Trip to the Continent Part One: Brussels

I've successfully completed my first voyage out of England! This weekend Ava and I went to Brussels and Amsterdam. It was a fun weekend although we had to overcome many obstacles such as STA messing up our train tickets and my having no voice all weekend (I still don't, when I talk its more like squeaking)!
Early, early Friday morning we caught the bus to Waterloo station. Unfortunately we missed our first Eurostar train because STA travel forgot to pay for our tickets (those jerks)! We were able to get on the next train at 7:30 am. Eurostar is very nice, trains always make me sleepy and I slept all the way. I missed going through the chunnel! We didn't really wake up until we reached Brussels, our first stop of the day.
We only had a few hours to spend so we took the underground straight to the Grand-Place, a beautiful square in downtown Brussels and essentially the only tourist attraction there. It is surrounded by very beautiful and ornate buildings. In particular the town hall looks like a soaring cathedral with hundreds of statues carved into it. All of the buildings in the area were beautiful and there was a small market selling unique little crafts.
The main reason we wanted to go to Brussels was to eat- and we were NOT disappointed! First picture up here is me with some Belgian white beer. It was delicious, kind of like Blue Moon but better. They sell beer pretty much everywhere in Brussels; we were shocked to stumble upon a beer vending machine at the train station! One thing that is great about Europe is that it is perfectly acceptable to have a beer or two with lunch-or before lunch. I've seen regular looking people walking down Tottenham Court Road in London sipping a beer at 10 am (also interesting is the lack of open container laws).
We didn't just come for beer though, we had quite an extravagant lunch that day. Because the dollar is much stronger against the euro then the pound we went all out. Ava had Belgian mussels, I had a nice juicy steak. We also had to sample the famous Belgian frites (French fries) which were pretty much exactly the same as American French fries. And of course the Belgian Waffles. You can buy them on almost any street corner, piping hot and with all sorts of different toppings. I got mine with dark chocolate on it- it was heavenly. I think I would go back to Belgium solely for another waffle.
Late in the afternoon we hopped back on the train, our bellies full of rich food and our backpacks stuffed with Belgian chocolate. I loved the food there but I am glad we only spent an afternoon. Once you've seen the Grand-Place and eaten your weight in chocolate, there isn't a whole lot else Brussels has to offer. The people there were kind of rude (perhaps it's the French influence) and the rest of the city is kind of generic. Brussels especially paled in comparison to Amsterdam, my new favorite city...
... To be Continued.