beer & waffles in brussels

this weekend has finally arrived - Tessie is going to be on the same continent as me again! I packed Thursday night and a little but Friday morning, showered ate and dealt with a heinous airline because our flight to Amsterdam Saturday morning was cancelled and rescheduled and cancelled once again. I was on the phone for a half hour with no avail - needless to say eurojules wasn't happy about that. I booked us a round trip on the Ouibus instead. surprisingly the time on the train was the same as the time on the bus. so we will have a lot of sitting Saturday but we're taking on the city of Amsterdam so plenty of walkin will be had as well. I had to hop from train station to train station Friday in order to make my connection from Paris Nord to Brussels Midi. it's a little ways from our hostel, but I will be so excited to see Tess by the time I finally arrive I'll practically be running with my big orange turtle shell backpack.

well I almost missed my second train from Paris to Brussels. it was like a mile underground to get from Paris montparnasse to the metro 4. finally on the metro, there were like 12 or something stops to get to Paris nord. as eurojules luck would have it, the metro stopped and experienced delays. I was panicking, and there was nothing I could do but internally scream and fret. once the metro finally arrived at the second station I did my best to bolt but mass crowds of fumbling people make a clean bolt quite challenging. there were so many arrows and signs for buses taxis trams and TERs, but I needed TGV (faster trains.) I asked someone in a frenzy and he grabbed my shoulders and pointed me in the direction. merci beaucoups were a flyin and jkro was a runnin. made it to my platform and hopped on, in a sweaty wide eyed heap. onward to Brussels to see my SIS!!

I turned the corner at the train station and saw my best pal from afar. I yelled her name because I couldn't contain my excitement and we did a little jog skip at each other and just hugged for a few minutes. wow did I miss my best pal. we walked from the station into the city which was a good little hike, Tess took me to a cute cafe that was recommended on her tour as a quaint local spot, and we talked for a while to catch up. we walked around a bit after dinner, but Tess had been rocking and rolling since the day before (in Indy) since she landed that morning and didn't rest. what a champ right? we settled into the hostel, and Tess fell asleep right away but I was sweating my butt off because our hostel room was a sauna.

(resumed Sunday) back to Brussels for the day. Tessie had taken a tour and walked around a bit on Friday before I arrived, so she knew the highlights. fun fact about Tess: she loves the tours around cities and has been on so many by now she's a fountain of knowledge and little facts about random things but I love it. I have my own personal tour guide and she's so fun to travel with because she's done it and really appreciates it. not to mention she's so easy going and great company in general. we hit the major sites in the city, mannequin pis of course (so much smaller in person than I expected) the cathedral, royal palace, parliament buildings, and a really pretty park. we snagged the classics, a waffle which was divine and Neuhaus & Mary chocolates which are both Belgium native and entirely delicious. Tess was psyched because her favorite beer of all time is Belgian beer so we did a little tasting at "the sister" cafe which we thought was fitting. it was so lovely just sitting there chatting tasting organic & locally made beers with my best pal. after tasting we found a quaint Italian restaurant and I had an incredible plate of carbonara, Tess had the Napoleon tagliatelle which she gave a thumbs up to as well. it was a family run place which was a cozy feel and a tasty result. we made our way back to the hostel to pick up our bags, and take the metro into the station. here the madness begins.. when you book a train from point a to point b, the system will find you a way there (majority of the time) but conditions aren't always (or usually) very conducive. transitioning from one train station to another in a small window is not ideal, and our train from Brussels was delayed 30 stinkin minutes. our "layover" was only a little less than an hour and a half initially, so we had less than an hour to get off the train, get tickets for the metro, get on the metro for 25ish minutes and get from the metro to the platform before the train left. this doesn't sound too terribly bad until you look at the size of these stations and realize how long it takes to get even from one end of a platform to the main station let alone a metro deep in the ground and a mile away from the main station platforms. so we HUSTLED, and made it with a few minutes to spare.

Tess had me cracking up because we arrived to Montparnasse flushed and a little panty, and she goes "Jules I'm a fast walker. I'm typically known to walk quickly but your European walk kicks my American walks ass." we had a good chuckle with that. I have been blessed thus far not to miss any train plane or automobile, but I've also had more close calls than I can even count (typically out of my hands like delays.) I call them unnecessary anxiety as I get quite antsy each time it happens. currently on the train back to angers and I'm too excited to show Tessie my home. angers, were coming for ya.

cheers, jkro