Bruxelles: A lot of fun on a small budget.

Brussels: A spontaneous weekend away. This year abroad keeps getting better and better.

Soooooo, the previous Wednesday a few of us were talking about going to Brussels for a weekend, although all the trains we looked at seemed really expensive. HOWEVER, our friend Norah had heard about a cheap return ticket to Brussels from Luxembourg- a 'passe-partout' for those who have youth on their side (i.e. for those under the age of 26). After leaving chez nous at 6h50, we finally arrived in Brussels around midday (got a group ticket to Luxembourg, then took a 3 hour train to Brussels). We'd also managed to find a hotel suite for the five of us on booking.com for a mere 2o euros each!

Hilarity ensued when we turned onto the street where our hotel was. Our street was full of soliciting prostitutes, even at 12h30 in the afternoon. Incroyable. This was made worse by the fact that the hotel opposite ours was clearly a 'shag-pad' for a lot of the prostitutes and their clients. Seedy.

Anyway, I'm not going to bore you with an endless 'And then we ate this....and then we did this' account of our fabulous weekend in Brussels, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Highlights included

• Food. Chips, a boudin chaud (sausage) and amazing waffles with chocolate sauce.
• Beer- 9.5% beer in Delirium, quite possibly the coolest bar I have ever set foot in, full of travellers and studenty types. Kriek beer (tasted like cherryade) and others of which I can't remember the name.
• Walking round the beautiful main square and seeing the most famous attraction- the Manneken Pis, a statue of a chubby boy weeing. I hated it- apparently it's because I'm 'soo British'.
• Seeing TinTin graffiti everywhere. Just graffiti everywhere in general. Beautiful buildings right next to piles of rubbish (quite literally). Brussels is Paris' edgy, less pretentious sibling.
• Walking round the European buildings- the Parliament and the Commission. Comedy pictures next to Union Jack flags and the like.
• Going to a flea market in one of the 'working class areas'. Walking back into the centre finding cool vintage shops along the way.

Hope I'm selling it to you. Just seeing the red light area (i.e. our street) was an experience in itself...