Just Me: Day 45

I made it Brussels, Belgium today! I woke up at 5, and a guy who went with us from WNE had a 20 pound off an Uber, so we all took an Uber to Heathrow for basically nothing. There is four of us from WNE on this trip, Emelia, two guys, and me. We met up with everyone at the airport at 6:30, but there's only 11 of total, including 2 chaperones. We got breakfast at the airport then got on the plane. The plane ride was only 45 minutes, and it literally felt like ten. We were in Brussels before we knew it. When we got there, it was rainy and very cold. Our rooms at the hotel weren't ready yet so we had to put all our stuff in a closet behind the counter and then go straight on our walking tour. We were allowed an hour break to grab lunch, so of course the four of us found a waffle place to have a Belgian waffle, and it was actually heaven. Unfortunately, the tour was in the middle of pouring rain and when it was about 30 degrees outside, so it was pretty miserable. No one really had packed for rain or for extreme cold (except me who had my trench coat and a heavy sweater), so everyone was freezing. I was freezing though too, to be fair, and I had to eventually buy another pair of gloves as the ones I brought turned into touch screens one because my fingers went right through the material. The walking tour was really interesting, though, because I didn't know there was so much history in Belgium. We learned a lot about Victor Hugo and saw where he and his mistress lived. We saw the oldest chocolate shop and town square and different meeting places for guilds back in the day. Brussels itself is a medieval city and was built in the 5-6th century and literally means city on the muddy river. We also saw this infamous fountain of a child peeing which apparently is used to symbolize the linen industry in Brussels and how they used to bleach the linen. The tour was about 2 hours, and when we met back at the hotel our rooms were ready. By that point all of us desperately needed to warm up and unpack, and then met up afterwards for dinner. The four of us tried to go to this one restaurant that the tour guide suggested to us, but it was too busy and way too loud so we ended up at a seafood burger place. It was really bizarre as they were burgers but made out of seafood? They kind of tasted like calamari except in a patty form. Seafood is pretty popular here and it was good. After dinner we walked around and went back to a chocolate shop the tour guide said was legit Belgian chocolate and not just some tourist trap. We got some souvenirs and took more pictures and then called it a night. I caught up on Supernatural, and now am going to bed as we have to wake up very early to tour the EU tomorrow. The wifi is really good at this hotel so enjoy the pictures.