Brussels Week!!
Day 1- Arrive, Montreal Girls, Bars
Getting into Brussels, naturally
our body clocks were completely out of it! But fighting off sleep deprivation
we made it to our hotel in the heart of Brussels. Putting off our need for sleep
we headed out to check out what is regarded as one of the most boring cities in
the whole of Europe. We didn’t get far before we picked a bar and decided to
try the local beers. Before long, 2 attractive birds with similarly attractive
accents sat down at the table next to us. Marianne and Alexandra from Montreal,
Quebec. In a new city, at the start of
No Longer Anchored, we were keen to make friends- Harro was thinking ‘special’
friends….
Anyhow, we tagged along with them
as they were familiar with Brussels after several nights here. St Geri was our
chosen location to try more of the country’s brews. Trying so many beers paid
off; we were the beneficiaries of several free rounds! But our body clocks
thwarted any serious drinking efforts, so we stopped at the waffle shop, sat in
the Grand Place before we said goodbye to our new friends.
second night- bike share, pub crawl, drunk,
Day 2- Bike share, Pub crawl..
Interestingly, Brussels has an easy-to-use Bike Share
system- not some average Melbourne model that no one ever uses. For daily hire
of a bike its 1.60 euro which is super value to get around the most boring city
in Europe.
At 530 pm, we rendezvoused with
our Canadian friends before we decided we would try the city’s pub crawl. For 5
euros the flyer said our guide would take us to 4 bars with special drink prices-
best thing was the flyer said it wasn’t a gimmick! Meeting in the grand place
at 9pm we were met by our guide Tesh, a Belgian dude with orange fluro work
vest and yellow ray bans with bleached blonde shacved hair. To the aussies in
the crawl, particularly our friends from Queensland, he became known to us as
Corey ‘The party boy’ Worthington. Highlights of the pub crawl was meeting
someone with exactly the same name as me, Finlay, Finlay’s mate looking like Dave
Taylor hence why he gained the nickname the ‘coal train’ , the cool cocktail
bars with 2-for-1 cocktails and the underground beer hall that served beers
made at monasteries throughout Belgium. The final stop of the crawl was Madame Moustache,
Moustache Girl in French- you can probably guess why we found this funny! Mel
Woodward may have something to say about this!
Brussels, home of the one and only Mel Woodward Memorial Madam Moustache bar! commonly know to the locals as MWMMM
Day 3- Tours and Taxis, T-rex, EU
commission, mcdonalds, police station...
After a slow start after the pub
crawl the night before we grabbed a couple of bikes and headed off up road
lining the main canal of Brussels! On our journey we came across the Brussels
beach festival. We didn’t enter that day but promised ourselves we’d return. We
also passed the Old Brussels Tram Depot that has been converted into some type
of design hub, a beautiful building but kinda weird place.
Next on the agenda was a visit
down to the European Commission district where the working of Europe and the Euro
are discussed and actioned. The people down there are not doing a very good job
but we thought wed go have a look. Closed on a Friday we didn’t look inside
but the whole district was impressive.
Seems like they are spending all their European savings on contructing new
buildings! Close to the European Comission is the Museum of Natural Sciences,
which is seemingly really only famous for the big T-Rex statue on its front
step. A few photos with the T-Rex being awkward and we set off to have lunch at
a famous pasta restaurant of Brussels. Arriving to the restaurant we were told
it was closed and would reopen at 6pm. So we grabbed a baguette to tie us over
to dinner. We thought the period of time would be a good opportunity to make
our first blog post using Mcdonalds free wi-fi. Sitting down we started our
post by uploading all the photos to date and then begin our writing. Low
battery prevented us from posting but it was time anyway to head down and get a
feed. We got up to reach for my bag to realise it was gone- no trace whatsoever
of its disappearance. Someone had obviously nicked it from under our feet. It
really shows that it can happen at any time at any place; here we were in
Maccas in a nice part of Brussels with my bag under my feet. In it was my
passport and camera and a bunch of other stuff of insignificant value. But the
loss of my passport meant there was no getting the bus to Munich that
night! The rest of the night was really
dealing with everything that comes with getting your passport stolen! Not a
great start, but a lesson learnt!
Day 4- Pub crawl again, shopping
, coffee..
We were determined to get the day
off to a good start after the dramas of the afternoon before. So what better
way to feel better than to indulge in a little retail therapy- particularly replacing
all the stuff that was in my bag at the time it was stolen! With a new bag and
havaianas I felt like a new man! We then thought that a good coffee may be in
order. We found a boutique coffee store andf grabbed ourselves an Iced Coffee
by what Harro regarded as the most beautiful Belgian he had seen and met yet!
So drained from yesterday we
headed back to the room to watch the rest of the Olympic road race- a true
exhibition of how to stuff up an assured Gold medal. Good work Team GB!
Watching British coverage of the event was even more humnorous given the
commentators relentless positivity for their cyclists but also negativity for
everyone else.
To get over the disappointment we
headed to the local irish pub for a few beers and more Olympic viewing. Turning
to the wall below the tv was a poster explaining that organised bag thieves
operate in Brussels so even taking a bag to the pub is not advised…WHY WERENT
WE TOLD THIS EARLIER! We thought that the doing the pub crawl again mightn’t be
such a bad idea! Rocking up to the Grand Place saw us meeting up with our
favourite Queenslanders for the nights proceedings. Plenty of shenanigans
ensued which made for a great night!
Day 5- Atomium, expo, bruxelles
des bais..
Nursing a fairly large hangover
from the Absinth I drank and the Dite Sprite Finlay drank, I was determined
that we should visit the Atomium which along with the aforementioned little
pissing boy accounts for 90% of Brussels tourist merchandise. The Atomium
resembles some continuum transfunctioner type structure that is grand in its
stature and irrelevance. Built for the World Fair in 1958 it now looms over Brussels
reminding the Belgiumites that they do not have a space program. Aside from
some cheesy photos it was difficult to impress Finlay that the impressive piece
of engineering was worth anything more than a waffle.
Getting back on the bike we rode
past an actual kid pissing in the street (right of passage for any Belgium
child) and headed to a festival on the canal. We watched the USA dominate
France in the basketball while eating some delicious Congolese food.
Spent from 3 hours on the bike it
was time to call it stumps and head back to the our hotel and rest up for an
early embassy vist on Monday.
