January 6th, 2013
To most people, Christmas break is a time of sleeping in, staying in your PJs for days on end and generally being lazy. But for me, it meant just the opposite. The morningsI was able to sleep in were only because I had been awake sooo late the night before! This was one of those mornings where, despite waking up in the afternoon, I still barely got the doctor recommended amount of sleep necessary to not be a zombie! ;)
Laurelia and Robin had told me that they would be going to Robin's parents' house for lunch and so I took this as my cue to sleep until I could sleep no more! Sure, I could have gotten up and went into the city to explore only own, except for the minor facts that:
1) I had no idea how to get into town from their place on my own.
2) I thus would have no way to figure out how to get back home on my own!
3) I had no way of communicating with them once I left their house, as my phone didn't work without wifi.
And so I concluded the most intelligent plan was to sleep in, take a long shower, and update my notes for my blog. It was a really relaxing morning, but I was super excited for them to get home.
When they did, Laurelia reheated those delicious meatballs for me (yummmmmmmy) for lunch while she began preparing dinner, which would be meat that would need to slowly cook to become very tender. After my lunch and her cooking, she, Robin and their roommate, Mathieu, all told me they were going to take me on a tour of their city for the late afternoon/night! We hopped in the car to begin the epic tour we jokingly dubbed the "Brussels Express," electroswing music blasting. Mr. Scruff's "Get a Move On" is pretty much the best song ever - especially while blaring in the VW of a mid-20 year old foreign guy taking you on a high speed and thrilling cruise around a new city with a stunt driver's command and finesse while driving a manual transmission. My. Version. Of. Bliss.
I had no idea what to expect from the "Brussels Express" tour. Maybe they were going to drive me around the city and point things out? Maybe they would let me stop for a few pictures? Maybe we'd get a beer at some point? I was clearly completely unprepared for the pure awesomeness that I was actually about to experience.
After driving us around the city, pointing out a few landmarks, Mathieu parked the car outside a gorgeous church and they asked if I wanted to go inside. As usual with these European cathedrals, it was absolutely gorgeous inside and out. They took me downstairs and showed me the original ruins of a Roman church that had originally been on that spot and a map showed the progression and growth of the cathedral through the past hundreds and hundreds of years - so cool! The church was full of Nativity Scenes made by other churches from around the world; they were all so unique and captured each individual culture so well! The funniest thing in the cathedral was definitely the two comic strip pages they had about the church on the wall. Brussels is known as the capital of comics and comic books, but to see information about the cathedral in comic-book format was beyond strange (and sooo amazing!). ^_^
After copious amounts of pictures and ample time to take in the calming and divine energy that only gorgeous, old European cathedrals can radiate, I figured we'd get in the car and head in the direction of home - but oh how wrong I was! Instead, we walked down the stairs, passed a VW Van selling Belgian Waffles (!!!) and were suddenly in the city center. In all actuality, "Brussels Express" was just beginning!
They took me through tiny winding streets only big enough for pedestrians and before I knew it we were at Delirium Cafe!!!!!!!!!
Now, it is necessary that you understand the brief backstory to just why this was so unbelievably exciting...
When I lived in Portland, Oregon, Delirium was a big deal sort of beer - which is saying a lot, considering Portland is super obsessed with beer as a whole. It is bascially some Portlanders' past time, and while I could find this rather endearing in a European city, in America it was just outright bothersome. However, Delirium managed to avoid my scorn. See, it was served at fairly exclusive restaurants and bars and was on the expensive side. I remember one sign I would bike by on my way to Cupcake Jones that was always boasting of the fact the had Delirium beer. Although I think I only actually tried the beer maybe once, I was obsessed with it for two reasons:
1) The logo of the beer is a really cute pink elephant! :)
2) My most favorite entertainer in Portland's stage name is Delirium. Since the first time I saw her, I have been a bit obsessed... And when I figured out her name was inspired by this brand, well, there was nothing I could do but become equally as obsessed with it as I was with her. ;)
My first day in Dublin I saw a bottle of Delirium for sale at an alcohol store nearby Maite's place and I took a picture of it and everything! I read the bottle and discovered for the first time that it was made in Belgium. I told myself to remember this and look for it (as well as bunches and bunches of Lambics... as they also have their origins and are made mostly in Belgium!) when I was there.
And so, I did remember and brought it up to Laurelia and Robin when they asked what kind of Belgium beer I liked. In the same conversation, I asked them about the pub I had read about which supposedly had the most beers on their menu than any other pub in the world. "Yeah!" Robin exclaimed. "That's Delirium Pub!"
WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
And so, it was our second stop on our Brussels Express - and, by far, the most amazing part. ^_^ Delirium Cafe is like a tiny street (on which the female version of Manekin Pis is! A fountain/statue of a little girl popping a squat is pretty awesome, if we're being honest!) made up of a few different bars - the main one, of course, being Delirium Pub. Outside Delirium Pub is a sign that boasts of it being in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the bar with the most kinds of beer served! :) So. Cool.
We went inside to have a beer and when Robin handed me the menu, I couldn't believe it! It was literally an entire catalog (50 pages?) of BEER!! Each kind had a photo and a little explanation of the flavor. I was utterly mesmerized ( so much so that afterwards, I bought one of their catalog menus for €5)!! I was thinking I would go with a Lambic (yummmmmmmmy), but then I saw something I couldn't NOT order... What might just be the most epic beer in the world (more epic even than Portland's Rogue Brewery's Voodoo Bacon Maple Ale - because that beer tastes soooooo gross!):
COOKIE BEER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was incredulous and beyond ecstatic. It was like a dream come true. ;) When Matheiu brought our beers to the table, all I could do was take a million pictures of the unique and delicious beers (delicious?!). We got a really cute photo of Dulcinea surrounded by all the bottles and glasses, too!
And then it was time to try it. What does a cookie flavored beer with 9% alcohol level taste like?
PIRE DELICIOUSNESS!!!
Sitting in Delirium Bar in Brussels, sipping Cookie Beer with with my new Belgian friends, I had one of those little "Is this real life?!" moments. ^_^ They all drank their beer and had a nice conversation (mostly in French) while I sat there and took it all in - from the pink elephant stickers on the ceiling, to the walls made out of Delirium bottles, to the big barrels that were the tables to the man at the bar wearing a big, pink, stuffed elephant hat (nobody is surprised that before we left the bar, I also purchased one of those pink stuffed elephant hats - it is totally one of the coolest souvenirs i bought and I'm not the least been embarrassed by that - hahaha!). Amazing.
I was really hoping we would stay for a second beer (Laurelia had gotten a peach Lambic and let me try it after she'd mixed it with Robin's Tripel and it was so yummy that I wanted one!), but after I stood up to buy my souvies, I realized that as sweet as that cookie beer was, it truly practically was a Tripel with its 9% of alcohol, and I realized it was just as well we had to leave, otherwise the second part of the Brussels Express tour might well have been even more fun, but it'd be questionable how much I'd remember of it. ;)
We walked through the tiny, adorable and quaint streets, lined with seafood restaurants with elaborate displays of their fresh fish, shrimps and mussels, and passed countless Belgian chocolate shops and Belgian waffle shops. Matheiu stopped at one - according to them, one of the most famous and best pastry type shops in Brussels- called Dandoy from the mid-1800's and Mathieu bought a sweet but slightly savory and very buttery waffle type thing for me to try. Yum!
We stopped in the Grot Markt (the main plaza of Brussels) to admire all of the gorgeous buildings lit up in bright colors. I was taking pictures of them all when all of a sudden music came on and the lights on the buildings started dancing and changing in time to the music!! We all sat down in the middle of the square and watched the show for five minutes (it was still going when we left!)! :) It was like something you'd see in Disney World, if Disney World had some of the most gorgeous and historic buildings in the world, of course. ;) Haha!
I think the coolest thing I saw on our walk around Brussels that night was two merry-go-rounds in two different squares in the city - but not just any merry-go-rounds. These were Steampunk merry-go-rounds!!! ^_^ They were just such unique and modern installations to have in the middle of such a beautiful and historic city, and the contrast was ballsy and brilliant! The cutest part was how there were kids riding on them both and clearly having a great time on these strange moving insects and air balloons and seahorses with monocles! :)
We continued our walk and ended up in the middle of the Christmas markets!! There were stalls and stalls of mulled wine, hand knit hats, beer, waffles, toys, sausages, jewelry... and even cupcakes!! Laurelia had told me when I arrived that she had a friend who owned a cupcake shop, but I had thought she was just being silly. As it turned out, she was way serious and THIS was her friend's booth at the Christmas market!! Amazing!! Laurelia talked to the lady for a bit, while I got busy taking pictures of Dulcinea with these fellow cupcakes that were just her size. The lady even let me put Dulcinea inside the display to take pictures of her!! Laurelia then bought me a cupcake and told me to choose whichever one i wanted! :) I picked the one with rainbow sprinkles and glittery (!) vanilla icing. ^_^ I'd never seen such a shimmery cupcake in my life, and after admiring its beauty, ate it right away. Haha!
We perused the market, watched the kids ice skating in the middle of the plaza, passed the other Steampunk merry-go-round, visited with another one of Laurelia's friends, bought some candy, admired the giant Ferris wheel on the other end of the market and sampled some (rather gross) warm cherry beer. The market was so quaint and bright, and the vibe was so spirited! After we'd gone through the whole thing, we headed back in the direction of the car. On the way, Laurelia showed me where her favorite bar was ("Madam Moustache"!) and where her bar had been (she'd told me the day before how she used to own and run a little bar cafe near the center), which looked like it must have been absolutely adorable!!
A few minutes later, we were back on the road, electroswing blasting. Matheiu drove us around the city to show me the beauty of it at night, and then pulled over and parked in front of a huge building - their justice building (supposedly one of the biggest and most beautiful in Europe - but infamous for the fact that it has been under restorations for years and years and thus you cannot see it because the whole building is covered in those tiers of metal that buildings have when construction is going on).
The whole thing was ginormous and looked like something that would have been build in Rome by one of the Caesars! As we climbed the stairs, they told me how the dome of the structure had been graffitied awhile back and it took them a year to figure it and they only did because a helicopter flew over it and saw it! Haha! Anyway, we went in and admired the vast amount of marble and the giant marble statues and flights of marble stairs. We joked that it would be decidedly the best place to have an hour long dubstep/electroswing pop up dance party, because it was open but completely abandoned at night, and was beyond gorgeous and with great acoustics - haha!!
Our other main stop of the night was a park that had a cute little theater and cafe in it, as well as a sort of outside club with lots of colorful lights. Laurelia wanted to show it to me, because it was where she had applied for a job and would hopefully be working there soon. :)
After a quick stop at the night corner store for beer, we were home and all ready for dinner. Meat had been slowly cooking while we'd been out on our Brussels Express tour, and Laurelia had been getting a little worried towards the end a out it. But it was delicious like the meatballs from the night before! :) After dinner, Laurelia gave me some electroswing on my USB (!!) and we watched a super strange movie, called "God Bless America." The movie was a out a middle aged man who lived a very predictable and depressing life and one day almost killed himself, before realizing it would be more useful to kill a reality TV star who was a bratty, rude, self-important teenage girl to make a point to America about how it's values were deteriorating. The movie goes on where he gets a partner in crime - a classmate of that girl he kills, who is equally as fed up with American culture in terms of entitlement and disrespect - and they go on a killing rampage. It's funny and disturbing at the same time and clearly went along with this strange sense of humor Laurelia and Robin kept telling me is an infamous characteristic of people from Brussels... o_O
Alas it was time to sleeeep! I hugged Robin and Matheiu goodbye, as they would be ago work the next day and wouldn't be back before I left, and Robin told me I was welcome back anytime and that his home was my home. :) Cute!
XOXO
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