Kirsten goes Belgian

Belgium. Belgium. What can I say about Belgium? I started off on Friday morning, expecting to visit a country very similar to the Netherlands but with nicer architecture and a language that I can understand. But, I was in for a bit of a shock.
The first thing that I noticed when getting off the train was that all of the shops in the train station actually had halloween decorations in the windows. Here, in Holland, Halloween is a very new festivity in the Netherlands, and if it weren't approaching the end of October, I wouldn't even have known Halloween was approaching. But everywhere in Brussels there are halloween decorations and such. It was nice.
Anyway, Becca then kindly met me at the train station and accomapnied me to my accomodations at Hotel van Belle (yes that's right that's Frenderlands) ( a combination of Dutch and French) Where I was asked if I wanted to upgrade from a shared bathroom to a single bathroom so I did. Upon arriving in my room we discovered, that while the room was small and dingy I had a great view! So me being me of course I climbed out my window and took a picture. (see picture of roof Tops) Becca said that that was what she had always imagined Europe to look like. It's nice that she's finally seen Europe after being here for 2 months!
Anyway then we went to do some sightseeing, souvenir shopping, waffle eating and chocolate buying. The first place we went was a souvenir shop where this really creepy guy started to follow us around, assumably with the intention of pick pocketing us, fortunately Becca notice and kept us at a safe distance untill we were at the cashregister and she told me. The man was then loitering by the door and when Becca told me he had been following us I almost had a panic attack (really) because I was sure when we passed him on the way out he was going to grab something and run so, internally freaking out, I put my purse under the arm that was away from him and walked confidently out the door and was not robbed, again.
So anyway then we went and had Belgian waffles, mine had chocolate and creme anglaise and was absolutely delectable, we then proceeded to shop and then I spent too much money on Chocolate and other things so we retired to dinner at this neat little Italian place.
At the neat little Italian place, sitting next to us were two men who when Becca went to the washroom started to talk and flirt with me, which was suprising because I had taken them to be gay, but the one Guy kept insisting he was James Dean which sparked many amusing discussion between Becca and I and the two throughout Dinner. I eventually asked the guy to give me his authograph since he was James Dean (yeah right) and he did and then at the end of the Dinner he kissed my hand. And while I'm still convinced they were gay it was the first time a man has kissed my hand in Europe, so there.
Anyway lost for what to do Becca and I decided to go and see a movie. We ended up seeing O Jerusalem and I don't know what to say other than that it was amazing. It's a movie from France in English with French subtitles and was about the formation of the state of Isreal and was told from the perspective of those fighting on both sides for peace. It was a truly heart wrenching movie and was truly a beautiful piece of cinematography, I really hope it comes to Canada so that I can watch it with my friends. (ok Now leaving film critique mode)
Anyway I then retired to my hotel room. The next day I woke up had my complementary breakfast and proceeded to the metro station where I was supposed to get on a subway and meet Becca and go to class, but the station was several levels and I got thoroughly lost, and by the time I found myself I was already late and Becca had to go to class without me. So I had a Belgian cappucino (which by the way has whipped cream on it) and made my way to the University which I explored while waiting for Becca's class to finish. I must say that ULB truly has an amazing library, it's 9 floors and his huge with all kinds of multimedia gadgets and an extensive collections of books. Of course Becca had never been in her library before...
After her class Becca met me and we and her friends went for 2 4 1 pasta which was good, but later gave me an upset stomach (eww) Then Becca showed me her room and we did more sight seeing (I saw the royal palace and stuff) we then went to Pizza Hut for a fast cheap and easy dinner as well as a remembrance of home and we headed back to University where we met up with Becca's friends again and went to a wine bar.
I have never been to a wine bar before but I really thought that it was quite European of me and I really quite liked it. But then it was time to sleep so once again I retired to my hotel room.
The next day I once again got up and had my complementary breakfast, and checked out of my hotel and went to meet Becca and friends at the metro station so that we could browse the market. At the train station I discovered that the Belgian expo store had different Fitty Sheep merchandise than the one in Holland and I was quite dissapointed because there were some mugs and things that I would have liked to by BUT for once in my life I showed self-restraint.
Anyway, we went to the market and I caught my train at 12:35 to go back to Rotterdam. BUT the fun didn't end there! On the train there were these four really grungy men with their dogs, who Smelled terrible. Their first language was french and it seemed that the only words they new in English were Shit Fuck and Hell (Pardon my French, haha that's funny... do you get it?) So then two really funny things happened. The first thing was that a ticket collector came to collect our tickets and these guys had one of their dirty scary dogs sitting on one of the seats and so the ticket taker made them pay for a train ticket for the dog (and threatened to kick them off the train) and then insisted that the dog get off the seat. It made my day. Also the woman sitting next to me spoke Dutch, there were 3 people I had been talking to near us who were British and the smelly men were French and at one point they were all trying to talk to each other, and I got to be the translator! it was amusing. Anyway, that was Belgium, my next trip will likely be to Scotland soooo you'll be hearing about that.

Cheers!