Nevertheless, travelling through Brussels was the cheapest way for us to get to Amsterdam from Rome, so we thought we would spend a few nights there to check it out. What we didn’t realise is that the accommodation prices would just about negate any savings we made from the cheap flight. In the end we stayed at a place called Hotel de Fierlant for €69 per night. This was the cheapest we could find aside from staying in a place with permanent bed bugs or an hour away by bus.

We arrived by coach from Charleroi airport at Gare du Midi station in Brussels around 7pm and began to look for clues as to where we were heading. Our walk to the hotel was only short but wasn’t through the classiest of areas. At times we didn’t feel welcome but we never really felt unsafe.

We checked in, opened the windows to cool the place off (the hotel was always boiling), and spent the night planning any miscellaneous accommodation for the rest of the trip. We retired to the TV, watched Police Academy (the first movie we have seen in English since Singapore) and went to sleep.

The next day we tried to check out all of the local sights. We dropped by Grand Place, a square surrounded by (as the name suggests), very grand buildings. We spent a while in the centre just talking and looking around, constantly finding architectural details worth making a big deal about. Once we were done we walked through the shopping district, including St. Hubert’s Gallery, just taking our time and seeing what was popular in Belgium.

We had some hot chips in a square nearby, watching a skateboarder and some people do parkour (similar to freerunning). We spent the rest of the day doing more of the same – walking, sightseeing and relaxing.

On the way back to our hotel we wanted to see the Mannekin Pis, Brussel’s most famous statue. It’s basically just a boy pissing, and the locals love him. As we were walking in his direction we found a bunch of men all dressed up in royal looking costumes, all chanting and playing drums and trumpets. They walked us and everyone else who was following down to the Mannekin Pis, where he was wearing the same costume as them. Before long the little boy was pissing beer into cups that the locals were gladly drinking. It was one of those things that happen only by chance, so it was great that we stumbled across it.

The day after we had planned a relax in the park but it was raining. Instead we checked out a few of the local beers in some of Brussels’ pubs. It gave us some time once again to just catch up and talk about everything. Life goals, friends and family back home and abroad, and of course the travel we are yet to do.

We returned to the hotel, found some directions for our hostel in Amsterdam, and packed our bags ready for the early morning we had today.

I don’t know if this city knows what it wants to be. As I mentioned, it has a reputation to be a boring city due to it’s political history, however the population that we saw appeared to be quite young. The city is dirty in a way similar to that of Paris and, like Berlin, it appears that it was planned for a much higher population than currently lives there – many buildings are vacant, with some completely vandalised.

All up though, we enjoyed ourselves in Brussels, I just doubt we will return in the near future due to the price of accommodation.

Our visit to Poland was however, unintentionally relevant. The day before our train from Berlin to Warsaw we had visited the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, as Jess has mentioned in her post on Berlin. It had set us up to see just exactly what this meant for those affected by the war.

As our train slowly brought us into Poland and eventually Warsaw we realised that Poland wasn’t going to be a rich country. We arrived in Warszawa Centralna, the central train station, to the familiar face of our friend from Adelaide. We had a quick greeting then began walking to Ola’s apartment, a quick 10 minute walk down the road. As we began walking Anton explained to us how Warsaw was a combination of old and new. It is predominantly filled with old “Commie Blocks”, aka apartments built for the masses in the communist days, with some newer buildings dotted around the place, usually by the larger corporations and some newer apartments.

We arrived at Ola’s apartment, welcomed by Ola, a welcome banner on her door, and lunch. We had a bite to eat over a catch up, and then changed for the night ahead. I won’t bother telling too much in detail here – Anton and Ola had friends around to farewell Anton from Poland (he is leaving soon), and to meet us. We went through more than enough vodka at their place, and then left for the local pub for more booze. Long story short the next day was one of the worst and best days of my life.

We woke around 8am, in a rush for the train. What train? Honestly I had no idea. I had an agonising headache, but had no time to think about it. We put our clothes on from the night before (and smoking is legal in pubs here, so that didn’t help the hangover situation) and began our power walk to Centralna. We were heading to Sochaczew, the town in which Ola’s parents live, for a feast. Excellent – I needed food.

Jess and I bought our tickets, and as Ola was buying tickets for herself and Anton, the train arrived. We ran for the train, and Ola followed. Anton was hanging out of the door to keep the train stationary, however it just left. Ola was left at the platform! Some cursing in Polish and a few phone calls from Anton to Ola and her father, and we found out what was happening. Ola was on the next train and had a refund for the tickets, and the Police were waiting for our train at Sochaczew. Long story short, Ola’s father has a bit of power with the authorities and he isn’t afraid to use it. The hilarity of the situation perked me up a fair bit too which was great.

We went back to Ola’s parents’ place, and met her mother and auntie; before long Ola had arrived too. Ola’s father offered to take us to a town nearby that had a thermal pool where the water is heated naturally.  We spent around an hour or so there, just relaxing in the water, and occasionally running out to roll around in the snow. Yep, true story, we were in bathers, on the snow. It sounds bad but realistically it was maybe a few minutes of freezing cold and then you’re back in the perfectly warm pool again.

We returned to Sochaczew to find the biggest feast we have ever had waiting for us. It was around 3 or 4pm by this stage and we were given soup (served in bread), ribs, chicken cutlets, potatoes, salads and more. And cakes of course. Thinking this was it we settled down on the sofa to watch some Winter Olympics. About two hours later we found us eating dinner. More vodka, more beer, more soup, pierogi, and so much other food. We were all so full, and extremely satisfied.

It was so nice to be able to stay in a home again. We only spent a few days at Ola’s parents place, however that time was some of the best in the trip. You stay in a hotel, a hostel, and even Ola’s apartment, and you get the impression that while people may live there, they don’t consider it home. It’s a place to stay while they achieve something. We thank Ola’s family very much for making us feel so welcome. They both really went above and beyond for two complete strangers – it was so generous.

Throughout the rest of our time in Poland we stayed predominantly in Warsaw. Anton toured us around a fair bit during the day (including taking us to the Warsaw Uprising Museum which was excellent), and then any other time she could spare we would spend with Ola. One night we walked through a much more “classy” looking part of Warsaw and had some chocolate at E.Wedel’s, and another night we grabbed some Chinese and feasted upon it back at the apartment.

We were lucky enough to be toured through Old Town by one of Ola’s friends and gain some solid local knowledge on the area and how it has been rebuilt. While many countries may take these “historic” areas for granted, Warsaw clearly does not. The majority of these buildings were destroyed by the Germans during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. As a result, in order to have this area live on, they have all been rebuilt, often funded by local families and small businesses.

There is so much I could talk about, but for fear of dragging on I will leave it at this. Poland itself is a very interesting place. The history is not too far in the past, and you can see it all around you as you catch a train, drive along a highway, or walk along a street.

To Anton and Ola, thanks for taking care of us and guiding us around. Thanks for the food, thanks for the local knowledge, thanks for the accommodation, and thanks for the comfort. It was nice to be able to let our guards down for a few days and know that we were safe in your hands.