Day 1: Brussels in the Rain

I may not have mentioned this, but Jess and I were backpacking on this trip. I'm not exactly sure how that came about, but Jess borrowed a pack from our generous neighbour at home, and I borrowed Celia's. And from the very first moment I put that pack on, as Jess and I were leaving my apartment around 3:30am on Friday, August 11, I knew that I was not a backpacker.
I'd like to say that I realized this and, in recognition of the fact that we were already on our way and that my complains would be nothing but useless and annoying, kept my displeasure to myself but that would be a lie. I may be a tiny bit of a whiner when the situation calls for it...and it was very early in the morning, cold, dark, wet and that pack felt like it weighed a million pounds. I managed to restrain myself after a few days (okay, a mutter here and there may have escaped), but needless to say, I will not be backpacking again. Anyway, lesson learned.
But back to Jessica and Riannon's Big Adventure. We had an early flight to Brussels on RyanAir, which was just fine. I slept through the entire flight (at least, I assume there was a flight, but since I wasn't awake for take-off or landing, we could have actually taken a boat trip and I wouldn't know it). We landed at a very quiet, out of the way airport, and took a bus to the train station, where we made first use of our Eurorail passes.
(A word on Eurorail passes. They're fantastic. Amazing. I wish I always had one. I want another. I want it now. You should get one. Thank you, mom!)
We took the train into the city centre, and walked from the Gare du Nord (North Station) to our hostel. It wasn't too far, and Jess, as usual, had the directions work our perfectly. If I had been on my own, I would probably still be looking for that hostel! We dropped off our bags, brushed our teeth and headed out into the city.
After a quick train trip downtown (Eurorail...oh, sweet, lovely Eurorail...) we made our way to the main square of the city. It is quite spectacular. One minute you're walking down a narrow street (lined with beautiful buildings, of course), and suddenly you're in a huge square lined with medieval buildings! We were awed and delighted, despite the fact that it was damp and grey.
As luck would have it, we happened to arrive on the first day of a bi-annual flower festival which features a gigantic "flower carpet" (literally, a carpet made of begonias, placed in a pattern by volunteers)) being laid out in the main square! It was quite a sight to see, especially since we got there in time to see it being constructed, went back for the opening night fireworks that night, and then got the full picture the next day.
We had a great afternoon, which involved copious consumption of frites and waffles (as well as tea and hot chocolate). We hit most of the main sites, checked out some markets, discovered some dangerous cookies. Brussels is a small city, and we saw most of the centre that day. By the time evening came around, we were wet and exhausted...so much so that we decided to go see a movie. Not exactly what we'd planned (or at least, expected since we didn't have any specific plans), but it was great fun, and we both managed to fit in a little nap in the theatre before the feature film (Lucky Number Slevin, which wasn't as bad as I'd read) began.
We went back to the main square to catch the firework display and wander around a little more before returning to our hostel and crashing.