After 5 days in Turkey, I had to meet up with a friend in Belgium. We planned a Euro trip with some other friends. The plan was to spend 3 days in Brussels before we meet up with our other friends in Italy. I had a bit of trouble at the airport in Istanbul because one of the Turkish Airlines staff didn’t really know about Schengen Visa rules. That’s one WTF moment. You work for an airline yet you’re not sure about visa rules and requirements?! It was even more frustrating since she was not very good in English. It was all sorted out though when her superiors came.

Everything went smoothly at the airport in Brussels. I hopped on the train as my friend instructed, looking out for my stop. Then it hit me. Everything was in French. All signs were in French. The announcements were only spoken in French.

F*ck.

After a few minutes of asking other passengers, i found a lady who spoke English. And she told me that I already missed my stop.

Double f*ck.

And that’s another rookie mistake. Not trying to learn at least a few basic words in the language of your destination country. I thought most people in Europe knew how to speak English. i guess English wasn’t as prevalent as i thought it was.

So i had to find my way back to the station where I was supposed to go down. It was two stations back. It was quite easy to go back, though I was mindful of pickpockets the whole time since my friend warned me about them. i had no problem looking for the bus that i needed to take to my friend’s apartment. I was really hungry at that time so we quickly left for dinner.

I finished all that in about 5 minutes. LOL.

And i drank lots of beers. Apparently beers are a huge thing in Belgium.

My friend still had work the next day so we called it an early night.

The next day i had the whole day to walk around the city. Brussels might not be the first place that comes to mind when it comes to European architecture, but it was my first time in Europe and I was amazed at what I saw. The city (like other European cities) is modern, yet it is able to preserve its heritage. It maintains its distinct charm. Europe is indeed very different from America. Every building seems to exude a certain art form.

The Manneken Pis deserves special mention. LOL. Honestly I have no idea why this is such a famous attraction. I actually missed it the first time because of how small it was. I didn’t realize at first that it was what i was looking for.

I ended the day with Belgian chocolates and waffles. The ones that are actually made in Belgium taste so much different. haha.

Overall it was a great day. I saw a lot of places, and walking around Brussels got me totally psyched for the rest of our Euro trip.