It was an early start because the family all had to leave early, for work and school, so I was up at 7:15 am.
Florence cooked me up some bacon and eggs for breakfast, assuming that Australian's are like the English and like salty food for breakfast as opposed to sweet food like the mainland Europeans. I was happy to have bacon and eggs for a change though.
I said my thanks and goodbyes to the family and headed off. It was very poor weather, raining and cold. A lot of towns have these digital displays which cycle between displaying the time, and the temperature. It was 4°C, no wonder my fingers were numb! It was like riding in a fridge, at that temperature. It was also windy and there was a lot of traffic, so conditions were far from ideal, and I can't say I was enjoying it.
As expected, I had to stop for a second course of breakfast to get my cereal fix.
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| The spot where I stopped for my second breakfast, in the city of Mons, Hainaut, Belgium. |
This was a common sight, huge piles of freshly harvested veggies.
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| A pile of veggies just off the Rue de la Saisinne, near Saisinne, Belgium. |
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| Heading towards Belgium, on the red bicycle lane. |
The rain eased up to showers during the afternoon. I was taking the day pretty casually, since Brussels was less than 100 km from Wihéries. I forgot to take into account the fact that I'd probably get a puncture though, since I was riding in the wet on poor quality tyres. And indeed I did get a puncture in the late afternoon, which I had to stop and fix, what a drag!
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| Repairing a puncture on the Bergensesteenweg, not far from Brussels. |
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| Reparing another two punctures merely another few kilomtres down the road from the previous puncture. |
Because of these delays, it was dark by the time I got to Brussels. And the city was really hectic, cars everywhere, it did not seem bicycle friendly at all! Who said Europe was bicycle friendly? And I was in the capital of Europe.
I got into the centre and found some Wi-Fi so I could find somewhere to stay. I had been considering staying in Leuven for the night, which is a university city about 30 km east of Brussels, because Rosie's boyfriend Sam Conix whom she met at Siena, was normally living in Leuven, but was off studying in Siena for a semester just like Rosie is. However, his older brother Stijn (pronounced Sten) and younger sister Eva were living in Leuven, and Rosie reckoned that Sam reckoned they'd happily have me stay with them. They have couch surfers stay every now and again anyway apparently.
I tried calling Stijn but couldn't get onto him, and it was getting late, so after some discussions with Rosie over Skype, I decided I'd just stay in Brussels, then maybe stay in Leuven the next night.
To my surprise though, I couldn't find any vacancies in any of the hostels in Brussels through my online searching.
Meanwhile a couple of blokes came up to me asking for some money to buy some food. Only one of the guys could speak English. I never give money to beggars, so I told them I was just a poor traveler and couldn't afford to give him any money, which is kind of true anyway. He said he'd show me where a hostel was just up the road if I gave him a few euros in return. I declined the offer but he persisted for a while longer, until he got frustrated enough and left.
The other guy though was still there with me, he was younger and couldn't speak any English. As you know I can't speak any French either, so communication was very difficult. He was trying to get a message across to me, but I really couldn't understand what he was trying to say. I understood he was talking about sleeping because he acted that one out. He kept persisting, and indicated he wanted to write it down so that I might be able to understand it. I let him type it out in my iPhone, but kept holding onto it because I was half worried he was going to try and run off with it. He typed out this sentence: "Too dor chez chez moi use nui demai du par le matin" but of course I still couldn't read it. I tried putting it into google translate, and got this back: "Too dor at home hurt Demai use of the morning", so I still didn't understand what he was trying to say. He eventually gave up and walked off.
I later emailed my French friend Ben, who I met in Edinburgh, and I asked what the the sentence meant. He replied with this: "For the sentence you wrote, the correct French would be "Tu dors chez moi une nuit et demain tu pars au matin" which means: "You sleep in my place one night and tomorrow morning you can leave". It was an invitation ;)" Ah, if only I could have understood what he was saying!
So after a missed opportunity there (although I didn't know it was a missed opportunity at the time), I did some more hostel research, and found a hostel which I think was called "Gîte d'Etape - Youth Hostel Jacques Brel". The website said it had about 600 beds, and thought "how can it possibly be full?" So I rode there to check it out in person.
I got in and asked the receptionist "do you have any beds free at the moment?"
"For tonight?" he asked, looking a little surprised.
"Yeah, just for tonight", I replied
"Ah, I'll just check...no, unfortunately we're full sorry"
"Hmm okay...do you know any other hostels that might have vacancies tonight?"
"Yeah, there is one called the Van Gogh Hostel, I called them an hour ago and they had four vacancies, so I'd go and try there"
He gave me a map and I thanked him for his help, and headed out to find the Van Gogh hostel. I was disappointed though, because that hostel looked really good. It had a good vibe, there were lots of people about, having fun, there were computers, a pool table, it looked clean. But it was not to be.
I found the Van Gogh hostel a few blocks away, and luckily they had vacancies, and I booked in for the night.
I got into my room and there was a French Canadian bloke there. For some reason, I started talking to him with a French accent. I don't know why, but I couldn't switch back to my natural Australian accent, because that wouldn't sound right to him, he'd be like "hang on...just a moment ago you were speaking in a French accent, now it's changed?" Even though I told him I was Australian. Hmm.
I went to the hostel kitchen to cook up some cous cous for tea. In the kitchen I met two Australians: Goo and Haddie I think her name was, or something starting with H anyway. I like meeting Australian's overseas actually, you share a certain connection being from the same country. These two looked Australian, and sounded Australian straight away, they were fair dinkum genuine Aussies eh.
What is the answer to "where are you from?" The answer varies depending on who's asking the question. If it's a European, or other foreigner, then often the answer might just be "Australia", or "Melbourne" if they have any inkling of Australian geography. If an Australian is asking, then the answer is usually "Melbourne", except when a Melbournian is asking, then you can be more specific again: "Thornbury", and then sometimes you can even get down to street names and house numbers if you're lucky.
I asked Goo and Haddie where they were from, and they first answered "Australia". They should have picked up from my Australian accent that I was Australian though, and been more specific. I had to ask them "aw yeah, which part of Australia?"
"Melbourne", they answered.
"Oh right, I'm from Melbourne too, which part are you from?"
They told me they'd been living in Mitchel St in Northcote for a year, and before that on Normanby Avenue in Northcote, which is just a few blocks from Gooch Street where I've been living. What are the chances, eh? I could have guessed they were from the Northcote/Thornbury area of Melbourne though, because they were the kind of people that really fitted in in those suburbs, a little bit alternative. I think they're the kind of people I get along best with actually.
Goo was originally from Bendigo, and Haddie originally from Benella, and did environmental science at RMIT. Interestingly she's good friends with a bloke from Melbourne Water: Paul Rhys, who I guess I will meet next year at work. She will be flying back to Australia in a month for Paul Rhys wedding, before flying back to complete the rest of her overseas trip, a few months in South America I think she said.
They'd already visited parts of Asia together, as well as Germany and France where they were mostly staying with friends, friends of friends and various people they met along the way. And they were heading to Amsterdam next (same as me), and they reckoned all the hostels with availabilities were about €40 a night, so they were just going to camp, since there was a camping ground not too far from the centre. I said I might even camp there with them if the hostels were that expensive.
Also, they said they wanted to move to Daylesford, that they were looking at living in Daylesford when they both got back from overseas. So of course I had to tell them about where I was from originally too - Daylesford! It seemed we all had quite a lot in common, lots to talk about. I did quite a bit of talking myself, since I hadn't had many people to talk to for quite a while. We couldn't chat for too long though, they had to get up early for the hostel breakfast and to catch the train, and I had to get up for breakfast and to check out of the hostel as well. I got to sleep at about 2 am.
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| My route for the day, Wiheries to Brussels, Belgium. |
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| An overview of my route so far from Cherbourg in France to Brussels, Belgium. |
Distance: 87.82 km
Average: 17.4 km/h
Maximum: 42.8 km/h
Time: 5:01:56
Total ascent: 352 m
Total descent: 430 m
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