Me: Hello
Lady: Hello, where to?
Me: Brussels.
Lady: What time is your bus?
Me: 9 o’clock.
Lady: What is the time now?
Me: Err… eight.
Lady: No, it is already 9.05. The time has changed. The bus has left.
Me: Oh shit... (panicked)
Lady: (paused for few seconds) The next bus to Brussels is at 11am. I will check you in later. Please take a seat first.
Me: Oh, err ok. Thank you. (pheewww…. relieved….)
I waited for about 15mins before the lady called me again to check me in. But while waiting, the 2 of them were chatting and I guess they were kind of amused by the error people made when the time changes. Well, they were speaking in Dutch so I can just pretend that I don’t understand (although I can guess what they are talking about)I was so very embarrassed and you can almost see my head down on the floor. Well, lucky for me I didn’t have to pay any extra money / penalty fee for the change, only time wasted. So I waited in the lounge and ate my croissant. Apparently I am not the only one making this mistake. Another girl (which was actually one of my dorm mates) came in at 8.22am for the 9am bus to Paris. Well, she wasn’t as lucky as I am as the lady officer told her that the bus seems to be full so she will be put on the waiting list. After a long and boring wait, I finally boarded the bus which apparently stops at Brussels before going to Paris. There are still a few seats left but the girl wasn’t allowed to board, until the very last minute.
So off we went to Brussels, but first we stopped at Den Haag to pick up another few passengers making the bus fully seated. I was quite tired from the early wake and also from my sickness. So I slept most of my way to Brussels, only waking up off and on to look at the views outside. Around 2.30pm, we arrived at Brussels Noord Station. I went into the Eurolines bus office to enquire about the bus to Paris but couldn’t purchase the ticket yet as I need to find out how and when I will arrive back in Brussels from Brugge. So I decide to first go to my hostel. With the direction from a guy and also from the hostel, I found the hostel without any difficulties. But the reception is closed until 4pm. Luckily a guy opened the door to let me leave my luggage in the luggage room. Without the load on my back, I went back to the Brussels Noord Station to check the train to and from Brugges. I first checked it on the automated ticket machine for the pricing of several day trips that I’m planning to make while in Belgium. Then I went to the counter to purchase the return ticket for Brussels – Brugge. The lady officer was very kind and friendly. She asked if I will be going to other places like Antwerpen, Gent etc. because I could buy a combination ticket for 10 trips for €73. Those 2 places were indeed in my plan but I would only need 6 trips in total. Unsure if that would be a better option, I told her I will come back to her later. I went back to the automated ticket machine again to double check on the prices between the places I wanted to go to. Some simple maths confirmed my suspicion as I would only cost me around €50 odd, so I am better off without the combination ticket. I went back to the lady officer and told her I just wanted to get the return ticket which cost me €25.80. After settling the logistic, I walked back to the hostel. 
The weather is very good today, with clear blue skies and it’s sunny. There were stretches of modern high office buildings between the Noord station and my hostel. As it is Sunday, there weren’t much traffic on the road. I walked back to the hostel and the reception is now open. I checked in and was assigned to room 201. Luckily they have a lift so I do not have to walk up the stairs like I did in Jacobs Inn, Amsterdam. Again I was the first in the room with 3 double-deck beds. I chose the lower bunk next to the window and heater. The toilet and shower is in the room and they also have a locker in the room. There is even a small balcony next to my bed looking out to the main streets. Cool. There is a huge lounge next to the reception where there are 4 computer terminals for free internet surfing, a TV area and a self-catering kitchen. The whole hostel is spotless clean. 
After settling down my stuff, I went out for a quick tour around. I arrived at the St. Katelijne Church. One interesting fact about this church is that the Belgians installed a public urinal (on the left side when facing the main church entrance) here to ‘drain the potatoes’. In Italy or Poland, you might end up in jail if you pee against the church. I had to be careful when I wanted to take a second photo, a guy just walked right in to take a leak. Next to the church there is a square where there are fountains with animal leaning backwards spitting out water. One thing I noticed here is that the animals at the fountains are all designed to be arching backwards. I’m not sure why. Wandering around, I came by a supermarket, I wanted to go in to get some groceries but the security guard stopped me saying it is closed. Luckily I had bought my water earlier on. So I went to get a donor kebab (€3.50) and went back to my hostel as I really need to plan and make bookings for my second leg of my travel.
After showering, I brought my laptop downstairs to the lounge to surf while I eat. I had some problems connecting to the internet and while trying, a guy came up to me and asked if I could connect to the internet. He told me that the reception gave him a password but since the hostel network was unsecured, there was no place he could key in the password. I went to the reception to get the password and tried some options but failed. The guy wished me good luck and left. I went back to the reception and asked for help. The reception guy told me that the WIFI signal is a little weak hence sometimes it is difficult to connect. Apparently the browser would bring you to a secure website where you then key in the password given to gain internet access. He gave me a direct link to the portal and asked me to try again. I tried and this time it works. The guy came back and saw me surfing so I told him the little trick I just found out and he happily went away. Surfing the whole night, I came up with no conclusions on my forward travels. All seemed to be a little too expansive. I wonder if there is a cheaper way to travel if I asked at the local stations? However, should I wait until the last minutes? With so many question marks hanging on top of my head, I went to bed. My cough worsens at night for some reason and my throat felt tight and hurts a lot especially at night. All these symptoms sort of disappeared during the day time, except for a few occasional coughs.
P/S: Did you notice that traveling from Amsterdam to Belgium, I didn’t mention about passport checking? That is because there weren’t any. Strange… does that mean that once I entered the EU countries, I can travel freely from one country to the other? Then how would they keep track on my length of stay in a certain country, or maybe it doesn't matter?
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