Day 18: Ghost trains, middle schoolers, and medieval tales…

Day: 18

Countries: 6               Cities: 9

Dublin, Ireland à Bruges, Belgium

Ghost trains, middle schoolers, and medieval tales…

Day 18

Wednesday 6 January 2016

I know this isn't what was meant by “Ghost Stations” when we saw the info sign in Berlin explaining the trains that would pass from West Berlin through stations in East Berlin in order to get back to West Berlin. But the name seems fitting enough to describe the smattering of people silently milling about, waiting for a train that may never come…

Instead of hearing the whooshing of wind and air from the trains that would normally be barreling through, you hear the soft haunting whistle of wind through the tunnels and the far off sound of the cleaning machine from one of like 5 workers in the whole train portion of the Brussels airport…

And every so often you hold your breath as the computer voice lady comes over the speakers to announce your fate—will your train be on time, delayed, or cancelled altogether? Only she knows...

So we wait, with legs crossed in a pose that at least appears casual, and fingers crossed tighter than ever. We wait for the train that will take us to the city of Bruges that we've heard is just lovely. We hold our breath and wait. 

But we've made it this far. 

And now we are waiting on the actual train that we are 97.8946% sure is going to Bruges. Can't find anyone who works for the train to ask, though I've walked up and down empty aisles. But by reason of deduction and according to the woman sitting on the train when it pulled up, we should shortly be on our way to where we need to be. And then once we are there we can worry about getting to our hostel. And then once we are all settled there we can fully breathe out and get on with enjoying our travels. But hey, one more thing to learn and grow from right? One more thing to make life just a little more interesting.

If variety isn’t the spice of life, how else do you become seasoned travelers???

The doors are closing. It's 9:58. The train is supposed to leave the station at 9:59.........it's 9:59 and right on the dot: the train slowly but surely pulls away. We pray it's pulling away on its way to Bruges. 

Phase 2 then is semi officially underway. Phase 1 was waking up and getting to the airport, working our way through the airport, and then successfully flying from Dublin to Brussels. Well maybe it’s more accurate to term it Phase 1 with a lot of sub parts. Nonetheless we woke up on time, caught the shuttle we had the forbearance to prearrange, made it to the airport, successfully navigated, checked in, and made it through security and boarding; and then slept through a majority of the freezing cold cramped Ryanair flight. Woke up, though, every so often and luckily enough to catch breathtaking views of the sunrise. A nice sunny sunrise surprise. Landing proved a bit painful for my ears but it was a successful landing nevertheless. And then we walked through the airport and down to the train station and with bated breath waited to see if a train was running to Bruges. It was, so the man said. And that's when we took the stairs down to the “ghost station” and this entry began.

Every day is certainly an adventure…

Well we made it. The remainder of our journey was not without its fair share of challenges, but nonetheless we made it. And that's what matters.

The train we were on did end up in Bruges, so that's good. Then we were able to figure out what bus we needed to take from the train station. Now, that was the easy part.

After pushing through a swarm of middle-school-aged kids to buy our tickets, we followed that same swarm and tried to squeeze into the last two square inches of space remaining on the bus. One half of the front doors closed and I stepped on, maneuvering my backpacks into the precious empty space. But Gracie was left standing on the sidewalk when the second door closed and the bus driver started pulling away.  We looked at each other in a state of panic as my voice stammered out an "uhhhhh excuse me please wait we can't be separated..." Fortunately, one of the middle school angels saw our plight and took mercy on us and interceded on our part, translating our dilemma to the bus driver. He stopped and opened the door without breaking his stoic grumpy expression and Gracie squeezed on too and we both breathed a sigh of relief, not a complete one but a sign nonetheless at the major crisis averted.

We rode the bus along the winding bumpy cobblestone streets of the cute (not so) little town of Bruges Belgium. At each stop a few might get off which freed up just enough space for more sardines to crowd on. One of those sardines, though a tad more on the adorable side as far as sardines go, was none too pleased to be squeezed into the tin with us, if her red scrunched up face and incessant mewl was any indication. But at last we made it to the bus stop Google maps told me to get off at. We stepped into the fresh air and took a minute to get our bearings before walking the rest of the two/three block walk to our hostel. We made it and checked in and laid down for a while.

Finally we can relax. Though there's no wifi in the rooms which kinda sucks and there's drilling and all sorts of banging in the hallway. We can lay down and take a breath and start to relax. Because we made it. Always an adventure. 

~

Oh my gosh. Today, and these last two and a half weeks of traveling, must have taken more of a toll on us than we realized (or at least than we were willing to admit). We came back from our afternoon out exploring on a---hmmm, shall we say interesting and enlightening walking tour... And the plan was just to rest a bit and talk to family before checking out/heading back out. Wellllllllll we didn't quite make it. We both came back, laid down, and effectively passed out. I was pretty out of it. I remember waking up once and Gracie saying it was 815. And then I woke up an hour later and she was out talking on the phone in the hall and it was too little too late. But oh well. Maybe tomorrow.

We had a pretty good day otherwise. After we checked in and rested for a bit we regrouped and gathered ourselves to head back out there. It was a bit chilly and rainy at first but then it cleared up mostly, or at least stopped drizzling. We headed to Market Square first in search of food, stopping in at this panini place because we were pretty hungry. It was tasty and fresh, if a bit overpriced. After, we were walking in the square in search of a free walking tour when I saw a post office which reminded me of getting stamps for my postcards in my bag, which made me aware that my bag was not on my back. Thankfully we weren't too far away from the restaurant and I was able to quick turn around and snatch it back up. Need to be extra aware of that.

Well, then we were back in the square and we found the walking tour and had enough time to go grab stamps. I got 20. The guy at the counter was nice. Asked about our travels and why I needed so many. Saved Bruges the best for last. Asked why Americans always wanted to go to Amsterdam, it's just full of Dutch people. Couldn't pay him enough to go there. Silly.

Then we went on the tour, which turned out to be different than we expected. Legends of Bruges. A story-telling-medieval-time-traveling tour through the streets of Bruges. We got to see a bunch of the city and learned a lot of the history and heard some interesting stories. Like the one of the smart-for-his-age-baby-Jesus who wrote a letter while his mom, Mary, held the ink pot in this poor man's cell the night before his execution. Lady City. And the swan punishment for the murder of Peter Longneck. Oh, and apparently there's a relic of Jesus' actual blood in one of their churches here. Anyway.  Not too bad of a tour.

Then we grabbed a dark chocolate covered waffle from Chez Albert, another recommendation from our Xmas eve peeps. It was delicious. Then we found a hidden bar tucked away just off of the square. It was pretty neat. Then we headed out in search of dinner. Walked around some and saw a lot of cute shops to check out tomorrow but which were already closed today.

We made a circle and ended up back on the other side of the square where we ran into a cute little old man who saw us looking at our map and asked if we needed help. We asked him for dinner recommendations and he took us on a little stroll down the street and showed us a couple places. The last place he showed us we had looked up earlier and it looked good and fairly busy so we stopped in there. I had a goat cheese bacon raspberry vinaigrette salad was pretty good. Gracie tried the croquettes which are like fried cheesy mashed potato balls.

After dinner we walked back and got here like 730 or whatever and passed out. And now it's 10:33 and we are watching episodes of Friends. And I am still so so tired. But we made it and we have all day tomorrow and we can sleep in if we want to. But goodnight for now. 

~