Wow the week flew by quicly. In current events I booked tickets for Berlin on the 25th, so I am definitly going there now. More important weekend news, Laura arrived Saturday morning and is spending the week with me before heading south to do anthropological work. It was great catching up with here Saturday night. Yesterday was perfect sunny, 80 degree, no humidity day. Therefore I took Laura on a tour of Darmstadt, which includes all of 5 things. We took breaks at every point to chat about life back home and how much we miss seeing and hearing from people in high school and what they're up too. Today there is no plan at the moment.

Now for some time travel to last weekend and Brussels.

We set out Thursday morning at 6am, YEAH, and took a 6.5 hour train ride to Brussels. We found are hostel then walked around the city for 3 some hours before heading back for siesta. After three blissful hours of sleep we found dinner and a bar to experience some of Belgiums 350 types of beer. Every beer has a different taste there. The raspberry beer is interesting slow drink. It tastes more like a coctail then a beer. We also tried a Westmalle Triple, i.e. three times stronger then a normal European beer putting it at 15%. None of us liked it, and I don't recommend trying it if you make it out this way. Bed by midnight.

Friday spend some time quickly in the old innercity portion, and then headed out to the European Parlimant building about and hour walk East of the city center. We also found the Military museum, which was intneresting to walk around. Unfortunatly a larger portion of the 17th and 18th century weapons, uniforms and paintings was closed off. Found lunch at a bar near our hostel before taking another three hour nap. By the end we understood why and how Spanish people have siesta and eat dinner at 10pm. Dinner was a nice Italian place followed by a Cuban bar for drinks and poker. Pia, Sebastian and I continued, Marit and Frida head back, on to a small traditional bar with puppet shows, though we missed the show, to try some more crazy beer. Though I though I was ordering a relativly normal beer I ended up with a cherry flavour, that we decided at the Cuban bar that we didn't like. From there we headed to the trendy district for a Danish beer that we could trust. Bed by 3am.

Saturday was by far the best day of the entire trip. First some context, Brussels is a boring tourist city. The most noteworthy attractions are the main square and the Cathedral at the top of the hill. As soon as you step outside the square northward you come to the restraunt district: narrow streets with tabels and overpriced restraunts on both sides. West from the square is the main shopping and souvenir shops. All of this can easily be covered in one day. Everything else outside of those areas is housing or empty/empty looking office buildings. The night life on the other hand is very good. With some friends and a willingness to drink a beer or two while chatting, then your in business. The traditional bars make for a nice quite start with the older crowd. Moving to the tredy district from there definitly adds some energy. Most of the bars are around one diamond shaped intersection, and are packed with life.

Our journey started with Atomium, a atom shaped building left from the 1953 World Fair and a restraunt in the area. Heading back we found a nice traditional bar with an upper floor, where we learned to count in French and Norwegian. From there we headed to a upbeat trendy bar for tequilla and beer. Once the place started getting quite we headed across the street to a more lively place for beer and a bottle of wine. At closing time we headed back to the hostel and found a bar with a dance floor in back and headed in for some vodka and dancing. We had a riot on the floor, and it was a good influence on the other people there. After we started dancing, they actually got out of there seats and joined in. Once again at closing we headed back and found a burgers and fries stand still open and picked up some late night food for the walk back. Made it back around 4:30am in bed by 5am. Up around 10am for the 4 hour direct train ride home. An amazing weekend.