Australie in Belgie
I'm currently managing to hold my eyes open for the last half hour of work, despite running on barely any sleep Im actually functioning quite well.
I had to drag myself out of bed this morning at 3:45am to get ready to catch the train/Eurostar back to London from Belgium. We left on Friday and got there about midnight... Stayed up pretty late talking with Phil's Mum.. Well we tried to talk to each other but I know about as much Flemish as she does English so Phil had to do a lot of translating for us.
Saturday we finally made it into Brussels about 3pm, Phil drove me to the big shopping place called Dod... He went to the men's shop and I went to the women's. 4 floors of clothes, shoes, lingerie.. Needless to say Phil had to come in and give me a hurry up (and then made a swift exit!) We then drove around the city centre and looked at the palace, market square and halls... and the naked lady and peeing man. The naked lady is a gold moulding on a door of one of the buildings in the market square. You are supposed to touch the statue for good luck. Considering it was put there in 1388 some of the areas are.. ahem.. pretty well worn. The little peeing man is a copper statue (I think.. Im not to au fai with what they are made of) of suprisingly enough a little man peeing - it symbolises the Belgie's attitude to being told what to do by the government.. or pretty much anyone! We walked through the market hall where they have Phil's shoe shop (a very expensive shoe shop called Phillipe) and apparently one of the best chocolate shops.. for €10 for 250g I think they would bloody better be! Will try some next time.
We walked around some more and then headed to Phil's mates house. He lives in Gent and we went out with some others and had an extremely boozy night. The beer they drink is Duvel's (means devil) and is 8.5%. Its pretty much what you turn into when you drink it. I think we rolled in around 6am.. after stopping for a Bikkie burger and frittes (chips).. actually it was more a Bikkie burger with mayonnaise and gravy topped with potatoes. At that time of the morning after drinking since 8pm it wasn't looking all too appealing but Phil was happy that he had his Belgian fries. I think I was just happy I kept the contents of my stomach.
The next day we woke up (or recovered from alcohol induced unconsciousness) to have to rush to the restuarant with Phils Mum, brother, brother's girlfriend and her Mother. The food was beautiful and I did try the eel with green sauce (paling wit greonsaus) but the sauce wasn't really something for me. The steak I had was beautiful and came with lots of chips & fresh salad. As far as food and beer goes.. Belgium gets the thumbs up. We managed to catch Phil's friends basketball game in the evening and got kicked out about 10pm when the bar shut..
Since its Phil's birthday today Im going to cook him dinner.. then its an early night!!!
I had to drag myself out of bed this morning at 3:45am to get ready to catch the train/Eurostar back to London from Belgium. We left on Friday and got there about midnight... Stayed up pretty late talking with Phil's Mum.. Well we tried to talk to each other but I know about as much Flemish as she does English so Phil had to do a lot of translating for us.
Saturday we finally made it into Brussels about 3pm, Phil drove me to the big shopping place called Dod... He went to the men's shop and I went to the women's. 4 floors of clothes, shoes, lingerie.. Needless to say Phil had to come in and give me a hurry up (and then made a swift exit!) We then drove around the city centre and looked at the palace, market square and halls... and the naked lady and peeing man. The naked lady is a gold moulding on a door of one of the buildings in the market square. You are supposed to touch the statue for good luck. Considering it was put there in 1388 some of the areas are.. ahem.. pretty well worn. The little peeing man is a copper statue (I think.. Im not to au fai with what they are made of) of suprisingly enough a little man peeing - it symbolises the Belgie's attitude to being told what to do by the government.. or pretty much anyone! We walked through the market hall where they have Phil's shoe shop (a very expensive shoe shop called Phillipe) and apparently one of the best chocolate shops.. for €10 for 250g I think they would bloody better be! Will try some next time.
We walked around some more and then headed to Phil's mates house. He lives in Gent and we went out with some others and had an extremely boozy night. The beer they drink is Duvel's (means devil) and is 8.5%. Its pretty much what you turn into when you drink it. I think we rolled in around 6am.. after stopping for a Bikkie burger and frittes (chips).. actually it was more a Bikkie burger with mayonnaise and gravy topped with potatoes. At that time of the morning after drinking since 8pm it wasn't looking all too appealing but Phil was happy that he had his Belgian fries. I think I was just happy I kept the contents of my stomach.
The next day we woke up (or recovered from alcohol induced unconsciousness) to have to rush to the restuarant with Phils Mum, brother, brother's girlfriend and her Mother. The food was beautiful and I did try the eel with green sauce (paling wit greonsaus) but the sauce wasn't really something for me. The steak I had was beautiful and came with lots of chips & fresh salad. As far as food and beer goes.. Belgium gets the thumbs up. We managed to catch Phil's friends basketball game in the evening and got kicked out about 10pm when the bar shut..
Since its Phil's birthday today Im going to cook him dinner.. then its an early night!!!
