![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
After three days in Paris with my friends, we split for our various destinations - Jenn and Kris were going back to Cardiff, Kat was going to Scotland to meet her dad.
I caught the Thalys fast train from Paris to Brussels.
The thing I think I love most about Europe is that their architecture is everywhere. I have a great fondness for the Art Deco Metro stations:
I wrote a bunch of postcards while waiting for my Thalys train time to come up (and yes, I'm out of cards now, but some will be written and posted from Brussels).
Unfortunately I didn't distinguish between letters and postcards, so the stickers the automatic machine responded with were too long for postcards!
When I walked back into the Paris Gare du Nord station, though, my eye was caught by a slightly unexpected sign:
Shades of Lafayette and Hamilton, I guess.
The Thalys was fast and smooth and I fell asleep on it quite comfortably! I think I have one blurry picture of the countryside and decided against posting it. But, yeah, very nice, swift trip. We need one of those in Australia, between Sydney and Canberra.
Brussels was rather warmer than Paris. And by the time I wrestled my luggage over to the Brussels Metro, along one Metro train, onto another Metro train, and then up a set of stairs (because the escalator was going the wrong way), then got my luggage to my homestay and up the stairs, I was exhausted!
The homestay I'm in is 5 metres wide, 12 metres deep, and five stories high. And I'm on the 4th floor. WHEW.
But the homestay hostess is lovely. Works for a small company that works with the EU, and so they're busy. She's particularly busy right now because she's going on holiday on Thursday - one day after I leave. Right now, she says she's working from 9am until late, and not getting home until after midnight! So I'm mostly on my own, which suits me fine.
This is probably going to be the quiet portion of the trip. For a value of 'quiet' that probably isn't quite as quiet as it should be!
I started by going out to the Royal Park, trying to get myself to relax some; mostly by wandering around.
It was a lovely space, but it didn't really work for me. So I caught the Metro over to the next station, and down to the Grand-Place Grote Markt - the green tents you can see in the back of the photo are the very edge of the area, which is pretty much the 'old part' of Brussels.
I took a few photos, but not too many. There were some Polish girls busking and they were doing a pretty brisk trade. I ended up buying one of their CDs.
The thing I noticed most about Brussels was that it was pretty and a little touristy, but mostly very relaxed. A more easy-going, friendlier version of Paris.
The church interested me because there was a Eucharist service going on, complete with singing of rraditional-style hymns, which caught my attention. I contemplated seeing if there was a church around the place that I could attend on the Sunday, but finally decided against it.
As I said before, the European attitude to architecture fascinates me - like this green copper dome on top of what is essentially a suburban building.
And the art installations on the Metro stations:
Oh, and look what I found around the corner from my homestay! Come all the way around the planet...to find a shop selling Australian wine.
AHAHAHAHAHA.
The beer and chocolate tour I took today may take a while to get out. Many pictures, quite a bit to tell, not enough time or space or energy...
We'll see how it goes...
I caught the Thalys fast train from Paris to Brussels.
The thing I think I love most about Europe is that their architecture is everywhere. I have a great fondness for the Art Deco Metro stations:
I wrote a bunch of postcards while waiting for my Thalys train time to come up (and yes, I'm out of cards now, but some will be written and posted from Brussels).
Unfortunately I didn't distinguish between letters and postcards, so the stickers the automatic machine responded with were too long for postcards!
When I walked back into the Paris Gare du Nord station, though, my eye was caught by a slightly unexpected sign:
Shades of Lafayette and Hamilton, I guess.
The Thalys was fast and smooth and I fell asleep on it quite comfortably! I think I have one blurry picture of the countryside and decided against posting it. But, yeah, very nice, swift trip. We need one of those in Australia, between Sydney and Canberra.
Brussels was rather warmer than Paris. And by the time I wrestled my luggage over to the Brussels Metro, along one Metro train, onto another Metro train, and then up a set of stairs (because the escalator was going the wrong way), then got my luggage to my homestay and up the stairs, I was exhausted!
The homestay I'm in is 5 metres wide, 12 metres deep, and five stories high. And I'm on the 4th floor. WHEW.
But the homestay hostess is lovely. Works for a small company that works with the EU, and so they're busy. She's particularly busy right now because she's going on holiday on Thursday - one day after I leave. Right now, she says she's working from 9am until late, and not getting home until after midnight! So I'm mostly on my own, which suits me fine.
This is probably going to be the quiet portion of the trip. For a value of 'quiet' that probably isn't quite as quiet as it should be!
I started by going out to the Royal Park, trying to get myself to relax some; mostly by wandering around.
It was a lovely space, but it didn't really work for me. So I caught the Metro over to the next station, and down to the Grand-Place Grote Markt - the green tents you can see in the back of the photo are the very edge of the area, which is pretty much the 'old part' of Brussels.
I took a few photos, but not too many. There were some Polish girls busking and they were doing a pretty brisk trade. I ended up buying one of their CDs.
The thing I noticed most about Brussels was that it was pretty and a little touristy, but mostly very relaxed. A more easy-going, friendlier version of Paris.
The church interested me because there was a Eucharist service going on, complete with singing of rraditional-style hymns, which caught my attention. I contemplated seeing if there was a church around the place that I could attend on the Sunday, but finally decided against it.
As I said before, the European attitude to architecture fascinates me - like this green copper dome on top of what is essentially a suburban building.
And the art installations on the Metro stations:
Oh, and look what I found around the corner from my homestay! Come all the way around the planet...to find a shop selling Australian wine.
AHAHAHAHAHA.
The beer and chocolate tour I took today may take a while to get out. Many pictures, quite a bit to tell, not enough time or space or energy...
We'll see how it goes...
Tags: