On Friday 22nd of February 2019, I took the train to meet Beatrice and Leila in Brussels. Beatrice was doing an internship, and Leila and I had decided to visit her. It was my first (and only so far) time in Belgium.
An Adventure From Poitiers To Brussels
A Trip On The TGV And Thalys
Here I was, in the sunny but fresh winter morning, waiting for the train with my mum in Poitiers. I was taking the TGV to Paris Montparnasse, then I had to take the metro to go to Paris Gare du Nord and hop on the Thalys to Brussels. Everything went as planned, and I even arrived at Gare de l’Est an hour before my second train’s departure. The Thalys was not really modern, less impressive than what I thought.
Testing Brussel’s Metro
I arrived at Bruxelles Midi, and couldn’t get the Internet on my phone. Thankfully, I had screenshots of what metro line I was supposed to take to meet Beatrice at her job. I bought a metro ticket and got on the right train. Next to me, two girls were giggling with bright smiles. As I was looking for the name of the station where we were, I saw a small screen indicating the current station.
At some point, one of the girls looked everywhere to find what station we were at. I told her “Hôtel des monnaies”. She looked at me, seemingly impressed, and said “Wow, you know these stations by heart!”. I laughed and said that it was my first time in Brussels, even in Belgium, but showed her the screen. They laughed and said they were living in Brussels, but were rarely using this line. They were impressed by me travelling by myself. A few smiles later, they got out of the train.
Finding My Way Offline
I got out at the right station, but my Internet was still not working. I asked two girls who had Internet the direction to Beatrice’s workplace. They looked on Google Maps, and showed me where to go. It was actually easy, always straight, and then, in street XX, turn left. After following their instructions, I found a place that seemed to fit, but I wasn’t fully sure. I tried to send a text to Beatrice, but it didn’t work. So I entered and asked if they were the right place and if they could tell my friend that I was there.
Losing My ID In A Security Drawer
A woman looked at me like “what is that?”, from her desk behind a glass panel. There was only one way in the building itself, a set of turning doors, that you could pass waving your badge. Security was clearly not a joke. I carried on to speak with the woman. I explained the situation to her, and she looked for Beatrice in her records on the computer, but couldn’t find her, possibly because she was a trainee.
She asked me for her phone number to contact her herself, since my phone didn’t seem to work. She also asked me to show my ID card and opened a drawer on my side. There were two spaces in the drawer, and I decided that the first one would be where I should put my card. Wrong choice. Very wrong choice. The design of the drawer was actually not great, and the space where I put my card was actually under the drawer when it was fully pushed. So, there I was in Belgium without my passport and with my ID card stuck under an armored and unbreakable drawer…
I tried to push the card with a piece of paper so that the woman could grab the card from her side. But on her side, the drawer was always fully pushed, and I had actually stuck my card even further… Dumb. At some point, the woman left and a man took her place. He tried grabbing my card with folded papers. In the meantime, I restarted my phone and it decided to work. I could send a message to Beatrice. Beatrice arrived and laughed. The man finally had the genius idea of using force by pushing violently the drawer on my side, so that the ID card would be projected towards me. And it worked! I told him he was fantastic, and he smiled.
An Evening In Brussels
Seeing The Parliament For The First Time
We passed by the parliament buildings that are, I must admit, less impressive or beautiful than I thought. We didn’t really do a tour, but since Beatrice has a lot of knowledge, she gave me a few fun facts. I would have to go back to really visit it.
Beer And Fries, A Must-Do In Belgium
We walked a bit in the center of Brussels, and sat in a café to have a beer and fries. There, the bars and cafés “welcome fries”, so you can buy them at the truck and eat them with a beer. We chatted for a while, before deciding to go to her place.
In the evening, we picked up Leila at the metro station nearby and chatted some more.
A Day in Brussels
First Thing First: A Waffle!
We woke up late, but it was not surprising given how late we went to sleep on the day before. No matter, it was a holiday after all! So, we got up and took the bus to Brussels centre. First stop: a waffle restaurant! The waffles were huge, but so were the prices… Nonetheless, it was totally worth it. I had a banana and Nutella waffle. I think I might have eaten the best waffles of my life in Belgium, I don’t know how they do it!
Fully Embracing Our Tourist Status
When our belly was full, we went on to discover the main square. Let me tell you: it really is an exhibition of wealth and beauty! Beatrice was an awesome guide, and told us a bit about the competition of rich industries to have the biggest building. And the King was participating too. She also made us notice the lack of symmetry of the main building.
Lunch At The Avocado Show
We continued our walk, before arriving at the Avocado Show restaurant. Beatrice had had a good hunch, and Leila was really excited because she was following them on Instagram. It was indeed delicious!
The only inconvenience was that the staff was not super nice and the fact that we could only divide the bill in two if we wanted to pay separately.
After lunch, we continued our visit of the city center. Like the good tourists that we were, we wandered in souvenir shops and saw the Manneken Pis and the Zinneke–Pis, two peculiar statues. These are also typical attractions of Brussels. Also, we spotted some nice street art.
Brussel’s Night Of Museums
After some rest, we managed to find the motivation to go out to the Night of the museums. We paid 17 euros and could visit a lot of museums. Because we left Beatrice’s place a bit late, we only saw 2, but we enjoyed the exhibition. One was about Magritte and was really interesting.
Once again, we went to bed quite late, around 2am.
To see more photos of Belgium, you can visit the gallery Belgium.
