An unexpected stop-over in Brussels

My time in Dublin has come to an end and it’s time for me to move to Khao Lak and Thailand. To assist with the move and carry some bags from Dublin, saving me some overweight fees, my sister Zilia and her boyfriend Pär decided to come across to help me (and of course to experience the city as well).

Despite a brief visit, we managed to squeeze in a few sights of the city. We explored Temple Bar and of course the Guinness Brewery, even though a Guinness generally tastes better in a local pub (and generally in the country side). We visited some of the more quaint pubs in Dublin, like the oldest one which is the Brazen Head and dates back to 1198, one of the longest pub The Hole in the Wall and also the highest pub, Johnny Fox’s Pub located in the Dublin Mountains.

I finished up in Dublin by having a large farewell party at the Zanzibar bar, across from the Ha’penny Bridge in Dublin. Here we partied the night away with friends and colleagues and anyone else that I had met during my time here. Our night continued long into the early mornings when we found ourselves at someone’s house for an afterparty that continued on to about 5-6am that morning, not a bad way to finish up my time in Dublin!

So, after we’ve said our goodbyes to all, Zilia, Pär and I started our journey to Sweden by making our way to the airport, checked into our Ryanair flight that would take us to Brussels where we would have to swap for our final flight to Västerås. However, our flight was delayed causing us to miss our connecting flight at the Charleroi airport. When trying to re-book the flight, we were informed that we had missed the last flight to Sweden and would have to wait until the following morning for the next one.  

So what to do, here we were stranded in a foreign country with nowhere to go, luckily it’s all about connections and I still knew a friend that lives in Brussels. After a quick phone call she was more than happy to put us up for the night, so we locked the luggage at the airport and caught a train into the city. 

Once we reached the city, we made our way into the Grand Place where we met up with my friend. As we had a day in the city we decided to make the most of it and walked past the statue of Everard’t Serclaes where tradition states that if you touch the statue, it will bring you good luck, well we can always use some of that so couldn’t resist giving this a try.

Whilst walking around the city centre we decided to grab a quick snack, and what better snack once in Brussel than a Belgian waffle (or maybe they are just called waffles here) drizzled with hot rich chocolate sauce, so rich and so good!

Since I recently visited the city, I sort of knew my way around and guided us to the famous  Manneken Pis statue, still not sure what the big deal is with this statue. Anyway, we got some good photos around the area and later returned to the Grand Place where we sat down and enjoyed some great local beers, each of us having a different beer and each of them arriving in its own unique glass. 

As we were getting hungry we went for a walk, not knowing what to eat and came across “La Cantina Cubana” where we had some good food, a few beers and rounded up the night with a few mojitos! Once done, we all caught the subway to our accommodation for the night where Zilia, Pär and I shared a bed, couch and even the floor, well beggars can’t be choosers.

The next morning, after a breakfast including fresh baked bread, spreads and coffee, we had a few hours before we needed to leave so we set out to explore a bit more of the city. We wandered past L’Oreille Tourbillonnante (the Whirling Ear), a a public art installation that looks like an ear and also the Royal Palace of Brussels.

Our time in Brussels had now come to an end, we said goodbye to my friend with many thanks for looking after us and then caught the train back to Charleroi, where we finally boarded our Ryanair flight to Västerås and later the train from the to Uppsala.

It was a longer than expected trip back to Sweden from Dublin, however it did allow us all to see another one of the great cities of Europe, can never say no to that!

Now, it’s time for me to leave the continent and for the first time visit Asia and Thailand!