The sights of Brussels beyound Herrmann-Debroux...

Last week was abit of a edgy one, for astart I didn't get paid until Thursday and had about 15 Euros to live on until then. Work was great, with more compliments about the quality of my work off of the boss but the cash flow crisis really put a downer on things especially s it had been the Easter weekend. Things could of been worse however but then I won 25 Euros on England losing to Australia in the cricket by 7 wickets... A lack of patriotism proving useful yet again! To the sharp eyed amongst you yes I did win €25 and yes I did only have €15 to live on, but when you win a bet in the bar its only natural to buy yourself a drink or two...

The lack of funds made life particulary fun I can asure you, and most evenings for the week leading to Thursday were spent moaning about having no money with Arthur (Dutch housemate) who had also not been paid and who was also skint! Still when your poor the free things in life all of a sudden become more fun (well thats what I told myself!), like going to the park, where they have finally turned the fountains on, and the weather is great. Still as much fun as bonding over poverty with your housemates and the great outdoors is I was greatly relieved when I was paid! Besides that nature stuff is nasty, and I'm pretty sure too much Sunshine is a bad thing too!

Friday night saw a barbeque at my workmate Chris's house, this was great but things took a turn for the worse at about half ten when I get a text off my Irish mate Joe... 'Having a drink in the Joyce, fancy going clubbling in town?' Harmless enough you may think, just politely decline as your already pretty drunk and are having a nice time with your friends... 'Sure, still at BBQ just finish my drink then will join you. 30mins'

And that was my first mistake.

In my defence I was interested in going clubbing in the city centre as I hadn't been to any clubs in the city centre before. Secondly, well... I was already pretty drunk and it seemed like a good idea at the time! We left the Joyce at about 12 and got a taxi into town. Joe is new to Brussels too and so we just asked the Taxi driver for a good club where we could have a drink and dance... This translated into the drivers head as STRIPCLUB! When we realised where he had dropped us off we were not best pleased, especially as we only realised the error as we were asked for €60 to get in! We finally found a club and unfortunately I was in bad shape soon afterwards and recollection becomes hard...

Fast forward to 430am.

I'm pissed, wandering the streets of Brussels somewhere, where I don't know. I find a map on a Bus stop, I don't really recognise where I am but I see a Metro stop marked about a mile or so north of my position. It is called Herrmann-Debroux. That is the end of the line in the south-east of the city. That means I'm on the outskirts of the city, in fact the forrest to the south of the city is looming large on the map closer to me than the sodding Metro stop! HOW THE HELL HAVE I ENDED UP HERE!!! The club, I now know is slap bang in the city centre! I also now know I left the club at about half 2. So that means I must of tried to walk home and WALKED FOR TWO HOURS THE WRONG WAY!!! 'Shit'.

I spent the next two hours or so trying to walk back, but I didn't make much headway, in fact as I kept coming back to painfully familiar streets I was in fact walking in circles... Arthur tells me that people over a long period of time naturally walk in circles even when fully aware of their actions... I didn't stand a chance! At half 5 I decided that action was necessary and so when I saw two guys loading small packages into the boot of a car I decided to ask for help... I think the fact that I was clearly a pissed foreign idiot saved my bacon there, as looking back they were quite clearly two big nasty drug dealers... My broken french didn't work and when they replied in quite a hostile tone of voice I fell back on my tried and tested gallic shrug and walked off... By 7am it was daylight and I still hadn't even made it to Herrmann-Debroux, either it was further than I thought or I had really messed up! At the latest Bus stop after looking at the map I see on a little electronic notice board that the next Bus is going to the Bourse in 10 mins, 'Aha!' The Bourse is the stock exchange back in the centre of the city! Okay, its half an hour from my house but its a start! I sit at the bus stop and wait, I wake up just in time for the bus, a man is standing smiling at me as if I'm an idiot... okay I am but still! I finally got home at 8am, I hadn't been robbed, beaten up, injured or had anything else bad happen to me despite chatting to two unfriendly drug dealers... Either Brussels is the safest place on earth or else there is no justice in the world!