Do I detect a hint of horse blanket?

So last night was our first night in Brussels, and a group of us went out to a local hot spot, Delirium Cafe-- a bar with supposedly over 2000 beers. It turns out that it is right around the corner from our hotel, so I'm betting we'll frequent here... Well not even betting--turns out they have free wi-fi so I'm here again already writing this blog! Anyway, today we started out with a city tour, as per usual, and Brussels is so different from both Munich and Berlin. Some I already mentioned last night, but even more was noticed today. I already mentioned the personal safety issue, but it seems like everything is a lot more cutthroat-- more vicious traffic, more aggressive people, pushier salesmen... so I'm not as confident here, even though I understand more of the language. Like I said before, we are located right in the heart of the city, so most of our tour was pretty centrally located. Something I found really interesting was that under a lot of the city is the remains of a monastery and the remains of a former castle. You can look in windows here and there and just see this entire set of ruins underground! We stopped at a museum with a cafe on the 10th floor, which allowed for some chocolat chaud with a nice view. We also got to see the infamous Manneken Pis, which was a lot smaller than I expected. He was also dressed in some sort of Italian uniform-- apparently he gets dressed up all the times. Our tour guide also pointed out some good places to eat, and so we stopped into Le Chat Noir for lunch, and she was right, it was tasty.

After lunch, we went to Cantillon Brewery-- a brewery that makes Lambic-style beers. At Cantillon, they brew using a lot older machinery, and open fermentation practices--this allows for their beer to be activated using all the yeasts and bacteria in the air. Also, because of their practices, they can only brew in limited months-- about November to March. These practices along with the fact that their beers are conditioned and constantly fermenting for years, gives their beers a unique taste. Most of their beers are pretty sour and acidic due to the spontaneous fermentation, some are a bit barn-yard-y due to the fact that they are brewed in a barn... but they also make some fruit beers that add a little bit of other flavors. Overall I wasn't a huge fan, but it was interesting to try something so different from what we've been drinking the past few weeks.

Anyway, since I'm using the wi-fi in a bar, I didn't think to grab my camera along with my computer, so I still haven't had a chance to upload photos. Hopefully I can do that in my room without the wi-fi and then add them to my posts later.