My first day in Brussels started very slowly indeed. This was a pattern I'd started to notice was developing ever since I started the solo part of my trip (I'm sure you have too if you've been reading this blog avidly. Actually I'm so far behind, you probably haven't). It's sort've odd, because before I left home this solo part was something I was really looking forward to; a chance to explore the world my way, absorbed in the beautiful places around me. I envisaged myself as a kindred spirit (not in a hippie or backpacker way), someone who would thrive being in my own time and space. But I wasn't. Increasingly, I was finding that the longer I was alone, the more I wanted to share my experiences with the people I love. And without them here, I couldn't do that. I was quickly discovering that for me, traveling wasn't about the places I was going, but the experiences I got to share. And for me, experiences revolve around people. It's not to say I wasn't enjoying myself - on the contrary, I was still having the time of my life - but it wasn't as inspiring or as free as I'd expected it to be. It was an oddly de-motivational experience, so that drive to get out and explore for every second I had in a place was as lacking as the people I wanted to share it with. On the other hand, this experience did provide a contrast to the time I'd had already with my family and friends, and made me appreciate, value and cherish that, as well as look forward to a future doing the same with people special to me, even more. I guess in that respect I did find myself a bit. Thanks solo travel! So my first morning in Brussels was spent mostly in my hotel room a little bit homesick. I used some of that time trying to cure it by connecting with family and friends back home, and Mum and Dad, which helped a lot. I also decided that if I was to avoid this fate for my whole few days in Belgium that I should book myself on a couple of tours over the next couple of days, which would force me into activities that my lack of motivation wouldn't. I downloaded a tour app, Viator, which lists heaps of tours in and around your location, and scrolled through the options. I decided upon a half-day chocolate and city tour of Brussels for tomorrow, and a whole day tour to Luxembourg on Wednesday. I also decided to use this uninspiring time to a bit more of an advantage and arrange my onward trip to London for Thursday, as I had to be back there by Saturday for the start of my Topdeck trip. This part was the last missing part of my whole trip - whoo! I booked the Eurostar under the English Channel from Brussels to London for Thursday, and a hotel - Hotel Jim - for my couple of nights there. I booked this place not only because it was close to where Topdeck departed from, but also had a laundry so I could ensure all my clothes were ready for that. Most importantly, I booked it as it had the same name as a good mate from home, Jamey. Clearly that's doesn't make sense, but you should note that we all call him Jim. Now it does make sense. Anyway, I'm not in London yet so I feel I'm digressing - you can wait for a couple of days (most likely months with the speed of my blog writing) to read about that. Today is Brussels! As lunchtime approached I was starting to get hungry (yet again I hadn't had any breakfast this morning). Also, with the time difference between here and home, most of the people I'd been catching up with for the morning were heading to bed too, so my motivation to get out and about to check out the city increased markedly. Go figure. I checked out my location on my phone, and had a look at the maps supplied in my room, to get my bearings a little bit, and decided to back that my sense of direction would also help me find my way back from wherever I ended up, before I set off for the afternoon. Lucky for me my hotel was really close to the Grote Markt (though I really made the luck as I chose this hotel specifically for this reason), which is the central square of Brussels. In fact, it only took a few minutes of walking before I got there. Unfortunately that was more than enough time for a pigeon to swoop me in the head, scaring the **** out of me in the process. ****er. Even though I had spent my first morning in my hotel room, I really was looking forward to seeing Brussels as I'd heard that it is quite beautiful. While that flying rat wasn't the beauty I'd envisaged, that aside it quickly lived up to its reputation. The Grote Markt was gorgeous, with massive old buildings called guildhalls, the Town Hall and a building called the Breadhouse, surrounding a cobblestone square. It was pretty busy, as it's the main attraction in Brussels and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with a history dating back to the 10th century. It was so nice I got lost in it, which is pretty hard to do considering it's an open square. So it must've been its beauty. Think metaphorically lost, not literally. After a little while wondering around it taking some photos, I decided to move on and explore some more. My hunger hadn't left, which isn't surprising given walking doesn't feed me, and the square didn't have a lot of eating options, so I left via the opposite corner with my intention to hunt for food. It wasn't long before I found a whole street of eateries, yay! Even more awesome, most of them were French, and most had set three course meals! Most awesome though was that all the menus were also in English! At this point I should note that Belgium is heavily influenced by France, with it being one of their two languages spoken here, the other being Dutch. So to find a French restaurant was exciting as I figured it'd be good, and unlike in France, because they seemed more friendly to English here, I could understand what I was having. Needless to say, this made me happy (probably because I was epically hungry by this stage as well), so I was very excited to sit down and eat a three course French meal. With the benefit of hindsight (remember I'm behind in this blog), in a couple of days that excitement would be curtailed somewhat. I won't share it with you now, primarily because I like to keep things in order, but also because I'd like to introduce some suspense and intrigue that makes you want this blog more. In the now (time and day of blog, not time of writing it), I was happy. I was sitting outside on a cobblestone street enjoying a meal and a refreshing beer. Think of a quintessential European dining picture and that was me. In my head at least. With my hunger satisfied, it was off for some more exploring. I'd really only taken notice of how to get to the Grote Markt when I was back in the hotel room, and figured I'd use wifi at lunch to work out my next moves. Sadly lunch didn't have wifi, so by now I was travelling by instinct. It didn't really matter as I had a bit of an idea of the directions I wanted to take to get to some other landmarks, and even if I didn't, this place was nice enough that anywhere would be fine. I decided to get lost in the laneways and arcades around the Grote Markt for a while, and this kept me occupied for an hour or so. It really was quite beautiful, and reminded me a little bit of the Royal Arcade in Melbourne. Only this was an entire city like that, not just an arcade. While my French meal earlier had consisted of three courses, it really wasn't all that massive, and after a couple of hours I was getting hungry again. For something sweet. Just out of the square, I found this little cafe, and being in Belgium, which has a reputation for good chocolate and waffles, I thought this place was a wise choice. I went in, found a seat and as soon as I looked at the menu, I was bombarded with the most awesome looking chocolate, ice cream and waffle concoctions I could imagine. I knew my choice, while wise, would be hard. Maybe it was the fact it all looked amazing, and maybe it had a little to do with the fact I hadn't really eaten much over the last two days, to the point that my stomach probably would've gone all cannibal on itself in the not-too-distant future if I didn't substantially eat soon, but whatever it was I decided to order up big on the chocolate. I chose Belgian waffles first. How cliché. But what other choice did I have really, when they had dulce de leche (slowly heated sweetened milk that undergoes a reaction to make a thick, dark syrup), pralines and cream ice cream, caramel sauce and vanilla whipped cream? That's right, they practically demanded to be ordered. But not content with that, and telling myself that all meals really do need an accompanying drink, I ordered a hot chocolate cocktail, with banoffee and Belgian chocolate scoops, chocolate fudge sauce, pieces of banana and vanilla whipped cream as well. It was as delicious as it reads. Needless to say, I rolled out of that cafe, on a sugar high and completely full to the point of throwing up. It was so sweet, but it was worth it! Urgently needing some physical activity to try and work that food off, I decided to explore a little further away from the centre. I headed first towards the station where I'd gotten off the train last night, thinking I might head in the opposite direction than I had yesterday when I arrived. It also helped that it was uphill, because I really needed the walk. Tracking all the way up the hill, I soon found myself at the Palais Royal de Bruxelles (Royal Palace of Brussels), a gorgeous building overlooking a massive park. Talk about my directional instincts! Apparently, despite it being the royal palace, the Royal Family of Belgium don't live here, which is odd. Wouldn't we all like to be so rich that a royal palace just doesn't cut it? And it wasn't even open to have a look in (not that I probably would have anyway), so after being impressed by it from the outside, I moved on. On my way to the palace, I saw a really long avenue with something that looked interesting all the way at the other end, and decided to head towards that next. A really long avenue was an understatement. It just kept going. After what seemed like 20 minutes, which really wasn't too bad given I p************* host of nice buildings, and because I was a fat pig earlier, I reached the thing that looked interesting. That thing was the Palais de Justice de Bruxelles (Brussels Palace of Justice), which apparently is the biggest courthouse in the world. While it was pretty big, it was covered in scaffold so wasn't as impressive as it might've been. But its location was. Sitting on the top of the hill, it had great views over Brussels, so I took the opportunity to take a couple of photos. I was probably never going to go inside the courthouse anyway, but I guessed that as it was getting later in the arvo (surprising how quick the day goes when you're having fun, or in my case, in your hotel room for most of it), it would probably be closing soon, so I figured that that was as good an excuse as any to move on. As the courthouse sat on top of the hill overlooking the neighbourhood below, I decided to head down there and roughly in the direction back to the centre and my hotel. There was even a glass elevator to help my cause down, but given I was still feeling fat from my chocolate hit earlier, I decided to take the ramp. At the bottom I was greeted with narrow, twisting cobblestone streets, which I followed past some more beautiful buildings in a zig zag heading back towards the Grote Markt, or so I hoped. After a little while I stumbled across an interesting looking pub with a street side drinking area. Being late arvo, and having been a couple of hours now since I'd gorged on mass chocolate, my stomach was really craving some beers. So I sat down, got comfy, and ordered a beer! For the first time in history, despite the pub having wifi, I managed to get a blog entry written. Most likely because it was a s***house time at home and nobody was awake. But my loss there is your gain, or was your gain when you read whatever blog entry it was I finished that day. So it was really your gain over a year ago. After a few beers over the setting sun, I decided to make a move. Again I headed in the general direction I thought the Grote Markt was in, and once again my superior navigation showed when I picked up on a familiar street and found my way back to the Grote Markt. At night it was just as beautiful as it was during the day, with lights illuminating the beautiful old buildings with a real glow. After having a little wander around and soaking it in, and not really needing any dinner after all that food and few beers earlier, I decided to have an earlyish night back in the hotel. And hope there were some early risers back home. I made the short walk back to the hotel, put on my PJs, and relaxed the night away on the bed. Day one Brussels, done!