Brussels Day 2

I woke up and had a pretty lousy breakfast at the hostel--unfortunately, that was the best part of that hostel (as I'm writing this, I'm at a new hostel, the 2Go4, which seems to be much better)--of rock-hard toast and coffee.  After breakfast, I headed to the nearby mall to get a towel, but when I got back, I was locked out of my room because the hostel apparently had a lock-out policy between 11am-3pm (glad they told me; oh wait...).  Luckily, I found a cleaning man (we'll call him CM) who spoke no English or German, but nonetheless unlocked my room for me.  I headed to the shower room, but found that too was locked, so back to find CM I went.  "No, no, no" was all he said (as well as some other things under his breath in French, I'm sure they were nice--I said nice things to him in English, too), so I went back to my room, got dressed, and headed into Brussels with the sweet smell of America still all over me.

Soon, I met up with Jason, a buddy from school, and his girlfriend, Emily, in front of the Maison des Brasseurs in the Grand Place.  Being able to carry on a conversation was a great feeling and with renewed energy, I took them towards the Manneken Pis to get a beer and see the statue.  On the subject of peeing in Brussels, I've never seen so much blatant public urination in a place before (and I've been to Morgantown, Burlington, and Oakland (PA):  all havens for such an activity).  It's as if taking a leak on the side of a beautiful 400 year old building is as much a part of Brussels as pommes frites.  Sometimes even, the two aren't mutually exclusive:

The sign on the window of the Manneken Frites restaurant

So after walking around for a while, the three of us met up with a friend of J's from home who is currently studying in Brussels.  Kevin did a great job playing tour guide and pointed out that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels did some of their critical work on the Communist Manifesto in this building within the Grand Place:



A fitting building for such a manuscript, right?

We walked south toward the Centraal Station and walked around the Museum District, which has the Magritte Museum and Royal Museum of Fine Arts, among others.  I've yet to check these places out yet, but rest assured, I'll check out their collections and take enough pictures (assuming I'm allowed) to bore the hell out of you!  For now, here are some pictures of what occupies the spaces near the museums:

Later in the day/evening, the four of us got on the Metro and headed towards Merode, the area where our guide spends most of his time.  But due to a lapse in reason, I didn't take any pictures of this part of the journey, but had one of the best and cheapest meals:  a durum wrap filled with lamb, fries, and salad (that's what vegetables are called here...), as well as some mayonnaise and a dark red sauce.  This was a Primanti's on crack (or 'brown-brown' for those who've seen Lord of War).  I should also take this time to say that every restaurant I've been in here--even if it's a Quick (Belgian/French version of McDonald's) or other cheap place to eat--is really nice inside (I'll try to get a picture soon).  Take note America--some of your higher-end restaurants look like shit compared to Brussels' lower-end eateries. 

After dinner and a quick stop at Kevin's apartment, we headed back to the Grand Place to see a highly-touted light and music show that gives tourist's a complete sensory overload at the feet of the plaza's buildings.  It would've been great, but we missed it.  Oh well, seeing the local 15- and 16-year olds act like 5-year olds because they drank too much was equally entertaining.  But good god, they were annoying.  About an hour later, we split up, with the three other patriots heading back to Merode and myself going back to the Sleep Well.

What a misnomer...