Home!!

We got home on Sunday afternoon after a LOOOOOONG day of traveling on every form of transportation you could imagine!  Poor Rachel had to then wait two more hours before getting on her 5 hour flight to San Diego -ugh!  I'm very happy to be home but so tired.  Still on Brussels time (passing out at 7 pm and waking up at 3 am) but slowly adjusting.

I'm glad I took the trip, but really appreciate this country so much more after being in unfamiliar places.  I posted pictures on facebook for those of you who are friends with me, and perhaps I'll figure out how to post some on here....

I think my next vacation will be on a warm, sunny, tropical island where all I have to do is sit on a beach or swim up to a bar :)  Now THAT'S relaxing!

Beer Festival in Brussels

Updates from Brussels! 

This weekend there is this large Belgian Beer Festival in Grand Place.  A bunch of tents with different Belgian breweries and you buy beer caps to get in, and you trade them for beers.  Seems like a great idea, but they let too many people in at once and you can't quite move enough to make it fun.  But hey, we tried!  A homeless-ish guy was talking to us from the other side of the fence and kind of creeped us out, so when he asked our names I told him my name was Petunia ;)  He believed me!

We checked out of there and stopped into our favorite specialty beer store (we've been in there several times already) to grab one for the road, and the woman was nice enough to give them to us for free!  Couldn't believe it!  We just love Brussels so much.  Rachel isn't feeling so hot, might be coming down with something, so we are back at the hostel tonight to chill and relax.  Tomorrow we might do a little more shopping, but pretty much lay low since it's almost time to go and we're just so exhausted.  We are in a 4 bed room this time, and there were a couple Lebanese guys there last night who were super nice (Bri - one of them looked like he could have been Pete's brother!!).  Tonight we have a Brazilian dude who doesn't say much, and a British guy, Ed who seems cool.  This hostel is better than the last one, clean for the most part and more modern.  Lots of young people hang out in the common area and it's pretty relaxing so far. 

We've had a great time, but are so ready to come home! We miss you all!

Brussels ROCKS!!

Wow.  That's all I have to say.  We arrived in Brussels around 11 today and I instantly liked it more than Dublin.  It's about 10 to 15 degrees warmer here, and it's really cute and clean.  People drive on the right sicde of the road, so I feel less like I'm going to get blindsided by a car at any moment.  We dropped our stuff off at the hostel (which is really cute!) and started walking around.  We wandered into a pedestrian shopping area with tons of shops and chocolate specialty stores, and this crazy beer store.  They have every type of Belgian beer you can imagine!  It's legal to drink on the streets here, so we proceeded to do just that!  I got a blonde called Trappistes Rochefort which was 9.2% alcohol by volume, and it was just lovely :)  We ended up in this alley that reminded me of Little Italy in NYC, but a cobblestone alley instead of a street.  Tons of restaurants with outdoor seating, which all served similar menus.  The restaurant managers were all outside trying to coax the tourists in, offering deals and such.  This one place offered us an appetizer, entree and dessert for 12 euro, and he said he's throw in free champagne too!  So we're going to dress up tonight and go back there!

For the next three days there is a beer festival going on - perfect - so I imagine we'll spend most of our time there tomorrow, and then walk around for parks and pictures on Saturday.  This place is awesome and I'm totally in love with it.  Highly recommend to anyone and I would come back here in a heartbeat!