I booked the flight to Istanbul out of Brussels instead of Amsterdam for two reasons. It was a bit cheaper, so that played a part, but it was also easier to coordinate with my travel buddy, Lindsay, who came over at the same as me to work as an Aupair in Belgium. It was always our plan to travel together as much as possible over the year.
Since the flight from Brussels was leaving fairly early in the morning, it wasn't really going to work for me to leave here in the morning. So after arranging a place to stay through a website that helps students and travellers find couches to crash on, I set out for Brussels around noon on the day before my flight.
To get on the train to Brussels I first had to take the train to Amsterdam Central station. The time between the connections was 7 minutes, which should have been plenty of time....
...except my train to Amsterdam was delayed by, I kid you not, 8 minutes. I got to the station and literally grabbed the door handle of the Brussels train as it was pulling away. So, after releasing a litany of English profanity that must have been entertaining to all the Dutch ears around me, I had to spend an hour in the Amsterdam train station waiting for the next train.
This was not a good start.
Eventually I got on the train and the trip to Brussels took 150 minutes, almost all of which I spent reading George Orwell novels. As I approached the city I was suddenly aware of all the French conversations taking place around me, which is a bit exciting for someone who is trying to learn French but has never spent time in a French-speaking part of the world. Brussels is possibly the most multilingual city in the world--it's common for travel announcements to be repeated in French, Flemish, German and English--but 80% of the population of the city speaks French natively.
It's also a very internationally significant city. Brussels is the capital of Belgium and hosts the headquarters for both the EU and NATO, as well as being home to thousands of NGOs and thinktanks. The city supposedly has more ambassadors and journalists than Washington D.C.
Yep, this is my kind of place!
Unfortunately I failed to make it to Brussels before the daylight disappeared, which had been my motivation for leaving early. Regardless, I wandered out of Bruxelles-Midi station and decided to explore the city center by darkness.
It wasn't long before I came across this:
It was a winter festival! The streets were crowded with people, there were little wooden shacks up everywhere, and music and coloured lighting permeated the district. I spent about 2 hours wandering.
Below is an outdoor skating rink which I decided against skating on because it was raining a bit.
There was a large square with huge old buildings around it. The biggest, which I think was called the Grand Palais, was bathed in many different colours of light. Music was being played over loudspeakers and the lights were sychronized with the melody. It's a bit hard to capture with pictures, but it was really cool.
At one point I decided it would be a good idea to bring some beer for my hosts. I was in a Belgian beer shop and had never even heard of any of the brands on the bottles. I heard a couple of older guys talking in North American English, so I asked them what they recommended. After suggesting a few, one of them noticed my jacket. "Hey, you go to UBC?" he asked. Turns out he was a former UBC student himself! It was pretty funny.
Anyway, I wound up at the apartment around 10:00 and met the students who were putting me up. They were all film majors, so needless to say we stayed up til the early hours of the morning trading stories and opinions. It was great.
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