Yesterday marked my first day of fully independent travel. I left on an 8:00am bus ride alone to Brussels, Belgium with my two backpacks and zero research. Luckily, I knew I had a place to stay because I had arranged a bed on CouchSurfing, which I highly recommend any young budget traveler check out.
After I arrived, I struggled for about 45 in the train station, trying to find luggage lockers, bus/tram/metro routes, and Brussels sights worth seeing. Eventually I had the sense to google luggage lockers in my specific station and after getting that weight off my shoulders (literally), things started to fall into place. I bought a 24-hour transit pass (total necessity), picked a location on the map, and then jumped on the metro. On a whim, I got off on the stop before my plan because I liked the name. I was in the perfect center of the city and all the sights.
I legit just wandered the streets, vaguely following attraction signs for 7 hours. It was magnificent.
Things that surprised me about Brussels: Despite being in a Dutch-speaking nation, everybody here speaks French. Every sign, menu, and transit announcement is written and spoken in both languages, with the occasional English thrown in for my benefit.
Following directions from my couch surfing host, I set off for what I thought would be rest at 7:00. Upon arrival, I was greeted with a beer and four dudes watching the World Cup. Except they were all doctors, pharmacists, and computer scientists. So it was more of a "Successful Man Meeting" plus me, the 22-year-old flight attendant bumming their spare couch.
We went for some quick shwarma at a nearby Lebanese restaurant before heading out to a weekly Brussels meet up, APEROS. It's generally the best party in town on Friday nights, or so I'm told. I was trying my best to keep up with my hosts, but these guys work hard all week and then party hard all weekend. Come 11:00, we decide to go back to the apartment, and THANK GOD because I was dog tired. And then we lost Dario, one of the roommates. So we looked for him in this massive crowd for an hour before giving up and heading home. We get a call in the car and he's already back at the apartment. Commence Dario bashing rom the guys. But I'm psyched because we're heading home to sleep.
And then we arrive and there's a massive house party bumping in their two story apartment. Two of their other roommates (6 in total) had started the party while we were out. I'm told that this is a Friday/Saturday tradition and that I can probably get to sleep around 4:00 or 5:00am once everybody leaves. I ended up retreating upstairs and curling up in a sleeping bag around 3:00.
But you know what, I slept happily until 11:30 this morning, woke up feeling great, and now I'm drinking super strong coffee, listening to "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay" while Dario takes doctor-related phone calls and we wait for the other roomies to wake up. So I guess things are pretty amazing.
Totally in love with you, Brussels.
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