Atomium!

We slept in today and almost missed our breakfast (ends at 11:00!) at the hotel. The food was sort of hostel style (no contential breakfast!) but it was ok. Walked to Grand Place again to snap some pictures and went to the tourist centre to grab some info on the Atomium. Knowing that Manneken Pis was just steps away from the Grand Place, we took a short walk to take a look. Manneken Pis is a bronze statue of a peeing boy. @_@ We spotted him surrounded by tourists. I read on the internet that he has around 600 costumes but the day we were there he was naked. Totally overrated indeed but we just have to go see cuz we are tourists! There was this stall across from the statue selling Escargots (Sea Snails)! I first thought it was kinda gross, but since I was curious about how it taste, i tried and it was actually quite good!

As we walked towards central station, a girl approached us and offered Hop On Hop Off bus tickets for a discounted price. As gullible and lazy tourist, we accepted her offer and brought our first Hop On Hop Off ticket ever. It was actually a better idea to take the bus to the Atomium anyway, because if we were to take the Metro, we wont be seeing much underground.

The Hop On Hope Off bus took us around the city, which is truly beautiful, and we hopped off at the Atomium. It's a pity that it's closed for renovation until early 2006 but i still wanted to go there to take a look at the structure and take pictures. I've always like to look at different architecture and this one is truly brilliant! The Atomium was designed for the International Exhibition of Brussels that was held in 1958. It was supposed to be demolished afterwards, but i am glad they didnt! I just love this builiding! The design is based on the magnified molecule of an atom, and there are 9 spheres joined by tubes, made from steel and covered in shiny aluminium. I love it! Hopefully i can go inside next time I am in Brussels! We also took a bunch of silly pictures outside of the Atomium to test out the speed of Bo's new toy!

We returned to the city centre at nite and went to this Japanese restaurant. Ordered a Miso Ramen but i suspected it was just a normal instant ramen with tonkatsu! @_@ The cost: 7.5 Eruo!!!! Before going back to the hotel, i had a chance to email my family to tell them i was still alive and i also brought a waffle! I saw them all over Brussels and i wanted to try one. It was quite good, especially when it's cold at night cuz the waffle is quite hot! However, Bo and I agreed that it's nothing compared to "Chicken Eggs" from HK!