Belgium Anyone?

I was planning on going to Switzerland this past weekend but when the train tickets ended up being more expensive, we decided on Friday to go to Belgium on Saturday and Sunday. Call Emma, Kylie, Sara, and me spontaneity. We had no ticket reservations, no hostel reservations, but decided to see how far we could get on desire to go to Belgium. It turns out you can make it pretty far-- to Bruges and Brussels, in fact. All I have to say is we are pretty damn lucky. Case(s) in point:

1. We got to Gare du Nord at 7 AM on Friday to try and get on a train. The first man we talked to said the earliest we would be able to leave is 3:30 PM. No bueno. We decided to talk to another lady who just happened to be one of the few nice people in Paris (exaggeration... sort of) and she found us a train out of a different station at 10. We would get to Bruges at 1:30. Parfait. But the ONLY way we would have known that a train was leaving at that time and there happened to be four open seats is because we talked to this specific lady. Emilie was her name. I will forever remember her for making it possible for us to go to Belgium.

2. We rolled into Brussels at 12:03 and our connection to Bruges left at 12:05. The train to Bruges just happened to be about 5 minutes late, so we made our connection.

3. We had no plan of a place to stay but figured we would just be able to find something. The first hostel we went to said they were all full, and most of the others would be full too. BUT, the nice hostel man directed us to Charley Rocket's bar/hostel and said they would probably have spots. They did. We slept well after an exhausting day of discovering Bruges. What a great town.

4. After a LOVELY time in Bruges, we headed to Brussels around noon on Sunday. Our first order of business was to try and get a train home that night. When we first approached the worker and told him our situation, he said the earliest we would be able to get back would be the next day. NOT good. After trying two other searches with no luck, I was getting ready to ask him if he knew of any hostels in Brussels to stay in. BUT, it just so happened that there were spots on a train leaving later at night going to CDG instead of Gare du Nord that were available. He even said we were incredibly lucky to get them. So now I'm home, back in Le Vesinet, with a great trip to Belgium under my belt.

And really, how could a trip not be good when belgian chocolate, frites, belgian waffles, moules, medieval town, and great friends are invovled? I submit it can not. I'm tired... it's time for bed. I will post pictures later. All I have to say is 3 cheers for spontaneous trips to Belgium!