Hullo!!! As you can see from my photo album, I went to Brussels over the weekend.  I was planning on going there since last year but kept having to push it back. I was originally going to stay with Kim, who was my MC coach when I was LCP of AIESEC Monash.  I say originally because I ended up at Robin's place (Rob ex-MCP AIESEC Australia).  What happened was that I arrived late because of a fire at Brussels airport.  I got into the city and walked around a bit and as per my usual fashion, just stumbling onto most of the sights.  So I saw Grand Place and La Bourse without looking at a map.  Also saw some of the comic book stores.  Belgium is famous for its Lace, Chocolate, Comics and Beer!

 

Caught up with Robin back at the Train Station and then walked back the way I came to find Kim with her Finnish friend Elli.  We had a beer there (Leffe) while deciding what to do.  Elli had to go back to her hotel (she was on a business trip) so Kim and Elli went and did that.  So Rob and I went back to his place to dump our bags and then walked back into the city.  We walked from La Bourse (where Rob lives) to the Palace of Justice, eating Fries along the way.

 

 

We went to a nice Vietnamese/Thai restaurant.  And it was great to finally go out for dinner instead of having take out or cooking my self!  Had a nice red curry dish with coconut... the menu was in French so Kim, Rob and Elli had to translate words they recognised.  We went out for a beer (Chimay) at a nice cafe and then went to a place called Elephants (I think) where they have 2500 beers from around the world... even VB ewwww.  But because I was already feeling the effects of the heavy beers I was having I decided on a lighter option with a Raspberry flavoured beer.

 

After sleeping in... and getting woken up by a potential flatmate (Rob's friend moved out) who had two little kids.  So  Rob and I had a laugh imagining him living with them... he would have gained an instant family!  Saturday, I walked around on my own as the others had things to do.  Caught up with Rob for a Beer (Duval) then found Elli and Kim shopping.  Ate at a Pita place out in the sun.  Which was great for Kim and I, we loved it.  But Elli and Rob complained it was too hot!! *sigh*  Kim and Elli went to go get ready for dinner while Rob and I went to play chess at Greenwich after I bought a TinTin T-Shirt!! hehehe TinTin is from Belgium.

 

 

We all caught the train to Leuven for Oli's going away dinner.  Leuven is where all the InBev trainees work so most of them live in that small town.  The town is really nice and clean.  They had  a surprise where those that were there on time (not us) went up the bell tower of the University library where they watched the bells being rung.  It was cool (Tom Gara told me) because it was a guy going crazy on an organ type thing.  We then went for dinner... where i orded a Foccacia (Hoegarden) which came in a lunch box! heheh Back to School.  Oli got a Knife holder thing which was disturbing but hilarious when I found out he was supposed to imgaine his boss when he put the knives in!!!  Caught the train back where I saw the stereotypical train conductor... little hat and bushy moustache hehehe

 

 

Sunday was spent walking up to Palace of Justice with Rob where we stayed for 1min.  But it was the journey up and down that had all the memories and random photos.  Ended up at Kim's place for Crepés.  So I finally got to catch up with Kim.

 

Sorry for the boring "we did that and then we did this" but its my record of the trip so i can remember what I did.  But Brussels is great.  There's not a lot of Touristy stuff to do (and I skipped most of them.. really regret not taking a photo with the TinTin statue).  But its a great city in the summer with all the outdoor cafe culture.  So thats the time to go!

 

Kim has a blog! http://kims.nomadlife.org/