On arrival in Brussels, around 9am, I found Tim waiting outside baggage collection and we immediately headed to the airport bar for a quick drink and catch up. 2 hours later, with 4 empty pints in front of each of us, we left the airport and went for a wander around Brussels, theoretically to find the hostel but it ended up just being us, slightly drunk, aimlessly exploring a giant marble courthouse, a few awesome statues and a lookout over a bunch of the city before we gave up, got a cab and checked into the hostel about 2pm.
We left our luggage in the luggage room and went for a walk to find some more food and, having come across another bar on the way, eventually found a little Italian place that was really nice. Polished off a pizza and Tim's leftover half lasagna before we headed back to the hostel, grabbed our bags and had a "nap so we are good to go out tonight" at 5pm.
Woke up at 10am, having forgotten to set an alarm. Apparently we were tired. Went over to the supermarket for sandwiches and berries (us being the epitome of manliness) and then used the hostels computer, it lacking wifi, to check out hostels in Bruges. Found a nice looking place, St Christopher's Inn, but it didn't have space for both of us according to the websites so we decided to wing it. Walked over to Brussels station and jumped on the first train to Bruges.
Arrived in Bruges and Tim bought himself a can of beer while I grabbed a map and, after deciding we weren't in walking distance of the city center we got a quick cab to St Christopher's who had apparently got "loads of space". Got 2 beds in the back of a 10 bed dorm, dropped off our stuff and then went to check out the Hostel's bar.
At this point the time frames become a bit hesitant but we:
- Got reasonably intoxicated on scotch, coke and Duvel
- Had awful kebabs for dinner at some point far past any civilised dinner time
- Hung out with a group of people from Melbourne and an Irish couple
- Talked a lot of crap with the Irish bartender's about the next mornings Australia vs Ireland rugby world cup match which ended up with me speaking in a fake Irish accent for the rest of the night (or Tim would "punish" me if I slipped up, which didn't happen) that I totally pulled off
- Went to the hostel's nightclub, which was small, dingy and playing crap music
- Left the nightclub and wandered around a bit
Woke up at 10am for the rugby game, had a terrible instant coffee for breakfast and went for a walk into Bruges center to find an Irish pub for the rugby game. In retrospect, given the Irish won convincingly, this was a mistake, however it did lead to us having a few beers and getting a little rivalry going.
Afterwards we went for an explore around Bruges, which is a really nice, picturesque little city, grabbed pizza for lunch and ended up back at the bar where we met Simon, from Melbourne, and Ashley from the shire, who was a little bit batshit insane. Left with them to go and play pool in another hostel, which was playing a lot of The Doors and had super cheap pool, which got a little odd with the lengths Ashley would go to put me and Simon off our shots but she eventually left, leaving us feeling slightly raped, and was never seen again.
After a significant amount of pool we left and went back to the bar for more drinks, where we were joined by Sarah and Lindsay from America. Tim passed out in a corner in the booth at around midnight and after being woken by the bar staff 3 times was asked to leave and went to bed. Not long after we headed to the hostel's nightclub, which was playing particularly bad dubstep and then went our separate ways.
Exhausted and not exactly sober by this point I got back to my bed, which was a top bunk and had a curtain along the edge to give sleepers privacy, pulled back the curtain and was confronted by a sleeping guy. I woke him up, told him he was in my bed and to get out. He looked at me, said "get in" and promptly rolled over and went to sleep again. Taken back by this and confused by what to do I went to reception, laughed about it with the Aussie guy on duty and was given a key to the "emergency room" which was completely empty and had way better beds. Victory.
Got to bed about 3, after what ended up being bed incident 1 of 3 of the Tim and Hugh awfuckolypse.
Woke up at 9:30 for checkout, had another nutritious breakfast of coffee and found Tim again. Grabbed our bags, went for an explore around the previously unexplored part of Bruges then got a bus to the train station. Grabbed a train to Antwerp.
We arrived in Antwerp with no idea where we were staying or where the hostels were so we first walked around until we found an Internet cafe where we got a vague photo of a map and 4 hostels to check. Walked to the first one, which took us about half an hour to get to but took us through the Jewish quarter which was very cool and a bit wierd seeing all the traditional Jewish clothing and hairstyle.
The first hostel was completely full so we moved on to the second. After another 20 minutes walking, and ending up back near the train station, we discovered the second hostel was either closed or hated us as we spent about 15 minutes knocking on the front door, various windows and the back door to no avail. Getting slightly frustrated by this point we walked a further 20 minutes to the third option, the "Kangaroo hostel", which now is actually a kebab place.
Our final option was left until last as it was the highest rated on hostelbookers.com and also in the very center of the city, thus making it a) the furthest away and b) the least likely to have beds, so it was a slightly concerned tram ride and 10 minute walk that took us there.
Miraculously they did infact have space for us so we checked in, dumped our stuff and then went to find a pub to watch the Chelsea vs Man Utd football game. The only place we found was called "The Old Trafford" and turned out to indeed by a Man Utd themed bar, complete with completely red painted interior, memorabilia and posters covering every available surface and a bartender/owner who was a Man Utd fan born in Chelsea. Very cautiously we sat down in a corner with our beers to watch the game. Going 3-0 down by half time made it at least safer, although I did get a lot of very angry looks and sworn at by a bartender when I cheered when Chelsea scored just after halftime but it ended 3-1. I still maintain Chelsea played better football and deserved to win.
Went for a wander to explore a bit of Antwerp, had dinner in a little restaurant near the river and actually got to bed at a reasonable time.
Woke up, had hostel breakfast, the first breakfast we successfully ate at, checked out, left our bags in the hostel and walked to the station. Found a cool church and went in for a quick look but ended up getting a free 30 minute tour by an old Belgian guy who worked there which was really interesting.
Found the bus station, jumped on a bus out to Westmalle and set off on our one planned venture of Belgium, visiting a Trappist monastery. Got off the bus in the middle of the countryside, with just a Westmalle Trappist beer cafe on one side and a paved track on the other. Walked up the track to the monastery, via a cool little building that appeared to be a war memorial chapel. The monastery looked very cool from the exterior but when we knocked on the giant door and asked the little old monk, who didn't really speak English, if they were open for visitors we were told no. Wandered around the monastery grounds a bit more then went back to the Trappist cafe where we sampled the amazing Trappist beer, had some very tasty pasta and then got a bus back to Antwerp.
Went for a walk around the north end of the city center via a crazy museum built in the middle of 2 docks the Napoleon had built and then down the river before collecting our bags, heading back to the train station and jumping on a train to Amsterdam.
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