A Few Surprises

The latest sampling of my notebook, with this entry starting five minutes before midnight Friday night, once again on the train:
For all you future European travelers: don’t assume the train station you buy a ticket at is the same one the train leaves from. My friend and I made that mistake in Brussels, showing up at the wrong station in the city and missing our train to Cologne, Germany. Thankfully, we caught one an hour later and made our connecting overnight train to Prague, where we’re due in sometime around 10 a.m.
I’m writing from a six-person cabin in a sleeper car. It looks like what you’ve seen in movies but feels smaller. We’ve spent the past hour talking with two guys from Northern Ireland on their way to Berlin. We’ll be in Germany’s capital a few days from now.
Thinking of which day it is prompts me to check the folder with all my travel documents. My findings reveal a one day gap in our hotels that previously went unnoticed. We’ll deal with it tomorrow.
Despite our train blunders, we still got a few hours of layover time in Cologne, where we fly out of next Friday morning. As advertised, the city is buzzing with World Cup atmosphere. When walking into the train station, you are greeted by a massive mural on the ceiling featuring some of the stars of this Cup.
The Fan Fest – each city has outdoor squares set up with huge screens for people to watch matches – looks very lively but we don’t have time to check it out. We did manage to catch the first half of Mexico-Angola, viewing the coverage in German.
Hearing soccer described in the language for the second time this trip makes me realize I’ve now watched the sport in three languages this week – German, French and English, with Czech likely to come Saturday and Sunday. It’s funny how each time the play was just as easy to follow.
My memory about watching in French came while waiting in our second Brussels train station. We caught the second half and three of Argentina’s goals in a 6-0 dismantling of Serbia & Montenegro from a bar packed with fellow travelers wanting to stay updated.
A woman approached me shortly after the match to ask what the score was. I give her the final and we both chuckle. I take it as a compliment that she viewed me as someone apparently interested enough to have the answer.
As for the morning in Brussels leading up to our one missed train, we saw plenty in our three hours of walking. One highlight was the very modern European Union building on the other side of town, about a 20-minute walk from our hotel. We also went to the Grand Place – a city square surrounded by beautiful architecture hundreds of years old – after seeing it the night before.
We stop at one of the many outdoor bistros to sit and have a beer. A few paces from us is a plaque indicating that Victor Hugo lived in that building for one year. A few paces the other way, some type of European deleget sits at a different eatery, surrounded by secret service scattered throughout portions of the square. The E.U. is hosting meetings in the city and it’s kind of cool to watch the security keep an eye on things.
It appears the air conditioning is no longer functioning in our car, so I think that’s my sign to attempt getting some sleep.