Day 7, May 18, Wednesday, Brussels
I'm a person full of ironies, and this is one of them: I can always stay calm in emergency and act in the best possible way to rescue the occasion, but I never bother to take that extra step to prevent the emergency from happening. That sucks, it's one of my many problems.
Anyway, I rose up early, had breakfast with the Indonesian and Chinese roommates in the canteen, they are actually studying Human Rights Law in Norway, how cool is that. Reminds me of the Penchan Lama demonstration in Dam Square of Amsterdam, that was the first time I heard that he was actually kidnapped by the Chinese government, and he was actually missing for 10 years, nobody knows where he is. They were very reasonable people and din't really push me in signing some petition to pressurize on the Chinese government, the only thing is that, there were some tibetans there putting up the whole scene which made the whole thing look fishy. Anyways, the breakfast was over, and I actually managed to figure out the way to Chinese embassy. It was in a very desolated place that I had to take a tram(bus with tracks, kinda like Dian Che in China) after the subway, but the buildings and the scenes on the roadside were very pleasant. When I got off the tram and found my way to the Chinese embassy, it looked like some shady place, I'm sorry to say, with the door locked. A young attractive girl rushed out after I rang the bell and she told me this is not the place for visa. Damn it I knew it!! And the policewoman at Gare du midi told me to come here!! The lesson is, sometimes people are silly and lose their mind, and when you think they have lost their mind, don't trust them, double-check. The girl's mandarin sounded very pleasant I wish I could talk to her longer. Anyway, in her instructions, I walked down the wide avenue lined with giant trees(which reminded me of Bukit Timah for a sec) to another shady place where I'm supposed to get my visa. The view was actually really really nice. And then the most beautiful thing happened, I came across this artificial lake which was stunningly beautiful in the dusk. There were two old Belgians by the lake, watching something. When I got close I found out it was a mama duck resting in her nest!! Duck's nest really exists! And it was really woven by grasses and shit, some other carefree ducks peacefully swam around, I couldn't have imagined how these little lazy creatures built their nests! The scene was so amazing I almost forgot my mission. But it was a pity that I din't bring my camera with me. Never let little grievances spoil your good mood, otherwise you will miss the chance of enjoying the beautiful life.
So finally I got to the shady place without an address or even name plague, just a crude board with "visa" on it. Well what the fuck whatever. I walked in and the stuff there were aloof as expected. But there was another pretty Chinese girl, too. Fortunately the guy in charge of Passport was nice enough and after talking to him, I decided to renew my passport in Paris.
Then I went to Carrefour and bought half of things I lost in that bag. There was this warehouse store called Bricolage which was very interesting. I always feel real men should know how to have fun in bricolage.
I came back to this huge shopping mall near my hostel to buy my new bag, it was a very very nice place for shopping, got everything you want. The most impressive sight was the tanks of gorgeous reptiles displayed all over the mall, I remembered the cameolean and a green rattle snake, simply gorgeous.
At 530 it was still bright and I decided to return to the tourist mode. So I headed down to the centre city. After I came out of the central station, I allowed myself to stroll around aimlessly. Came to this square garden where I saw kids skate-boarding which confirmed my guess that Brussels is a very urban, street city, it was also where I saw some elegant gothic spike in the distance in the setting sun. The buildings in my sight were gorgeous. They were all old european buildings. As I walked towards the grand Place Royal, I noticed a building that stood out from the rest, it was black, with musicals symbols at every level, and intricate curvature adornments all over the surface, it says Musee des instruments de musique, but its sheer beauty reminded me of something which I only found out the next day.
Brussels is such an amazing city, once you get to the old town, you can just wander everywhere and you are bound to run into elegant architecture, nice statues, gushing fountains and gorgeous antique stores. I ran into this Japanese girl everywhere I went, taking the same pictures of the same sights as me, so in the end I just went up and introduced myself. I told her I was looking for the Grand Plaza, she said she could take me there, so we walked down to Grand Plaza together.
Grand Plaza, the centre of old Brussels, the most magnificent place in the old city, totally totally blew my mind away. The splendid Hotel de Ville with its high gothic spike which I saw earlier was awesome, but it was the entire set of architecture around the plaza that made me linger there for an hour, every building was different and unique and had its own charm, and together they are called guildhouses. This was indeed a highlight of my journey, I was totally mesmerized by the beauty of grand plaza, Dam Square of Amsterdam compared to this is like Britney Spears in front of Joni Mitchell, me in front of Wang Xiao Bo.
Then I headed over to the Mannaken Pis, the little peeing boy who saved the city and probably the most famous symbol of the city in the world. But it was kind of a let-down, as it's really really small and hidden in the most inconspicuous corner ever. The belgium waffle shop next to it was pretty good nevertheless.
I went home, had some beer at the bar and had a good sleep.

leaving skool guoyandao at 4:58 PM [comment]

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