We made it into Bruxelles-Nord, and then got to Brugge, Belgium. Brugge is an interesting place. Since we didn't have plans ahead of time, we didn't really have a place to stay. By "we" I mean Charlie, Sang, Adrian, Luis, and myself. Luckily, we got into the same place the rest of the folks were staying. It was basically a youth hostel, but the problem was that it was exactly 8km north of the train station. Public transportation works, but as usual, public transportation limits your options and never runs at reasonable times into the night. Nonetheless, the hostel had a van that picked us up (all 8 + 5 of us) and got us there and checked in. For 550 BEF, we got a bed, sheets, shower, and breakfast, which is quite nice. The location was terrible, but interesting. If you had the foresight to bring sheets, you paid only 430 BEF (Adrian was the only one to do this, although I think I'll do that just in case from now on).
The hostel seemed to serve mainly crew rowing types, since they had about 20 rowing boats and all the gear, and were on a fairly large canal. The area was industrial, but not unsightly; we were located next to a really cool power plant or something of some sort; I have some pictures of it. (hostel pics)
In Brugge we saw lots of things. Here are the pictures...
EURO2000 is a really annoying set of soccer games, since they bring lots and lots of soccer fans to wherever you're going.
Amsterdam was really cool, but we didn't have as much time there as I would have liked (and Euro2000 added a lot of drunk folks to the atmosphere). Immediately upon exiting the train station we started looking for a place to stay, but those waiting in the information line found out that nobody was interested in a group of five for one night -- they wouldn't even talk to you unless you were in for two nights.
Thus, we just decided to not worry about a place to stay until it became necessary, as with a Eurail pass you can always just hop onto a train to your next destination whenever you want and get a reasonable safe place to sleep for a few hours. We visited most of the traditional things to visit in Amsterdam, and had a good time. The red light district is particularly interesting, although I left there feeling distinctly unimpressed, which bothers me somewhat.
Basically, you have your typical place with lots of porno shops, along
with the not-so-typical constant rows of large glass doors, all with
curtains over them. From what I saw walking by, most of the little
rooms have curtains that can be drawn over the door, a bed, a toilet,
and chairs for the prostitutes to sit on whilst soliciting
customers. The entire thing seems to be run from behind the scenes by
pimp-type people, although they weren't always obvious. As you walk
by, you see all of these girls behind the doors, and they generally
dance or do some other pseudo-seductive thing to win customers'
preference over the other prostitutes. From what I saw, a large
majority of the customers were tourist-types, although there were a
few locals mixed in. Taking pictures here is "strictly prohibited,"
and although I'm sure I could have gotten away with it, I didn't
really see too much worth commemorating.
Besides my personal objection to the idea of prostitution, the red
light district really only bothered me for one reason. Amsterdam is
supposed to be one of the biggest places like this in the world, and
it's legal there. The red light district of Atlanta, GA in Hapeville
probably turns twice as much business as the main Amsterdam place was,
and that was during a huge soccer match and on a Saturday
night. Perhaps I'm missing something huge, but the couple of times
that I've ridden a bike or driven through Atlanta's esteemed areas
I've seen far more women working the street. Of course, from what I've
seen Atlanta looks like it has legalized prostitution, due to the lack
of police presence.
In any case, we did more than just see the red light district. By 1am we found a reasonably priced room downtown and crashed until 8am or so. The next morning we went out and did the Rijksmuseum and a few other sights, and then I got separated from the group for a while. After we performed what must have been a perfectly organized race through the museum for about an hour (missing each other the whole time), I decided to just head back to the lockers in the train station and wait there.
During this time I also went into the international travel
information area to find out what the best route to Metz would
be. While waiting for my number to be called I checked back at the
lockers every 20 minutes or so, in addition to one wait in the ATM
line to get money for a quick bite of food.
During the wait in the ATM line I ran into an interesting guy from Holland, but not Amsterdam. He had been in town to pick up his new rowing bike, which is something I'd never seen before. Basically, it's a recumbent bike with a rowing apparatus, and according to him it's fairly efficient and fun on flatter ground. The mechanism was neat, and it utilized clipless pedals and an arm-powered rower to propel the rider forward. In any case, I took a picture of him and the bike (which turns out to have been somewhat of a mistake on my part, as a suspicious-looking kid near the ATM machine was checking out my camera and me in general).
A few minutes later, on my way to check the lockers where we'd stored our stuff, I got basically knocked flat on my face as the guy who looked suspicious to me attempted to steal my beltpack off of me by grabbing the buckle and trying to release it. I got lucky, and it didn't budge, but in the process he threw me to the ground. Mind you this was in a rather crowded train station (the wait at the ATM machine not 20 meters away was 20+ minutes). He kept running after unsuccessfully trying for the bag, and was way out of there before I or any bystanders could do anything. I spoke with the police, who kindly took my poor description and did what most police would do, which was to write it down and smile.
After this fun, I went back to the international bookings room and determined a decent itinerary for us to get back to Metz, and then proceeded over back to the lockers. (This time I made it unscathed). At this point, the group had made it back there, so we were able to rejoin and get things figured out for leaving. I survived the mostly good-natured proddings about getting lost in the art museum, and then we found our way onto the trains. We got lucky on one transfer and caught a much delayed train into Metz from Bruxelles, saving us about an hour of transit time.
Vanessa Explains It All -- coming soon to television near you.
In Atlanta, you see big flatbead trucks carrying around advertisements
all the time. In Europe, they can't afford (or fit) the trucks, so
they use scooters instead.
This is Chantelle (spelling?), one of the really cool waitpeople at La
Rozell. Greg crowned her. Dinner here is very cool.
GPS receivers and Zyrtec -- two of the modern inventions we'd be lost
without. (Well, maybe not, but it's close). The GPS receiver is
Charlie's and the Zyrtec is mine. A 20 day supply costs something like
$6US here, and that's really cool, since I'd be dead with allergies
otherwise. You can buy it (as well as any of the other popular
non-sleepy allergy medications) over the counter here. The US should
do this; perhaps I'll die in 10 years of allergy-medicine related side
effects, but at least that's 9 years or so of not sneezing 15 times an
hour.
This was the bus stop we went to on the way to our hostel in Brugge.
Charlie and I awaiting dinner in Brugge. Gotta love my hair. That
water to the left of my beer cost the same as my beer.
Steve, hanging out.
Steve, hanging it all out at a public urinal. To his credit, I also
used one of these. The trick is to not make eye contact with someone
while you're walking up there -- you lose your nerve if you do.
This is the sign for said outdoor urinals. I thought that they were
just something trucked in for the drunk soccer fans, but it turns out
that they're a regular fixture of the city.
