The 30th December was basically spent travelling. I left my hotel in Budapest at 8:30am - much earlier than I needed to owing to the lack of cheap transport to the airport in Budapest. So I had to bum around the airport for hours, leaving at 11:50. I got to Brussels just after 2, then finally got to my hotel at about 4. Being late and dark, I decided just to stay in the room and get ready to go out to an early dinner.
I went to Le Marmiton for dinner. This was a lovely restaurant in the Saint-Hubert Galleries. with exposed bricks, gilt mirrors, wooden furniture and cloth tablecloths and serviettes. I had a delicious dinner, then looked over at this other solo diner near me - he had ordered a fancy bottle of Champagne and was drinking it with his dinner. So I decided to take a leaf out of his book and order a glass of Champagne (can't drink a whole bottle!).
The next day was New Years Eve and I was up super early, breakfasted and out of the hotel by 8:30. It was foggy in Brussels, with a cold that seeped into my bones! I visited the Grand Place before most of the tourists came out, Mannekin Pis, did a tour of the Tin Tin murals and grabbed a cuppa before meeting up with a free walking tour. They covered much the same area that I'd been to, but it was nice to know a bit more about what I was looking at.
After the walking tour, I decided to go to the comic book museum. It was so cold outside, I think it was about -2 and lightly snowing. I poked around there for a little bit, then went to the church of St Michael, which had a pretty awesome floor. I had a really nice dinner at the Christmas markets before heading back to my hotel. Call me a party pooper but it was too cold to be out, there were about 1000 police around which was a bit scary, and I was getting up early to go to Bruges. So my new years eve was spent being warm, drinking tea in my room with my Pierre Marcolini chocolate... all in all, not too bad.
