January 17, 2009: Brussels sprouts and Reggae Shouts

Up at 4:45am to the full blast thrashing of Children of Bodom. Early start for what I hope to be a great day. I caught a train into the main station an hour early for my train to Cologne as I wanted to be sure not to miss it. The train station at 5am is really one of the wonders of society. Where else do you find seniors in formal dress, hammered people drinking beer and yelling obscenities and regular people heading out to work for the day? I sat enjoying a cup of coffee from the 24 hour Mcdonelds at the train station while two eastern European guys (17-18 years old) exchanged all the most foul things that they knew in the English language and then yelled them for the world to hear. This really amused me.

 

I bought a copy of JP (Jurassic Park) shout out to Emily, my first book that I intend to read this year, at the little book store in the station and then proceeded to the train platform, way to early to catch my train. The train ride was dark filled with genetically engineered dinosaurs and pretty uneventful. I got to Aachen Hbf and switched trains to a shabby looking 1970’s era flat-fronted train designed for Liege-Guillemins. At this point the language of choice immediately switched from one that I understand 5% of to one that I understand less of, French. I figured out the reason that the train was not as nice; it was French. I got off at a semi-under-construction train station somewhere in Belgium and waited for half an hour to catch the next train into Brussels. While at the train station I enjoyed some world-class people watching. At the train station there was an old man with a box of guinea pigs that he took out one by one and kissed and the least intimidating gangster I have ever seen; he was 5’2”, white, had black spiked hair, overweight, had a blingen ear ring and a hardcore Air-Jordan track suit. I tried not to laugh.

 

After the train ride I headed out of the station and outwards to see the city. Brussels is a much older city then Düsseldorf and everything seems to have a brass statue on it. I saw the Grand Central Square and went into the breweries of Belgium museum. It turns out that the museum is extremely small (about twice the size of The Castle) so my 6 Euro tour did not take that long. It involved a lengthy movie about the origins and types of Belgian beer so it was not all bad. As I left I picked up my pint of beer, that I did not know that I would get, and sat back on my wooden 18^th century keg-stool and took it all in. Next I was off to find some eats, this is where the biggest mistake of the day came about. I headed in desperation for food, having not eaten since my Mars Bar on the train, and thought that I really wanted French fries. I ended up going to a donor place and eating the Sultans platter for 8.5 Euro; way too much.

 

After my eating I checked into the Hostel and put my bag in a sketchy bag-room in the basement because I could not check in until 3pm. I continued to explore the city for a few hours, took some pictures then headed back to the hostel to check in. I got into the room and was greeted by the smell of a fat guy after a half-marathon. It was gross, every breath was painful, turns out one of the guys in the room did not know the meaning of deodorant and on top of that was a genetic freak of nature with extra large stink glands. Luckily he soon left and I was able to enjoy a siesta and read a little JP. I got up and headed down stairs and was greeted by a reggae band, freakin sweet. I headed out and got a dinner consisting of a “Grande Frites” and mayo. It was decent, but afterwards came the best tasting thing I had had in a long time, Belgian chocolate. It was like a party in my mouth and everyone was invited. 150g of the stuff lasted no time at all and I was damn happy at the end of it. Well, it is now time for some more beer and some more reggae, I will finish this entry tomorrow. Go out and do something spectacular today. Good luck and God’s speed.

 

I am back, yesterday ended earlier then I expected. I was talking to Marija on MSN while taking a break from the reggae and an Australian guy came into the room, his name was Richard. Richard and I got to talking and it turned out that he wanted to go to the same place as me tomorrow, the Atomium. I was excited to have a travel buddy and decided that because he wanted to leave early that I should get an early night in. I was originally going to go to a rave that ran from 2am to 7am with two American girls that I met at the hostel. Oh well. I read a chapter of JP and hit the hay.