I feel like a little hipster in good ol’ Brussels now-- now that everyone knows where the good local breakfast place is after Ryan and I found them, I am slightly less interested in them. Okay, that's a lie. Kind of.
This morning, Ryan and I went for breakfast at the Cemetery. It’s called that because there’s a cemetery nearby. But asides from that there are also quite a few cafes that are good for breakfast (or coffee, which is what I needed this morning) as well as a second hand bookstore, and everyone goes there at some point. I got a latte and a chocolate croissant, which I split with Ryan and it was absolutely divine; finishing off my Carrefour croissant will be a rather tragic experience tomorrow morning.
But after grabbing a bite, we explored the cemetery. It was a really beautiful place, filled with sarcophaguses and mausoleums. It was quite different from the cemeteries I’m used to seeing back home; they’re much better well kept here and the views are quite incredible. I’ve been snapping pictures away with my ‘new’ toy camera and hopefully they turn out because some of the wonderful views I saw that morning. I don’t think I will ever get tired of seeing how Brussels is staggered—it takes my breath away every time I see it and, if I’m crossing a street, I will inevitably slow down.
We walked for several more hours after that—first a tour of campus with Clara and Gus, our two program coordinators. They’re both quite young; Clara has stolen (and broken) the hearts of all of the straight men of our trip while Gus quickly won the affections of everyone with his goofiness. Afterwards, we took a grand tour of Brussels with a tour guide. He was full of opinions about everything, and after several hours of walking and hearing his snide comments everyone was rather testy; however, he did take us to a lot of interesting places or places with interesting side streets so it was still a worthwhile experience. Now we know where to go if we want to explore a little more, buy postcards or buy chocolate. Also, I finally got to experience my first liege waffle-- delicious and the best part is there are even better ones in the city!
We were all rather exhausted when we arrived back at ULB for yet another orientation, but everyone perked right back up during the reception. Zierler had vaguely mentioned to us something about ‘snack like foods’ but what we found instead was endless glasses of champagne and wine as well as an endless supply of fancy hors d'œuvres; I for one felt incredibly classy for those couple of hours as I nibbled on salmon seviche and feeling thankful for the free meal.
The highlight of the day was to come afterwards, however. Everyone agreed on going home for a second and freshening up before meeting up at the Cemetery to hang out. The cemetery itself was closed, so we had to switch from plan A (splitting a bottle of wine in the cemetery) to plan B (going on an impromptu beer crawl). Everywhere we went, we were that group (Still. We'll get over this phase soon. I hope.) and all the locals tended to laugh at us rather unkindly. But I didn't mind too much at that point. I mean, it is Saturday night. It was rather fun, learning about the different ways beer is brewed and stealing samples of other people's drinks. (Gus: Have you tried that one yet? It's my favourite. Here, try some-- it's not mine but I'm sure he won't mind)
My bad for the dull post; I don’t normally plan on updating along the lines of “First we did X, then we went to Y and then we ate Z.” Well, I'll probably talk about food quite a bit but otherwise it’s boring for you and it’s boring for me. However, I am a bit tired right now, please forgive me.
Pictures up once I get internet in my apartment (so soon!)
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