July 4

The transition from bus to metro to airport was much smoother than our London experience. We got there early, with no need to rush, which was much needed because if we had, had to run through this airport, we would have been screwed. It's a huge airport. We got a little breakfast and made our way 20 minutes down a deserted hallway to get to our gate. There were no issues getting on the plane, or sleeping, because I'm now a pro.

Once we got off the plane it was raining. Great. Then, because it was a Ryanair flight, we had to buy a 17€ bus ticket into the city. I don't mind in the slightest though, because I don't think I could've handle flying into the main airport. We had to wait 45 minutes to get on the second bus, but that meant that we didn't have to wait another an hour! I slept a little on the way, but once I woke up I can honestly say I was a little freaked out. We were driving in through the back part of town, I'm assuming, because it was very, very creepy. Then, once we got off the bus, we walked through another area that was a little sketchy and JT and I were already planning our Tuesday getaway from the city. There were a lot of guys just watching us walk by, or making awkward eye contact and it was super uncomfortable. Our hostel, thankfully, looked decent inside, although the woman at reception looked like she hated her job. We dropped our bags off and went in search of waffles.

It was roughly a little after noon, and we followed the woman's directions into the city center, but from what we could tell, it was still pretty deserted. We were really starting to freak out now, because, from what we could tell, there were very few tourists around. We ended up being on the edge of the city center, which made us feel better once we found people. In between our freaking out and finding a decent sized population we walked into this amazing chocolate shop and I got this great hot chocolate with vanilla. I wish I could describe the smells here in Belgium, but nothing can explain the intense smell of chocolate and waffles/pastries that we get every time we walk into or outside of a shop or bakery. It's what heaven will smell like, I'm absolutely sure of it. Anyway, we had trouble finding waffles, which was strange because we're in Belgium, but we eventually found a place and we sat down for one. This was lunch at 2.

We walked around and eventually found the shopping street, filled with people, we were less worried once we saw more people. We walked through the streets and around the city. We split an order of fries, with curry ketchup sauce, that was really just Heinz steak sauce. We walked some more, actually, we walked a lot more around the city. We saw everything we could see, but we didn't always know what it was. We'd walk, look down a side street, see something interesting and then walk towards it. We definitely saw 2 churches, a cathedral, the botanical gardens and the tomb of the unknown soldier. We also walked past, what was the stock exchange, according to the signs outside of the building, but it looked run down. That seems to be where memorials are held. They had up signs for Istanbul and Baghdad, but around the building, written in chalk were other words and events that happened. There were a lot of love based quotes, "we are Orlando&Brussels" writing, and the entire building was just covered in chalk, it's amazing.

After our tiring day, we got dinner from the store, which really means a sandwich/wrap and a bag of chips. We are on the steps in front of the memorial to rest ourselves before heading back to the hostel. I also got another waffle, this time with strawberries and chocolate. Waffles here are covered in butter and sugar and they're just so good. I'm upset I'll never be able to recreate the smell of Belgium or the waffles and chocolate. This country is definitely high on the list of favorites.