after arriving at brussels charleroi airport i caught a shuttle bus into the city proper - hate it how they trap you into paying a fortune for airport transportation, in this case 17€ for an hour bus! the bus dropped us at the central station, from which i had a 25 minute walk to my hostel. the first kilometre or so i wandered through a giant fair, it was incredible, so many more rides and stalls than anything we have back home! immediately beyond the fair was a seedier patch of town, which i was incredibly uncomfortable walking through at 9pm with men jeering constantly at me. anyhow, thankfully made it to my hostel alive - and it was unlike anything i've stayed in before! the hostel has 700 beds!!!
yesterday i booked myself onto an old people tour of ghent and bruges. the tour was conducted in 4 languages - english, spanish, german and french - suffice to say when the elderly gentleman beside me suggested ditching the group at each stop i eagerly agreed!
armed with alan's guidebook and its mapped routes of each city, we had a wonderful time exploring flanders. could most definitely have spent the whole day in bruges, or possibly more, but we packed our time and managed to see all the main sites in each city. just for you mum - had an amazing lunch, the most delicate scallops i've ever had with tomato salsa, serrano ham and mozzarella, accompanied by a bottle of french white wine - yum!!
last night there were two lovely new people staying in my dorm room, sam and her boyfriend chris from toronto. after chris stole my bed (totally the hostel's mistake, but caused a lot of confusion) we buddied up and went out to a famous beer chain, delirium. tried the best beer in the world, a cherry beer, a cactus beer and lots of others. we also went across the road to do shots of absinthe, so much fun!!
the whole evening sam and i were on the hunt for a signature pink elephant glass, which we finally found and smuggled out of the bar! a highly amusing way to end our night!
this morning i once again met up with alan to explore brussels. 
saw all of the main attractions including the underwhelming mannekin pis, the gorgeous town hall and went on a tour of the royal palace. one thing i'd forgotten about the elderly is their love for museums and art galleries - we spent the most tedious hour and a half admiring religious paintings from the 14th-17th centuries. kill me!!
yep, my head covers the famous penisanyhow, now off to buy some famous belgian chocolate to give issy's grandpa as a thanks for letting me stay - so excited, i'm going to london tomorrow to spend 4 nights with issy before i start uni in paris. cannot wait!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment