Brussels

We needed 1 bus, 1 taxi, 1 airplane, 5 trains, 2 metro rides, and 21 hours and we made it to Brussels.  Not exactly what we had planned but we avoided paying for a hostel for one night.  Yesterday morning at 11:00 we caught a four hour bus to the Santander, Spain airport. A two hour flight put us in Dusseldorf, Germany at 7:30 p.m..  We were cutting it close for time for the last series of trains to Brussels so we flagged down a taxi and rode 45 minutes through Germany to catch our first train in Venlo. Than took our first train from Venlo to another station in Germany.  Switched trains there and wounded up in Holand.  Europe has a 5 day "carnival" very similar to Halloween where people dress up, drink heavily, and crowd the streets.  We did not know this until we were surrounded by clowns, army men, and flamingo dancers.  One train transfer in Holand and our next train was to Llegue, Belgium.  We had ten minutes at this station to confirm our travel route and realized that the times were not matching up to be able to catch the last train from Llegue to Brussels. I stepped on the train hoping to find somebody who could speak English well enough to help us out.  This is where we met Elijah (no idea how to spell this one).  During our train ride to Llegue he helped to inform us that we had indeed missed the last train to Brussels and would have to wait in Llegue until 4:45 a.m. He extended his apartment to us if we would like to rest.  Apprehensively, we joined him for a beer and than went to his apartment and met his room mate Miguel, whom was from Spain but currently working in Holand.  Bo, Dave, and I could not have met two nicer guys.  They both spoke very good English and were excited about an opportunity to practice.  While at their apartment they made us coffee, grilled some potatoes & onions and chopped up tomatoes.  We spent four hours at their place talking and learning and afterwards they walked us back to the train station.  They opened up their house to us, made us food, and stayed up until 4:30 in the morning when they both had work the next day.  They said they will try to meet us in Amsterdam or hopefully later in the semester in San Sebastian.  We took the 4:45 a.m. train to Brussels, found our way around the metro, and met with Dave's high school buddy at 7:00 in the morning without sleep and only Valentine's day candy to keep us going.  We took a small nap and should be heading out to grab some lunch shortly.  It would have been nice to sleep in a bed last night but I don't think I would have had it any other way.  We made a couple of friends and arrived safely at our final destination, all for one night of Belgium beer.