The Independent Traveller

I'd like to say that I'm a pretty independent traveller and I can't tell you if there are any courses or trainings to go through to become one. If you arm yourself with enough information about the place you're visiting so that you don't look lost when you arrive, you'll be fine. These days with the world wide web, it's amazing what you could find.

So after a delayed departure from Singapore, a long flight for which I didn't get to sleep as I only got two seats to myself (and this is where height does have a disadvantage!), I arrived into Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport. A quick trip into the city at an expensive €8.70 by subway and I arrived at the extremely busy train station of Gare du Nord. As I've never been on the Thalys (a high speed train operator) I decided to give it a try. The tickets are a little expensive, but it takes you an hour and 20 minutes to get from Paris to Brussels. The ride was smooth... no different from the TGVs or AVEs or Shinkansens. I think I'll try another way back. I love that I don't have a tight schedule to follow!

From Brussels, I still had to catch the slow going train (read normal) to Brugge. Luckily they run every half hour. Was met with some light spitting rain, you know the kind that doesn't feel like it's raining if you're brisk walking but it actually is if you're standing still? The makeshift taxi stand (without any indication that it's a taxi stand) took a long while to fill.

The hotel which will be my home for two weeks is just a little away from the city centre. It's a cosy hotel of 4 floors. Surrounding it, green grass, autumn ravaged trees, some ducks and sheep!

Brugge... a lovely city in Belgium. Did you know that the WHOLE historic center (which will probably take you 4-5 days to finish) is a world heritage site? Google it! Anyways, that's just my kind of holiday destination. I love looking at old buildings, walking on cobbled streets and wondering aimlessly around imagining what life would have been like in the middle ages. I should have bought a pedometer. I know I'm going to do heaps of walking *grins* But now the lack of sleep on the flight is starting to take a toll on me and the bed beckons.