Overwhelming the senses

NH Brussels City Centre, Brussels, Belgium

We had our last big night out tonight. There were ten of us: Adam, Brian, Christian, Chirag, Deidre, Ellen, Isabel, Jeroen, me, and Patrick. We ate at a Parisian restaurant. I had rabbit for the first time; hasenfeffer, as grandpa calls it. It was pretty good.

After a little wandering, we made it to the bar we were looking for. It was right outside of the female equivalent of the Manniken Pis. If you're wondering why I didn't mention it before, it's because I didn't know about it. Frankly the imagery was a bit disturbing and I was kind of glad I didn't have my camera.

The bar served 2,500 different kinds of beer. That's right, when you walk down into the cellar/bar, you can choose from 2,500 different kinds of beer. They literally have two large books full of selections. When you stack the two, they're about the size of a phone book. For being a cellar, it was very hot. Probably 80 degrees.

Next came the live band. Now you'll have to excuse me, I'm going to be a bit un-PC. I believe the guys were Dutch, but they were belting out some oldies.

Intro:

We haf our coffee... with brun shu-GRR.

Then:

Brun shu-GRR! You no you teest so guhd!
Brun shu-GRR! Just liek a yun girl shuhd!

Maybe it was just me, but I thought it was hillarious. Do people actually put brown sugar in their coffee?

The combination of smoke and heat and noise and fatigue gently nudged me toward leaving early. I said my goodbyes to Brian, Christian, Isabel, and Jeroen. We all said that we'd keep in touch; hopefully we all will. I took what was probably my last walk across Brussels. It was a nice night for it.

I had one final stop to make. When I got back to the hotel, I asked at the front desk for a good place to get some coke. Looking back, I hope he doesn't think I'm a crackhead or anything. He told me where a night grocery was. I walked over, and lo and behold, there were 1.5 liter bottles of Diet Coke. Tonight, I am a happy man.

So here's my plan. I'm going to stay up all night watching DVD's. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep on the trip back. I'm not sure if this is a well thought-out plan or not, but I guess we'll see tomorrow.