The best beer that ever will be
8 months and 10 hours on a Jetblue flight (that looked to be straight out of the 80s) later, we were out of our beloved Latin America and back in the European continent. Brussels was our first stop albeit just for the one night as we had planned to meet a few our mates in Portugal to spend a week at a little beachside town. Well one night in Belgium, you do what you are expected to do – sample some fantastic Belgian beer, fries and mussels. And sample we did, straight out of the airport into the world famous Delirium Cafe. The cafe houses over 2,500 beers from all around the world and is open for 16 hours a day!
Look even the kids are delirious here! – Delirium Cafe
Chapter 1: Couchsurfing with the world’s craziest traveller
Normally I am not a fan of CS one night stands, i.e. I like to spend more than the 1 night at someone’s house so as to get to know them better rather than just acquaint yourself with them, but given our flight to Portugal the next morning, I had chosen to write to Lin a Dutch girl living in Belgium working as a forensic analyst for the UN.
Now her job description alone provides enough adrenaline for one man’s lifetime, but this girl has taken it one step further. She’s very well traveled, has mental travel experiences that range from being hosted by the Crown Prince of Bahrain in New Zealand to being in prison in Suriname to being kidnapped in Peru – she’s come out of it all only richer in spirit. Having spent over half a year in the adventure laden lands of Latin America, few things get us excited, but Lin had our ears perked right from the moment we met her.
Not only was she lovely enough to host us, given the fact that we were to be traveling via RyanAir around Portugal, France and the UK, she also offered to house our big backpacks and gave us the key to the house as she would be in Yemen (of all places!!) when we would return. She also introduced us to another lively CSer – Sarah who kept us company the night of our return. People like Lin and Sarah always make it worthwhile to couchsurf and to continue to seek out more people on our travels. True champion!
Chapter 2: In Bruges
We came back to Belgium 3 weeks later towards the end of June to pick our bags up en route to Italy and to see the town of Brugges. Anyone who has watched the movie ‘In Bruges’ might be aware of the charms of this little medieval town that offers everything from delicious sea food to rides across the town in horse drawn carriages and some excellent beer and fries. Dee and I indulged in plenty of all the aforementioned.
I also caught up with a mate from Accenture – my first contact with anyone from ‘work’ whilst in Brussels. The lovely Rima and her family had invited us to a Lebanese dinner which had our stomachs screaming in delight!
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Bruges snapshot
SNAPSHOT
General musings
Belgium and the Belgians seem to be very peaceful and fun loving. For a capital city, Brussels is unusually quiet but has some great evening markets where food and drink can be purchased at cheap prices. The town of Bruges is definitely worth a day trip (1 hour from Brussels). It’s as medieval as they come, is close to the coast, is the home of mussels and the legendary belgian fries!
Food&Drink
The food and the beer are legendary – I don’t think anything else needs to be said.
TravelSmart
No travel warnings here except to try and shed a few kilos before you head there, as you are guaranteed to come back having piled on a few!
One Response
Mom
Loved the pics that brought home all the architectural splendour ..
Dee and you look sooo lovely together..lean and in shape.
Want you guys back!!
Can’t wait…