Wednesday, April 9, 2014

The Adventure Begins


Ever since studying abroad I could not wait to get back to Europe and travel- to see more, to explore more, to grow more and to discover more. When my brother decided to study abroad in Vienna, I knew I had to take advantage of him being over there and visit. There was also another bonus to this trip. This time I would be traveling with my boyfriend Kyle. We were both excited to take the adventure together. I was a little worried that only one of us would survive the trip. However, we came back together and better than ever. Mostly thanks to his calmness and patience.

We left on Thursday afternoon and arrived in Brussels International Airport early Friday morning. I had arranged an early check-in to our Airbnb apartment, “Le Petit Manhattan”. We looked up what train stop to get on and Kyle had a very horrible map with a black dot of where the apartment was. Although I had the address on my phone we thought we could use our map without using our data. Every person we asked, even the police officers, pointed us in a vague direction which ended up getting us even more lost. To add to the heaviness of our (my) baggage and lack of knowledge it was pouring down rain. When my feet started to hurt and I felt like a drowned rat and after we left our second convenient store with no answers we decided to use a taxi. The taxi drove us about 5 blocks to the apartment; we knew were close all along!

When we arrived we took in the views and decided a shower was in order. The shower in this apartment was equipped with colorful changing lights, music and water coming from every direction. The apartment itself looked over the city of Brussels and was very nice. When Connor arrived we thought it best to go explore some of the city before Sean was due in. He had some suggestions from a friend as to where to go, so we headed out for our first Belgium brew. We arrived at a cute little restaurant and enjoyed our first beer in Belgium! We bounced around a cute little neighborhood after that, stopping in bars that looked appealing and enjoyed a beer, some cheese and frites. Then, we made our way back to the apartment to meet Sean. Sean also got lost on his way to the apartment.  He found us all by luck: when we got back to the apartment Sean called Connor (luckily because both had wifi). When I thought he may be getting close I went downstairs to keep an eye out for him, two minutes later I saw him. We got settled in then decided to see some more of Brussels.

We went to the famous Grand Place, which is a beautiful square tucked in the city. It was beautiful all lit up at night. We decided to eat at a place nearby and on our way to the Delirium Café. Here we had our first mussels in Brussels. After, we made our way to the famous Delirium Café. I think all of the boys had a little glimpse of heaven at this bar. The café took up an entire block essentially and had people flooding out into the street. There were many different rooms throughout the bar and the beer menu was a magazine with over 3,000 beers. Being that Delirium Tremens is Kyle’s favorite beer, we indulged in these first enjoying the fact they were much cheaper as well. It was fun to try all of the other beers by Delirium as well. On our way back to the apartment we picked up a couple more beers for the way home. The first day in Belgium was a success.

Cheers!


The Grand Place At  Night


How the Evening Ended

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