Day 33, 15 July 2014, Brussels, Belgium - Parliamentarium, Magritte Museum, Fell off the map, Got back on again. Direct from the "Who'da thunk it / No S**t Sherlock Department - 8 hours of walking the streets means tiredness the next day. Seriously? Yep. Made it out of the hotel by 10.30 am and was tuckered out by the time I reached the metro... all of 5 minutes walk away. Nevertheless, battled on and made it to the Brussels seat of the European Parliament. The actual pollies are off meeting in Strasbourg, France this week so pretty quiet on the ground, but visited the flash new visitors centre experience - the Parliamentarium. Just me and every teenager in Belgium. Yep. Very interesting though - seeing how far back the concept of a United States of Europe goes. Also what a miracle it is that it's come this far. For example, there are touch screen tables in the centre where you can tap your audio guide on the "key" symbol and the information on the table will be displayed in your language - any of the recognised Euro languages. Brilliant, fascinating... standing there reading it in English and this Spanish lady walks up and holds her reader down, changing it to Spanish. Which got swiftly changed to English and one of the docents subtly sat my brochure over the reader so that others wouldn't be tempted to get smacked in the head. And that, dear readers, is why the Union is such a miracle. Moving on, feet actually fell off and got left somewhere in the European Quarter and I jumped on a bus (any bus - had no idea where it was going). Trick is just to follow along on the map and when it veers off course, get off. In any event it dropped me right at the Magritte Museum - nice, since unlike Norway, Brussels is having a cool and drizzly summer. Magritte on the other hand fired up a rage the likes of which not seen on TripAdvisor for a few weeks. s***s me to tears after paying out the bucks to go into the museum to see a sign in very small letters saying the good stuff's gone to NY - back in October. Saw what was left, made a ruckus, filed a complaint. No doubt languishing at the bottom of a circular file by now and trashed the whole museum on Tripadvisor. My work here is done. Jumped on another bus by virtue of recognising that it was going to the Stock Exchange - not where I wanted to go, but would connect to the metro to take me to Brussels' biggest flea market. Jumped off the metro and went up the wrong exit. A bit like google maps, it would be handy if there was a sign saying "Ghetto this Way". Found it all by myself this time. Turned around smartly and walked the other way - caught out by two different streets within a block of each other with the word Waterloo in the name. That's when I fell off the map and had quite an interesting wander through working class/immigrant Brussels. Eventually spotted the remains of a market - all closed by 2 pm. Not actually the one I wanted, but that closed by 2 pm as well. Decided it was time to return to my known universe and finally found a set of tram lines, rather magically heading right to my nearest stop. Woo hoo! Got off a stop early at a vintage shop run by a nice Syrian bloke - hunting for a furry winter coat for James and some new winter boots for me. Nothing quite right. Most definitely time to hit up a french stick and some cow cheese to keep me going until Chinese for dinner. Seven more days in Belgium to get around to mussels & waffles (alive, alive 'oh).

(Pictured is Porte du Hal / Halpoort. One of Brussels city gates from the 1200s. Thoroughly restored now and a museum for the military. Quite the highlight of popping up into the ghetto at Halpoort Metro!)