Tuesday 6 October 2009

Final Day

MP3 track of the day - Breaking of the Fellowship - Howard Shore (Lord of the Rings Soundtrack)


Waking up at 9ish on Monday morning I got ready and went down for my final breakfast ... only to find breakfast finished at 9am and I missed it (no bread and cornflakes ... damn!). Still the hot chocolate machine was still working so I had a quick cup and headed out.

Today I was feeling much better, I left all my possessions in the luggage room at the hostel and only took a bottle of water with me. I decided that today was going to be a very lazy day; I spent the first couple of hours in one of Brussels central parks (unlike Vienna / Berlin, there aren't that many) just siting, thinking and watching other people.

After a while I decided to walked into the center of Brussels (purchasing a Belgium waffle on my way ... job done!); for the first time in my trip it was raining ... not allot and actually it was quite nice to have the change. For 2 1/2 weeks I had very hot weather with temperatures in the high 20's low 30's; for the final week I've had temperatures around 14 / 16 ... for me, the weather for my trip couldn't of been better.

Once in the center I bought 'The Times' (at the cost of £3) and sat in one of Brussels most expensive shopping streets, in a cafe, with a coke. I sat their and read my paper whilst watching people going about their business ... in a strange way it was bliss.

Once I thought I'd been their long enough I went and walked around the city to places I hadn't see yet; a few churches (one with urinals along the sides ... why?) and to the palace; it was around 1:30pm and so I decided to go to Pizza Hut for lunch. For the first time in three days I managed to eat my whole lunch (a small Pizza) without any problems.

My final act was to go present shopping; I had already decided that Belgium chocolates would be on the list and so I spent a while going to many different chocolate shops looking at all the different sizes, shapes and colours of many different chocolates ... the smell was fantastic. I eventually decided that the first chocolate shop I went to was the best; it was a square room with white walls. In the middle was a massive square display case with the members of staff in the middle; in the display case were thousands of individual chocolates of all different shapes and sizes.

I got a really helpfully guy who spoke perfect English; I said I wanted to get my parents some chocolates but didn't know what was what ... he then suggested a complete mix and asked if they liked white, milk, dark etc. It was great; watching him move swiftly from each side of the display cabinet picking one truffle here, two there ... it seemed he took allot of thought over which ones to choose.

After that I decided to buy myself a small box and then I left. Finally I then headed to another chocolate shop and bought some boxes of chocs for family and work.

With all this chocolate (and the time being 4pm) I decided to head back to the hostel, pick up my stuff, and head to the train station. I waited in the Euro star lounge for a while but it went very quickly.

On board I was starving and so I bought a bacon and cheese melt, packed of crisps and a chocolate bar ... lovely. Once in London St. Pancras I thought my sightseeing had ended but no. I had been to St. Pancras many times before but I had never seen the statue of the man and woman kissing goodbye on the first floor of the station ... Also there was a statue of a man in a coat, hat and a bag surrounded by poetry on the floor ... next time in London spend a little bit of time in St Pancras and have a look; the man and woman kissing goodbye is one of the best monuments I've seen this trip.

The trip home was pretty uneventful and when I got home (via taxi so the whole trip was done using public transport) I was greeted by my parents and brother, even though it was 1am.

So that's it ... but there is another post that I'm going to type up now ... basically my thoughts of my experience so stay turned for 'polar opposites'.

Toodle Pip!

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