Brussels Sprouts...to the Next Level:)

I have never been to so many exciting, crazy places and made so many unforgettable memories than I did in the last two weeks that my friend Nabila was here in Europe with me.

She arrived the day after Christmas, and I can’t tell you how nice it was to have her here during the holiday vacation when everyone else was back home with their families and friends.

Having her here kept my mind off missing my family and more on just having fun. Her first few days here, I showed her around Brussels. I never realized how much I have gotten to know this city in the last few months, and I was impressed by how much I could show her and tell her about.

Of course I had to bring her out to my favorite club!

My room after getting ready to go out.... at least it has character!

Her first taste of real Belgian frites with my favorite sauce..Andalouse! 

Holding up the Atomiom:)

Artistic lit-balls at Place Staphanie

In front of the King's garden!

In front of the most luxurious chocolatier in Brussels! (and of course it had to be raining to add that perfect Belgian touch!)

 

Eating waffles with Mannekin Pis!

 It was also great to show her the Brussels Christmas market, since she has never experienced any kind of European Christmas market before, which is definitely something I recommend everyone should do in their lifetime. Let me tell you, Europeans really know how to bring in the homely, holiday spirit. I even convinced Nabila to try the hot wine, even though she dislikes wine very much and even gags sometimes when she drinks it. But I figured since hot wine is usually much sweeter than normal wine, it wouldn’t be too bad. Well, let’s just say she was almost able to get down the whole (tiny) cup. Funny thing to mention while on this subject…on Nabila’s first day in Brussels, my host family made a giant goose for dinner, which we ate the German way (with Rotkohl (sweet red cabbage) and Knödel (potato dumplings). With it, it is tradition to drink a strong red wine. Without asking, Sylvia and Oliver served both Nabila and I wine. We both tried the wine, and immediately puckered at the taste…this wine was the strongest I’d ever tasted. Nabila and I were already beginning to feel drunk after 3 sips, and we could barely get those down, the wine was just too strong tasting for us. Anyway, that was Nabila’s first experience with legal alcohol, which we both find funny since, let’s just say, it wasn’t the most enjoyable experience.

Anyway, we checked out the Christmas market, ate roasted chestnuts (actually a first for me, but not for Nabila, who laughed at me when I tried to eat the entire chestnut without first removing the shell..whoops) and tried the sweet liquor that is traditionally drunk here in the winter, called Jenevers. It comes in an unbelievable number of flavors, from violet to cactus to even waffle flavor (which is actually better tasting than it sounds...tastes mostly just like vanilla flavoring, which is a common ingredient in waffles here). Of course I also had her try a real Belgian waffle, which she declared delicious and NOTHING like the American kind. 

Eating chestnuts!

Meet our new friend! Just kidding:) This picture makes us laugh every time we look at it... We went to the grande place for the light show and asked a woman to take our picture. As she snapped the shot, we heard a kind of "Aroh!" sound behind us. The lady gave us back the camera saying, "good, good!" (She was Asian and seemed to speak broken english). We looked at the picture...and saw this. Oh man:) (or should I say, "Oh gramps" ) 

Of course I had to bring her to the famous Delirium bar, which has three floors and a giant bar with over 2,000 kind of beer. People sit inside giant brass containers that used to be used to make the beer, and the walls of the place are covered with old advertisements and blinking signs for every type of Belgian beer imaginable. It is quite a unique place:) We met some 30 year old American guys there who obviously thought we were much older than we are. They finally revealed to us that they were on a trip with their wives. We gave them some recommendations for places to go out and left it at that...