So being a flight attendant, you get travel benefits as most people know. For me, part of my flying benefits include being able to enroll a friend that’s able to fly standby for free (taxes come out eventually but basically free).

This year I decided to be an amazing friend and enrolled my best friend Rhea. We’ve done some domestic trips for fun to see friends but hadn’t had time to plan or do a big international trip. We found a weekend Rhea wasn’t working and then made a plan for her to come on whatever fun layover I could get my hands on.

The day of a Brussels trip opened up and I was able to grab it quick. Just a few hours after me getting the trip we were both at O’hare. I was working the flight, and Rhea was lucky enough to experience my incredible service as I made sure her wine glass was always full. And to make it even more fun one of my flight attendant friend was working the same trip.

We left Chicago that night and arrived in Belgium the next morning, so yes after working through the night a nap was necessary. When I work these overnight flights that get to Europe in the morning I try to limit myself to a few hours sleeping to I’m able to still get out in the daytime.

Luckily the hotel we stay in has amazingly comfy beds, heated floors in the bathroom and is close walking distance to the Grand Palace, which as first time tourists is exactly where we planned to go. If you’re looking for a great place to stay while in Brussels, check it out, Steigenberger Wiltcher’s Brussels. That hotel is one of the reasons I have unrealistic standards when booking hotels on my own dime.

It was both of our first time in Brussels so obviously we needed to hit all the iconic things the city had to offer. We started off just walking through the city and to Grand Palace where after we hunted for the statue of the little boy peeing, more accurately known as Manneken Pis.

She needed me to take a picture so it looked like he was peeing on her head. Culture.

Walking the streets around Grand Palace it’s easy to find popular foods like Belgium waffles or Frites. It being our first time there and only having 24 hours since it was a layover, we didn’t waste a ton of time looking for a restaurant that was more than a tourist trap but instead grabbed some waffles at the first place we found. Believe it or not it’s not hard to mess up waffles with strawberries and chocolate on top. We were not disappointed. Definitely would go back to Maison Dandoy.

Next stop and probably the most fun was Delirium Brewery.

I’m not a huge beer girl to be honest but I wasn’t about to let that stop me from sampling the local treasures. Luckily their selection was huge and easy for me to find the fruitiest beer possible and it was so good I had a third.

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The actual brewery is so cool. Their logo is a pink elephant, big fan, and if I was a worse person I might’ve taken the glass.

Instead I bought a T-shirt. After our fun at Delirium we decided to go back to Grand Palace to see what it was like after dark. The way the lit the buildings made it a whole different experience after dark which was the perfect finale to our short trip.

A working layover is always a little more fun when you get to bring your friend along. Even if you have to serve her on the way there.

If you want to see a highlight from my Brussels adventure click here and check out my slideshow below!