Journal 8-25-2010

8-25-10 Brussels

It is 6:30 in the morning (Brussels time) on the second day of our trip. I woke up a little early to the sounds of the girls both feeling sick in the bathroom. I suggested that it might have been from the pizza that they both ate for dinner last night. But they seem to think it was from a mixture of the four fairly different Belgian beers that we tried last night.

In order to cover everything that has happened so far on our trip I will begin telling you about what happened yesterday morning. I woke up early and couldn’t get back to sleep because I was too excited. So I got out of bed and started to finish packing. I managed to pack all my clothes, medications, food, and other miscellaneous items into two backpacks. I carry them by strapping them together to create one giant backpack. This setup is nice because it allows me to check one bag and use the other as a carry on.  I finished packing early and sat around until 12 when my dad and sister drove me to the airport. I said goodbye to them and ran into Leah right outside the ticket counter. Once we got inside security I went to McDonnalds and got a Big Mac (last chance to get real American food). We had a quick and uneventful flight to Chicago where we met up with Katie in the hallway leading to the gate.

The Flight from Chicago to Brussels lasted about 8 hours. Up to this point our journey had been quick and uneventful. When we arrived in the Brussels airport we realized that we needed to find our way to a hotel. This proved to be a little bit more difficult. Leah had heard that the best way to travel to the city center was via “shuttle”. We then took the escalator down to the train station and promptly realized that this was not where “shuttle” would be. We took the same escalator back up one level to the road area where ground transportation could be found. We didn’t know where to go from there so we went back up to the baggage claim level and went to the information desk. A very nice woman told us that we needed to take the train to get to the city center. She gave us directions and showed us on a map where to look for our hotel. Armed with this information and mild confidence we lugged our huge backpacks back down the escalator. One last time and found our selves back at the train station. This time the train station was really crowded so we had to wait in line to get tickets. Train tickets were about 5 euros. After we got our tickets we preceded down another escalator to Platform A. Where we got on the first train that came, which we believed to be the right train.

The view from the train was pretty but dominated by graffiti that covered every exposed concrete surface. When we looked past the graffiti there were some nice views of European style houses and cars. The view got even better when the train rolled through Brussels skyscraper district. Here there were many large glass covered buildings that were big, but shorter than what I call a skyscraper. As it turns out we were on the right train and we made it to our stop. We exited the train then made our way into the metro station. We each bought one hop metro tickets and took the metro one stop over.

We exited the metro and stopped under a tree to find the address of our hotel. The address we had consisted of only a street name and the name of the hotel. We knew that we were on the correct street, but had no idea which way to go. I tried to ask directions from a small Asian woman working in a newspaper booth that seemed to sell mostly pornographic magazines. She didn’t speak English so we continued to wander around mostly in circles. Eventually we found a security guard who knew where the hotel was. When we got there Katie and Leah went in to check in while I stayed outside with my giant backpack. I had to wait outside because we got a room for only two people. They dropped off their bags, I kept mine, and we walked around for a while, we found a young travelers tourist info place and after a lot of price checking decided to buy lunch food from a grocery store. We bought baguettes, meat and cheese, for about 5 euros. Then we sat and ate it in the city’s beautiful central square.

After lunch I was feeling really tired because I got no sleep on the plane. So we returned to the hotel where they would finally let us go up to our room. When got up to our room we realized that there were only two beds. To make a third, we took one mattress of a bed and put it on the floor. Then put both comforters over the lightly padded wood framed base of the second bed. Leah got the wood framed comforter mattress and I got the mattress on the floor. Both setups turned out to be pretty comfortable. Katie and I took a two hour nap while Leah stayed up and sent emails.

When Katie and I woke up we were really tired, but Leah was really energetic. We all left the hotel and went out to find dinner. After a lot of wandering we decided to eat on the street at a nice “tourist trap” restaurant. I ordered spaghetti and the girls split a Hawaiian pizza (which I think gave them food poisoning). Later we went to a grocery store, and bought a 2.5 euro bottle of wine and a wide variety of Belgian beer. We then came back to the hotel and had a beer tasting. We didn’t drink a-lot but each tried some of each type of beer. I discovered that I am not a fan of the spicy flavor of blonde beer. But I enjoyed most of the other types. Later we walked around the city a little more. It was really beautiful at night.

We decided we weren’t ready for the Belgian nightlife so we returned to our hotel and went right to sleep.

This morning Katie and Leah both got sick at the same time around 6:00 am Belgian time. I blame the pizza, because I didn’t get sick, but they blame the strange combination of coffee, beer and wine that we had several hours before going to bed. Because they didn’t sleep well they are both napping right now (8:42 am) so I think I am going take a shower then go out by myself and try to find some breakfast, possibly at “PAUL” a bakery type restaraunt.