Brussels

Brussels was mostly a bust. It is a very beautiful city, but nothing particularly amazing. I woke up after some bad sleep with a stiff neck and headache that didn't go away.

I woke up, got a map of the city highlighting the main attractions and set off walking. I walked around from about 10am to 4pm seeing the different sites, but not going inside anything. The architecture was beautiful. They have a lovely palace for their royal family. But again, nothing more stunning than I have seen before.

What was awesome was Belgian waffles and chocolate. A stereotype that is quite true, they are both that good!

My day was ruined early afternoon though by a migraine. Rarely do I get two so close to each other. I loaded up on some medicine and hit the sack around 5pm. I slept until 9am the next morning.

The next day I woke up and found it raining out side. Instead of my nice walk to the station, I was scrambling to figure out how to run to the nearest subway and stay dry. Luckily, there was a subway close. I bought my ticket and about one stop short of train station we get kicked off the train. Then I notice a lot of police officers, which sparked my interest, but I ignored it trying to get to the train station.

I go outside the subway and try to figure out the best way to run to the station while finding the most cover possible. I don't care about personally getting wet, but I am worried about my bags.

I get to the station and everything seems normal, except none of the subways are running to it. Now, I don't need a train here, I need a bus that goes to the airport I am flying out of. It is about 45 minutes from the train station. I find the bus and head off to the airport.

While at the airport - have 3 hours till my flight - I meet a nice Brazilian girl who has been living in Europe for the last 12 months studying abroad. First in Sweden and then in Belgium. She casually asks if I heard about the bomb threat to the train station in Brussels. It all hit me in one second and I respond no, but that makes sense and explain the subway thing. Crazy! Bomb threat was my first thought, but I disregarded it pretty fast based on how casual everything seemed.

I keep talking to this girl about life, travel experiences, how excited she is to go home finally. She starts to tell me about her crazy grandma. So one day her grandma (80) comes to her and asks where she can get a fake id. Yep, grandma needs a fake id. So grandma has started dating some young hunk who is 40 and she has been claiming she is only 60 years old. They have been dating for over a year now. She even created fake back stories for the rest of her family and made all of them younger. She gave them all handouts on their new ages. Awesome. Apparently, grandma is pretty convinced he not really 40, but closer to 50 or 60 and lying about his age as well.

Well played, Grandma, well played.

After my new friend leaves, I kill the last few hours on the ol' iPad and fly home to Budapest. After 19 days on the road it is a great feeling being home. I go to my new apartment that Matt has already moved into. It is odd, returning to a foreign city, but to have the feeling when I got there of returning home. That relaxed feeling where you can start to unwind. I can only imagine how much bigger that will be when I return to Kansas.