Too much excitement for one small day
11.19.10
46 °F
Just got back from a (semi) spontaneous day trip to Brussels compliments of GW Paris. Obviously the first thing I had to do was check my email for the list of Cab '11 and the second: blog.
Brussels is adorable (as I seem to feel about most of the cities I visit). I had been there once before after our great biking trip through the Netherlands, but we had visited so many places that trip, I couldn't really keep straight which place was what. Our train was really early this morning so we could be at the European Commission by 10am to hear two very interesting speakers. We were visiting with the students on the GW business program who are taking a class on the government of the EU, so the visit was mostly for their sake. I don't know much about the inner-workings of the EU but both of the speakers were clear and engaging so I really enjoyed it. Afterward, we were all starved, and GW treated us to an amazing, huge lunch at a really nice restaurant. I'm seriously still full from it.
After lunch, we had a guided walking tour around the city which was pretty cool and then we had some free time to walk around the city. Ali and I ventured off to explore a bit more and basically kill time until our train back to Paris. Neither of us were very interested in shopping or food (still too full from lunch) so we just kind of wandered the streets. Today, apparently, is a huge part for the university in Brussels so there were students EVERYWHERE in the streets, drinking, dancing, singing. It was fun and exciting but also really dirty and gross and it smelled awful. The two of us show up at what we were told was the meeting spot, and we were even 20 minutes early because we didn't know what else to do, and we're waiting around for everyone, but no one is there. We found Florence (the woman who was leading the trip) and she told us to meet her inside by the platform once we found the others. Its way past the time we're supposed to meet, so we go inside without anyone else, to find Florence. She too is MIA. Finally we get her on the phone and she tells us to just meet at the train station (we were at one but we had to take a train to get to the one our train to Paris left from). So we try to figure out what track we need, we board the train, and 30 minutes later, we're in Ghent. AKA NOT PARIS. Why can't I ever travel without something like this happening? I am travel-bad luck, don't bring me on your trips! Fortunately, the "controle" was really nice and helpful, she gave us passes to ride back to Brussels for free and explained to us how what we needed to do to get back to Paris (we obviously had missed out train)
I'm back safely in Paris at least -- excitedly awaiting the arrival of Rachel in just a few short hours!!
Posted by esteegg 11.19.10 14:25 Archived in Belgium
