I know I didn't feel like getting up as early as we did, but we had to move on to bigger and better things (or "Brussels"). We decided that it was a very smart idea to ride our bikes to the train station with our gear, killing 2 birds with one stone: getting to the train station and returning the bikes. (And it worked, by the way, we just had to go nice and slow.)
We had an smooth ride into Brussels and since it was the least researched of our cities, we didn't know which hostel to go to nor which of the 3 stations in the city to get off at. We decided to check out the hostels that were close to the Midi station, which is where our Eurostar train back to London left from. Then we spent what felt like an hour looking at my guidebook and asking the info people for maps and recommendations for which hostel to stay at. They were utterly unhelpful and had a hotel search but not a hostel search service. In the end, we popped back on a train and rode back one stop (5 min) to the Central station, then walked to a hostel from there.Our gamble didn't pay off. The hostel (when someone finally let us in) was totally booked and they told us that all the other hostels in the city were booked up too! They gave us info for two low-end hotels so we picked one and headed on over. It was a sketchy walk into a sketchy part of the city... a few people asked us if we need help and/or directions but we eventually found the street we were looking for. Then we found the number we were looking for-- and it was a blank stretch of wall on a derelict building with smashed, glass-less upper windows. I was horrified so we kept walking and at the end of the street, we found a hotel-- which happened to be the one we were looking for! We checked in, pretty much out of desperation and also, our bags were extremely heavy and we were pooped.
So our host led us over to an elevator (which had no walls on 2 of the sides and a door that let us in and out) and then up another flight of stairs to our room. It was so crappy. We didn't take pictures (I think we were too horrified to even entertain the idea) so just imagine this: it had a big bed and a twin, a slanted ceiling (like we were the top floor underneath the roof) with a window that had a view of more roofs, and my favorite part had to have been the bathroom. The toilet was in one room, and the rest in another (acceptable, I've seen this other places). The toilet room's door didn't have a knob on the inside, so either the person not using the toilet had to shut it for you, or it just didn't close all the way! The BEST part of the other room was the fact that there wasn't even a door at all. And then there was the fact that the shower was tiny and had a hump (like a seat) in half of it. It made showering difficult, and Sarah and I each almost died from slipping about 3 times each. There was also a wardrobe near the entrance to the shower room, so we propped that door open and it covered about half the door.
After briefly checking out the room, we dropped our stuff, paid the guy, then booked it out of there. We decided to see the famous peeing statue/ fountain which actually wasn't that far away. We got there and I was surprised to see a crowd gathered!
In case you forgot or didn't know, Brussels is in Belgium and in Belgium they make chocolate. LOTS of it. It seemed like every other shop was a chocolate one! So after taking pictures of the crazy statue/fountain, we headed over to the old main square, hitting every chocolate shop we passed and sampling some goods at each!
For the record, the Belgian maps have very effective advertising-- because based solely on the picture on the map, we decided to visit the "Atomic Sculpture." We found the problem with this attraction was that though the ad pointed to where the Atomic thing was supposed to be, it was actually off the map completely. Which meant that we had a huge walk. After maybe an hour of walking through busy streets, sketchy minority neighborhoods (where there was a fight complete with police and paramedics) and then discovering we were only half way there, we decided to go ahead and take the Metro. It was a good decision because we were there in no time!The Atomic thing is basically huge, silver, pointless and supposed to represent an atom. It was built in the '60s. I think you are allowed to climb up into it and look around but we got there after it was closed and it also cost something outrageous like €16. We took some pictures then walked back to the Metro stop where a nice man helped us find our way back.
Once back at the old main square area, we got some fries with ketchup and mayo (surprisingly tasty!) and a little later, a BELGIAN WAFFLE! It was pretty tasty too. After that we headed back to the slightly scary hotel, where we took exciting showers, repacked everything then got to bed.
Me (lookin a little crazy), waffle, peeing boy
