Day 8, May 19, Thursday, Brussels and Paris

I wanted to visit the Atomium, the famous, well not that I knew it before reading the travel guide, building for the world fair, one of the symbols of Belgium and Brussels. It was at the end of the subway, long ride, and it was a very remote area. Soon I saw the modern, cool, silvery Atomium, but, like all other spoilers, it was under renovation too. So I took some photos with silly postures like a fucking posture(no I din't do the V sign), and I ventured into the park nearby. It was a huge park, scenically not that beautiful, but it was a good break from the architectures and cities I've been visiting. There was a river and many silly ducks and other lovely animals. I always loved walking in the trees. Half way up the slope I heard this huge noise, like tides of cheers and laughters splashing onto me. Curious, I walked up to where the noise came from, as it got louder and louder. Finally I saw it, it was a sea of children running around, apparently they were having some outdoors event, like a hiking or something, kinda like Chun You when I was young. Three young girls walked past me, and the cutest of them greeted me, she went, "Bonjour!" I never found French this elegant, maybe this was the reason I studied it. I smiled back and said bonjour. A word from Lolita flashed through my mind as I penned down this journal: nymphet.
After spending half of the day in the most relaxing manner, I returned to a fucking tourist, headed down to the EU parliament, watched men and women in expensive suits walking in and out the lobby, wondered if I passed by any big shots, and posed for another silly picture.
Then came the best part of the trip, I accidentally ran into the Galleries St Hubert, Europe's first of its kind, it's a stylish corridor of the most exquisite stores in Brussels, among the top is Neuhaus, Brussels's or maybe supposed to be the world's most elegant chocolate store, they invented Praline, which is anything with chocolate and something else. The store itself was just beautiful, beautiful and beautiful. Chocolate never seemed so delicious in my life. I bought a box of pralines and they tasted like heaven. Oh my god. Too bad I couldn't bring'em back. Got nice presents for friends from this classy stuffed toys shop too.
After another mesmerizng trip to the central plaza, I headed down to Paris. Paris!
My hostel was amazingly nice. Decent room with a nice bathroom, and there's even a nice little table for me to waste the night away on the computer. The nice, down-to-earth girl at the counter had a funnily coarse voice but I loved her very much.
The best thing of backpacking is running into very nice roommates, and it happened to me this time, two asians, one African(Adrian?), think about it now, I actually forgot their names, what a shame, but we did have a wonderful time together. After finding free wireless internet again and almost really wasting the whole night away in Paris on the Internet, I rescued myself by taking the invitation to go down to a jazz bar with them, you know, things you do on a Parisian night. It was indeed pretty good, I got to know some other nice people as well, Christine, who smoked almost everything, was a very interesting and genuine person and I liked her a lot. I still din't know the difference btw good and bad wines, but I had wine with the people anyway. The music was good, the waiter was a little cocky, the conversation was about whether democracy can be exported by America. Fun night.

leaving skool guoyandao at 4:59 PM [comment]

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