Brussels - day one (and departing London)

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First - if you are getting this email for the first time it's because I made the decision to subscribe you - feel free to unsubscribe yourself though! I am slowly adding people I think might be interested but I will not be offended if you simply unsubscribe...

So anyway, Friday evening straight after work I headed to Victoria Coach station to catch the bus to Brussels. I had to check in about 45 minutes before the bus left and we started boarding about 15 minutes before the bus left. I was going with National Express/Eurolines and the bus on the way over was a Eurolines one. I have never in my life met ruder drivers. The bus was going all the way through to Germany so they were putting the bags under the coach in some sort of order. When he asked me where I was going I said Brussels. He asked where. I said Brussels. He asked where. I said Brussels (again!). Giving up on me, he moved to the next passenger and just ignored me, until I shoved my ticket into his face and he read it and said 'oh - Brussels.' Genius he was and a great start to the trip!

Anyway it was a pretty full bus. I had a very talkative British woman who was about to turn 65 sitting next to me. Heard all about her family and her visit to London to see the daughter and her two grandkids. About how she works as a German/English translator in Germany. She wouldn't let me sleep.

Our bus drivers got completely lost trying to get out of London - took us two hours to get onto the main road basically down through Lewisham - it really shouldn't have taken that long and I don't even know London that well. Anyway they kept speaking in German over the load speaker (even though I think they were Czech) and hardly anyone could understand a thing they were saying.

We got the ferry across to France - passed through Customs without any hassle. I managed to get some sleep on the way into Brussels despite the very talkative lady and screaming child in the seat in front. We arrived into Brussels an hour late - at about 6:30am.

I headed to the hostel via a bus which took a little bit of doing given the tickets and most of the signage is in French and Flemmish (Dutch?) and I couldn't understand a word. Dropped my bags at the hostel in left luggage and hit the street for a walk.

Spent the morning wandering around - through Parc de Bruxelles, Palais Royal, Royal Place, Colonne des Congres and then onto Grand Place. Thankfully the weather was actually quite nice at this point and I actually had sunshine. Had Belgium waffles with chocolate sauce at a place in Grand Place which was probably majorly overpriced. Went to the Belgium Beer Museum which was the biggest waste of time ever. Compared to all of the other beer museums I have ever been to, this one was rubbish.

Then kept wandering and saw Mannekin Pis, tiny status of a boy urinating which is quite well known - didn't quite get it though honestly. Lots of street art on various corners and interesting window displays too. Managed in my wandering to find myself in what I can only assume was a poor part of the city as ever second place had smashed in windows. My thoughts were confirmed when I stumbled across a flee market all laid out in an open area. Vendors had all their stuff lined up on tarps on the ground. And when I say stuff - I really mean their unwanted rubbish. Old cutlery, old anything, clothes, books, electrical equipment, plates, it was like one giant garage sale really!! And no, I didn't buy anything.

By the time I managed to find myself back to Grand Place it was pouring down so I decided (against my better judgement) to get one of the sightseeing buses. It was pouring and I thought that I would do the rounds on the bus. As I hadn't had much sleep the night before I think I napped for a good 45 minutes or so while driving round Brussels!

Got out at the Atomium which was built for the world fair in 1958 and never pulled down. Bit expensive and long line so didn't go in, but got drenched again while waiting for the bus to come back. After getting back into town and having a long long, I ended up checking into the hostel at about 5pm. Was intending to have an hours nap before heading out, but slept until midnight.

Will write day two and three over the next few days. I took nearly 300 photos over the weekend so I am going through and picking out some of the more interesting - so below is a link to the first facebook album, another will follow with the later entry.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=55826&l=baf05&id=822333781

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