EuroHip: Day 8

After a very good nights sleep in my new, pitch black in the very bottom of the hotel (I moved from
the double room to a single when Snoo left) I'm packed up and ready to go. I lug my stuff upstairs, check out and head for the tram. Luckily, there's three tram lines right by my hotel that all lead to the Station. I hop on a number 5 after a couple of minutes wait, and before long I'm winding my way through Amsterdam again. The trams certainly a nice, comfy way to see the city! The journey takes about 20 minutes. I head into the station and queue up to get my ticket to Belgium! I'm surprised and relieved to find put that not only do I have to get one train all the way, but it'll also only cost me 52Euros for a return ticket! I've lucked out big time! I get my ticket, and after consulting the boards, I decide to wait around and get a later train so I can get some food. I get on the train at around 1:30pm and sit and watch the (flat) Dutch countryside whizz by. The journey takes about three and a half hours, and is pleasant enough. I listen to a live Rush show and read some more of my book, and before I know it I'm into Belgium. Sadly, the nice sunny weather that greeted me in Amsterdam has decided not to travel, and a light Beligian drizzle has taken over. An announcement comes over the tanoy informing us that, for reasons unknown, the train will be terminating at Brussels North instead of the Central Station. I gather up my stuff and get off the train at the North station. After a bit of consultation of boards, I find a train and travel the remaining stop to the centre of the city. It's not until I leave the station that I realise that I have no clue where the Hostel is! I decide the easiest course of action would be to get a taxi. I get in a cab at the near by rank and we crawl through the packed streets as the driver gives me the lowdown on the different areas of Brussels (including, and he was very pleased about this one, where the red light district was...). We finally pull up outside the hotel (which ironically was considerably closer to the North station than the Central one - D'oh. I'm suprised to see Adrian, Trevor and Matt waiting outside the Hostel, which was very fortunate! We all check in, drop our stuff off in various rooms and meet up again to explore. It's a gray and drizzly evening but we wander along and take in some of the sights. We venture up and find the venue before heading back to a restaurant called Chichi's (a chain which has long since been defunct in North America, but who Adrian used to work for apparently) for a Tex-Mex dinner, some huge beers and great chat. At around about 11pm he make our way back to the Hostel and call it a day...