Saturday, June 10, 2006

A Kiwi's Day Out in Brussels.

Brussels ... 30 C, nothing prepared me for this.

One moment I'm complaining about grey skies and an absentee summer, next moment I'm realising that my wardrobe has suffered some during this period of arriving-in-Belgium and that I'm down to black clothing ... supremely useless clothing on a hot day.

To Brussels went well, all connections caught and a laugh with the bus driver. He didn't quite roll his eyes when I asked for a ticket to my destination in my 'special' accented Nederlands so I flashed him the paper with the address and said, 'Foreigners eh'.

We both laughed, I guess he gets a few of us on his bus every day.

A lovely lunch with two Kiwis, good conversation, a farewell, then a brisk walk back to Centraal Station and onto the slowest of slow rattly old un-airconditioned trains home. Seventy-nine stops and I arrived ... okay, perhaps it was 8 or 9 stops but it was hot and we stopped in places I'd never heard of.

And then ... this princess from the South Pacific decided not to get on the over-crowded tram home and thought those boarding were idiots, until she studied the tram route again and realised that the lit lights signaling tram location were all a long way away from her stop.

Twenty minutes later, another crowded tram pulled up, I got on.

I left Brussels at 3.15 and walked in the door around 5pm ... a hot little bunny.

So ... the news, summer seems to be here, we've been told to expect 30 C on Sunday, clearly someone forgot to let Mother Nature know because she turned it all on today.

2 comments:

Kay Cooke said...

I have enjoyed reading bits and pieces from your blog. I will be back to read more!

Di Mackey said...

Thanks chiefbiscuit ... I enjoyed wandering through yours but for the homesicknesses suffered :) I'll be back too.