Brussels =Chocolate beer and waffels

Last night we ate our last meal in Amsterdam and went to bed early
because we had a really early train. I had a traditional meal, a dutch
croquette and french fries with mayonnaise and peanutbutter (much
better than it sounds). Kevan had shawarma...again. We finished the
meal with a Dutch waffle. This one looked just like a belgian waffel
with chocolate on top but it actually had huge sugar crystals inside.

This morning we got up at 4:45 to check out, walk to the metro, take
the train to the train station (while watching the sun rise) and catch
our train to Brussels. The train ride was about two and a half hours
and I slept for most of it. We finally got to Brussels at 10:15 and
headed over to our hostel. I'm glad we are only staying here for one
night because although it could be much worse, it is far from the best.

After checking in we walked into the center to find lunch. My first
impression of Brussels was thar it was the most american like city we
have been to because there where many modern buildings (hotels).
However the center was much more old school. The center square, grand
place, was surrounded by old guild houses that were rococo dipped in
gold. It was pretty cool.

After lunch we had a belgian chocolate feast! We went to several
chocolate stores (starting with the original godiva store) and tried a
few pieces of chocolate at each. Yum...

Next we walked around and found the oldest shopping mall still in use
and the emblem of Brussels, Manniken Pis, a fountain with a peeing boy.

Then we went to the only real "sight" we enter to see, the EU
parliament. I found it funny how cool it felt to be there even though
the European Union is not even part of my daily life. We were very sad
to find that the audio guides were not avalible because they were
being updated or some other bullshit. We ended up having a guide give
a shpiel to the roughly 80 person tour group. We only got to see the
lobby and the chamber of the parliament but it was well worth it.

Afterwards we went to stroll around the front of the royal palace and
garden near by. We also took a long detour on the way back to grand
place so I could take a picture with the 3 ft smurf outside the comic
book museum.

We found a "cheap" dinner on restaurant row and watched people walk by
as we ate at a street side table. In true belgian style I had a Stella
with dinner and a Belgian waffle for dessert (I was slightly
dissapointed with both)

Although our visit to Brussels did not entail anything super exciting,
it was a good one day stop and makes me appreciate how beautiful the
other cities were.