Fries, chocolate, beer, mussels, and waffles - what could be better?

Unfortunately we started in Brussels on the wrong foot. Our hostel's common room was only open til 11 every night, and since the common rooms have been where we have met people and generally spend a lot of time, the early closing really put a cramp in our style. But, we will prevail and have fun in this city!

Our first morning we did most of the sightseeing and walked around the city. Not a lot of tourists or lots of sites, so it was a pretty relaxing morning absorbing the city with a waffle and belgian chocolates in hand. The city is known for its comic books, so they have painted comic frescoes on many of the city walls, so Jessie and I decided to go find as many as we could and had lots of fun looking for them and taking lots of pictures of us being nerds. Also on the list of things to do in Brussels: visit the top of a parking garage for great city views and to see the atomium (check) and eat fantastic french (Belgian?) fries. Pretty much amazing and they came with this great curry mayonnaise sauce that I must figure out how to duplicate. We did our standard souvenir shopping that evening and went back to the hostel. We were able to make friends with a couple people in our room and decided to go out and have dinner and drinks. We got a bucket of mussels which were fantastic and of course lots of Belgian beer. We then met up with some of the guys in our hostel and soon discovered that they were barely 18, but we were stuck with them. We had some drinks in the main square and tried to look for a reasonably priced club at which point the boys went to the toilet and never came back. At this point we were frustrated and tired and went to bed, only to be woken up at 5 am. So, my bed was right by the window on the ground floor - something I should have thought about earlier. But I walk up to some guy repeatedly knocking on the open window saying "excuse me, excuse me." I thinking its some creep ignore it; then the next thing I know the man has lifted the curtain over his head and is looking straight at me inches away. I immediately freak out. Apparently the person was staying at our hostel and his wallet was just stolen, so he and his girlfriend could not get in the building and reception was closed. I get up to go talk to him and by the time i get there someone else had already let the couple in. They were nopt in our room, so I wasnt too worried about strangers, except sleeping in front of an open window. I will make better choices next time.

Leaving for Amsterdam in the morning!