Leaving Holland, on to Belgium

Leaving Holland, on to Belgium

Brussels, Belgium, Europe

I was really sad to be leaving Langedijk and the company of Jacquelien this morning. I was up at 7am, showered, packed and ready for leaving at 8am. Jacquelien gave me a ride to the train station and we said our “see ya laters”. I couldn’t have asked for a better hostess for the last few days and I’m really happy we met while travelling and became friends. I arrived at Amsterdam Amstel station and got my 10am Ecolines bus to Brussels. It wasn’t the nicest bus, no wifi, no tvs, no A/C, but it was only a four hour ride so it was okay.

I got in to Brussels at 3pm and found my hostel no problem. I’m in a four bed dorm even though I booked a six bed dorm, but I won’t complain about that. The wifi here is good, which is a nice change from a lot of the previous hostels I’ve been in. I was the first one to check into my room, so I was able to choose which bed I wanted, which is always a nice thing. Just about a half hour after I got in, I got my first roommate. She is a really nice Norwegian girl named Thea. We both had absolutely no idea what to expect in Brussels, so we decided we might as well wander aimlessly together.

We first checked out the Grand Place, which is the main square in the center of the city. It is absolutely stunning. It is probably the most impressive main square I have ever seen. It’s pretty small, but the buildings surrounding the square are absolutely beautiful. There are a couple of museums, and a couple of old palaces, or homes for ridiculously rich people apparently. We walked around the city for a few hours and both realized that Brussels is actually a really beautiful city. I certainly had no idea what to expect from the city, but the architecture here is beautiful. We were desperately trying to find a waffle place when we decided that since it was already 7pm, we might as well eat dinner.

We found a place in the city center and had a pretty good Italian meal, and I had my first glass of Leffe, in Belgium. It was awesome! I love Leffe. We were thinking about having waffles at the same place we ate dinner, but we were both too stuffed to have dessert. We decided to walk around for a bit and then find another place to have a waffle. We walked around the city for probably an hour and found a nice looking place to get a waffle. I had one with coconut ice cream and Thea had one with strawberries and whipped cream. Both of us enjoyed them immensely. It was really sweet though, so I’m not sure I could have another one anytime soon.

I was going to hang out in the city to meet my friend Peter (Soupy), but after all the walking around we did, and my Peter’s tentative plans to come into the city to watch the opening game of the World Cup, I decided just to head back to the hostel with Thea. We’re back now and there are two English girls who have moved into our room. They are backpacking through Europe, but they seem to have different motives than I do for going around. They arrived in the room with a big bottle of Coke and a big bottle of vodka. Could be a noisy night in this room tonight…

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