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Howdy all Just got back from Brussels and the rumours are correct, it is Europe's most boring city but don't be worried by this, we still had a great time. It was one of those trips where stuff just went wrong. I left my work passes and mobile at the metal detector going through customs at Waterloo station and thus had the pleasure of getting to line up twice! The Eurostar was a great trip, only took about 2 1/2 hours of which we contemplated giving the bar a nudge but instead opted for the boring water and baguette combination (yes i had been out the night b4 and was still feeling the effects). We arrived at station in Brussels and Bron, being a girl immediately needed to visit the loo. Usually this wouldn't have been an issue except we had no Euro and the of course the loo costs 50 euro cents. After being informed 23 times that her bladder was about to burst we got the job done and embarked on finding our hotel.Now most normal people would have probably taken a cab seems as it was 9.30pm and we were hungry but no we decided to rough it on the trams and trains of Brussels. Terrible idea! 3 trams and 1 train later we realised that we'd passed our hotel on 3 of its four sides and still had to walk 20 mins to find it. Upon arrival they couldn't find our booking however this thankfully was quickly sorted. (we'd met a kiwi couple in the street who were heading back to Berlin as all the hostels were already full). Saturday we cruised around town in the morning visiting the Grand Place, a local brewery and saw how chocolate was made. At this point it was 2pm in the arvo and the city had put on a street parade to welcome me. Coincidentally we had also arrived on the Belgium's national day however I insisted it was on to welcome me. We then sat down and began to sample the local beers for a few hours in the sun as it had been quite some time since i'd seen that big yellow thing in the sky. The city also had all soughts of street performers and artists including this guy who was a classic! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNC6FxABeZYIn the evening we sat down and had the most awful dinner i've ever experienced with the worst service to the point where another group of aussies told us not to eat there due to the above. Unfortunately we'd already ordered. Following this we joined our new friends in a bar that served 2000+ beers. Of course we tried to sample all of them but fell a couple short in the end. Once again the city showed its appreciation of me visiting by putting on fireworks to celebrate my imminent departure.Next stop was Bruges, an hour on the train from Brussels's. A lovely town which was the main port in Europe for vendors in the 1300's. its basically just a city built around canals which eventually lead to the North Sea 30odd km's to its north. We did the normal tourist things, cruised the canals, walked the cobble stoned streets etc. Unfortunately it rained intermittently but it was still quite enjoyable. Bron bought some chocolate which eventually melted on the Eurostar on the way home which was ironic after the day's weather.
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