When we got to Brussels, we got a round trip bus ticket (I don't know if I've explained this but the airline we fly through, RyanAir, is a cheapfares line, and therefore drops you off at airports that are not exactly nearby the actual city you want to visit) in to Brussels. We made sure we knew when the last bus was going back in to Charleroi, the airport, so we didn't have another mishap like Katie and I did in Paris! We also grabbed maps at the tourist information desk.
The bus dropped us off somewhere in Brussels. We pulled out our maps and tried to figure out where the heck we were on the map, which was a challenge. We were near some sort of shopping center/train station.We thought we suddenly had an idea of where on the map we were and went up to a guy working at the train station and said "Is this where we are?" We felt so intelligent :) We also discovered we had quite a ways to go to get to our hostel, which haha is an interesting story. When booking our hostel, which we did a little late in the game, one of the only places still available and cheap was the Van Gogh hostel. Some of the reviews on hostelworld.com were pretty good but some made it sound like the sketchiest place on earth. Some people called it a "hole" and claimed that it was possible to get in to any of the rooms. My favorite was the person who wrote that the hostel was not good at keeping their reservations straight--she had booked an all female room and ended up staying in a room with 2 middle aged men! We reserved a 4 person female room and prayed we actually ended up in it...and were relieved at the idea of only having 1 other person to potentially deal with.
Anyway, after getting our bearings, we started heading towards Grand Place, or Groote Markt, the main square in town. It wasn't a bad walk. The architecture of the square was amazing. It was very European!
We got lunch at a sandwich shop (a lot of the restaurants in the square were really expensive and a lot of the hosts tried to butter us up to get us to come in) and then went to a chocolate shop that was advertised on the map called Chocopolis that said it gave out free samples. Ha, little did we know they weren't the only place in town that gave out free samples! but I'll get to that later. I also bought a little cup of chocolate pudding type stuff. It was yummmmy!
After Chocopolis, we went to find Petit Julien, or Mannequin Pis, a fountain/statue of a little boy urinating. There are 2 stories explaining the origins of the fountain:1) A young boy got lost from his parents on the street where the fountain is today, and I think supposedly was found urinating there?
2) The fountain is a tribute to a little boy who in the 1600s saved the day by urinating on a lit firecracker
I like the 2nd story better :)
Next stop: The Chocolate Museum! Here, we got more free samples. The museum was cool...I mean, hey it was devoted to chocolate, but we were starting to get a little weary because it was super hot and crowded...it wasn't a very big building. My favorite part was the demonstration by the chocolatier. We got to see her make chocolate shells, and she gave us 2 more free samples!
After the chocolate museum, we found our hostel and took a much needed nap. The hostel lobby was pretty nice, and didn't make it seem like a "hole" so we thought maybe it wouldn't be so bad. We got to our room (no middle aged men to be found!) and weren't impressed but weren't horrified. It definitely was not a nice room. The metal folding chair that was the only furniture besides the beds had the paint rotting off. There cracks and scratches in the walls. All in all though, it wasn't nearly as sketchy as we had feared..and the locks on the doors seemed to be fine. It was definitely the slummiest hostel I've been in so far. The street was super noisy though, but I was so tired from the lack of sleep I'd had since Wednesday night that I still took a decent nap. We got up and headed for dinner at about 8:00. We ate at a pita place in the Grand Place, which was very conveniently located next to a chocolate shop with a fondue fountain in the window that said "Sample the fountain for free." Yes, please! We went in, sampled the fondue fountain, along with all the other chocolates they had out for sampling. We bought some little chocolates too. We walked around the square and essentially did a Chocolate Store Crawl. I bought a box for my sister. Then we headed back to the hostel and called it an early night. We ended up getting a roommate in the middle of the night because her plane got in late, but she pretty much unpacked her stuff when she got there and went to bed which was nice.
Saturday we ate breakfast and checked out of the Van Gogh, because we planned to spend Saturday night at the airport because our plane left really early again. We decided to do some non-chocolate store sight seeing and got on a Hop on Hop Off Bus. The first place we got off was the Atomium, a building shaped like a giant atom. It had exhibits inside too. It was sort of like a museum for technology. To get to the top molecule, which boasted a great view of Brussels, we had to wait in line for the elevator because that was the only way to get up there. We waited for about 20 minutes or so. The Atomium elevator is the fastest in Europe. It goes up about 335 feet in 20 seconds! The lady in the elevator gave us all the info we needed. The view was pretty cool....and we could see the "Mini Europe" park which is basically, a miniature version of all of Europe. 
After we got back on the bus we hopped off again back at Grand Place and got Belgium Waffles! Belgian waffles are legitimately good and unlike anything they try to claim is a Belgian waffle in the states. Theyre so warm on the inside and you really need to try one to know what I mean! Liz and I had chocolate and strawberry with whipped cream and Amanda had kiwi and caramel and whipped cream which she said was really good!
We got back on the bus again and went to a really nice park There was a pond in the middle and the walking path went in a circle, so we did a loop around and took some pictures of the trees and some ducks being fed.
We walked back to the square again and ate dinner at the same place we ate the night before, and of course went back in to the chocolate shop. Funny story--we went in to a different chocolate shop earlier on Saturday with a fondue fountain...and the girl from the one Friday night was working there too and we were pretty sure she recognized us! We probably looked like all we were doing was walking around eating chocolate...which we kind of sort of were. We all bought more little chocolates. I bought a box for my cousin Molly and a box to take back. Which yes, is already gone.We caught the bus back to the airport, and had another looong night. I did sleep a little, which is weird because the chairs were far less comfortable than the Dublin ones. When we got back to Limerick, I took a 5 hour nap from like 5 to 10 PM...and woke up exhausted still and went back to bed for the night. I don't know the last time I slept that much!
As a city, I don't feel I learned as much about Brussels or experienced it quite like I did like Paris, obviously because I was only there for a couple days, but I think I definitely got a good taste of it. No pun intended. :)
Wow, amazed you could sleep so much after the sugar/caffeine consumption!! Those waffles sure look yummy!
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