Truth or Dare?

truth: I am an unadventurous scaredy-cat who will be better-off placed on a package tour and be brought around.
dare: Run off to a European city by myself for 4 days 3 nights.


Result: Off I went to Brussels, with a bagpack of clothes and an invisible baggage of jitters. Yes, I was crazy to do that, but it was a way to force myself out of my comfort zone once again, out of my room. With that, I made this short trip my own unique experience, learning things I never could from books or travelling with people.


First, about Brussels:
Brussels town centre is incredibly beautiful, and cultured. But at the same time, everywhere outside of it pales in comparison, and even appears backward. I stayed a 15-minute tram ride away from the town centre, in this place called Helmet in Schaerbeek. When I got off the tram, my first impression was that I have landed in the area behind Little India, or in Johore. The area was full of shops abandoned, some full of graffitti, some barely operational, others half-torn down.
Brussels is also incredibly blessed for its culture and history. The beauty and grandeur that remain are a shade of the past, which has been lost through haphazard restructuring and horrendous town-planning. Basically, they draw plans, and tear down whatever is in the way and fill up whatever holes, rivers and canals that lie in that direction. Old urban settlements are often found near rivers, but the river Senne in Brussels has been made into a longkang, filled up and then made into a tree-lined boulevard. Even the process of tearing down was never done properly. The Coudenberg palace which was destroyed in a fire and remained in ruins for 40 years was built on a slope. When they required the place, they filled up the slope to level it and merely tore down whatever was still above ground level.
Amazing.


Second, travelling in a non-English-speaking country is a different experience altogether. In tourist areas, my bad attempts to speak in French were met by reassuring replies in English. In other areas, the locals and I struggle along with each other, taking very long to think in each other's language. The solution: buy everything you need in a supermarket. Minimal communication needed. :p


Third, travelling alone forces me to talk to strangers. On this trip, I spoke to a Hungarian, a Romanian and a Slovakian, all happening to just be in Brussels. They had different ideas, and I was forced to understand how and why they think the way they do. The most surprising of all was the Romanian girl, who insisted that government should legislate away all problems, including *gasps* family-planning. She agrees with China's One-Child Policy, and when questioned about the consequences that China faces now, her highly pragmatic answer: "If it has to be done, it has to be done." Friends provide good travelling company, so I won't stray and seek the company of strangers.


Lastly, self-planned, everything-DIY holidays are TIRING. From the usual booking of hostels and transportation and planning of itineraries, a solo holiday creates the additional stress of having to be extra alert all the time. From dodging beggars, buskers, drunkards, gangsters, to pretending to be confident even though I was hopeless lost. On the ferry from the French coast to UK, I kept dozing off, but woke up every 3 minutes because it is dangerous to fall asleep. (Another crazy thing I did: took a bus to Belgium that involved the bus driving up onto the ferry.)


If I want to take a good break, I would stay in my room and sleep or book a package tour. But the crazy side of me still thinks it is all worthwhile even though I'm now more tired than before I left.
And now, PHOTOS.




Me looking kind of buay-song, in front of the Cinquantenaire. Can't really manage everything and self-take the photo. :D