Brussels, 09/2006

Town centre and around | 13 Sep 2006

My first visit to the Belgian capital, really did not know what to expect.. Was there for a job interview, so decided to spend more time than just a few hours in Brussels. And was pleasantly surprised.

Arriving on Wednesday evening, flight from Prague was slightly delayed, but I had my accommodation booked and nothing urgent planned for the evening. I have pre-booked hotel IBIS Gare du Midi, so expected a straightforward trip by train from the airport to Gare du Midi. And it really was without a problem .. there is like 3-4 trains every hour going to the centre (one-way ticket 2.80 EUR). And the hotel was really just next to the station, so within an hour from leaving the plane I was in the hotel room.

A quick shower and let's go to explore the surroundings.. I am, of course, hungry :) Had nothing special in mind, something like burger would suit me well that evening. It was after 9 pm, shouldn't eat much anyway, right? Well, the quest for dinner happened to be quite an adventure. What I did not realize when booking the hotel was that the area around the south train station is (probably) a foreign district.. huge majority of places I passed by were Turkish or Moroccan ..and having no experience in their cuisine and especially in the food preparation, I was trying hard to find something more familiar. Well, walked quite far along the Avenue de Stalingrad, but no change there.. really starving now and feeling stupid walking around all the places selling food and having a lot of people sitting there and eating, I have just jumped into one of the places and checked the offers.. well, if you don't know what you should or should not eat, go for chicken, right? :) At least that's my strategy .. and it worked again. With a very, very bad French mixed with English I ordered chicken and waited for about 7-10 mins, while it was done in front of me. At least I know it will be fresh and cooked well.. then they put it into the large part of French loaf, put some salad an mayo on it.. I have thought that's it .. but no, they added a protion of chips (frits) .. well, I wanted something small and got a huge meal at 10 pm. But it was delicious, I was very pleasantly surprised .. for a price of 3.70 EUR a real deal! Then tired and not feeling like walking the streets at dark in the unknown part of the city I have decided to get back to the hotel.

Locations Visited: Brussels

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