Day 46

Today was my last full day in Brussels. We woke up early and dressed nicely to go to the European Commission. The European Commission is just the part of the European Union that regulates everything pretty much. It took us about a half an hour to walk there, and we had to go through some pretty hefty security to enter. We were then led into a conference room where a tour guide showed us a Power Point for three hours. We had a coffee break in between, but it was pretty long. Some parts of it were pretty interesting, like when he was talking about the refugee crisis, but other parts were boring, like when he was talking just about the structure of it. We got a free pin of the flag of the European Commission and a bag and a pen, so it was pretty worth it just for that I think. We then walked over to the European Parliament where it was a self-guided interactive visit. They had some cool technology where you walked around and swiped a device at each picture and a reading would pop up in your language to read.  We thought we were going to eat there, as was the original plan, but our tour guide ended up steering us to a McDonalds, so I was forced to eat American food. After the tour, it was about 3, so Emelia and I went back to the hotel room to change out of our heels and dresses, then went back out to walk around the city. We went into a lot of comic book stores (because Tin Tin and the Smurfs are really popular) and took another picture of the peeing statue because he was dressed in a new outfit today. We all then met for supper later at a seafood place, and I got mussels with garlic and butter that were really good. (Mussels in Brussels :D) This one girl took advantage of the fact that the tour guide was paying and bought, no lie, a three course meal. She was really annoying, but besides that it was a good meal despite it taking about three hours. Emelia and I then walked some more before turning in for the night, and Skyping our parents and eating the rest of our Belgian chocolate from yesterday. Tomorrow we are going on the largest Ferris Wheel in Europe (bigger than the London Eye), and hopefully getting some chocolate for Mom :D My Disney letter came in the mail today at home so I'm super excited for that too! I'll post more pictures tomorrow when I'm not feeling lazy.