My lovely female cab driver (!) got me safe and sound to my apartment. She's been driving a taxi for 26 years, wore a black business suit, and laughed out loud when I told her that female taxi drivers were uncommon in the U.S. I asked where she was from and she told me her family was from Russia and she speaks Russian but "I never go to that country. I don't like it, you know?" Kerry O'Brien, where are you when I need a good Russian accent immitation?
After a much needed five hour nap, I got up and went for a walk. I figured since it was my first day in Brussels, I had to see the one thing every guidebook says is a must -- the Grand Place. Well, maybe it was the rain, maybe it is the fact that I've gotten a total of 20 hours of sleep in the past week, or maybe I'm so jaded and spolied from all the travel I've done, but I've got one word for the Grand Place -- yawn! I'm hoping to be more inspired when I go there to see the laser light show (which they were setting up for when I was there) or when they lay out the carpet of flowers in the summer.
A few things to note from my first day in Brussels:
1. There is a Carrefour Express directly across the street from me. I did a little happy dance on the inside when I saw it and of course, I've already been in twice today. I have a feeling I will be on a first name basis with everyone in the store within a week or two.
2. I only have three English language stations ... CNN, BBC and MTV (the last of which I can't seem to locate). I guess this means I'll have even more opportunities to practice my French. I watched some dumb French reality show today where I think a husband was staging an intervention on his wife cause she is a shopaholic ... but I can't be sure. Since I already blew a fuse trying to plug in my electronics and the TV won't work anymore, I guess my French lessons are on hold though.
3. This also means NO SKY NEWS! My favorite part of traveling has become Sky News, and I am quite disappointed that I don't have the reliability of only 3 news story every 24 hour news cycle to count on. Don't worry though ... BBC is covering the impending Rooney/Colleen wedding in Italy with all of the embarrassment a reputable news channel should feel when covering tabloid crap like this. The poor reporter looked like he just wanted to say, "Really? Oil prices are skyrocketing, we've got a war going on in Iraq, and Spanish truck drivers are on day four of their strike ... and you've got me snooping around trying to find out details of this dumb caricature of a Footballers' Wives couple's wedding? Really?" I know there is one person reading this who cares about Rooney's wedding and I've got a message for you -- don't worry, I will totally buy the OK! with their wedding photos in it and send it to you.
4. The sun finally came out at about 8:45 pm tonight. It is a little after 10 now and the sun is just setting now. So while most of the pictures I took today turned out bad cause of the grey and the rain, I'll post one photo of the sun starting to set, as seen from the teeny, tiny balcony of my new apartment.
