BELGIUM, the Beer and Chocolate Paradise

ANTWERP

When I think of Belgium now I think of beer, fries with mayonnaise, chocolate, and more beer. Aka, my kind of place! Because we didn't have a hostel booked for the night, we made the last minute decision to get off at Antwerp which would have been fun had I not been feeling like death was coming for me any minute. Definitely alcohol withdrawl! But we trudged along, making our way from the train station down the shopping streets and through a dust storm...finding a super gross hotel for 35 freakin' euros a piece. We grabbed a kebab (duh) but it disappointed us, and instead of touring the city in the last hours of daylight, we shut ourselves in our room and FINALLY showered (wait for it...after 6 DAYS of not showering because we ran out of shampoo before Eurohash!! We are gross, I know) and lost ourselves in The Hunger Games. Sounds lame, skipping an entire city just to read these books...but you don't understand unless you've read them! I find myself holding my breath sometimes because I get so into it, and getting goosebumps even though it's so hot I'm sweaty. Just go read it already.

GHENT

We made the decision to go to Ghent over Bruges at the suggestion of the hash family...supposedly Bruges is stunning but full of American tourists, Ghent hasn't really been discovered yet...exactly what we want!! Found our hostel's street but for the life of us couldn't locate the building, until after 15 minutes of searching Megan remembers "Oh! It's a boat!"...miiight have been useful info Megs ;) The Ecohostel was pretty cool though, spacious and clean and on a BOAT for pete's sake! This is also where we got the BEST map EVER! Called "use-it," the map is full of information from locals on history, where to go see, drink, and eat and what life is like in Ghent. Learned that their goverment actually passed a law making schools eat vegan on Thursdays! Interesting little city. We spent the rest of the day walking around the adorable and beautiful city, eating fries with mayo and gravy from beef cooked with beer (yumm), and drinking phenomenal beer in an old leper colony and by the waterside. We also tried a liqour called jenever, and of course I tried the chocolate version. Dangerous! It tasted exactly like chocolate milk and after drinking 12-13% beers, went down niice. We enjoyed talking to the bar owner, Sal, who had some Zulu beads behind his bar...NOLA, you're everywhere! Yet another semi-early night, which my body needed. It also needed chocolate which it was rewarded with at breakfast the next morning! I ate the Belgian equivalent of choco rice crispies, with a piece of dark chocolate and toast with butter. Mathilde's kind of breakfast!

BRUSSELS

Getting to a big city after a picturesque town like Ghent is always a bit of a letdown, what with buildings and commercial things. But we really liked Brussels! First stop was the Delirium Tremens bar where we saw Mannekin Piss' sister, Jeanneke Piss, and drank some fantabulous Belgian beer. Took a tour of the European Union quarter, with the help of our handydandy Use-it map, and saw the massive building that houses the EU Parliament. Saw Mannekin Piss, the little statue/fountain of a boy peeing that is one of the most recognizable things in Brussels...no idea why!? He is so tiny and wasn't even peeing :( continued our city-long walk to the west, stopping in a vintage shop and heading back to our hostel to change.Our hostel's location was in the heart of the city, conveniently located for more beer drinking and getting to the kebab street! Yes, you heard me, an entire STREET of kebabs! After having a few Trappist beers in Celtica, the cheapest pub in the city, and making friends with two Belgians, Stijn and Jan, who were helpful in guiding our beer choices before they left the city, it is no surprise that we found THE BEST kebab that we have had so far. Belgian-style was perfect--nice an spicy with fries inside! I gobbled this down and even had a heated conversation, defending kebabs, with a kebab-hater in the hostel. Poor guy doesn't even KNOW what he is missing! After heading back out for another beer, we ran into Jan again who was back in town with a bunch of guy friends...so I walked Megs back to the hostel and went back out to drink with them. Such nice guys from Menchen, their two british friends has just arrived in town and I followed along with them all over the city...eventually checking out the red lift district! That was definitely an experience...women in lingerie, sitting in windows with men oogling them. Somehow I had missed this in Amsterdam-glad I saw it but won't be back. At one point, one of the "ladies of the night" gestured to one of the guys in our party and told him that they needed to watch out for me because of all the sketchy characters about! So, gentlemen that they were, they took turns holding my arm and pretending to be my boyfriend...love Belgians :) I just wish I had asked them to walk me back to my hostel later that night (well I guess it was morning, like 6am-ish) because even though it was only 4 blocks back, one gypsy man started talking to me, following me, and I was so busy trying to push him away from me that I didn't realize he had stolen my wallet. So annoying!! Fortunately I had my passport and most of my cash back at the hostel, but traveling without a debit card will be interestig for the next month. Good thing I've got Megan, travel companion turned Suga Mama!!