Beer Planet

We accidentally slept in until 11:30 AM again. Woops! Kevin's futon is just that comfortable...

Our first mission of the day was finding a Belgian waffle for breakfast (duh). Mission accomplished. We got these ginormous waffles covered in ice cream, whipped cream, and hot chocolate fudge sauce. It was a yummy mess. You really couldn't tell what was waffle and what was other stuff, it was just a big pile of yum. Extremely rich and extremely filling!

We did a lot of wandering...we're good at that. Poked around in many cute little shops, smelled all the street food, and strolled through Brussels. We found this sweet thrift shop where everything was only 5 euros! I found this cute little dress but they didn't have my size. I'd heard that when people in Brussels realize you speak English they will not speak French with you. But the lady in this shop spoke French with me as I slowly warmed that side of my brain up! Then...THEN...we found the Beer Planet. Our (smoke free) heaven. So many beers. The nicest shop men. They spoke French with me too :) Laura and I were so excited and overwhelmed with all the beer that they asked if they could take a picture of us to put on their website as happy customers! We were like, heck yes! Sweet! We're going to be on a Belgian beer website! Also, they had a three tiered beer fountain...so cool.

Random note: being in Belgium around Easter time is crazy. Today we saw a huge gold bunny rabbit riding in the bed of a car; it was a weird sight. We also saw a huge painted statue of a over sized bunny riding a bike. Totally random! And I think that's here all the time, not just for Easter...

Our wanderings continued and took us to the Cathedral, where they had very pleasant chaises out on the lawn that we laid on for a bit. Then we toured the Cathedral - there were a lot of very pretty and colorful paintings. Aaaand churches don't entertain either of us that much so that was a quick stop. Next, we walked through the Grand'Place, Brussels' main square. It is surrounded on all sides by gorgeous buildings! All the streets that span out from it are of course very touristy and filled with good things to eat and drink, as well as a lot of tchotchky things to buy. The Grand'Place is also very close to the Mannekin Pis (the little pissing boy) so we went to go see him. HE IS SO SMALL! I can't believe this city makes it into such a big deal! It's like good food and beer isn't enough, they need to put images of this tiny statue on everything that says "Brussels" on it. It's ridiculous! All the same, we checked it off our list. We also visited Chocopolis, a large chocolate store where we got free samples, passed through a super cute market with lots of fun jewelry I had to resist buying, and pretty much covered most of what there is to see on foot in the immediate Brussels area.

Heading back to Kevin's flat, we finally did some grocery shopping. Which actually just means we refilled our supply of baguettes, meats, and cheeses. Oh and we got some grapes. Coolest part about that grocery store (yes there is a cool part) is that they have an automatic bread slicer. It is straight up amazing. You just put the bread in...a baguette, loaf, anything, and press a button, and out come perfect petite tranches (little slices). Then, there is a contraption that looks kind of like a diving board. You place all the little slices on the board, and slide your baguette/bread bag over it, et voila! Perfectly sliced bread in a bag. Apparently these are only in Belgium...? Kevin was surprised though that we'd never seen them before.

Waiting for Kevin to go back, Laura and I drank our beers from Beer Planet, which were all amazing. The night was really feeling slow, it got too late to go to our Easter fun party (at another CouchSurfer's place), so we waited for Kevin to come home. He finally arrived around midnight with Sophie, another CouchSurfer he is hosting. She is from China, but studied in the States, and has been living in Germany for the last 6 years. She is incredibly sweet and funny and we immediately adopted her. We get very excited to meet new people (especially fellow Surfers)! Not that we don't love each other...but especially with being gone for 13 weeks it is definitely nice to have more people in on a conversation. Then this is where the night gets interesting. Kevin asks us if we want to go to a "cool bar" -- those are the words I remember. But what he realllllly meant was this intense Euro techno dance club bar where everybody dances on tables and stays out until 6 AM!!!!!

Ok, so we were only out until 4 AM - but still. By 3:30 Laura and I were like "we're not used to staying up this late! BEEDDDDD!" The dance club was crazy. Really crazy. A lot of the tables didn't look that stable, the floor was slippery with beer, there was broken glass everywhere, you had to shout to talk, push to move, etc. One guy tried standing on something (I think a trashcan) and it slipped and fell over and hit and injured two people. But, the music was really fun, and finally we heard some European tunes and not just American dance music. Also, in Europe they actually just dance! Not dirty dance! It's amazing. And we really weren't sure if the guys were just "European" or gay, or some combination of the two...but they were...touching a lot. Haha it was pretty funny and wild. And as I'm sure you all know, dancing/clubbing is REALLY not my thing, so I refused to get on a table (kind of a party pooper, but oh well), and I awkwardly attempted to dance (which wasn't really passable as dancing in any way, shape, or form). I was really pathetic. But observing and just seeing the crowd and feeling the energy and clubbing in Brussels til 4 AM was pretty awesome in retrospect.

Around 3:30 AM Laura and I took a breather outside and sat on the pavement (guaranteed to be cleaner than anything in that bar). These two drunk Croatian (?) guys came up to us and started speaking French. I stayed quiet because I wanted them to leave. But they kept asking us all these questions, including if we were lesbians!! Laura and I just started laughing and then tried explaining, no, we're not... They also wanted to "see" our American passports which was creepy but Laura told them that we didn't have them with us (I'm sitting there clutching mine under my fleece). Then, Tatinka (another CouchSurfer who met up with us at the bar) came outside and told the men that we were with her and invited us to come back inside. Once inside, a bouncer asked Laura if we wanted those guys in the bar (who followed us in); she said no and they got kicked out. Very efficient! It was a little bit creepy but nobody was that drunk and I think all three of us handled the situation pretty well.

Finally, Kevin took us all home: Laura, Sophie, Tatinka, and me. Tatinka was supposed to go back to her Surfer's place (she wasn't staying with Kevin) but she didn't have a key and her host was asleep so there was no other choice but to take her in too. We all ended up crashing at about 5 AM. I haven't been up that late (for fun reasons) in a very, very long time.

Quotes:
Hilary: "Ca coute combien?" ("How much does this cost?" to the Beer Planet sales guy)
Beer Planet Guy: "Deux euros and two smiles."

Kevin: "Ok, let's go, what do I need?!"
Hilary: "Wallet, here. Keys? Phone?"
Kevin: "This is why it's good to have a girl staying here."

Kevin: "Just to be clear, not awkward, I do host boys...I just want you to know that." (He's hosting some American boys next week.)

Kevin: "To all of my ladies, goodnight." (There were 4 of us sleeping in his studio flat!)

Accomplishments:
Knowing that we will be featured on a Belgium beer website!
Partying until 4 AM.
Making new friends.

Nice People Alert:
Beer Planet clerks - amazing for speaking french with me, giving us recommendations, and saying they would feature us on their website!

Travel Tip:
SMILE! It can get you pretty far :)

Sigh...so rewarding. This is what CouchSurfing is all about. Meeting new people, exchanging travel stories, spontaneously creating new travel memories, bonding quickly because you only have a few days, and just hanging out. Sophie seemed very excited about everything Laura and I did today so she is going to bum around with us tomorrow! Yay for new company!