Hello friends!
As a starter, I have a few impressions of Brussels for you:
My 5th day of hitchhiking once again showed me that the right choice about your hitchhiking spot is the key to success: As I was living more or less in the center of Brussels, it was easy to find a street, or in Brussel's case a tunnel, leading out of the city. I decided that it was best to position myself quite a distance before said tunnel, so that the drivers wouldn't be inside of the tunnel with their minds already.
After 20 minutes or so, when I already began doubting my decision, a cab driver, who had just dropped off someone, offered to drive me a bit further down the road to a, as he said, better spot. I turned down his offer to have a coffee together and he dropped me off just at the start of the tunnel at the left side of the street. I asked him wether it was the tunnel to the left that lead out of the city, or the street going on on the right side. He told me it was the street, so I stood there and held up my sign.
After 5 minutes it became clear that it was the tunnel that lead out of the city, and after I asked two people passing by, I was sure that the cab driver probably didn't have the best intentions.
I didn't want to walk all the way back, especially because the spot before hadn't been the best one either. The only option I had was to cross the one-way street and hope that someone would stop for me on the left side. So I did that.. and after 2 minutes of waiting a car pulled over.
The elderly man called Bob, a piano tuner who had a daughter in my age, who just went to Hungary for a few months, was going directly to Antwerp and even dropped me right in front of my host's house. Thank you Bob!!
It was raining a little bit and I was really tired, so I spent some time with Monika, my lovely host, talking about her relationship, and going grocery shopping (finally a normal, big supermarket with normal prices again!). She is from Lithuania, has a 6-year old son called Eddie, and also cares for her little 9-year old brother Faustus. They are lovely children and I admire Monika a lot for how she handles her situation.
Later I went to the city center of Antwerp, but as I missed out the opening hours of the tourist office by 5 minutes and as it was very cloudy, I didn't explore Antwerp too much. Still I'm glad that I came, because I wouldn't have met amazing Monika otherwise :)
Right now I'm looking for a good spot to hitchhike to - no, neither Rotterdam nor Den Haag - Leiden!
That was never planned of course, but I got a couchsurfing invite that sounded really interesting, so I'm going for it.
See ya!
As a starter, I have a few impressions of Brussels for you:
 |
| never seen something so boring |
 |
| the impressive "Grote Markt" |
 |
| lovely Arabic neighbourhood |
 |
| Nepal-Nostalgia, hello! |
 |
| this was the center of the Turkish area.. well yes :D |
 |
| some Royal Palace |
 |
| a huuuuge fleamarket that takes place EVERY DAY |
 |
| tired but happy |
 |
| oh yeah |
 |
| they must've been on the road quite a while |
 |
| and that's.. the European Parliament |
My 5th day of hitchhiking once again showed me that the right choice about your hitchhiking spot is the key to success: As I was living more or less in the center of Brussels, it was easy to find a street, or in Brussel's case a tunnel, leading out of the city. I decided that it was best to position myself quite a distance before said tunnel, so that the drivers wouldn't be inside of the tunnel with their minds already.
After 20 minutes or so, when I already began doubting my decision, a cab driver, who had just dropped off someone, offered to drive me a bit further down the road to a, as he said, better spot. I turned down his offer to have a coffee together and he dropped me off just at the start of the tunnel at the left side of the street. I asked him wether it was the tunnel to the left that lead out of the city, or the street going on on the right side. He told me it was the street, so I stood there and held up my sign.
After 5 minutes it became clear that it was the tunnel that lead out of the city, and after I asked two people passing by, I was sure that the cab driver probably didn't have the best intentions.
I didn't want to walk all the way back, especially because the spot before hadn't been the best one either. The only option I had was to cross the one-way street and hope that someone would stop for me on the left side. So I did that.. and after 2 minutes of waiting a car pulled over.
The elderly man called Bob, a piano tuner who had a daughter in my age, who just went to Hungary for a few months, was going directly to Antwerp and even dropped me right in front of my host's house. Thank you Bob!!
It was raining a little bit and I was really tired, so I spent some time with Monika, my lovely host, talking about her relationship, and going grocery shopping (finally a normal, big supermarket with normal prices again!). She is from Lithuania, has a 6-year old son called Eddie, and also cares for her little 9-year old brother Faustus. They are lovely children and I admire Monika a lot for how she handles her situation.
Later I went to the city center of Antwerp, but as I missed out the opening hours of the tourist office by 5 minutes and as it was very cloudy, I didn't explore Antwerp too much. Still I'm glad that I came, because I wouldn't have met amazing Monika otherwise :)
Right now I'm looking for a good spot to hitchhike to - no, neither Rotterdam nor Den Haag - Leiden!
That was never planned of course, but I got a couchsurfing invite that sounded really interesting, so I'm going for it.
See ya!
No comments:
Post a Comment