Brussels

We only wandered for about 10 minutes this time before just asking a police officer for directions to our hostel. This was a new record for us! A striking feature of the city that we noticed very quickly was its diversity. Maybe it was because we were staying on the outskirts of a professional area, but we seemed to come across the most eclectic array of people in all of Europe (so far, at least).

The hostel was very luxurious for our standards, because we had beds that weren't bunks, a clean bathroom and a TV. We took advantage of this the first night and stayed in to sample some beer and get lots of sleep.

On Thursday, we set out to explore the city with absolutely no plans in mind. Among the many chocolate shops, we found the Town Hall (a main square where there are light shows at night), the Grand Place and the Royal Palace.

We came across the Parliamentarium, which was another pleasant surprise since it was both free and very interesting! It was an interactive type of museum to educate the public about how the EU government operates. This was perfect for us, since we really had no idea prior to visiting. They gave us iPhones that we could use to scan certain spots on the wall to read or hear about various historical facts. We then entered a room with mobile podiums, which we could hover over a floor map of Europe to learn more about specific cities. Following this, we sat in a simulation of the actual Parliament to see how decisions actually come about. We even got to cast our own votes and see how they matched up with others'. Last, we saw a display that explained the many political parties that comprise the Parliament and their membership. Ironically, all of this EU education took place on July 4, so we felt slightly unpatriotic.

Afterwards we decided to visit our first science museum of the trip, which we were pretty excited about. We made it to the Museum of Natural History and quickly realized that we were the only people over the age of 10, besides parents. We walked through the many fossils and dinosaur skeletons anyway and let our excitement build up for the temporary baby animals exhibit. We quickly deflated when we realized that the exhibit was full of dead baby animals. Apparently it was too much to hope for to see some live babies.

An interesting part of the museum was their dedication to biodiversity and preventing future climate change. Even though the exhibits were definitely not age-appropriate for us, we appreciated this aspect.

On our way back to the hostel, we deliberately walked by the Mannekin Pis. This is a very famous statue that the Belgians are quite proud of. It is a statue of a little boy that was turned into a fountain. The distinguishing feature is that the fountain was accidentally placed so that it looks like the boy is going to the bathroom. The locals came to love this hilarious mistake, and dress the little boy up in costumes for various occasions. Coincidentally, he was decked out in red, white and blue for the 4th of July and even had a hat on that read "Yes We Can." We were sure to take advantage of this photo opp before heading back to the hostel.

We weren't entirely sure what to do on Friday, so we started our day the best way possible. We ate the most delicious waffles we had ever experienced.

Our next stop was the Atomium, which is known as the Eiffel Tower of Brussels. According to Wikipedia, it was built for the World Fair in 1958 and has remained in place ever since. This was simply another photo opp for us because we were told that we had to visit this stop, yet it left us feeling very confused about the purpose.

Before leaving the city, we stopped at a Doner Kebap shop again. This time we both got falafel doner kebaps. They were absolutely scrumptious, though no match for the waffles.