Day 29

Sunday, June 10 -

We left Bruges and arrived in Brussels! It turned out to be a very dramatic trip. First, one girl accidentally left her purse on the train. Thankfully she got it back only a few hours later, and nothing was stolen. Then our hotel was in the ghetto and it was the sketchiest place ever.

Never stay here.

We went to go explore and try to get out of the ghetto, but of course we went the wrong way. Through the ghetto. Creepy looking people were just hanging around all over the place. I was in a huge group and it was the middle of the afternoon, but I still felt really unsafe walking around.

Cool sculpture

Cool building at the end of the road

I was hoping tourist central would be around that awesome building, but it wasn't. We spent awhile trying to figure out what to do since Brussels seemed like the worst place in the world at this point. We went back to the hotel to get wifi to figure out where Chez Leon was because we had dinner reservations there.

We met up with the other half of the Mizzou group, and it turns out we walked the wrong direction. Tourist central was actually only a street away in the other direction. So we headed back that way and Brussels got a hundred times cooler! I got a waffle from this waffle place and it was the best thing I've ever eaten in my life. Even better than anything I ate yesterday.

Waffle shop!

The best waffle ever.

The square I ate my waffle in.

I don't know what this place is, but it looked pretty.

Grand Place!

Grand Place!

Grand Place!

One of many super cute streets filled with restaurants.

For dinner we went to Chez Leon. I'm not a huge seafood fan so it wasn't the best restaurant in the world, but it was pretty good. I ordered a cheese croquette and after I was eating it for awhile I realized there was some sort of meat in it. No one really knew what it was so I just grossed myself out and couldn't eat it anymore. Once the bill came it said croquettes de crevettes and so it turns out it was shrimp. So that was the first gross meal I had on the whole trip.

After dinner I went out to a hookah bar with some of the girls, and that was a blast. It was late when we headed back to the hotel, and there were prostitutes all along the street the hotel was on. It was so scary and sad all at the same time. Our hotel had a huge padlock on the front door, so we all almost had panic attacks because we thought we were locked out, but there was a guy at the desk to open for us. It was just to keep the creepers hanging around outside out. I guess it was comforting to know the hotel was secure.