7/16 Belgian waffles rule!

I got up and packed my big bag first. It had to be outside the door for the porter at 6:30. After packing my 2 carry on bags, I went downstairs to breakfast around 7:15. It was a nice big buffet. I feasted on eggs and bacon and fruit. Afterwards, I made my way downstairs to where the tour groups all congregate.

There were a lot of people downstairs. Apparently, they have about 4-5 different tours leaving the same day from the same hotel. When they called out my tour number around 8:15, I boarded the bus and soon we were off on our journey.

Apparently, the groups were all mixed up until we actually crossed by boat into Belgium where we would meet our actual guide and get on the bus that we would be on throughout the tour.

We drove a couple of hours to Dover, as in "the white cliffs of Dover." It was pouring down rain so my pictures of the cliffs I took inside the coach make the cliffs look fuzzy.

We got off the coach and had to wait an hour before we could board the ferry. We waited in this building that had a couple fast food restaurants and a little convenience store. I bought some candy and used the free wifi that the building had.

An hour later we boarded the ferry. I had to walk pretty far to get on but once I did it was such a relief. There was a really nice shopping area, 2 cafes, and a video arcade. I took a seat on a comfy bench and read my book and surfed the Internet as we made our way to the port of Calais.

The water was choppy and when we arrived an hour later I was very relieved. At one point a group of really loud teenagers had sad right near me and made me want to jump overboard. It was because of these teenagers that I didn't hear the announcement of where to get off the ferry. I took the elevator up and down, walked to the front and the back of the ferry, and almost got hit by a bus! I knew I was supposed to get off the ferry to join my actual tour bus but I literally had no idea where to walk off. I wasn't alone, either, because there was a whole group of us wandering around. After about 10 mins., I actually found a worker who directed us to the right level and staircase to take. He got on his radio and told whoever was on the other end, "I found them. There's about 12 of them."

I walked down the ramp and out into the pouring rain. There were 5 buses waiting. I was told by a worker to find my bus based on my tour number. I found my bus, got on, and walked to the very back, which had the only seat left.

A woman got on the microphone and introduced herself as Minyon, our tour director from Holland, though she is of Chinese descent. She then came around and gave us each a sticker that we had to attach to our luggage tag. Our luggage was sitting out in the pouring rain. By the time I got to my bag, it was soaked all the way through. I loaded it on the coach and took my seat.

We then took off through France into Belgium on our way to Brussels. The drive was about 2 1/2 hours. The rain continued the rest of the way into Brussels. Once we got to our hotel, we only had about 45 mins. to put our stuff away because we then had to meet downstairs to go on our night tour of Brussels. It was an optional excursion that cost 25 euros but if you decided not to go, you would miss out on Brussels altogether.

About 30 of us met and got on the bus. Our local guide fir the evening was Myra. She was super sweet and had a very sing-song voice. We drove through the city as she pointed out important buildings, monuments and statues. We made a picture stop at a beautiful arch in the middle of town.

We then had to get out of the bus and start our walking part if the tour in the rain. Myra took us down the city streets, pointing out the chocolate shops and places to get Belgian waffles. Just the smell of them made my mouth water!

We then got to the 2 highlights of the tour: the little peeing boy statue, followed immediately by our free beer at a pub. I tried one of the local specialties: cherry flavored beer, which tasted more like cherry 7up than beer, so I loved it! I was drinking at a high top table solo (sad!) and a woman from my tour group asked me to join her and her husband and son. We sat and chatted. Turns out they are from Illinois. Her name is Lucinda, her husband is Paul, and their grown son in Justin, who I noticed is a diabetic and chain smoked cigarettes.

They invited me to come eat with them. We walked up and down the street in the pouring rain but all we were finding were Greek restaurants. We decided on an Italian place but wr only had 30 mins to eat and meet the group, which we told our waiter. After we ordered, I decided to go down the street to get my Belgian waffle because I wouldn't have time to get one after. I got one with tons of whipped cream and it was sooo good! I brought the rest of my waffle to the restaurant and ate while we waited for the pizzas we ordered.

The waiter said the pizzas could each feed one person. He lied. They were about the size of a medium pizza from a delivery place. I ate half quickly because we only had about 10 mins. to get back to the meeting place. We got our check, I boxed up my pizza and the rest of my waffle, we paid and ran to our meeting spot in the plaza. We got there right as the guide was counting to make sure everyone was there. We finished walking around the plaza and made our way up the hill back to the bus.

We drove back to the hotel. It was already 10:30 and we had a 6:45 wake up call. My roommate for the night was going to be a college aged girl name Mikayla who is here with her boyfriend. She didn't come to the room after the tour so I assumed she was staying with her boyfriend. I took a shower and when I got out she popped in the room. I asked if she was staying with her boyfriend and she hesitated and told me that she doesn't sleep in the same room with him because she is Christian. I told her that was cool. She said she was just going to sleep in the room but hang out and keep her stuff in his room.

She left and came back 20 mins. later after I had turned out the lights. We then both went right to sleep.