Classic Brussels

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In June of 1993, I took my first trip outside of America. It all came about like this.

I had acquired a pass through work on Sabena Airlines to Brussels from any US gateway. All I had to do was pay a whopping $12 tax and we would be on our way. The pass was for two people so I invited one of my fellow workers named George. This would be the first of many trips with George. I had not even been working at the airline for a year, but I was already beginning to love this job!!

On the evening of June 4, we took a red eye flight from Las Vegas to Atlanta. It was Delta 786, which was a 757 aircraft. We were seated up front in first class and I had seat 1A.

Even with those nice seats, we did not sleep well. On the morning of June 5, we took our connection to Boston, which was another Delta 757. This flight was Delta 538 and I was in coach seat 23A. Once in Boston, we had about 8 hours or so until our Brussels flight. I wanted to get a hotel and sleep but George wanted to visit Boston for the day. George won.

Our visit to central Boston was a lot of fun. Even though I was exhausted, I am glad we went. We mostly hung out at the Quincy Market and had some great food!

Later on, back at Boston Logan Airport, we checked in for our Sabena flight. The agent gave us our seat request card and sent us to the gate. He also told us to look for him at the gate and he would upgrade us.

Well, we did not see him at the gate and they had given us coach seats. Oh well, we settled into our seats but then George decided to go off the plane to find this agent that got our hopes up. As soon as George was deplaning, the agent came on and spotted him and gave us our new seats up in business class. Yeah!!!!

Now I was on Sabena 534, which was an Airbus 310. I was seated in business class seat 4K. This was going to be fun! The flight over was smooth and routine. I remember thinking how cool it was going to be to wake up and be in a foreign land! We had some good food onboard and also some decent rest. Before landing in Brussels, I visited the flight deck for a minute. You could do that back then. In fact the only reason I went in there was because the door was wide open anyways!

We landed in foggy Brussels early morning on June 6. We cleared customs and immigration and then caught a taxi to our hotel. Our hotel was the Ibis at Brussels Airport. It was a nice hotel but we decided that we should have booked a hotel in the city center instead. I was learning. We made a huge mistake of taking a nap. We were tired but it wasted some valuable time. I awoke at noon and yelled at George to hurry and get up because we had to go explore Brussels! We walked over to the rail station at Diegem and caught a train to the city center.

We were very hungry so the first thing we did was look for food. We did not have any luck finding anything so we sat for a bit at a bar and had some Jupiler beers. After awhile, we reluctantly went to a Pizza Hut. Now that we were fed, we spent the rest of the day and night checking out Brussels. We stayed around the Grand Place mostly and saw all the sights, including the Manneken Pis. We had a wonderful dinner at an Italian place just off of Grand Place. After dark, we headed back to our hotel by train and went to sleep.

On the morning of June 7, we went back into the center of Brussels for more sightseeing. We also did a little shopping. We had been seeing a video on MTV of Leila K covering "Ca Plane Pour Moi" and just had to have it. We found it at a mall and bought the CD. For dinner this evening, we ate at La Rose Blanche in the Grand Place. It was fantastic! We had some escargot with bread and some Becks dark to drink. I was only 20 at the time so it was great to legally drink. I never had escargot before but thought it would be fun to try. It was not bad. The sunset over Grand Place was amazing. It is also a great place to people watch, and the light show after dark is great too! We mis-judged the time and missed the last train out to Diegem so we just hopped on any old train that was heading in our direction. Bad mistake. The train stopped at Schaerbeek and we tried to get off. The doors did not open and the train started moving again. George hit an emergency door switch and the doors opened. I didn't even think twice and I jumped. I looked back and George followed. We decided to walk casually through the station and then run as soon as we exited. There was really no reason to run though because the station was dark and it was empty. The streets outside were also dark and empty. We were now who knows where and it was dark, late, and deserted. The area did not look too hot and we started to worry. We found a local bar and walked in. They were quite amused at our situation and called us a taxi. Soon we were back at the Ibis and ready to sleep.

On June 8, we would head back to the US. Our flight was Sabena 533, and Airbus 310 back to Boston. I was in coach seat 18E. The flight over the Atlantic was smooth and routine. In Boston, we cleared customs and immigration quickly. I had a beagle sniff my bag and the agent asked me why the beagle might be attached to my bag. I told him that he probably smelled my cat. Beagles are good at sniffing out food but I did not have any.

From Boston, we took Delta 751 to Salt Lake City. This was a 757 aircraft and I was in first class seat 6B. They did not have enough meals so us nonrevs did not eat. This has only happened to me twice ever. The Flight Attendant did give us salads and peach cobbler though. Our connection from SLC to Las Vegas was Delta 1127. I was in first class seat 3E on this short flight on board a 767-200 aircraft.

Sadly, I took very few pictures while in Brussels.



I really did not appreciate Brussels until well after the trip. We thought it was just ok at the time. I think it may have been the language barrier or maybe first time jitters. I don't really know. After lots of thinking and having stuff sink in, I really liked Brussels and want to go back. I have tried to go many times without success but I know we will get back there soon.

Well, I finally did return 21 years after!

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