Volume 2, Day 55-56
It felt amazing to wake up after a full nights sleep and I enjoyed the quiet morning over a leisurely breakfast and productive work session. As I was packing up to check out before noon (!), the owner mentioned to me that he was also going to Brussels in the afternoon and would be happy to give me a lift. I readily accepted and after moving my luggage out of the dorm, settled down to kill three more hours before out departure.
Since I was partially sure that my next hostel wouldn’t have a kitchen, I made sure to cook a lunch and work on dwindling down the leftover groceries (pasta, olives, pesto). I have started working on a project, and it is occupying more and more of my mental bandwidth. It’s a good thing I am heading to Germany soon, where I can shift gears to less active tourism.
It was finally time to go, and I was surprised to discover that my ride was an orange Ford pickup truck. You certainly don’t see many of those around Europe! The hostel owner is a pretty interesting guy. He’s been in the business for ten years and despite being caught up in the daily stresses still manages to convey the laid back vibe of The Dude. It didn’t take long to reach Brussels, but the traffic in the capital city was nightmarish. Rather than just dropping me anywhere, I was very kindly delivered to the location of my hostel, near the Midi Gare.
The neighborhoods around train stations tend to be rather colorful and this was no exception. I’m just going to call it little Morocco without any substantial basis. One street radiating out from the train station housed a carnival that stretched at least a mile in the narrow median. Some rides swooped out over the roadway and I wouldn’t be surprised if an extra tall bus or truck lost some paint from the roof.
My hostel was cheap and clean, but fairly characterless. After checking in at the lobby/cafe, I went around the corner to the entrance of the hostel and up two flights of stairs. The dorm room was spacious and had a fairly immaculate en suite bathroom. The open windows caught the breeze and kept the air fresh and cool. There was a guy from Brazil chilling on one bed with his smartphone and I chatted briefly with a Welsh guy who came in a little later. I regret choosing a lower bunk because there wasn’t much headspace.
Since the weather was fine and I had hours of sunlight remaining, I decided to explore a bit of Brussels and start crossing off tourist attractions. The first stop was Mannekin Pis, small fountain of a little boy peeing. There is a famous story of a town celebrating a recent victory in battle, but the enemies secretly put a bomb under the city hall. A little boy discovers it and uses his urine to put out the fuse. I read it in a Chinese textbook and having not actually paid attention to the where and when, had been keeping my eyes open for the statue commemorating the event. Et voila.
The fountain is just south of the Grand Plac (Groot Markt), a central square surrounded by grand gothic looking buildings. I would call it the heart of tourist Brussels as all the streets and alleys in the vicinity are full of shops peddling souvenirs, chips, waffles, and chocolates. It was a bit touristy and crowded, but refreshing to see somewhat reasonably priced cafes competing through their daily menus (under 20 euros!) on signboards. Though significantly cheaper than Bruges, I still wasn’t about to spring for a fancy dinner, but it was nice to see nonetheless and planted some seeds in my mind.
Coming across a supermarket, I popped in to buy a big bottle of mineral water, a baguette, and some cheese. I carried those back to the hostel and finished off the last of my olives and pesto in a hearty calorie packed dinner. Though it was still light out, I just hung out in the room for a bit until I was ready to sleep.
| Hostel (2 nights) | 38 EUR |
| Groceries | 3.59 EUR |
| Total: | 41.59 EUR (324.4 RMB) (USD 46.75) |
Running Total: 20593.4 RMB (USD 2967.92)
Daily Average: 374.4 RMB (USD 53.96)