Day 51 - Brussels

We finally got to have a solid sleep-in day and slept till about 11. When we did get outta bed, we dragged our assess showering, had a coffee, then headed off. We walked from Luke's place all the way to the EU Parliament and Congress (or whatever the hell they call it). From there we wandered up and under the big arch in Brussells to where the war museum and Autoworld are, right across from each other, on either side of the arch.

We went to Autoworld first which is a car museum that's been used for car shows since the early 1900s. Kind've looked like an airplane hangar and had cars ranging from original models right through until modern cars. We looked around for about an hour, and it was okay, but could've been better. The war museum on the other hand was pretty fantastic. It was humongous and had exhibits dating from ancient times right through to World Wars I and II. They had everything from ancient swords and suits of armour to modern weaponry, all kinds of cannons, Allie and Nazi gear, and even a whole courtyard full of American, German, and Soviet tanks from the wars. It was awesome. The best part i thought though was this HUMONGOUS hangar with all kinds of airplans ranging from early, early planes to fighter jets. They had a bunch of WW2 planes from both sides and even a couple with big maple leafs on the side including the Canadian Avro. They had one room dedicated to British, American and Canadian forces thanking us for liberating them. It was pretty nice.

From the museum we headed with Dan to O'Reilley's Irish Pub near the downtown core to watched some Sunday football (soccer not NFL). We got there just in time to catch the 3 o'clock game, but were only there that early to get seats for the big game at 5 between Manchester United and Chelsea. The first game was M'Borough vs ____?____ and was actually a really really good game.

The second game was awesome though. The bar was PACKED with Man. U fans adn they beat Chelsea 1-0 giving them their first loss in the English Premiere League in a year. Everybody was going nuts the whole game. At one point i went downstairs to go to the washroom and a huge guy in a Man U shirt grabbed me by both shoulders and kinda yelled in my face "Who do you cheer for!". I dirtied my pants and then calmly replied "The Toronto Maple Leafs of course.", then walked away. It was pretty funny.

After the game we went back to Luke's and grabbed our stuff, then checked back into the Van Gogh hostel for the night, then headed downtown to meet up with Luke, Dan, Imka, and some random dude from the magazine. We had a few drinks at a couple places, then me and Rob headed back to the hostel around midnight. When we got there I ran into Lisa (met in Berlin heading to Amsterdam) and hung out with her for awhile, then tried to go to bed.

I say 'tried' because first of all my keycard wouldn't work, so i had to get, not one, but two new cards before i could get in. We were on the 3rd floor, so that meant walking up and down 3 times before getting in, only to find i had no pillow. So i went back down again, got a shitty little pillow cause he couldn't find any regular ones, then back upstairs, only to find i was locked out again. They guy at reception ended up coming up with me and let me in. And then i turned out that i had the creakiest and loudest top bunk ever, with no ladder to get up with, so i had to step on the random guys bed under me, waking him up.

Shitty room and hostel.