Brussels Week- Shwearribs, Waffles, Canadians and Beer

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.

Harro striking his 'Atomium Pose'