What's my age again?... What's my age again?...

Welcome one and all to what are becoming sporadic updates of my journeys and adventures over here in that country-sized continent they call Europe.

So for our most recent exploits, last Friday, a large group of us consisting of myself, Kelsey, Heather, Chantale, Stephanie, Alicia, Igor, John, and Nick boarded a train for Brussels, Belgium. Once you get to Paris, the train to Belgium is only about an hour and a half, and so we arrived in the early afternoon and did some walking about, seeing the Grand Place, royal gardens, Palais de Congres, and the most famous Manneken Pis. Manneken Pis is an old statue of a little boy... ummm... urinating... and it is seen as the symbol of hope, pride, and luck for the Belgians. It also gets dressed up in costumes every now and then, which means it can be different every time you go back and visit Belgium!

That first night, we took it easy as we were tired from all of our travels, so after some mexican food for dinner at Chi Chi's, we simply grabbed a world famous Belgian waffle and headed to bed.



Saturday we chilled in the morning and then made our way to the Manneken Pis museum after enjoying a Pizza Hut buffet lunch. In the museum, in addition to other pieces on the history of Brussels, is the collection of Manneken Pis costumes. One costume, dating back to 1958, is of the statue dressed in Montreal Canadiens hockey gear. It is entitled "Canadian Ice Hockey Player". I recited a little speech to it hoping it would give the Habs good karma for their huge game that night, but unfortunately it didn't work out.

After the museum, we hopped on the subway and took it to see the Atomium (a giant statue of an atom) and Mini-Europe. Mini-Europe is a garden full of miniature models of some of Europe's most famous landmarks (ie. the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben...etc.). It's really cool to see, and if you take pictures from exactly the right angles, it might even look like you were actually there to see the real thing!


After Mini-Europe, we headed back to our hostel to shower and change, before going to Fritland for dinner. You see, the Belgians invented the French Fry, and so fries are another local specialty.

After eating, we walked over to Delirium Cafe. Delirium is a bar that is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the place that offers the widest selection of beers at any given time, with an astonishing 2,004. Yes, that's right. At any momemnt, Delirium offers a selection of two thousand and four different kinds of beer. We enjoyed sampling a wide variety, as I got to have a "Blanche de Quebec", some of their home brewed beers, and various other strong and cheap international beverages.


After 6-8 beers each, we headed across the street to an absinthe bar to take a little taste of the drink made most famous by the movie Eurotrip, as well as by rumours of what it has made people do historically. Three of us decided on doing shots, though I refused to buy a shot for the girl-who-shall-remain-nameless as she was already pretty drunk, and I wanted to look out for her. But she kept insisting and begging and pleading that she wanted a shot, so I finally gave in. However, when the bartender came over to me to ask for my order, I got her the weakest absinthe they had, which was 30%, and for those keeping score at home, that's weaker than even a shot of vodka. I got a shot of 89.9% absinthe for myself, and Igor took one at 70%. Now it's a good thing I asked for a 30% shot, because while we were waiting for Igor to return from the ATM to drink them, the female in question started to worry and say she didn't want the shot anymore. This, because, she was explained how taking the shot works. You see, the proper way to take a shot of absinthe is to dip a sugar cube in the drink, then light the sugar cube on fire, and let it melt a bit. Then you drop the cube back into the drink, and the drink catches fire for a little bit. Then you blow the fire out, wait for the glass rim to cool off a bit, and drink it. So this creeped her out I guess, but when I told her hers was only actually 30%, she calmed down. Good thinking eh?


After getting drunk as such, we headed over to a club that kinda sucked cause it was pretty much empty, but it didn't stop us from dancing a bit. We retired at around 3 and I got to watch the last 10 minutes of my Habs season on live internet tv. :(

Sunday, myself and the ladies took a train to Bruges (or Brugge), Belgium to take in their annual chocolate festival. The other guys decided they'd rather be lame and stay in Brussels. But it was their loss. After getting off the 50 minute train ride, we walked to the festival, paid our 10 euro entry fee, and then were treated to all the samples of all the kinds of Belgian chocolate (another local specialty) we could possibly want. There were also samples of amaretto liqueuers, Bailey's, and some cheeses. But mostly chocolate. Lots, and lots of delicious chocolate. Oh and this was on Easter Sunday, appropriately.


We also walked around the city of Bruges, and it is small and quaint, with some nice squares and old-style buildings. At night, we took a train back to Brussels, where we grabbed a kebab for dinner, and then played some cards in our hostel lounge before heading up to bed.


Monday, the others had an early afternoon train back to Paris, while Igor and I were in Brussels till the evening, so we took advantage by catching a bus over to the NATO Headquarters. We got off the bus at the large gates and crossed in front of them, trying to take a picture, only to be shooed away by a security guard. So we crossed the street to get a pic from the other side, then took a bus back to our hostel area.

There we had a really good pita from a Greek restaurant, chilled the afternoon away, and then it was homeward bound.

Since returning from Belgium, I've been busy. Seeing as next week is our school break, many people will not be in town. Furthermore, there are a number of us who have birthdays during that week. So in order to celebrate with everyone altogether, I took it upon myself to organize a birthday party for myself (April 21st), Lindsay (April 21st), John Sime (April 16th), Kasia (April 14th), and Lucia (April 14th). We picked April 11 + 12, with the 12th being most important as it was a Thursday night (party night in Rouen), and also my and Lindsay's reverse birthday!
Festivities began Thursday evening, when I decided it was time to crack open that bottle of 70% absinthe I brought back from my trip to Barcelona. I took a shot or two (the real way again), and must say I love the taste of it. It's kinda like a sambouka/black licorice/cough medicine flavour. It burns because it's strong (and on fire), but it's very yummy. Then I had a lovely surprise waiting for me, as some of the others had prepared a giant card for me, John, and Lindsay, as well as some cakes for everyone to enjoy. Awww guys, you shouldn't have. But much appreciated.

Following that, we caught a bus down to Emporium for their 1 euro shot night. We had a crowd of about 10-12, so it was good times, chilling, chatting, and drinking. Since people had class in the morning, and we were going out the next day as well, we didn't want to stay too too late, so we caught the last night bus home.


On Thursday, we kicked the night off with some more shots of the green inspiration in my room, and then went out for dinner with a buzz going to a restaurant called J.M.'s. I had a good lasagne with a beer to keep my alcohol levels reasonable. We then made our way to Club Velvet where we were joined by some others, pushing our numbers to above 20. That made it a great night, even if for long periods we were pretty much the only ones in the club. That's the advantage of being a large number: anywhere you go, that's where the party's at.

All in all it was a really cool birthday, so thank you to everyone who made it out. My actual 21st birthday isn't till April 21st, but I'm not quite sure what I'll be doing or where I'll be then.

Now I leave for Berlin in a couple of hours to conclude my streak of consecutive weekends with big plans.

To recap, the last few weeks have been...
1. Barcelona
2. London
3. Juno Beach + Disneyland Paris
4. Belgium
5. Berlin

It's been a wild and crazy ride, and quite likely the best times of my life thus far. It's been amazing out here, but I do miss home, and when the time comes (June 2nd), I'll be ready and looking forward to returning to the good old M-dot.

Cya laters all.
Love,
Danny boy