Home, Sweet Euro Home

Bonjour!

Well, after two 6+ hour flights and a 4 hour layover, I am in Brussels! And my what a journey it was. First, things were easier because they let me take my backpack on board as a carry-on, thus eliminating much worry about lost luggage and time at baggage claim. The flights were both alright- they were both late due to weather or backups, but there weren't too many crying babies or obnoxious row mates. In fact, for the Philly-Brussels leg, I had a whole 3-seat row to myself, so I could lie down! Score!

During my layover in Philly, I came to the unsettling realization that I knew neither the location nor the phone number of the Hostel that I had reserved and needed to contact before 12:30 this afternoon. Luckily, my outgoingness came in handy and I asked some people who had laptops if I could use their Internet. The first attempt was a family from Philly going to Dublin for a couple weeks, but their laptop broke, so my second try was a very professional-looking woman who was cautiously accommodating to my irresponsibility. Needless to say, I got what I needed.

So, after a 7 hour flight punctured by spurts of dozing, sleeping, and restlessness (not to mention the movie 27 Dresses- ugh), we arrived in Belgium. On the way to customs, I called the hostel and secured my reservation, while wasting 2 euro on the call. I felt like a stud using my virgin United Kingdom passport and having them just look at it and wave me through. However, it would have been much more gratifying had there been a massive line for the non-EUers. Oh well, maybe next time.

And thus, after validating my Eurail pass and boarding the train to Brussels, I was on the glorious Euro turf that will be my home for 7 weeks. When I made it to Brussels, I spent about an hour putzing around, half-looking for my hostel (it closes from 10-2 for cleaning, so it wasn't urgent). During that time I walked through the financial district, where I saw business men of all types speaking many different tongues. I also saw some of the places that we went to as a family 7 years ago, which got the memories flooding back.

One thing I did find amusing was how obviously American the Americans are. When I was walking through the public squares, I could easily ID the Americans based off their Jansport backpacks, sour-faced youth, and utter lack of observation for the customs around them. It is my goal to be mistaken for a Swede or German regularly.

Along my walk I encountered true Euroness in the form of a bunch of elderly people playing a quiet game of Bocce ball in what seemed to be a specifically made Bocce ball court, and Electronica music blasting from an open apartment window. Awesome.

After checking into the Hostel, I went to a museum commemorating Brussels' past, including the Mannequin-Pis, the fountain in the form of a small nude boy urinating constantly. It's the symbol of Brussels in a way, and they dress him up in various costumes sometimes. At the museum they had decades-worth of costumes, and the ones from America were, predictably, Elvis Presley and a Cowboy. Boy was I surprised.

I continued my putzing when I came across a Belgian coffee roastery and cafe. Apparently, a cup of coffee is really a ground coffee drink in between the strength of what we would call coffee and what we would call espresso. It was delicious, since it would appear that all coffee from the USA just tries to be Eurocoffee. I was glad to drink it as I was starting to putter out after the travel day.

When I returned to the Hostel to set up my bed, I encountered a young Japanese guy who'll be one of my 3 roommates for the next two nights. He speaks very little English, but what I gathered was that he is solo too, but he is biking around everywhere, evidently all the way from Portugal, and his next stop is the UK. As I left he was going to sleep for a nap, but I'm hoping he'll be awake and willing to dine with me tonight when I return. I'm sure he has a lot of cool stories from Tokyo or his Euro trip.

Well, that's it for now. Unfortunately I haven't taken too many pictures and I didn't bring my card reader to the cafe today, so you're stuck with text. Maybe next time. Tomorrow, I hope to visit the Brewers Museum, a showcase of Belgium's fine beer culture, as well as the Chocolate museum and some cathedrals, etc. If I run through that quick enough, I may even go on a little train ride to a small town outside Brussels. Who knows?

As always, stay classy!