"Hey, wake up..."
between sleep and wakefulness, i forced to open my eyes "What time is is?"
"6. Im going back to Munich today. Didn't you want to go to Brussels today? Lets go to the train station together."
"at this hour? are you out of your mind? You go back to Munich, its gonna take 1 hr to Brussels and I could take later train." But then of course I could no longer sleep. Brushed my teeth, washed my face, had coffee and watched the news. By 7 I did send him to the train station (3 minutes walk away). Bid farewell, for real this time..
Back to the room... andwatched p0rndid some light reading.
Missed the 9am train. Darn it. There's anther one at 10, but that one by slower train (Thalys). Took the 11.45am train to Bruxelles-Midi instead. Arrived there at 1.30pm. Stored the luggage at the station and time to scavenge for the hotel/hostel.
I'm in Brussels indeed. Dutch and French dominates. Welkom in Brussel / Bienvenue à Bruxelles.
The station was pretty huge. Took me a while to find the correct entrance/exit.
-- not a typical European city
Once I stepped outside, reality hits!
There's so many immigrants around. And they're in a group walking mischievously.. And the area looks dishevels, like a ghetto.
I quickly look for a metro and ran down the station. Luckily I left my luggage, otherwise I could be an easy target.
Fuh, okay maybe the town is better (10-12 minutes by tram/underground). The tram here is kinda unique, it ran both underground and on the ground.
I dont know what about this city, I didnt feel safe on the tram either. Praying hard that I reached the city ASAP. Couldnt be because I was alone, because I was alone in Berlin and Stuttgart too.
A - Midi station. Seriously in the middle of nowhere.
B - The City center
C - Atomium
Arriving at the City Center. Okay, not as bad as the ghetto, but after Amsterdam, Berlin and Budapest, you'll have high expectation ob Brussels. Come on its the Euro capital! Must be happening and chic no?
So not the case, being a capital of europe could also be it's cursed. That means every immigrants from every corner of the planet would congregate here.
And not to mentioned the tourist? If I already suffocated in Cologne, Brussels is a class of it's own. You couldnt walk 3 m without bumping into others.
The corn was delicious nonetheless. What else to do? Just walk and see.. By this time I was already determine not to stay here. Why not walk for another hour or two (turned out I spend 6 hrs in the city :p)
Saw a bunch of Malaysian. Funny isnt we could actually recognized each other. We dont have to speak, we dont even have to move. But we could recognized each other just by looking.
Sorry guys. I just took the pic and left. Dont mean to be rude, but the crowds was getting on my nerve. I just had to escape.
Tried some chocolates. Maybe i wasnt a real fan of choc, I dont find the taste out of this world. Some are downright nasty (Marzipan filled - euw). I prefers Japanese choc than Belgian.
It would take me weeks to finish a bar of chocolate. Sometimes months, till expired. And thats for the chocolate itself. As for the brownies, and the cake, or ice cream, I would prefer to have the vanilla over chocolate.
Then, I had some late lunch. Seafood platter. Seems like everyone had that here. The waiter was good! He could guess where people came from just by looking. He thought I was from Singapore.. close enough, but for most, he was spot on! ;)
After like an hour lunch, its time to find somewhere where there's less crowd but still safe enough. So I walked and walked and walked....
Yeay, finally... don't ask me where.. but its not that far away from the main palace.
See, tourist would only crowd on one or two roads. If you use a different path, you'll find a less congested, but equally interesting road.
Now getting closer to the main road again.
And the hustle and bustle continued..
So, off I went for a tram ride.
Enjoying the city in different perspective.
New buildings dotted around the city limits. You wont find them in the city center.
Last stop. Atomium. It was build on the 60s. For more details Google yourself.
Tourist trap. Just like iCity, Shah Alam. SO much hoo haa but when you reached there you were like, is that all?
-- org kedah cakap muka cenge.. ie garang. It does look fierce. French SCF. German ICE looks cute though.
So back to the Midi station. Now what? Hmmmm, send sms to Leiden and Amsterdam (Munich too far).. If there's no reply, im going back to Cologne. Leiden replied.. Leiden it is.. (Amsterdam replied an hour later.. sorry too late :p). 6pm train to The Hague. Au revoir Bruxelle.
Like seriously, how many birds has this train plowed into? Saw a lots of birds feathers on the lamp.
between sleep and wakefulness, i forced to open my eyes "What time is is?"
"6. Im going back to Munich today. Didn't you want to go to Brussels today? Lets go to the train station together."
"at this hour? are you out of your mind? You go back to Munich, its gonna take 1 hr to Brussels and I could take later train." But then of course I could no longer sleep. Brushed my teeth, washed my face, had coffee and watched the news. By 7 I did send him to the train station (3 minutes walk away). Bid farewell, for real this time..
Back to the room... and
Missed the 9am train. Darn it. There's anther one at 10, but that one by slower train (Thalys). Took the 11.45am train to Bruxelles-Midi instead. Arrived there at 1.30pm. Stored the luggage at the station and time to scavenge for the hotel/hostel.
I'm in Brussels indeed. Dutch and French dominates. Welkom in Brussel / Bienvenue à Bruxelles.
The station was pretty huge. Took me a while to find the correct entrance/exit.
-- not a typical European city
Once I stepped outside, reality hits!
There's so many immigrants around. And they're in a group walking mischievously.. And the area looks dishevels, like a ghetto.
I quickly look for a metro and ran down the station. Luckily I left my luggage, otherwise I could be an easy target.
Fuh, okay maybe the town is better (10-12 minutes by tram/underground). The tram here is kinda unique, it ran both underground and on the ground.
I dont know what about this city, I didnt feel safe on the tram either. Praying hard that I reached the city ASAP. Couldnt be because I was alone, because I was alone in Berlin and Stuttgart too.
A - Midi station. Seriously in the middle of nowhere.
B - The City center
C - Atomium
Arriving at the City Center. Okay, not as bad as the ghetto, but after Amsterdam, Berlin and Budapest, you'll have high expectation ob Brussels. Come on its the Euro capital! Must be happening and chic no?
So not the case, being a capital of europe could also be it's cursed. That means every immigrants from every corner of the planet would congregate here.
And not to mentioned the tourist? If I already suffocated in Cologne, Brussels is a class of it's own. You couldnt walk 3 m without bumping into others.
The corn was delicious nonetheless. What else to do? Just walk and see.. By this time I was already determine not to stay here. Why not walk for another hour or two (turned out I spend 6 hrs in the city :p)
Saw a bunch of Malaysian. Funny isnt we could actually recognized each other. We dont have to speak, we dont even have to move. But we could recognized each other just by looking.
Sorry guys. I just took the pic and left. Dont mean to be rude, but the crowds was getting on my nerve. I just had to escape.
Tried some chocolates. Maybe i wasnt a real fan of choc, I dont find the taste out of this world. Some are downright nasty (Marzipan filled - euw). I prefers Japanese choc than Belgian.
It would take me weeks to finish a bar of chocolate. Sometimes months, till expired. And thats for the chocolate itself. As for the brownies, and the cake, or ice cream, I would prefer to have the vanilla over chocolate.
Then, I had some late lunch. Seafood platter. Seems like everyone had that here. The waiter was good! He could guess where people came from just by looking. He thought I was from Singapore.. close enough, but for most, he was spot on! ;)
After like an hour lunch, its time to find somewhere where there's less crowd but still safe enough. So I walked and walked and walked....
Yeay, finally... don't ask me where.. but its not that far away from the main palace.
See, tourist would only crowd on one or two roads. If you use a different path, you'll find a less congested, but equally interesting road.
Now getting closer to the main road again.
And the hustle and bustle continued..
So, off I went for a tram ride.
Enjoying the city in different perspective.
New buildings dotted around the city limits. You wont find them in the city center.
Last stop. Atomium. It was build on the 60s. For more details Google yourself.
Tourist trap. Just like iCity, Shah Alam. SO much hoo haa but when you reached there you were like, is that all?
-- org kedah cakap muka cenge.. ie garang. It does look fierce. French SCF. German ICE looks cute though.
So back to the Midi station. Now what? Hmmmm, send sms to Leiden and Amsterdam (Munich too far).. If there's no reply, im going back to Cologne. Leiden replied.. Leiden it is.. (Amsterdam replied an hour later.. sorry too late :p). 6pm train to The Hague. Au revoir Bruxelle.
Like seriously, how many birds has this train plowed into? Saw a lots of birds feathers on the lamp.
