Belg-yum!

First off, let's tell you what we've dined on today:

Breakfast: Belgian Waffles with Nutella

Lunch: Belgian chocolate

Dinner: Salad and french fries (which were invented in Belgium)

Nutritious and delicious? We certainly thought so!

We slept in today and each enjoyed the awesome shower at our hostel. It was the first time we both have felt really clean and pretty in a while! It was such a nice day out, we decided to walk to the city center. Turns out it was a really long walk, but we made it! We started wandering around and found a fantastic little chocolate shop where they gave us free samples (score!). We then continued exploring and found lots of little chocolate shops. At the end of the day we counted a total of 19 chocolate shops, but that was only within about a 5 block radius! We stayed in pretty much the same area all day today. We found the

Grand Place, which is a neat plaza where Brussels' town hall is located. We made some friends that were speaking an unidentifiable language and really wanted a picture with us so we hopped in. As he kissed our hands, one of them muttered something and all the other guys laughed, so we think it was most likely not G-rated. The plaza is surrounded by some spectacular Rococo, Neoclassic and Gothic Architecture. We stitched the following photo with that sweet app:

As some of you probably know, Belgium is well known for its beer. We found a neat store that sells all sorts of different beers so we went in a doodled around for a little while. We each bought two beers so that we could have a beer tasting. The two most notable ones we bought were Rachael's chocolate beer and Katie's cherry blossom beer, in honor of the soon-to-occur Cherry Blossom Festival, which we are both very sad to be missing.

While wandering around that little area, we happened upon a street performer that was playing the accordion and singing. He had an amazing voice! We got there and hung around while he finished his song and then videoed him singing another one. We were so impressed and enjoyed it so much that we gave him a 5-euro bill. When we handed it to him, he said, "Oh, you ladies are going to make me a millionaire!" He started asking us about ourselves and where we were from. When we said we were from the States, he said, "I worship Americans! I have a song for you! Do you like Italian opera?" I think it was only because we gave him more money than most people do but we said sure and he sang "Volare". He was really getting into it and we really, really enjoyed it.

After that, we walked around some more and went into a neat museum that was pretty small. One thing that we definitely need to research a little is why the heck we keep seeing postcards and stuff of a statue of a little boy peeing! He's everywhere! The top floor of the museum had replicas of the statue with tons of different costumes on. It was so funny! There was a peeing Elvis, a peeing Mickey Mouse, a peeing soldier, Napoleon, Indian, kilt-wearer, you name it! That was our favorite part of the museum!

After the museum, we decided to go back to one chocolate shop where we had made a friend earlier when she gave us a 10% off coupon. She wasn't there when we got back but there was another guy who was so nice. He gave us lots of free samples of stuff, which anyone knows is the best way to get on our good side! We ended up spending nearly an hour there and bought lots of chocolate! A select few of you may receive some. Ready, fight!

After eating all that chocolate, we felt like we needed some real food so we went to a restaurant and each ate a salad and an order of fries. We call them French fries, so many people think they came from France, but Belgium is the actual origin and they're very proud of that fact. They prefer to dip them in mayonnaise instead of ketchup but our server knew that we would want both so she was nice enough to provide them for us.

Instead of catching a cab right outside the restaurant, we decided to walk a little ways first since we had eaten so much stinkin' chocolate. Turns out, a little ways turned into a lotta ways because we couldn't find a cab so we walked all the way back to the hostel which was a LONG walk. Now that we're back here, we can't wait to just crash.

Quote of the day:

(During our LONG walk home, in the middle of a fairly busy square)

Katie: Hey, look at that spotlight in the ground. Wanna go dance on it?

Rachael: Sure!

Dance party commences. We break it down for a couple of minutes and then continue on our way.