We have our own personal travel style. It basically involves the fact that no matter what we plan, it will always be a mess and nothing will go how it supposed to. At first, we thought maybe this was a Latin America thing, but, be rest assured that it goes for Europe as well.
We got to the airport and through customs with no troubles really. Nathan was “randomly selected” for a body search and awkwardly stood as the security guard padded him down and search his hair for concealed weapons. Eventually, we got on our flight, as they called for final boarding, and were off to Europe. The flight went by really fast, but as we were beginning to get closer to London, we realized that our flight was pretty late. Normally, this wouldn’t be too much of a problem unless catching a connecting flight, but we were catching a connecting train. So, being fully stressed, we sat helplessly as the plane flew in circles as it descended and then parked at the airport waiting for space to deboard. After all of that, we ended up being almost an hour late. SO, WE RAN! We seriously printed all the way from our plane through a ton of hallways, past people on the moving sidewalks, and up numerous flights of stairs. We had to wait in line to pass through customs and we told the customs agent of our plans. He simply replied, with his beautiful British accent, “Oh, dear!” We found a place that sold tickets on a rapid train that would get us there in 15 minutes. However, the guy at the counter strongly discouraged us to take the train saying that we should take the Underground instead. Kristy even questioned him multiple times to make sure that the Tube (that’s what cool people call the Unerground) would get us there on time. So, we ran to get tickets, and rushed onto the Tube. Then, we finally realized. There was no chance in the world of us getting there on time. But, at this point there was really nothing we could do. So we just decided to stop thinking about all the money wasted and what we were going to do with no where to stay, and became determined to get there. While we were sitting on the Tube, enjoying the English architecture, Nate skillfully figured out (in all his expert Tube knowledge) that there was a WAY faster way than the agent had suggested to us. So just as we got to that stop, we bolted. We ran up so many stairs and through so many corridors. Finally, we made it to our train with 4 minutes to spare. We felt that someone should have been following us around and getting footage for amazing race. BUT, then, the machines would not let us check in, because we were not early enough. So, we stood there helplessly as our train pulled away without us. We went to go see if the train company would do anything for us, and sure enough, because our flight was late, they just sent us on the next train. We ended up going on the train we had originally wanted, but because it was more money, we choose the early one.
The train took us through the countryside and under the ocean through the Chunnel to Belgium. We both ended up sleeping through most of it because after all the sprinting around, we were exhausted. Nate hadn’t even slept on the plane. We arrived in the outskirts of Brussels and had to figure out a new Metro. But this time, there was no English to help us. All the signs were in Flemish and French, but we still managed to find a train that took us downtown. Then we walked a few blocks to our hostel. European hostels are nothing like South American hostels. This place is huge and incredibly fancy and clean. After we settled in and took a breath, we headed out to see Brussels. We wandered the streets until we stumbled on a bunch of tiny alleyways filled with restaurants. After only a couple seconds, we realized that we were hearing more Spanish than any other language. All the restaurants were serving Spanish foods and drinks and had Spanish names. Soon, we came to the Grand Place. It is a huge open central plaza with the most ornate buildings you have ever seen surrounding it. We stood in awe. But, soon we were ready to wander some more. We tried to find the Mannaken Pis, but weren’t really succeeding. We stopped in a couple chocolate shops and souvenir places to pick up some things. Then, finally, we came upon the Mannaken Pis. BUT, just as Kristy’s dad had warned, it was incredibly lame. We weren’t really sure why people would even bother to look at it. But, people were intense about it. They took some nice “booty shot” pictures in front. LUCKILY, right beside, was a store selling Belgium waffles. So we bought two of them and were set. As we were looking for some place to sit and enjoy our waffles, a French couple stopped us and asked us how to get to the Mannaken Pis. They asked if it was just up the street and Kristy replied, “Si!” (which is definitely Spanish, and not French, if you didn’t catch that). But regardless, the lady replied, “Gracias!”.
We sat in front of the crazy old church and ate our Belgium waffles. Complete with Belgium chocolate. They were amazing. Then we wandered off to get Fanta/Beer. All the cool, young people were in the main plaza sitting right on the cobblestone ground. So, we joined them and drank our Fanta/Beer and ate some “paprika chips”. Eventually, we decided to call it a night and head home. Tomorrow, we are off to Paris at 6am and need all the sleep we can get.
Bonsoir,
Kristy and Nate
29 °C
25 °C
