Intent on bucking my recent trend and actually having breakfast today, I set my alarm for about 8am this morning, thinking that would leave me plenty of time to get up, get ready, packed, and to the station in plenty of time to consume some food before my train left bound for Amsterdam at 9:46am. In retrospect, we all know that was never on the cards. Retrospectively too, that sentence I just wrote is probably the longest first sentence of any of my entries so far, just sayin'. And here I was thinking that starting today's blog would be hard. Appears not. It's good though because I spent a lot of time on trains today, so long descriptive sentences are necessary to ensure there is enough for you to read, even if some of it may be pointless. At least it'll be entertaining! What started as a good intention stayed just that; an intention. No surprises there. It wasn't all my fault though; when I was going to get up and go to the bathroom at the other end of the hall, I heard noises and didn't wanna risk being caught in my pyjamas. I'm still not sure why it mattered really. But either way that delayed me. As did a little bit of wifi time, of course. And then I started convincing myself that station food wasn't all that good anyway, all hope that I was ever going to get to the station in time to have breakfast before my train departed was lost. Besides, all the trains have food on them anyway. That's how I justified it to myself that once again, I didn't end up having breakfast. I wasn't really that late in getting to the station though. Despite having to be all backpackery again with a very full bag, I still arrived about 20 minutes before my train was due to depart. It just probably wasn't early enough to get an ok breakfast. But seriously, as station food it wasn't gonna be ok even if I had a whole day to get it. Enough about missing breakfast already. As this was the departure station for the train, it was already waiting at the platform, so I got on and found my seat. Score; I got a seat in a compartment, and I was the only one in it. It's like my backpack melted away at that development, it was completely contradictory to my plight. After about 15 minutes waiting, the train rolled out of the station, bang on time. I was on a high speed train for the first part of my journey today for just under two hours to Osnabrueck, which meant one golden thing - wifi was on the train! Of course in the 15 minutes waiting for the train to leave I used my time wisely by purchasing a day pass to it and made sure I was connected. As I had my own compartment, I made great use of it by calling people and catching up, including Mum and Dad who had actually made it to Florence. Miracles do happen! While this compartment business was great news for catching up, it meant that the journey seemed to fly past, and before I knew it I was preparing to lift my pack onto my back and get off the train. Without having the breakfast I had used as justification for not having previously had it. Oops. I was a little concerned about this part of the trip, as once I got to Osnabrueck I only had 18 minutes to get from the platform I arrived from to the platform where I had to catch my connecting train, which was on its way from Berlin to Amsterdam. I didn't know how big the station was, where to find the information, and I certainly didn't expect it to be announced in English, so I had my game face on, not to mention gigantor pack, as the train pulled in. They must've read my trepidation. Either that, or they mistook my involuntary shaking under the weight of my pack as being caused by trepidation, because as soon as I was off the train I heard a bucketload of German over the speaker above the platform, followed by 'Amsterdam', then finishing with a bucketload of German. Then they translated it into English - whoo - and let those who just arrived who were heading to Amsterdam the correct platform to go to. With almost 10 minutes to spare I was there waiting. Yay! Still not enough time for breakfast though. Oww! The train coming from Berlin was a little late, and not one of the big fancy high speeders I'd been used to being on up until this point. It did still have first class though (how splendid) and once it rolled in, maybe about 10 minutes late, I quickly found my seat. Once again I was in a compartment, but this time I was sharing it with another couple of people. Lucky for them I'm friendly. I can't help but imagine what they thought when I wandered into their first class compartment with my massive backpack looking anything but classy. I couldn't understand their conversation anyway so my imagination had to do! I'm sure they weren't really thinking or saying anything like that (realistically it would most likely have been more along the lines of 'woah look at that really handsome, chiselled, gorgeous young spunk of a man that has just walked in here'), but when I can speculate about their thoughts for the purposes of delivering a longer blog to my legion of followers, why not take that opportunity? Anyway, moving on... Needless to say that with a couple of different languages in the room, it was a very quiet trip along the German countryside heading towards The Netherlands and Amsterdam. Apart from toilet trips, the only other time I got up was to have a bit of a look for the food carriage and the elusive breakfast I was after, which by this time being after 12, was more going to be lunch. I hadn't been on this type of a train yet in any of my previous trips on the trains, so I wasn't even sure they had food. After getting a few carriages up without yet finding any, I decided that they mustn't so I returned to my seat. Worse still, I'd already established that this service didn't have wifi! Shock horror. What was I to do? I guess with all the other distractions removed there was nothing left to do but move onto my blog. Joke, it never comes last; my readers are more important to me than to put it last. I don't mean to fall behind on it, it's no disrespect to you, it's just I'm such a procrastinator. But blog I did today! I put my headphones in, settled on some tunes, and wrote away! I was so productive (for me) that I wrote a whole entry in the few hours it took to get to Amsterdam, and started on another! That's intense writing. For me at least. After that productiveness, the afternoon flew by, and by 3:30pm, while a little late, the train arrived at Amsterdam Centraal. I love arriving in Amsterdam. The fact we've spent the most time here, the fact they speak English, the fact we have family here and the fact it is such a beautiful place gives it such a familiarity that it feels, to a certain degree, homely. And today was no different; I was awash with overwhelming happiness stepping off the train. My first port of call was the lockers, as I was only leaving a few things with Wim and Humphrey (not B. Bear), so wanted to leave my backpack at the station to save carting it around. Goodbye backpackiness. The second stop was the booking desk for the train, as for reasons I had no idea of, I needed to reserve my seat to Brussels later this afternoon. My plan was to take the express train at 6:17, which would've got me to Brussels in two hours, and given me enough time between now and its departure to get out to the boys' apartment to drop off my stuff and back to the station. Another reason to love Amsterdam; the lady at the service desk was so helpful to point out that that particular train cost over €65 as it was express, and because both The Netherlands and Belgium were covered in my Eurail pass, I could go for nothing if I was prepared to make one change between trains in Rotterdam. While it took a little longer and got in a little later, I really couldn't justify going on the express train, so didn't book my seat. Thanks helpful Dutch woman; I guess it's true what they say - if you're not Dutch you're not much! After that enlightening experience, I gave Wim and Humphrey (not B. Bear) a call and let them know I was only about half an hour away from getting to them. Dad had previously given me their number and then a head's up that I was coming so they made sure they were home. I then went and got my metro ticket and jumped on the tram for the trip out to their place. By about 4:30pm I jumped off the tram and walked the 10 minutes to the boys' apartment. True to form, as I came within view, there they were on their balcony above, with Humphrey (not B. Bear) avidly waving down. By the time I got to the door, he'd come down and met me to let me in and take me upstairs. It was really great to see them both again. When I think about it, we'd really only ever spent an afternoon and evening with them in my whole life, but that, and their absolute loveliness, was enough to make me feel like I'd known them forever. They really are beautiful people. This visit was no exception. They were so welcoming and hospitable; offering me food and drinks and anything else I wanted. Given I still hadn't eaten today, food would've been amazing. Sadly it could only be a quick visit, even though I desperately wanted to stay longer, as I still had a train to catch and a few hours of travelling ahead of me. After dropping off my stuff, I was off again, retracing my steps back to the tram and station, barely half an hour after I got there. Of course, as I walked, the boys waved me off until I'd disappeared from view. They were so sweet, I almost cried as I walked away. I got back to the station by about 6pm, which left me just under an hour until my train departed. Finally I could get some breakfast! I was so hungry. I wandered down to the concourse under the platforms, and found what looked to be a noodle bar, that also looked pretty busy, so must've been good. It was actually a pasta bar, which just like noodles, were served in a box. It looked pretty good, but I guess by that stage my hunger was so great that anything - even German coffee - would've been good! I selected my pasta, sauce, and other extra toppings (basil and parmesan - you have no idea how much I love parmesan even if you know that I love it), and watched as they made it there in front of me. Mercifully accepting the box once it was cooked, I took it up to the platform and scoffed it down. So much for my early breakfast today! It wasn't long after I was done that the train was ready to board, so I jumped on board. I got reacquainted with WiFi in de trein and uploaded my previously completed blog, as well as catching up on some news and flicking Mum and Dad a text. I was getting a bit tired so I got comfortable and watched the countryside go by on the 45 minute ride to Rotterdam, before changing trains for the couple of hours left into Brussels. There was no blog writing because the heaviness of my eyes wouldn't allow it. About the most entertaining thing was watching somebody scramble to the train on the next platform at Rotterdam, making it just in time before the doors shut and the train pulled off. Boy did he sprint. Finally by 10:10pm the train pulled into Bruxelles Central. Luckily just before the train left Rotterdam I managed to screenshot a map of my destination before I lost the wifi, so when I arrived I knew where to walk. I made my way up the stairs to the street, and successfully navigated my way to the Hotel La Légende, a 10 minute walk away. I checked in, made my way up to the room, and crashed into bed; a very long day of travelling complete!