Second day of Brussels

15th of July

Today I got up fairly early, had my breakfast and decided I should stay one more night at the hostel. This was Mr E's last day in Belgium so we went out sightseeing the whole morning and afternoon. On the map there is loads of info about different stuff to see, or not to see. Like the park in the middle of Brussels which is famous for its 'rough gay sex at night'. How wierd isn' that! One thing I will not be seeing at least!

First stop was the Brussel history museum where we learnt how ridiculously small brussels were in the medeival times. Also there was a river going through the town which had to be covered up due to its horrible smell. One of Belgium's most famous things is their Manneken Pis, located in the heart of Brussels, which is a tiny little statue of a boy standing peeing. On the national day (the 21st if July) they dress him up in a tiny little cosume; Last year he was standing in a American coloured suit, a top hat on which it said 'Yes we can' and in his hand he held one american and one belgian flag. He has previously been dressed up in costumes such as Elvis Presley, a clown and some noble 1700 century outfit. Pretty fun I must say.

Second stop was Manneken Pis, he was so small you could easily have missed him if you weren't looking!

Third stop we started heading for the european center, but was it hard to find! We ended up cycling for some two hours trying to find this place and once we did time was so late we had to start heading back to the hostel, Mr E had to gear up his stuff for he was cycling to the airport, and I bought a map of Belgium to plan my journey.

At around 4pm Mr E got going, and I was left with a terrible feeling of beeing alone. For some reason I got really sad and I realised I'm actually affraid of being on my own! For a trip meant to be to a festival with loads of drinking and loads of people, it had now turned out to be a soul searching trip with only me and my bike. Which I by the way have to name, she's got soul man!

With this terrible feeling of despair I was just looking at my massiv map realizing just how far I have to go. I was convinced this whole thing is just a massive misstake!

Across the courtyard there was a guy sitting, he must have sensed my mood and came over to ask if he could join me. 'Of course!', I said. He was Mr D an turned out to be a really nice bloke from Norwich. Moreover he was doing the same thing as I, except he is going to Istanbul. Like me he's totally unfit, drinks and he smokes! He also confessed he didn't either like to be on his own and was dreading his upcomming birthday which he would have to celebrate on his own! He was such an angel in disguise and gave me the courage I needed to actually look forward to my journey.

Just before he met me, he had waved goodbye to his friends that he had been with all the way from amsterdam to Brussels. Us both being all lonely and sad we decided to go out for a kebab in the kebab district. It was nice, I learnt that Mr D likes to write poetry and back in Norwich he had been working in an office but absolutley hated it, hence the reason for him quitting and going out on his cycling journey. He has a blog where you can follow his journey: www.buriedinpomposity.blogspot.com I do recomend it, a very funny blog I must say!

When we got back there was some new occupants in my 10-bed room; two canadians of which one was 2,07m tall! Nearly 60cm taller than me, you can imagine how small I felt next to him! We ended up sitting on the courtyard with three more guys from Austraila, whoms names I never remembered, having some beers and some raspberry vodka which we had to sneak away to drink like high school students.

Later me and some of the crew decided to go for a walk, and where do you think we end up passing? The rough gay sex park. Need I say we lost our lust for walking and went quickly back home, where the guys staying had heaved three table-loads of beers, They were pretty drunk..

I'm in fregging Belgium!

The 14th of July

The 19th-21st of July there was supposed to be a massive festival called Pukkelpop outside Hasselt in Belgium. A week before I decide to go, but not just go by plane or something, oh no, I, totally unfit, no excercise for about 4 years decide to cycle! So I gear up, buy a bike and on the 14th I get offered to get a ride with a friend's parents in a house-van all the way to brussels!

All is going well, the parents are so nice and so funny, the whole trip down is just a blast! 1 hour away from Brussels, my phone is about to charge out, I get a text or rather 4, from my friends that I was supposed to meet up with the 18th in Brussels. Unfortunatley I have misstaken the dates for the festival; it wasn't in July, it it in AUGUST!! Great timing for my phone to die, not!

I finally arrive in Brussels somewhat tired, pack everything onto my bike and have no clue to where I am. So I head towards town to try to find the central station, I figured I could sleep there a couple of hours and then start my cycling journey home. Haa, the heavens open above me and the most massive thunderstorm strikes so I have to run to shelter: Where I stood for surely two hours.

It was still raining but I had to make my way somewhere, so I ask for directions cycle up a hill and get lost again. So I see these two guys, and I thought I heard them speaking swedish. I should add that no one I'd asked so far had spoken english.. So I quickly turn my bike around and oi's for their attention. I was right they were swedes, looking for an internet cafe, and so was I so I joined them. They ended up cycling to their hostel, which had a computer, and I decided to reserve a bed for the night there instead of sleeping on the station. By now time was around 7 so we cycled in town to get some food; a lovely kebab district just next to Grand Place Grote Markt. The guys had cycled from Copenhagen through Ansterdam and Germany, and apparently the cycle routs in the Netherlands are fantastic, on a bike you have priority even over cars! I'll have to cycle through there some day.

When we got back we went to bed, one of the guys was flying home early in the morning and the other guy was staying until around 6pm, then he was going to take his bike to the airport and fly home too.