one in a gillian

Picking up from where I left off. After going the wrong way to Delirium Café in Brussels, at least we got to see the Parliament building twice… Well we eventually made it there and wound up in the vodka part first, but still ordered the classic Delirium beer. I was speaking to the bartender in French which was sweet, especially when I asked about the Absolut Peppar we saw. Matt told me to ask him if it was popular, so I did, and he hesitated for a second then grabbed two little shot glasses and poured us each one.

“ABSOLUT PEPPAR is hot and spicy and has a distinct character of green bell, chili and jalapeño pepper.”

Well now it’s on my to do list to get this back at home and make some dope bloody Mary’s. Anyway I saw Grand Place which was fucking incredible. We also met some people from Bethesda which was really wacky. On our way back, we got a sandwich and fries at this place Matt went to before. I just kept telling the guy to put everything on it. And wow in Belgium they really know what they’re doing with their fries and dope sauces. Mmm.
The next morning we decided to also spend in Brussels. So we went and saw the
Cathédrale des Saints-Michel-et-Gudule which was nice. Them we went on a mission to find some lunch. Which is one of my favorites so far :). Walking around, we stumbled upon this little Asian district, filled with Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, and Thai restaurants and markets. Heaven for me! I went over to look at this one Chinese place called Au Bon Bol. I saw them making the noodles by hand in the window and was sold. It was a very simple place. We ordered the duck noodle soup and their specialty “brioche à la vapeur” (dumplings). Ugh it was so good and more than enough food. I had never tasted homemade noodles so that was a first. Lovely. So then we split a waffle with nutella (dead) and immediately found the nearest convenience store and downed a bottle of milk.
Them we decided to head to Brugge. Got the train, made it there very easily. We met a brother and sister that we talked to on the train ride, and they were also spending two nights in Brugge before going to Amsterdam! We met up with them later. In Brugge we stayed at this cute (and inexpensive!) bed & breakfast. Much nicer than a hostel. We went out and got these weird “crispy burgers” and then a beer. I got a Celis white which might be a new favorite. We were pretty drained the first night so we just chilled. The breakfast included with our stay was nice and simple. Coffee, orange juice, croissants, jam, blah blah. Then we did our laundry and had beer and chips for lunch. Then we went into town and rented bikes which was one of the best things we did. We got to ride ~along the river~ which was really beautiful and saw parts of town we wouldn’t have otherwise. That night we met up with new friends at the bar and some creepy dude bought me a pint of Jupiler. Shrug. Beer, beer, beer, foosball, conversations, bar. It was a decent night. Then we crashed and checked out of the B&B the next morning. To make up for eating so much nonsense we went to the supermarket and bought fruit and yogurt for lunch hahaha. It was good though. Had a picnic, read more Hunger Games, then went to the Frietmuseum… A museum about potatoes and Belgian fries. It was pretty novel. Then afterwards we weren’t quite sure what we were doing and had this conversation:

“So uh… Wanna go to Amsterdam?”
“…Sure.”

We returned our bikes and walked to the train station. Bought our tickets to Amsterdam and surprise! We had to transfer trains 5 times because of construction. But at least we got to share the fun with two of our new friends who walked up to the ticket window next to us as we were buying tickets to also go to Amsterdam. So many trains… But we had 40 minutes or so in Antwerpen so that was cool to see for a minute. That’s where I saw a McDonald’s with touch screens to order food, just like Wawa. Next level.
We started our journey to Amsterdam at 3:00pm and got there at 8:00pm. Woof.
Made it to th Flying Pig uptown and saw the famous Smoking room next to the reception desk, where they said “Anything legal in Amsterdam, you can smoke in there.” People were hitting bongs, rolling jays, and packing bowls. Stoner heaven.
After th first night of sleeping in a 12-person room, we decided that we were spoiled and public hostels were beat. Everything was great abou the hostel except people in our room went to sleep and turned the lights off at like 10 and sleeping was just not pleasant and I had that weird nightmare about getting a heart transplant and seeing myself get cut open so we decided to dip.
Which brings me to yesterday. Dipped out of the Flying Pig and after maybe an hour or so after searching, we found the place we’re at now. It’s a simple hostel, but the reception is really nice and they were playing Top Chef in the common room and have a kitchen. We met a guy from
New Zealand and a girl from Colorado. Oh, and after going through the whole day not eating or having slept well, we went to the super market for dinner and went ham. Macaroni and cheese, soup, bread, goat cheese, meat, the prettiest tomatoes I’ve ever seen, olives, salt and balsamic vinegar chips, cider, and sangria. It was a ridiculous amount of food but it was inexpensive and SO good. And we have a meal or two left. Then we got ready and met up with our friends in front of Burger King to go look at some prostitutes. Red light district! You literally walk down the street and there are girls in lingerie in windows “being sexy” I guess? A fair amount looked hot but if you got up close they looked pretty strung out. Still pretty interesting. There are also a shit load of places where you can watch “live sex shows.” One of our friends described it as “35€ to watch sad people have sex” which was beat. We were with the brother and sister we met on the train to Brugge, and these two Australian girls that were real dope. We looked at some head shops, walked back to Leidseplein, and went to a *coffee shop*. Casually passed around two jays. Everyone carries them around in these cone-shaped plastic cases with lids. It’s pretty sweet. All of us red-eyed, we hung out there for a bit then went to a sports bar (lol) and got 10 shots of Jäger and 8 beers. Lol. Then we went to a club down the street. ‘Twas a pretty dope night.
Now it is the morning of our last day in Amsterdam. Today we’re probably going to rent bikes, go to this awesome noodle place called Wok to Walk, Van Gogh museum, Anne Frank museum, and… Maybe another coffee shop.

Then tomorrow we fly to Croatia… What the fuck.