I thought I would challenge myself to take the metro instead of a taxi from the airport into town. I had already looked on the internet and it didn't seem impossible and because Brussels is so small the airport was only like 20 kilometres or so from the city. Things were going well until I realised that the address which I thought I had printed out I had actually left in Australia. Sh!T.
So after tiping my entire suitcase out in a corner of the airport and repacking it, I went to the information desk and asked them if they knew the hotel and the address and also how to get to into town. This woman was so friendly and spoke perfect English and her instructions were good so things were looking up.
So it turns out that even though the airport is close to town you still need to catch a special metro line which takes you into the main metro grid and from there you navigate your way through. Fortuently there is only about five or six metro lines in the Brussels metro so it wasn't too hard.
Within half an hour I had arrived at where I needed to be. Once I had lugged all my bags up the steps of the metro exit I was able to take my first look at downtown Brussels. By this stage it was just after 9am and the city was slowly waking up as was the sun. It was very grey outside and cold, but nothing that I wasn't used to during a European Winter.
I got so lost trying to find my hotel it was incredible! Although I got quite close a number of times and was totally heading in the right direction. I asked a taxi driver to take me (in French) to the hotel and he told me that it was so close I could walk it, I had been walking around in circles for the last 30 minutes, so it was not what I wanted to hear.
Then I saw this grungy looking guy with a bottle of grog in a brown paper bag coming towards me (remember it is not even 10am yet) in an empty lane way and I thought I was either going to get mugged, raped or killed but instead he saw me with my map and aksed me where I needed to go, and he showed me which street to take. He also reminded me to rug up in Brussels because it was quite cold. Even the hobo's here are nice, I made my way down two more streets before arriving at my hotel.
So after tiping my entire suitcase out in a corner of the airport and repacking it, I went to the information desk and asked them if they knew the hotel and the address and also how to get to into town. This woman was so friendly and spoke perfect English and her instructions were good so things were looking up.
So it turns out that even though the airport is close to town you still need to catch a special metro line which takes you into the main metro grid and from there you navigate your way through. Fortuently there is only about five or six metro lines in the Brussels metro so it wasn't too hard.
Within half an hour I had arrived at where I needed to be. Once I had lugged all my bags up the steps of the metro exit I was able to take my first look at downtown Brussels. By this stage it was just after 9am and the city was slowly waking up as was the sun. It was very grey outside and cold, but nothing that I wasn't used to during a European Winter.
I got so lost trying to find my hotel it was incredible! Although I got quite close a number of times and was totally heading in the right direction. I asked a taxi driver to take me (in French) to the hotel and he told me that it was so close I could walk it, I had been walking around in circles for the last 30 minutes, so it was not what I wanted to hear.
Then I saw this grungy looking guy with a bottle of grog in a brown paper bag coming towards me (remember it is not even 10am yet) in an empty lane way and I thought I was either going to get mugged, raped or killed but instead he saw me with my map and aksed me where I needed to go, and he showed me which street to take. He also reminded me to rug up in Brussels because it was quite cold. Even the hobo's here are nice, I made my way down two more streets before arriving at my hotel.
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