Day 49 - Amsterdam to Brussels

We got up at 10ish and i caught the end of breakfast in the basement, then packed up. We hung out with the gang for abit adn played a few last games of pool and then Rob finally convinced me that it was time to go. We'll maybe see Lisa in Brussels Sunday night and I've run into James 4 times now, so i'm sure i'll see him again. Good chance i'll see Will on the 22nd in Paris. Apparently there's a free bed for me.

The train ride was fine and we rolled into Brussels at 3. Then we walked around. Felt alot like Berlin all over again actually. Again, I let Rob navigate, and again, we got lost. Finally abotu an hour later we got straightened around and found the Van Gogh hostel where we were staying near the Botanique metro stop. Pretty nice place downstairs in the lobby/bar area, but really shitty rooms and a stupid rule that says that between 10 and 2 you have to be out of your room (which isn't that odd for hostels) ALONG with all our bags and belongings (they had lockers downstairs for us to use, but still a huge pain in the ass to pack everything up each day).

So we threw our shit in our room and then headed to the main square to meet Rob's old housemate, Luke, who works at the European Union Parliament in Brussels for a Scottish member. We met Luke around 7:30 then went with him to a bar with a huge menu of differnet beers. The place had well over 2000 beers on the menu and had pretty much all of them in stock. So we sat down and started at number 1 and tried to see how far we could get. Well, not really, we just tried what were supposed to be some of the better Belgian beers, including one that was apparently voted best beer in the world. Apparently. I thought it was pretty shit.

People would also argue though that i like Molson Canadian, so i don't get a say.

I say screw them. The beer sucked.

Next we went to a bar around the corner where we met up with a few of his friends who work for a new European business magazine that's about to be launched in January. An English guy, Dan, a Dutch girl, Imka, and a Belgian guy, Simon. So we had a couple drinks there, then across the road to another bar where they give you a 4L tower of beer with a tap on the bottom. After pounding that back we hit one more bar, then home for the night.

Good time hanging out with some real Europeans rather than travellers for onces. Although i do have to say that we have alot more in common with other travellers than we probably did with most of Luke's friends, but still a good time.