Delirious on Delirium

The country of beer, mussels, frites, and chocolate. Our time in belgium would consist of 3 nights in Brussels. Locked in a hotel room near the centre, so everything is prettying within walking distance. The weather hasn't been amazing while we've been here. Got drenched on our first day, so much so we ended up buying umbrellas for €5.50. They were shit. Asty's didnt even stay open for one. Meh, they did the job. We cruised the streets checking out the main sites round central Brussels. The MIM (musical instruments museum) was recommended by Lonely Planet, but without an English audioguide, or any english-translated info, it wasn't really that informative. Pretty much a bunch of instruments in display cases. We found the Mannekin Pis and it's opposite, the Jeaneke Pis. They're both statutes, one of a boy taking a pee and the other of a girl taking a pee. Pretty classic. Mannekin Pis is located conveniently round a bunch of Belgium waffle and chocolate shops. Was rude not to get a waffle, even though we'd just had breakfast.

On our way to Jeaneke pis, we bumped into Mark Scott. Random as hell. He'd been at Delirium Cafe. I was keen to check it out, as it's the pub/cafe that held the Guiness World Record for most beers on its menu
(2500+, but at any one time they've got 2004 on offer). Awesome pub that plays sweet music. We had a couple of the delerium tremens (elected as the worlds best beer, apparently...) and one delirium nocturnum. Both beers were tasty, the tremens was very good. Turns out both beers were around 9%, so we were feeling pretty good after the pub. As per usual, after a couple beers you get a bit peckish. We hadn't had lunch, so decided to indulge in a bucket of mussels and frites. Rue de bouches is a street that is packed with all these restaurants that offer the same menu and same prices. One waiter was like "eat here, this whole street is the same shit, at least here I will look after you." we didn't eat there. We did find a place that did mussels tho, and man we were musseled out after... After the mussels, we pretty much wandered thru the grand place and back to hotel for a kip. Not much eventuated after the kip.

We'd heard good things bout Gent, but since we'd locked in accom in Brussels already, we decided that we'd day trip it to Gent. Gent was awesome, small place with cool buildings. They were gearing up for a festival on the weekend, so there were Marques and stands being out up all round the centre. There was supposed to be a sweet street art street in gent, but it was more graffiti then "art" - still worth a look tho. After a late afternoon beer on the river, we jumped on the train back to Brussels. Later that night, after a sweet feed of roast duck and char siu in rice, we headed back to delerium for some more tasty pints, one of which was a banana beer. it was interesting, definitely worth trying, but not one you'd want too many of.

The Cantillon Brewery is one of the last breweries to brew natural lambic beers. They run tours through there... well, they give you a book of info and let you wander round through the brewery. It's pretty cheap and they give you a couple free samples at the end. The brewery itself it pretty choice and informative, but the beers aren't really my kinda beer - slightly sour and have no sugar in them. Not that good. 

Next stop (and last stop) is ol' Paris. Staying with Andrew, so that shud cut down on accom costs. We've got five nights here before we head back to London. We also have managed to keep up our ability to stumble upon random festivals; Bastille's day in France happens while we're there, so that shud make things interesting!