Brussels, Belgium: Tour Journal

July 11-12, 2019

Day 1

Brussels was a quick 1 1/2 day stop on my tour. It went something like this…

… My plane lands in somewhere Belgium.

“How do I get to Brussels?”

An hour bus ride later, I’m there. It’s late. I’m hungry. I’ve now been traveling for 45 days straight. I’m tired

I think to myself: “Hey, Brussels is home of the Belgian Waffle, right? I want a waffle.”

But after walking circles for a half hour following my GPS, I decided to just stop at a local shop and order some chicken.

Day 2

Woke up to a guy pissing outside in the open daylight. Everything’s out… That’s odd? I guess Brussels is known for a controversial statue of a boy peeing anyway… So I guess this makes sense.

It’s a true story though. The sculpture is several hundred years old and it’s called the ‘pissing boy’ statue. I think it was one of the first of these types, and it’s got water coming right out of the boy’s thing he’s holding.

Now it’s literally 11 am in broad daylight in the middle of a city square, and this random dude’s got his thing out peeing on a potted plant like it’s totally normal.

Could this behavior be because of the city’s embracing of that ‘pissing boy’ statue? Is this man the town drunk, or is he the town gardener? We’ll never know… These questions keep me up at night.

…

I talked to my dad on the phone the other day. He kept telling me to make sure I got good photos from the trip. I said, “dad, I am. It’s kind of tough getting random strangers to take pictures. It’s also awkward.” He’s like, “no, no, no. It’s not. Just ask.”

Haha, okay dad.

I see a cool looking statue…

Let’s have someone take a photo of me in front of it.

… Dude walks by, “hey man, could you take my…” He totally ignores me. Not even eye contact.

Next guy, “hey man, just real quick, could you take a photo of me in front of this?”… Sorry, no.

Finally, third guy comes by. I’ve been standing here for 5 minutes now awkwardly. “Hey, could you take a pic?” Sure, he takes it. It’s terrible. I’m barely even in the picture. “Would you mind taking another?” Also terrible…

Haha, this is tough… It may take 15 minutes to get a photo that would’ve taken me 15 seconds to take with someone else I knew.

Oh well. It's part of the fun. I can’t complain when I’m getting to take a trip like this.

… Time’s running out, and I’ve gotta leave the city pretty soon.

I rented an electric scooter and rode it around the city. It turned out, July 11, is a national holiday. I rolled into the middle of town to see tons of cameras, important politicians, and interviewers.

It’s fun to take all of it in. I met a Belgian reporter, ironically named ‘Tex’ (he’s never been to America). He’s cool, and tells me what’s going on.

… Oh, also I finally got a waffle!… So, so, so good.

Next stop, London. It’s just a 7 hour crammed, hot, bus ride away.