Brussels

I Love Brussels!!!!
We got to Brussels before dinner time, which was really nice. We got settled in our hostel, which was very nice, we even had a balcony! The hostel was also right in the middle of the city, which was very very convenient. We walked around a little to see what was near by. We found the Grand Place, which was huge and beautiful! This was also the same area as many of the chocolatiers. We made friends in one of them and they gave us lots of free samples, which was of course helpful to make our decisions on what to buy or not buy. There were also a lot of beer store in this area. We went into the 250 Beers store, and talked to the shop keeper. He told us which beers were very good, and which weren't what we were looking for. We asked for a suggestion, and he showed us the beer that has been voted the best in the world three times. Then we realized that we didnt have a bottle opener! haha we got it open eventually, and it was pretty good. We went to dinner in an allyway, which sounds shady, but the allyways there were all beautified with shops, and they were enclosed. It was called Grandma's Waffles, I got a waffel with chocolate and banana, yummmmm!
We got a few suveniers, and then walked back to our hostel before we went out for the night. We started out to find the bar "Delerium", because everyone has said it is the best one to go to. It was actually really easy to find compared to when we tried to find Escape in Amsterdam. Delerium was in another glorified allyway. The entire allyway was made up of bars, owned by delerium. Delerium was there, as well as the Tequila bar, the Absinthe Bar, and the Rum Bar. We started in the absinthe bar. We picked them out and ordered. The bartender gave us the shots and the sugar and the spoon, but none of us had ever done this before so we kind of sat there for a minute or two. Then I asked her how to do it? And she soaked the sugar cube in the alcohol, then got it out with the spoon, then set it on fire, blew it out, put the sugar back into the shot, and stirred it up. The shot tasted like death! It was absolutrely awful! However, I guess thats what you get with 70% alcohol and no chaser. It felt like my insides were burning. Anyways we went to look for some soda after that, because it was definitely necessary!
Then Eugene and I went to the Rum Bar for a little while, while Allie and Diana got another shot of absinthe. The rum bar was a lot of fun! It was designed so it looked like you were in a pirate ship. I stole a straw so I could taste other peoples beers later (because I'm sick.) Diana Allie and Kenny met us in the Rum bar soon, and we hung out there for a while. It was great.
Then we went into delerium! Delerium has over 2000 beers! It had three floors! We ended the night finding Frites, which are delicious french fries, yummmm.

Saturday during the day we went to the chocolate museum. They gave samples and it was delicious! We got to see a chocolatier make different type of chocolate. Then we stopped for lunch at a snack shop that had pitas. They had a good looking vegetarian option. I was talking to the owner for a little while, he asked where I'm from, I told him Philly, and he got really excited. All of the people working there have been watching the stanley cup games, and like the Flyers, they kept me updated! haha Lunch was delicious. Then we went to see the Atomium, which was built in 1958 for the world fair. It was pretty sick! The whole area was kind of like a festival, and amusement park, and museum all rolled into one. This is also where mini Europe was. We didn't go into mini Europe because it was expensive and it seemed like it was for children. It was reallly hot this day, but fortunately the moment one of us mentioned that slushies would be perfect, they appeared! haha by the way, Kenny is obsessed with Slushies!! He bought like 10 in the course of 2 days!

For dinner we went to a street restaurant with outdoor seating, it was pretty good, I got mussels and frites and beer. Then of course we went back to Delerium!

Saturday night was about the same. Over the entire weekend between all of our beers I tried: Cherry beer, apple beer, bananna beer, Delerium Tremens, Silly Siason, Pirat, Lucifer, Strawberry beer, rasberry beer, waterloo triple, DPA...? My favorites were the first 3 by far, but I really liked Delerium Tremens. I never got to try peach, or mango flavored, which was unfortunate.

Saturday night we also went in search for Pissing Boy, and Pissing Girl, which are two famous statues that people always try to find. We also got ice cream.

Sunday morning we went to get waffles for breakfast. We got them from a street vendor, I got chocolate on mine, and it was absolutely perfect. Then we headed back to the train station. This trip was much more relaxed than Paris was, it was really wonderful! Everyone we met was super nice.

Field Trip to Thionville and Saarlouis

Tuesday we went to Thionville, France, and today we went to Saarlouis, Germany!

Both trips we all day trips aka 9:30am to 2:30pm... haha I absolutely loved Thionville. It was a smaller town/city. People that heard us speaking English were confused as to why we were there because it's really not a touristy area. It was mostly a shopping district. I found a really pretty dress. There was a condom machine right in the center of town. I had a delicious crepe! We stopped by to see a castle on the way back to Mondorf. Later we went to the gym and spa, which was wonderful as usual. Then we got ready and went to the bar. Pretty much everyone from our trip was at the bar. The bartenders there love us, we see them sometimes in town and they usually say hi.

Today we went to Saarlouis. It is a German Religious holiday today, so almost the entire town was shut down. It was set up like a festival, and there were tons of street vendors, but they weren't starting until 5:30... One of them was a mexican food place with all different wonderful sounding beverages, I wanted a burrito SO bad! Oh well, what can you do? It was a super cool place, even though not many shops were open. We did see a religious procession, and for some reason there are these gates throughout the city and these ones were locked, so they couldn't start their parade! Those ladies were extremely upset! We just walked around for a while, found pictures for our papers, and had some fun! We went to lunch and then found a delicious gelatto place, yum yum yum!

When we got back to the Klouschter I went to the spa to sit by the pool. I'm starting to get a little sick, so I decided not to work out today :( I read poolside, my book is getting really good! Then I headed back because the Tour de Luxembourg for cycling was today and Lance Armstrong was supposed to be riding right past our very own Klouschter! It turns out that the route got changed so we had to walk to France, (ok that sounds super far but its about a 15 minute walk). We finally saw him (and all of the other bikers) IT WAS SPECTACULAR!!!!! haha I saw Lance Armstrong!!!!

Then I went back to the pool. Went to dinner, and had my meeting with Jaan. He said he thinks my paper will be about 25 pages single spaced, fml. I guess that does include pictures too though? AH Oh well at least it will be fun to right and I have all summer to do it?

Tomorrow we leave for Brussels Belgium! I cannot wait for this trip!