I waited at the bus station for a while as the bus was an hour late. Every time a new bus drove on I would walk up to it and check the sign on the front of the bus. So many other people were waiting that I was not able to find anyone else catching the same bus. The weather was cooler than it had been for the last 5 days, no sun and a sky full of clouds. Before I left I had packed both my favourite dark olive green wool jumper and a black wool coat, the same coat I used to wear with a suit to the office. I knew I was likely to have to deal with both hot and cold weather on my trip. Also not the kind of clothes people normally go backpacking in but they kept me warm.
The bus eventually arrived, the driver scanned the app on my phone and I boarded. This would be the first time I caught a FlixBus after taking advice from the American woman a few days ago, apparently the cheapest way to travel. It was a long trip to Brussels and I did not speak to anyone. I spent the time processing what had happened the night before spending hours day dreaming out of the window. I hoped the American woman would find my written note, packing up and leaving a hostel is a messy job it could have been blown under the desk never to be seen. Maybe she would find it but never bother, I had no control.
On arriving in Brussels near the Brussels North railway station I was impressed by how clean the city looked. Tall shiny buildings, clean roads and also lots of trees and parks. I walked down the pretty looking Boulevard Roi Albert II to the hostel 2GO4. I spoke for a while to the woman on the desk, the first person I had spoke to since the chaos of last night. I checked in and sat in the common room completely exhausted. When you become this sleep deprived your mind feels like glass.
The common room had lots of quirky objects on the walls, it felt claustrophobic and I had to be careful not to knock anything over. I spent an hour catching up with things on my laptop and then headed out to take a quick walk around the city centre. It was late afternoon and I wanted to get food. I remember going to a nearby supermarket called Delhaiz, I bought some snacks, bread, chocolate spread and waffles. I was told to buy waffles while I'm in Belgium. I went back to the hostel, prepared my food and found I had way too many waffles. I left the rest of them in the kitchen for anyone to have.
I sat down on some sofas and two French women started talking to me. I told them of my travel plans and of the chaos last night. They were only in Belgium for a weekend and they invited me out to a club. It was about 7pm and I desperately needed sleep so I gracefully turned down their offer. A 2nd night in a row would have been too much for me, however I have often wondered what would have happened that night if I said yes. Declining their offer also went against my new open to everything philosophy. I went to bed around 9pm, once the hostel common room became quiet as I wanted to keep a regular sleep cycle.
I woke up the next day and had only planned for two nights here so that would mean one full day to explore the city. I was not interested in going to museums so I decided to walk around the city. I first went to the city centre as did not have time to explore it the night before. I got lunch at a place called Exki, a strange baguette I did not really like. I ate it on the steps to the Brussels Stock Exchange.
The Dutch woman I met in Edinburgh wanted me to go see another Peter Pan statue in Brussels so I first started by walking south to Egmont Park. I then circled the whole city and ended up in a place called Laeken Cemetery. It had this huge underground crypt, I had not seen anything like this before or since. I walked around the cemetery for about an hour but did not see anyone else. The crypt looked like it had some construction going on as pipes were running all over the floors. I felt like I was not supposed to be there and they made a mistake by leaving it unlocked. Then I started to get scared in case someone would lock me in down here. I found the exit and headed back to the hostel.
I had a quiet night in the hostel and sat watching Netflix and YouTube videos on my own. I remember going to bed late, the hostel staff kicked me out of the common room.
YOU ARE READING
My Backpacking Memoirs
Non-FictionIn 2017 I embarked on a three month backpacking trip around Europe. Motivated by the many accounts of travel from within religion, I went to learn. But what I experienced was not what I was expecting. This was my first time leaving the UK since I wa...
