Kyle & Chuck Go To Europe

Like we start off all days, we woke up. We grabbed breakfast first off and then packed up all our junk. Once we checked out we set our bags in what was usually a booth in the bar which they turned into a luggage-storing area.  We ran to the Smatch super market to get some supplies, since they were closed the night before. I got a bar of soap, deodorant and some sandals. The shower shoes I had bought in America were water shoes that were annoying to wear and took forever to dry. I bought these new, all-plasticy-foam shoes are much better for drying. Even though I only have a little while left here in Europe, they’ll more than pay for themselves!

So after that we came back and got the instructions for finding our hostel in Brussels. Then we set out from the hostel for a little bit more sightseeing. The hostel in Bruges had given us a pretty neat map which was made by locals, and had tips on things to see, etc. There was one for a free panorama, and we wanted to check that out before we left for Brussels. It was actually a very short walk from our hostel to the place. It was actually a few hills on which windmills were set. The trees were of course fully leaved, which obscured some of the view, but it was decent. We thought it would take more time to get there and look around, but it was really quick. Chuck and I headed back to pick up our bags and head to the train station.

We walked across the city from our hostel to the train station. It was a decent walk, and the weather was sunny but not too hot. Once we arrived we hoped took the next train to Brussels. It took around 50 minutes to get there and we even had seats unlike the journey the other day where we had to stand. Sitting was nice, especially after that long walk with our heavy packs.

We’d written down the instructions to find our hostel, but the roads were so terribly marked in Brussels that we got lost. It was just like being in Paris again… and since one of the official languages in Belgium is French, that explains it. We walked 15 minutes the wrong direction. When we hit the end of the road, we stopped and asked directions. Turns out the road has two names and the section we wanted was actually under the new name. We headed back and finally found the 2G04 Quality Hostel at which we were staying. Damn, that was annoying getting lost with our heavy packs on.

When we arrived the reception was closed. They are closed every day in the middle of the day for 4 hours.  I have no idea why a place would do that. Yeah, this is an indication of the experience to come. Luckily, someone let us in to the office so we could check in. They had a 100 Euro minimum to py with credit cards, and since we were nowhere near that we had to go to an ATM down the street and withdraw some cash. What’s nice about ATMs here in Europe is that you can find some that don’t charge a fee when you take out money. That is virtually unheard of in America!

So we paid and were able to make our way up to our room. The room seemed nice enough, with large windows that faced the street. The bunk beds were also big. The room did have an awkward layout because there was a faux fireplace which meant the bunk beds had to be arranged a bit weirdly. After we put our stuff up there, we headed out.

We were only in Brussels for that one day and we didn’t see anything about free tours… not to mention we got into town around 1:30pm or so. We just winged it.

The first place we walked to was the Grand Place. It’s basically a plaza surrounded by lots of old buildings. The buildings had some pretty cool architecture though! The hostel did give us one of the cool maps made by the same company as the one in Bruges. In there it told us about a 10 story parking garage which offered a great view of the city! We headed that way next.

From the top you really could see a ton! From afar we could see several churches and even a metal building/sculpture of atomic-sized element (can’t remember which) which was built for a world fair in something like 1958. It looked enormous, even from this far away. I took some pictures of other things that I didn’t know the name of… most of them cool looking buildings. While walking around up there I saw something written on an elevator door. It was this: “Get sick, get well/Gather ’round the ink well/only 20 years of schooling/and they put you on/the day shift.” I took a picture of it because I think it’s hilarious someone decided to take out this rage on the 10th floor of a parking garage where barely anyone would ever see it.

Anyways, after the parking garage we walked to the Cathedral and also inside. It was a pretty awesome building and I took quite a few pictures. We walked all around admiring the sculptures, paintings and stained glass windows. We then walked back to our hostel to look for place to eat. We chose the Poechenelle Kelder Cafe. It’s right next to the Manneken-Pis, or Little Pissing Boy, which happens to be a famous statue! I got some lasagna there which made a great meal while Chuck ended up getting some bread and cheese which was more like an appetizer… I win!

After that we wandered around and tried to find a grocery store. It was around 8pm, and of course most everything was closed. Why were we even trying to find a grocery store in the first place? Well, Belgium was the last country we were in that would accept euros, so we were trying to spend the last bit we had! I had around 10 euro to use. We found a corner store and went in. I got 1.5L of coke, a 4-pack of Red Bull Cola and some Belgian waffles. Red Bull Cola tastes way better than regular Red Bull. It’s like a fruity Pepsi. I wouldn’t drink it on a regular basis, mainly because of the price, but it was decent. The Belgian waffles I got were chocolate covered and really good.

We went back to the hostel and chilled out in the common room for a while consuming the food we’d purchased. I ate two of the waffles, had a couple cans of the cola and tried to surf the internet. The wifi was free, but I got terrible reception everywhere I tried it in the building. And you had to get a password from reception… and sometimes the password would end up locking you out until you got another one. That wouldn’t have been so bad except for the fact that reception was way understaffed. There were either a ton of people waiting in line to talk to one person, or there was no one at the front desk. And the front desk could be completely empty for quite a few minutes. That happened several times and I was not impressed. And then reception closes things down at 11pm. They kicked us all out of the common room right at 11… and that meant there was no chance in hell of getting wifi reception anywhere else. It sucked in the lobby, but was non-existent elsewhere.

So, they shut down in the middle of the day for 4 hours. No 24 hour reception… they don’t open until 7:30am. They have a 100 euro credit card limit (plus a 1.5% transaction fee). Their Wifi sucked. Front desk was under- or no-staffed. On top of that, the showers drained horribly. If you let it run for too long the thing would definitely have flooded. The room we had was facing one of the busiest streets in Brussels, so it was loud all night. That night was also really warm and I woke up sweaty in the morning. Someone stole a bottle of beer Charles had cooling in the refrigerator. The lobby and common area shut down at 11pm. All in all, the 2G04 Quality Hostel sucked balls. It is supposed to be one of the hippest, trendiest places in Brussels. There aren’t many hostels in Brussels to begin with… that may be why. How can it be hip if the place shuts down at 11pm? I would not recommend it to anyone. Definitely not worth the price. And they didn’t even have breakfast included. You also had to do a 10 euro deposit for the key card and sheets. Since we didn’t have that in cash, we used our passports.

After we got kicked out of the common area, we took showers (which almost flooded several times) and then went to bed. I was not impressed with Brussels, and especially not the hostel. I am glad we only spent part of a single day there. Why wasn’t I impressed? It had a confusing maze of streets, just like Paris. It had a lot of modern architecture and felt like NYC. And I hated NYC. The other sights it had were interesting, but the rest of the city detracted from them. Maybe I was just in a bad mood that day, but Brussels really did not sit well with me. Bruges was much more my style and I would say Bruges has more to offer than Brussels, regardless.

Another thing which was interesting, and I’m not sure if it was just the area, was the number of homeless people or vagabonds we saw in Brussels. It had to have been several times what I’ve seen in any other city.