Brussels: Map = Good

While I’m waiting here in a Brussels train station for my train to Paris, I thought I’d put together a short entry to pass the time. (I f-in love my MacBook, by the way. Have I mentioned that before? I’m sure I’ll mention it again at some point.)

Today’s topic: If anybody ever tells you that you don’t need a good map when you travel to a foreign, non-English speaking country (and I’m not sure why anybody would ever tell you that), you yell at that person!! You yell at that person like he’s the President of the United States and you’re a mentally-challenged South Carolina congressman with neither dignity nor integrity and you say “YOU LIE!!!” because a better map really would have helped when I got to Brussels.

I got off the train in Brussels, navigated my way through the metro to the stop (I thought) was nearest my hotel. The problem was that my hotel was not so much on a street as it was in an alley and the alley wasn’t on any map in my possession, and I had a handful of them. What also didn’t help was that streets in Brussels keep changing names, sort of like they did in London. It was easier for me in London, though, because of the whole English thing, as opposed to in Brussels where everything is listed in two languages – French and Dutch. As soon as I thought I knew where I was, the name of the street would change and I’d discover I was heading in the wrong direction.

Eventually, obviously, I found my hotel. It took me about an hour of hauling 100 pounds of crap around Brussels, at certain points of which I was only a block away from my hotel although I didn’t know it. After I dropped off my stuff, I backtracked and learned that the metro stop was only about 15 minutes away. The next day, I discovered that there was a closer metro station (10 minutes) from which I wouldn’t have to switch trains to get to the train station. Good news for today – my trip back to the train station was quick and painless – but a better map would have helped when I arrived.

Oh well. Part of the excitement to travelling to new places, I suppose. I think my map of Paris is sufficient, but we’ll see when I get there.

Cheers.