"Belgium" a Belgium Travel Page by dinagideon

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I cannot allow my other VirtualTourists to think that I know much about this place that I visited in November of 2000. Unlike the other countries on my journey, Belgium afforded me one day in one city. Brussels. Which I had higher hopes for.
On first sight, the city reminded me a lot of Paris, similar architecture and the same language (French, of course!). We jumped off the train at Brussels Nord and skirted our way out of the building, to find ourselves slightly confused as to where we were. HINT--TAKE A GOOD MAP. This city is large! We figured out that we needed to go south to our Hostel (Jacques Brel) and so we walked nearly two miles to get there (that is me above in our room at the hostel). It was rush hour and everyone it seemed was in a massive hurry! We had our wheeled luggage, and while this posed no problems elsewhere in Europe, every step we took on the way to the hostel was met with frustration by the commuting Brussels natives. They felt we were too slow, and probably really stupid, for attempting to wheel luggage at 5:30 pm on a Tuesday evening.
We made it to the hostel and were told, "you have no reservation here!" Augh! Fortunately, they helped out by putting us up there anyhow, but I was tired after being run over by people and the two mile walk!
But after the initial problems, Brussels was very smart and chic. They have great shopping and even better food and the BEST BEER. Wow. And was it ever cheap. Take it from me, order BEER. Plus, if you are tired and frustrated from rush hour commuters, the beer is the best beverage ever imbibed...trust me!
We left the next day to get on the Eurostar back to London. That is something pretty neat about Brussels, it has access to one of the neatest engineering feats...the fast train that goes under the English Channel. Definitely something that should be done!