Brussels: day 1

Ok so I typed out my blogs on my iPhone this weekend so they are from each days point of view so here you go,

Well this trip didn't exactly start off as planned... I had one of those gut feelings about it the other night and as it turns out I was pretty accurate. Let me set the scene for you a little bit. 

It's Sunday night, 11:30 pm and I am just now getting home to Mercedes who "waited up" for me. Really she slept on the couch until I got home but it's the thought that counts and the thought was sweet. At this point I have been travelling all weekend and just want a nice peaceful week to rest when it dawns on me, i leave for Brussels and Amsterdam in TWO DAYS! 

Do I have a hostel booked for Amsterdam? No.

Do I have a bus to get to Amsterdam from Brussels? No.

Do I have a way to get from the airport in Brussels to the city center of Brussels? No.

Do I have a second hostel booked in Brussels for our way back through? I bet you can guess the answer to that one.

Enter panic phase. I have homework to do and by the responses to my previously posed questions quite clearly I have a lot of extracurricular work to do. But, it's supposed to be fun and I'm going to make sure it is. 

By Tuesday night my homework is done and I'm on to packing and beginning to figure out all the travel details. I finally finished packing and booking everything and writing down directions at 9 pm Wednesday night. Bus to Madrid leaving at 11 pm. This is where the trip took a turn for the worse...

1. Mercedes and I miscommunicated and she had dinner prepared for me as I was leaving to meet Sandra for dinner and then hurried to make me a bocadilla for the morning. 

2. Sandra and I couldn't find the Mexican food restaurant we were so desperately trying to find! (she too is from Texas and missing Tex-Mex) So we ended up at McDonalds because by then we were in a hurry :(

Now starts the real heartbreakers. 

3. I, being the super paranoid person I am, had taped my bus ticket into my planner so I would not loose it. This does not help however, when youl leave your planner at home! I couldn't buy another ticket for the same bus as everyone else so I had to buy one for the 1 am bus. By myself and could not seem to get across to her that the 11 pm bus was full because I had a spot on it! Finally, after 3 tries, Martyna and I went up to the counter together determined not to take no for an answer. She caved and said that she guessed she could go talk to the driver to let me on the earlier bus. Sigh of relief. But I was still out an extra 20 euro :(

4. Sandra and I got to the airport with Lyndsey and the girls going to London for the weekend. We checked into our flight and they made Sandra check her bag. Adding 70 euro to her total for the trip.

5. (The real doozie) Sarah, one of the girls going to London, had accidentally bought a ticket for the previous day and had to re-purchase another ticket at 7:50 and RUN to her new flight that left at 8:30. For the price of 211 euro. Ouch.

Well, we got off the plane after having been cut in line by no less than 6 people in line to get on it and found our way to the bus. At the bus the driver yelled at us for not having our tickets stamped and then wouldn't let us get on the bus and almost slammed my head in the cargo area while I tried to get our luggage off the bus before it left. We had to wait an extra hour to get on the next bus. We sighed with relief after finally getting on it and we got on our way. 

FALSE! It stalled in the middle of the freeway in Brussels. Right next to an entrance ramp. Sweet. At this point what can you do but laugh? After a solid 10 minutes of honking by other drivers the driver FINALLY turned on the hazard lights.

40 minutes later. Still on the side of the road. A new driver joined us to see if he could help and there is a tow truck in front of us. How exactly does one tow a bus? I have a feeling I'm about to find out. 

Nope. I'm going to have to get off the bus. In the middle of the entrance ramp. Get my luggage. And change to a new bus. Quite the ordeal.

Finally! We're here! David, the reception guy, is super nice and told us where we could go get food and a list of some beers to try and places to go get fries and waffles and chocolate :) We put our stuff down and made our way out determined to find some frites (fries). We got on the metro there, don't have to pay really because there are no barriers, and got to what we thought was Grand Place. We walked for a while and even went in one place. There were guys on the street at each restaurant trying to get us to come into their restaurant. One guy even offered us 3 free drinks and a massage! 

Eventually we saw our beacon of light. I couldn't tell you the name of it, or the name of what we had but it tasted amazing. Fries and chicken on a po-boy!

As we waited in line for this wonderful sandwich a super creep walked up and started to talk to us. In some language neither of us understood. He was so intoxicated he reeked of alcohol and then pulled a beer out of his coat and offered it to us. Um no? And after probably 5 minutes of speaking to us in that language he realized we didn't speak it. And tried several other languages before he tried Spanish. At this point he asked me how much Pakistani I was. He was shocked when I told him I was all American. No Pakistani roots at all. Seriously? Finally his friend dragged him away when it was clear we were annoyed. Interesting 10 minutes though. After he left we somehow (he spoke no english or spanish) ordered our slices of heaven and left to go home. Great ending to a laughably bad day. I already love it here.