A Few Days in Brussels.

Belgium was never on my list of places to visit. Not that I have anything against it, I just was never particularly attracted to going there. As it turned out, my favorite author was giving a 5 day workshop in the Belgian countryside and to be honest, that's what this entire vacation was based off of...going to meet Michael Roads.

As you probably know by now, I don't follow any organized religion, but I'm pretty committed on my own spiritual path. I found Michael Roads while searching random spiritual subjects around a year ago, and devoured almost all of his books since then. For me, meeting him was like how other people probably feel about meeting...oh I don't know, George Clooney.

So that was to be the finale of our grand world tour...

...but first, we stopped for a few days to visit Brussels and experience a little culture!

At the BEST restaurant, C'est Bon, C'est Belge. The owner was hilarious and the food was delicious...and the beer? Obviously.

The famous Mannekin Pis statue.

The much less famous Jannekin Pis. I'm still confused about this strange obsession with peeing children...

Loved the Royal city mailboxes

I had always heard that Belgium is famous for waffles, beer, and chocolate...but until I lived in France, I never knew they are also prized for their mussels and fries. Richard is obsessed and so we had them every day. 

 

At the castle...

We did lots of shopping, took a historical tour around the Town Hall, happened upon a Renaissance Fair at the castle, and had fun with the locals...

Our Airbnb host this time was awesome and he and Richard really hit it off. That first night he brought out his guitar and Richard taught him a few things. A few drinks later, we were all belting Rhianna songs and laughing our asses off. 

The second night we met up with some guy we met on couchsurfing for dinner at his place. He was really nice and kind of quirky. There were maybe a few too many cats in his apartment, some strange nude photos stuck awkwardly to the walls, and a Japanese couchsurfer staying there who didn't speak either English or French but who loved to take photos of every second that passed. We made fish tartar together, and at dinner he asked us if we could taste anything special (something you don't really want to hear when you're eating with a stranger...)

And that's when he whipped out this little bottle of cannabis oil he bought in Amsterdam.

"I put it in the tartar!" He laughed...

So by the time we got on the (cleanest!) train to Tilff...I was in love again. Brussels was like the coolest mix of London, Paris, Germany, and then something all it's own. The people were unique and welcoming and the whole atmosphere just had a good vibe. Oh and the food...