Made it the whole time in Brussels without seeing a single sprout

pretty as a christmas card :)

We got into Brussels on a fridged evening and set off to find our hostel.  The hostel was surprisingly nice and after a long few days of walking around in the freezing cold weather, we decided to get some food from the local grocery store, have a picnic in our hostel and map out our stay.  Me of course being a total party pooper all the time, decided that our puente would be the perfect time to get sick with a sinus infection and made the executive decision to stay in the first night and catch up on some reading and some much needed sleep!!  Rio and Stanek went out for a few drinks which I am sure they enjoyed the time away from the third wheel for just a bit anyway!! The next day we got up, took cold showers, got dressed, grabbed the complimentary hot drinks from the hostel and set out to see the sights.  We had a whole tour mapped out on our nice little guide of the city and started out in the cold.  We first stopped at a flea market which looked more like a collection of things they have stolen from the tourists after they take them from their hostels and kill them.  As harsh as that sounds, you weren't there to see the locals sort thru used shoes and clothes and all things not wanted by anybody else.  Needless to say we stuck out like sore thumbs and blew that popsicle stand while were still alive.  We then walked past the police station that had about 20 bullet holes pumped into it and were on our way to the next stop on our map.  We saw all the beautiful buildings and cathedrals the city had to offer and of course stopped in a chocolate shop or two...including godiva, obviously!! We walked through a beautiful christmas market and found our way to a cute little place for dinner.  I had a great sandwich and for dessert we clearly got the waffles.  Well, as it turns out, it took me a trip to Belgium to figure out that I in fact am not a fan of waffles.  At all.  Rio and Stanek happily disagreed and enjoyed their waffles and we set out for the Delerium bars that were talked so highly of.  Well, they were magical.  The first one we went to we each got a special Belgium beer with an alcohol content of around 15% and made our merry way upstairs to see what they were packin.  We ordered and met two American men up there.  As it turns out, not only were they from the same area of New York as Rio, they had mutual friends.  Can I get a "small world"??  Well we had quite a few beverages and laughs with them over absolutely everything there was to talk about and it was decided that we needed to pay a trip to the Absynthe bar across the street.  Things got a bit loco after that and we somehow made our way back to the upstairs part of the Delerium bar for more beers.  After a night full of great laughs and great new friends, we parted ways and headed back to our upscale hostel.  I set my alarm for exactly 4 hours after we went to bed and fell fast asleep into a drunken slumber.  My alarm went off about 15 hours before I would have liked and I made my way slowly through the metro, a 1 hour bus ride, and into the airport for my flight back home.  Rio and Stanek were on a later flight and fortunately were able to sleep in.  Over all i would say that I had both a great puente and a kick ass birthday.  I do feel on the old side of things but it was nice to get back and snuggle up in my own (small, uncomfortable, spanish) bed and read some of my book for the rest of the night.