well I made it to Brussels, Belgium and it has been a whirlwind of two days. I successfully made it to my hostel, with some help from the kind man at the train station, and even made some new friends.

I will say my slightly introverted self struggled at first, not knowing how to jump into new conversations with people who all seemed to know each other…but I got over my fears and made some wonderful new friends.

Today I walked around with some wonderful people who I met at the hostel and tried so much chocolate I thought I was going to explode. The chocolate was sooo good. I went to the chocolate museum, which with my 6 euro purchase I was able to sample several kinds of “real” chocolate as well as get a demonstration for how the chocolate is made.

This afternoon, I went on an alternative tour and saw the non-touristy part of Brussels. The tour guide was fantastic and I got to see a side to the city, I might otherwise not have gotten to see. Among the things we saw there was an ally way of murals with anomous quotes from those in the LBGTQ community that were absolutely mind blowing. Not to get too polictical but if only people treated others with kindness and compassion and inclusion, could a good portion of the turmoil in this country be dealt with.

I tried some wonderful French fries with a slightly spicy sauce called “Dallas”. I did not realize French fries (Frites) were quite so popular in Belgium. Apparently you can have all the conversations in Belgium you want about politics and religion but try and debate which shop has the best frites and you might get yourself in trouble.

Overall my hostel experience has been wonderful, and I will definitely be continuing staying in hostels for the rest of my trip. Tomorrow is another traveling day as I head to Bruges another city in Belgium.

Well there are a whole new bunch of people who have showed up in the hostel, so I am off to make more friends and enjoy more of my time traveling abroad. I really feel like I am getting the hang of this traveling thing and I’m excited to continue meeting new people, and learning new things.