(Hello from Brussels.)
As the title suggests, I'm in Brussels...or as we say, Bruxelles. We flew Ryanair into Brussels Charleroi--an airport about an hour outside the city--from Pisa. You can kind of see the leaning tower from the picture. In case you can't find it, it's the thing that is white and kinda leaning. Just trying to help out...
So the bus ride was supposed to be an hour, but we ended up getting caught in a blizzard, so we were stuck on said bus for quite some time.
Anyway, Bruxelles is a beautiful city. Last night, we went to some bar, got some Belgian beer, and sat down at a table. We then started talking to the two French guys who happened to be sitting next to us (who shall be known as French Guy #1 and French Guy #2) who were both Ph.D. students studying (Cyber) Security in Paris. A side point--they did not like the word "cyber". Apparently, there is currently some big computer science convention in Bruxelles right now called Fosdem. So anyway, we started talking to them and they happened to be chilling with a Mexican guy who was in Bruxelles for Fosdem as well (he shall be known forthwith as Mexican Guy #1). Mexican Guy #1 was talking to two girls who were from Brazil (Brazil Girl #1 and Brazil Girl #2). During our conversations, a random Russian guy--also here for Fosdem--stumbled over (He shall be known as Sergey). We aren't really sure what his deal was, but he was drinking wine and was rambling about something or another. We ended up spending the rest of our time at the bar hanging out with this group of continently diverse people (minus Sergey--he left). It was super fun. Here are some pictures from the bar...
Today we kind of wandered around the city. We started off the day at this place called La Pain Quotidien for an authentic Belgian breakfast. It was delicious. They basically handed you a basket of bread, a soft boiled egg, and on the enormous table that you share with 15 other people there are 20 different kinds of jams, spreads, honeys, and preservatives. It was very cool.
After breakfast, we walked around a bit and checked out the city. We decided to check out a brewery (When in Belgium...) called Cantillon Brewery. I can't tell you much about the brewery besides that it's small, it was cold, they brewed Lambic Beer (a fruit flavored beer), and we got two free samples--I decided to not read the handout they gave us. Here are some pictures from the brewery...
We then went to Atomium--of course. How could you go to Bruxelles and not go to Atomium?! It was really cool. Built as a monument for the World's Fair in 1958 to show the great strides of science and technology, it had graduated to "big fucking thing" status. Some more pictures (I feel like this is becoming a picture book)...
Last night in Bruxelles. By the way, it's colder here than it is in America. Just soak up some warmth for us. As they say here, (and as GoogleTranslate helped me figure out), Je vais vous parler plus tard. (I'll talk to you later!)
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