Pickpocketing experience III

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Wednesday, August 13, 2003 - Brussels, Belgium

What’s up with Europe and pickpocket? This is my third personal encounter with pickpockets through our backpack journey in Europe.

Ko Sing drove us to Zaandam Centraal around 7:20am to catch a train to Brussels via Amsterdam. When our 8:23am train finally arrived in Amsterdam Centraal platform, we were boarding the second class passenger car in order: Jason and Ryan stood in front of me, making me an easy target for thieves, as my backpack hanging loosely behind my back without anybody worthy keeping an eye on it.

My big mistake is that I didn’t pay much attention of my surroundings, as we were distracted by people getting off and on the train, while trying to secure the best seats on the passenger car for ourselves. And surely enough, when I suddenly felt something brushed from the back of my backpack, I turned around and was trying to put my backpack off my shoulder. All of the sudden, a young man pushed me while slipping through me and Ryan, passing by in a very quick movement and disappeared among the crowd. I knew what was coming: two of my backpack’s front pockets were unzipped in search for any loose valuables. Thankfully I quickly learned from my previous experiences by not putting anything important on outer pockets, only my asthma inhaler was left untouched. Had he dig deeper, he might find some Euro coin collections for mom.

And I would really be pissed off if he acquired them.

Albeit safely seated in our fast train to Brussels and still had everything on me, I was fumed from the incident. I’ve had enough with pickpocket experiences; I’ll make sure they know it if I ever caught somebody laid a hand on my belongings without my knowledge.

We arrived in Bruxelles Midi around 12:30pm, and left our bags at the train station’s lockers. To reach Brussels’ major tourist destination of Grand Place, we walked pass a run-down area with many Middle Eastern descendants hanging around, accompanied by stench of trampled dog poo on the sidewalk. I recoiled a little bit. Surely this is not the image of Brussels I would like to imprint on my mind?

The Grand Place is dubbed to be one of Europe’s finest plazas, lined up with its ‘exuberantly ornate guild houses from the Gothic period’. I have to disagree with the statement, probably from the fact that I’ve used to lively Roman piazzas with outdoor dining establishments, crowding Italians and gelaterias. The Grand Place is nothing like those familiar sights; perhaps we caught it in a wrong time of the year. We had a late lunch at an alley that framed the famous Town Hall spire; where the architect of the building supposedly leaped to his death after realizing that the Town Hall accidentally was built unsymmetrical.

My feeling for Brussels was softening down after seeing more public places and architectures around the city. There are, indeed, many beautiful gardens and nicely design plazas, a typical French style manicured plantings and flowing through pedestrian. Brussels has many interesting grading contour, there are many nooks and crannies that both intriguing and mysterious.

We were obligated to pay a respect to Brussels’s famous resident, the Manneken-Pis, a small bronze statue of urinating boy. Legend has it that this little hero saved the Grand Place by ‘answering the nature’s call’ on a bomb, extinguished it from exploding. After the event, residents of Brussels found a nice corner of Rue de l’Etuve and Rue du Chene, complete with a protective fence that protects him from vandals.

We’ve seen almost too many churches and cathedrals in the past three months, so unfortunately the Belgium priceless Kapelle felt just like another grand cathedral for us. In 1999, Belgium Prince Philippe married Princess Mathilde, who eventually will become the country’s first Belgian-born queen.

Apart from diamonds and Brussels sprouts, Belgium is known for its cartoon characters, notably Tintin and the Smurfs. Cartoon murals are drawn throughout the city’s brick buildings, creating an easy and oddly relaxing childhood atmosphere. We also managed to taste the famous Belgium chocolate, which I’d rather have instead of the Brussels sprouts counterpart. In addition to the sweetness of the chocolate, two British girls who were working behind the counter was flirting with us.

Our time in Brussels came to an end, as we were heading back to Bruxelles Midi (Zuid) via Bruxelles Centraal. Our 17:40pm reservations on fast train Thalys were moved one hour earlier, and within forty minutes we managed to retreat our bags and secure our seats that will bring us to Paris, France.

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Photos

Grand Place
One of the finest Europe's piazza?

City Hall
Brussels City Hall from the restaurant we had lunch at.

A peeing boy: Manneken-Pis
I am not so sure what is the significance of this small statue.

Mural
There are many cartoon murals all around the city.

Moving on
Ryan is waiting for the Thalys train that will bring us to Paris, France.