Day 18

Tuesday August 14

8:00amish CET - woke up and took a shower

9:30amish - went to breakfast and stuffed our faces again

10:00amish - made it to the Bourse where we took Bus #95 4 stops to Place Royale, where we found the Palais Royale, or the Royal Palace, which is open to the public AND FREE!!!! during the summer. Walked right in and through the parts that were opened and cordoned off. Lots of art, which interested neither of us, but just seeing the ornate rooms and designs and all the gold leafing and fancy furniture, etc. One room was filled with science-type exhibits and optical illusion things and the ceilings had been made with beetle wings. Yes, that's right, beetle wings. It was bright green and turquoise/blue and actually quite shimmery and shiny, but a whole CEILING made with BEETLES' WINGS?!!!?!?!?!

11:45amish - From the palace, we did most of the Rick Steve's Upper Town walking tour and we saw the Grand and Petit Sablon squares, the big court, and passed by the main synagogue in town, which of course is not open to the public and fortified with concrete poles around the sidewalk in front of it for security. :( Ended up going through the Grand Sablon again and made our way back to the Grand Place area, where we had fries at the same place for lunch…mmmmm.

2:20ishpm - met Nicolas and Alina in the Central Station… We didn't really know what to do so we found a little bar around the Grand Place and finally tried some of the famous Belgian Beer. I had "Kriek" which is made from sour cherries. It was alright I suppose - didn't taste much like beer so I guess that's why it wasn't bad LOL!! We walked around a bit and saw some "interesting" squares (ok there was really not much to see anywhere lmao) so on our way to the Grand Place area to a place they wanted to eat mussels, we stopped at one of the supermarkets and bought some more chocolate at cheaper supermarket prices.

6:00ishpm - Made our way to Chez Leon, one of the famous places near the Grand Place for mussels. I had roasted chicken, which was very tasty and came with tasty fries. I tried one of Nicolas's mussels. I suppose it wasn't as bad as I was expecting, but I can't really say I enjoyed it. I would be perfectly happy never eating one again in fact. LOL!

7:30ish - don't know why the times are so hazy for me today lol. Anyway, we walked around a bit more and found an ice cream/waffle place behind the Grand Place and I had a plain liege waffle (the kind with the sugar baked into it). It was very tasty and I think I may actually have enjoyed it plain more than with the chocolate. Anyway it was tasty :( we sat outside under an umbrella, it was cooling down, windy, and even raining a bit on and off, but it was nice to just sit and chat and laugh. A few beggars came by trying to ask for money or sell flowers. Alina, being Romanian, had somehow heard that some of the beggars in Belgium were Romanian so she asked the first one - a younger boy - if he was from Romania and it was so hilarious - he ran back to whomever had sent him and pointed and gawked. The three other beggars/rose-sellers that came by all had different reactions to her when she spoke to them in Romanian. I suppose it's one of those 'you have to be there' things, but it was pretty funny in a very sad sort of way. Anyway, it was really nice to spend most of the day with them :) Hopefully they weren't too scared by Amanda's and my laughing at everything :p

9:15pm - came back here and asked at the hotel front desk about breakfast tomorrow because we are going to try to catch the 8:39am train, and we learn that because it is a holiday (apparently Aug 15 is a really big deal in most of Europe) breakfast isn't til 8 - so we will go down right before and just grab some stuff and go. And the woman at the desk, Erica, offered to have us take care of the bill tonight so we don't have to worry about it tomorrow. That was nice and will save us a few min in the morning. She also asked us about our stay and if we enjoyed the hotel and if we would please write it up on TripAdvisor. I told her that we would as I found all my hotels on there, but I thought that was interesting.

packed up - some of my clothes are still a bit damp from washing them last night but it should be ok. I think I will be able to avoid doing laundry at all in Amsterdam, that'd be nice. As we're taking the train to Amsterdam tomorrow, I can put some things in my suitcase that I normally wouldn't want to check, so hopefully my backpack will be a little lighter. Not sure when I'll be online again but I will keep writing and taking pictures and will upload it all as soon as I can!