Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Brussels

So the last weekend (18-20 June) I was off to Brussels. From what I heard before going, Brussels isn't a an interesting visit so my expectations were kind of low. I had chosen horrendous travel times for myself (alms for the student traveler no??) I picked 7 am leaving from St. Pancras International London so naturally I had to get up at about 4 am. Luckily due to amazing saturday service in London I made it and reached Brussels on time. From here it was a matter of finding the hostel which I did with little difficulty.

After checking into the hostel I went out into the city center, and some people tried to pickpocket me!! So, beware. It is kind of amazing how I found myself a bit stranded around this city because not very many people speak English. Dutch and French are the official languages in this country. Anyways, minus the fact that I almost lost my identity, this city is pretty nice. Lots of castle like buildings, waffffffles ... om nom nom and tons and tons of chocolates around every corner.


Although, day 1 was a bit crappy it ended with me hanging out with some amazing Algerian girls. They were fun and friendly and we went for dinner in the town and had mussel soup with fries (surprisingly filling). Oh oh! lots of variety in beer in Belgium as well (especially if you like the fruity kind).

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Travel tips (perhaps nothing new for some)

So, I know I have been travelling a bit perhaps not as much as some of you. Here are some tips anyway. Hope you like them/find them useful.

# If you travel to a country where you do not know the language, find a map (from any local store should do), pinpoint where you wanna go and ask people how you can get there. You may not understand the language but you probably can recognize the name of the station and things like that. Plus hand language is pretty great!

# Dont look clueless. Seriously, this is how can get napped and people will take advantage of your naivety. Appear to know what you're doing.

# Please dont leave your things unattended. Not every country is Canada, you will lose your stuff.

# When you go to a different country, try their food. A lot of people are afraid of experimenting. Whats the worst that can happen? You wont like it, dont eat it ever  again.

# Be wary of company (especially if you are travelling alone). It is nice to get to know people but don't go all out and please dont accept any "stay over tonight" offers.

#Trust your intuition, if something feels sketchy, it probably is.

# A pocket tip. If you're in the city of a few days (2-3 even), make an effort to buy yourself food from the local grocery store. Eating out is unhealthy and will cost you tons especially near tourist attractions. Do eat out sometimes though =).

#Don't be surprised to see intestines in the bus (Courtesy-Brittany Staddon).Um I would flip shit!!!!

I will keep this updated as I find out more stuff.

Anything else? Enlighten me!