Travelling 1

Right now, I am sitting in the train station in Brussels, awaiting my train at 14:28 for Cologne, and bored as hell because I had to wait two hours because I got off of my original train because I couldn't find my seat, which was really easy to find all along except for the fact that I had thought my seat was 01 when it was actually 098. In any case, it's a long and confusing story, but suffice it to say changing trains is really easy and convenient.

In any case, this is the life of the traveller, I guess. I've been in Europe for 5 days now, and in that time I've gone from Paris to Brussels and spent three days in Brussels. That was a fun experience, especially because I got to spend most of my time trying to figure out how to find things, until eventually I got to know my way around. I almost feel like I lived in Brussels now. I mean, I sort of did, for three days. In any case, some highlights:

My first day was sort of dull. I explored the Grand Place and the Bourse area, which are mostly one big tourist trap, as evidenced by the numerous stores selling souvenirs and the twenty or so groups of about 50 high school students or elderly retirees. It was fun, that day, to learn how well I know French and to see how well I come across as French. Especially interesting was the train ride, during which the man next to me, an American, couldn't tell until I spoke English that I wasn't in fact French. This happened a few other times when I was buying a ticket or ordering at a restaurant, when someone would first speak to me in French. Most of the time I could get by without a problem. Reasurring, I guess.

My second day I decided to actually go see something, so I went to the Parc de Bruxelles, the park that sits in front of the royal palace. A picture of the park is at left. I have some pictures of the palace too, but I'll save those until later, maybe. Or post them on facebook. Whatever works.

Anyway, after the park, I rode the metro out to the atomium, famed building from the 1958 world's fair. It's quite an amazing building to see, maybe worth the 6 euros it costs a student to get in, and definitely a tourist trap. Despite all that, it was probably the highlight of my time here, since I got to see the views from up high and just relax for a second. See the photo below:

And for my third day, I pretty much just relaxed, having lunch at a restaurant that had a really good flavored beer, and spending my evening resting and relaxing. So, that brings us to today, and to my trip to Cologne. Hopefully I'll be able to update on that soon. For now, Reo out!