Belgium with Jordan and Paige was awesome! It was quite the struggle getting there by train because Jordan and I missed our train to Cologne by 30 seconds. We literally saw the Deutschebahn workers close the doors as we were running up to them. A train ride that was supposed to take two hours, ended up taking us about 4. Originally it was supposed to Paige, Jordan and I on the train that took off at 4:45 but only Paige managed to get on it. So, it was just Jordan and I left to figure out the rest of the connecting trains that would get us to Verviers Central Station.
We ended up getting a much slower train than what we paid for but it took us to Aachen. Here we waited for about an hour to catch another train that was supposed to take us to Verviers. I swear the trains kept getting more and more ghetto. Eventually we made it to Verviers around 9:30 pm and met up with Paige and her Belgian friends.
Paige's friends names were Catherine and Tom. With all our luggage in hand, we followed Catherine and Tom to their apartment where we hung out for a bit and they taught us a few french phrases. I totally forgot all they speak in Belgium is French, so I had to adjust to this. We hung out for a while in the apartment and the entire time we were there, I would say 4 or 5 different people came and went. It was quite the crowd for the small room we were in. After this, the plan was to go out to a bar and have a few drinks but we only made it to one bar and stayed there for an hour. I was so exhausted from traveling that it was time for bed.
The next day started very early and we got a free tour from our new friends of the city of Verviers. They took us to the local market (which seemed to go on forever) and then we caught a train to Brussels.
The difference from one city to the next was pretty crazy. Verviers is a small city with not too much going on while Brussels is a big tourist spot with large, intricate buildings. Once in Brussels, we of course were on the hunt for Belgian waffles and their famous dark beer. After getting awesome pictures of the city (seen below) we walked through town to go to a famous bar called Delirium.
We heard this place had over 2500 different beers to choose from and so we got directions from quite a few people before finding it. It was hard to find because there was a whole section of a street with different signs that said "Delirium". But eventually we found the cafe with this sign:
So we figure it was legit. Once inside we each ordered two or three beers which were all delicious. After hanging out here for an hour or two, we walked through the city and were tempted by some street vendors selling light up glasses. Naturally, we all got some and then proceeded to take 34234 pictures with them.
Yep, we were those people. Oh how could I forget, they had the best chocolate there and I definitely got at least 20-30 euros worth. After the photoshoot ended, we caught our train back to Verviers and went back to the hotel because we were pooped.
All in all, Belgium was a lot of fun. Next time we won't miss our train and maybe we'll get there on time. :)
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