Naked People Pictures

Day 130
I was up early, but once again stuck around a bit late to have the excellent hostel breakfast.

For the past few days I have seen some crazy window displays. I thought that they were odd when I first saw them, but that was nothing. All of the people had hinges where their joints should be and they were doing really weird things. One guy was melting, a group of people were about to throw a girl out of the window. It wasn´t until the second day when I noticed that they were all in different positions that I realized they were telling a story. One was of a couple that started off in separate windows but after some time ended up making out on the roof of the building. Another was of a woman trying to fry a rather ornery fish. It was a lot of fun and there were about 12 of them to check out.

The train ride this morning was to Brussels and was only 45 minutes long. These short rides have really been spoiling me. I was a bit shocked to see the red light district and prostitutes in the windows from the train. It was 9 am! When I got to the train station I went out of the wrong exit and managed to get myself really lost. I was pretty tired of carrying my bag around by the time I finally found the hostel. This was a really hospital like hostel after the first one and really lacking in character.

I had checked out both my guidebook and my map and there wasn´t much that I was interested in in Brussels. It really seemed just like a generic big city. It didn´t help that no matter what I did I seemed to get myself lost. I just couldn´t get my bearings in this city.

After cheating at the travel game and having lunch at Subway I went to the Grote Market to take pictures. When I was here briefly 6 years ago I remembered it being really impressive. This time it was just sort of blah. I then headed down the street to check out the main symbol of Brussels, Mannekan Pis. This is a very small statue of a boy peeing. The story is that he put out a fire this way. So that he won´t be naked different groups cloth him, there is even a museum of his rather large wardrobe. I was disappointed to see that he was naked. He was naked last time I saw him as well.

Once I had the obligatory picture of the statue I headed to his sister, Jeanneke Pis. As you might have guessed this was a statue of a little girl peeing. This one never really took off though and no longer pees, just squats behind a gate.

Right next store is the Delirium Bar. This place has a beer list like a phone book, they have up to 2700, but at least 2004 different types of beer (mostly bottled) at any time. It was a pretty chill place.

I didn´t stay long though because I had to do laundry back at the hostel. I spent the evening reading ´Made in America´ by Bill Bryson about American language and culture. I had a lot of problems putting it down, I highly recommend it. Eventually I fell asleep, only to be rudely woken up several times by my roommates who kept forgetting their keys and indoor voices.