Brussels and the Way of the Waffel

The morning came, and my sister and I had to find breakfast. We stowed the bags after checking out, and caught the "5" into city center. We came to a coffee place called "Bagels and Beans," and while we sat drinking coffee and eating, I read a newspaper and reconnected to reality for a short time.

Afterwards we went to the annual flea market, where my sister looked for dresses. I looked around and saw a book stand so, naturally, I made my way to one of the bins doubting there'd be any books in English. I came to a bin and picked up a book, Milan Kundera's 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being', which was surprisingly in English, and more surprisingly had been recommended to me by Constantine before we parted ways in Berlin. I got goosebumps as I looked in every other bin and found zero books in English. Kundera's book had been the only one in the entire stand in English, and it was the first book I picked up. Throughly weirded out, and thinking it a sign from God, I bought the book and we left.

An hour later we boarded the train to Brussels. On the way we saw pastures and cows, and tulips and corn; and I decided it was a countryside full of rich heritage and hearty people.

About two and a half hours later we pulled into Brussels, and after a short walk had arrived at out "Budget Hotel" which, compared to the hostels we'd been staying in, looked like Buckingham Palace. I took a shower and we left to eat steak and fries at a French restaurant.

Afterwards, we went in search of a good bar. We found many, some better than others. One we found was a smoke joint on a street corner, where there were a few locals and cheap whiskey and beer. The next place was a sports bar, where the men sipped beer and watched the game, and were totally oblivious to me and my sister.

Having come to Brussels for one thing, we went in search of Waffels. We were both pretty sloshed, so the search was not easy. Finally, we came to a stand where women with tired faces served us Waffels with tired strawberries and chocolate sauce. And in no way was that depressing. The Waffels were terrific. We sat eating them on the curb watching the night pass and made fun of each other when we got chocolate on our faces.

After, we stumbled into a bar called Delirium. My sister had read about it and they were playing good music, so we went inside. The place was an absolute zoo of younger people dressed for the night, and sitting in what looked like hollowed out beer kegs. The walls were plastered with old beer signs, and it felt both worn and welcoming while having the commercialism of a CheeseCake Factory. But we bought beer and sat watching the madness around us, and getting slightly more drunk. After a while the signs on the wall lost their color, and the people seemed to turn grey. We were tired, so we paid our bill and slipped out of the organized madness.