i would NEVER drive in brussels! our hotel was nice brussels. it wasn't anything special. the hotel was in the middle of the Lebanese area. when we got in, we cleaned up and headed out to dinner. on our walk to find something to eat, we were getting all these hard stares from the locals. a few bars, probably wouldn't let me in. it seemed like all the men hung out together until about 6am, and then closed their bars and went home, then re-opened at 11am. when we were almost to the city center, there were about 15 cars honking their horns and yelling and screaming. it was so loud and obnoxious! it lasted about 20 minutes (until they passes us), they were driving so slowly.

when we found a place to eat, we were the only ones there to eat (it was only 7pm). we had such a big dinner, i couldn't even finish all my food. things were so much cheaper here. afterwards, we walked around town until just before dark. near our hotel, the streets were literally filled with trash. there was urine everywhere, but the trash was the biggest thing. it wasn't so bad as we got closer to the city center.

the next day, we went on a mission to find the little peeing statue. it was not impressive, i can't believe how many people crowded around this little thing. we then came across this old wall that was probably a part of an old castle, but it was attached to a modern building (looked like an apartment building).

we also ended up at the mall that i wanted to see (galleries st. hubert). it looked like a museum. there were chocolate stores everywhere! they were pretty pricey here, so we went outside of the mall, and bought a lot there. Belgium chocolate is the best!

in our europe book that we brought (printed in 2008), the map was completely wrong. some of the major streets were mis-labeled, or not even on the map. we were glad that the hotel people gave us a map. between the two maps, we were able to find our way around brussels. we had fun here, but they need to clean their streets better. this was the third city we wen to that had construction. i guess they're getting for the olympics in london in 2012.