The trip didn't exactly get off to the best start. (What else is new?) Our whole trip has been a series of things almost going horribly wrong and then somehow working out not such a horrible way. The bus was scheduled to leave Montpellier at 11:30 PM. Ty and I dutifully arrived at the bus stop 45 minutes early and waited for the bus to show up. After an hour we were still waiting. Nervous, we walked around wondering if we had somehow missed a huge bus. While we didn't find any signs of a bus gone rogue, we did find a guy sitting on a bench with a wrapped up leg. He told us that he frequently traveled between Montpellier and Brussels, and the bus was late most of the time. Within fifteen minutes the bus came and two surly Spaniards stepped out to take our tickets. Since we've been traveling hotel to hotel it shouldn't come as a surprise we haven't had access to a printer. That means we couldn't print off the ticket. Our whole trip we've been able to substitute by taking a screen shot of our tickets and showing that to the bus drivers.
When I held my phone up to the bus driver he took one look at it and shook his head.
...
....
.....
WHAT?!
So I'll say how this went down. He told me that the ticket needed to be printed. I told him I couldn't have printed it even if I wanted to. He said the ticket needed to be printed. I said that there was no way I could print it at the bus stop. He said the ticket needed to be printed. I said we needed to get on the bus and we couldn't print off the ticket. I'm not sure whether it was how pathetic we looked at 11:30 carrying five different bags, or my wonderful persuading skills, but somehow we got on the bus.
Remember how I said I should be a character on a comic strip? Well, I'm not done with the troubles. The bus when we stepped on was completely full. Only four seats left, and guess what, there weren't two seats together. Go figure. One girl was passed out across two seats. One man was alert and sitting by a window. I told him my husband and I are traveling together and there weren't any seats together left on the bus, would he mind trading me a seat so Ty and I could sit together? He shook his head and told me he had to have a window seat, so he would not be trading us. Alright, one tried, two to go. One lady had her purse in the seat next to her, I tried asking her to move but she ignored me. One man tried to listen to us, but after much sign language and broken English we gave up and Ty and I had to sit separately from each other. Miss Angry Lady wouldn't move her purse until I handed it to her. After a sad eight hour ride -- cue sad dramatic music -- Miss Angry Lady got off the bus and Ty was able to sit next to me.
Finally, Ty and I were in Brussels at 1:30 PM the next day.
The best word I can use to describe Brussels is "different." The whole town had this air of just being odd. This half of a bike sticking out of a solid wall is only one example. Ty and I stayed in a part of town that was heavy with Muslims. That means there was a lot of different food, the men were loud, and I was ignored when Ty was present. If Ty and I walked into a restaurant and I tried talking, the person behind the counter would quite literally ignore me until Ty spoke. Another weird thing: the red light district was right by the Muslim area. One side of the street it's scandalous to show an ankle, and the other side of the street covered ankles hurt business! I just wonder how these two totally conflicting social cultures got put right next to each other.
Even with all the strangeness, our hotel was really nice... and conveniently located by a very pretty church.
For your viewing pleasures: the result of about twenty failed pictures. Why can't I just look like a mix of Jessica Alba, Jennifer Aniston, and Kate Hudson with my hair blowing in the wind while my eyes sparkle like the ocean? I don't think that's too much to ask for.
Even though I couldn't pose to save my life, the flowers were wonderful specimens! Brussels is dotted with parks (like the one below) filled with green grass and budding flowers. This was just one of many beautiful blooms!
And, despite my ineptitude at modeling, I did manage to take a few winning pictures.
Ty is pretending to be a leprechaun... because leprechauns love to terrorize potted plants.
And then he empathized with a sad statue.
After multiple picture taking escapades, we went to "Grand Place." It was quite a grand place.
In my opinion, the grandest of all the grand places was the waffle stand where we bought a piece of heaven for three euros. If I had a million euros... I might by 333,333 waffles and maybe one glass of water to wash it down with.
Because we had just consumed--what I'm sure was--an obscene amount of calories we walked around Grand Place and eventually made it to this lovely cathedral. I'm sad to say that this cathedral is a liar. The front was all pearly white and stunning and the sides were blackened with age... You might consider it two-faces, or putting up a facade. (ha, architecture humor)
To shake off the shock of the lying cathedral, we went to sit by one of Brussels many fountains. The fountains in Brussels aren't your typical pretty-ladies-holding-flowers-naked fountains. They were downright cool. They all had unique designs, and some of them featured contorted scaly animals like this one. While enjoying our lovely sit at the fountain we witnessed a fight. Not just a little scuffle, a huge brawl where people had to jump in to separate the two men. One man--who had been kicked while lying on the ground--had blood covering his entire face. Someone finally called the ambulance.
Because nothing works up an appetite like almost seeing two men fight to the death, we decided to get Brussels famous "Frittes." (I think that's French for French Fries... how sophisticated of me to call them Frittes!)
One of the best part of Brussels, though, was these two guys. They didn't look like anything impressive, but they made amazing music on their steel drums. A huge crowd surrounded them to listen to them play. The music was really happy and beautiful. Ty and I listened to them for about ten minutes before moving on.
The next day, Ty and I went to tour more gardens. One had a really big pond and we had a little too much fun watching the frogs. Guess who wanted to throw dirt clods at them to see them jump off their lily pads. (Hint: his name rhymes with Shmy.)
See that? Proof how strange Brussels is. There's a guy lying in a speedo in front of the botanical gardens... What people will do to get a good tan!
Another thing we enjoyed was the Japanese embassy.
Mostly because of its cool bamboo swings. :)
Brussels was a really fun, offbeat town we were lucky to enjoy. The town gave us a good send off by allowing us to witness yet another fight. This time between a large African woman and a rude custodian, but don't worry, the custodian wasn't hurt... too bad. ;)
Go home, Brussels. You're drunk.
Anyway, thanks for reading!
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