The First Steps…

9 – 10 April 2018

Last Monday it was finally time for my trip to begin! Saying goodbye to friends and family wasn’t easy, but at least for me there’s the happy prospect of my trip. This time leaving home felt different. Normally I would go to the airport, so that would make me feel like I’m really going on a journey. But this time I simply hopped on the bus to go to Antwerp, which might be in another country, but it’s only 1.5 hours away from where I live. Antwerp is only the first small step on a much longer journey . . .

It was a smooth ride to Antwerp and the bus was, to my surprise, almost on time. The bus was already quite full, but I found two empty seats for me and my bag. Now I must say: there’s never a dull moment on a FlixBus. Soon after I sat down I noticed the couple in the seats in front of me. Somehow the man looked like a typical Frenchman to me, complete with a perfectly styled moustache. French or not, their kissing definitely was French. Luckily for me I had something else on my mind since I had just picked a fight with my chair. The back of the seat would slowly slide backwards as soon as I leaned on it with too much weight. So I was trying desperately to not end up on the lap of the guy behind me, who already looked slightly annoyed. It did not get better when I moved to the empty seat next to me which had the exact same problem. So I moved back to the seat I was sitting on before, since I could at least lean against the window there. All this moving didn’t seem to make the guy behind me any happier. At least I knew why both my seats weren’t taken.

This is not the first time that I’ve had some interesting things happening on a FlixBus. Last year I was going to Paris by bus, which takes roughly eight hours. It was an overnight ride and the bus was packed with people. I was sitting all the way in the back and an Arabic guy in his late twenties was sitting next to me. At some point during this restless night I heard him crying and I noticed he was watching photos of an older, bearded man, who seemed to have died. As if this wasn’t already uncomfortable enough sitting next to, he also started making lots of phone calls in Arabic. Now you might think that I was just overreacting, but I had a lack of sleep and all the recent terrorist attacks in France were still in the back of my mind. It was without a doubt one of my longest rides . . .

Luckily, the bus to Antwerp was very quick and before I knew it I stood before the beautiful central station of Antwerp. It is not suprising that Mashable declared the Antwerp Central Station to be the most beautiful railway station in the world in 2014.

I was supposed to meet a Belgium friend of mine at the station, but I was still two hours early. So I first walked to the apartment I had arranged via Airbnb to check myself in and drop off my heavy backpack. It was then that I noticed that the extra plastic backpack was tearing. I knew that the bag was cheap quality, but I needed the backpack to last at least till the check-in at the airport the following day. So I added another item to my to-do list: getting a new bag.

The apartment was very spacious with two floors and no less than three double beds. But for some reason this apartment turned out to be the cheapest option, so I took it. Besides, having an extra bed or two never hurts. After I dropped my bag I went to see my friend back at central station. On the way I visited a beautiful church, which had quite an interesting addition on the outside. I’m still not sure what it was, but it looked like some sort of chapel that was decorated with lots of statues. Afterwards my friend and I walked around the city for a while and then settled down on the terrace of a Mc Donald’s for dinner. We concluded the night with some cocktails (like we also did three years ago, when we had last seen each other).

The next morning I started the day slowly. First I took a shower and then I went to get something for breakfast at the supermarket. I ate my fresh buns outside in the sun, together with a nice cup of coffee; a perfect way to start the day. I had also bought the extra bag I needed, so everything was going well. Early in the afternoon I took the train to Brussels South, from where I took the shuttle bus to Charleroi Airport. Everything went smoothly without delays or any problems.

But at the airport came the moment I was afraid of: the security check. Since my backpack is officially considered hand luggage, all the rules for hand luggage also apply. Which means limited amounts of liquids, no sharp items etc. But of course I had packed half of my belongings in that backpack, so I did have quite an amount of liquids and also a pocket knife. I put my bags through the scanner and, as I feared, the security guy pointed at the screen and his colleagues took my backpack from the conveyor belt and started sifting through its contents. When I walked over I was told that there were some suspicious items in my bag. The security was searching my bag and had started to remove certain items. One of these ‘suspicious items’ turned out to be a hair trimmer, but there was also the knife, which they saw on the screen but couldn’t find in the bag. I know that it might seem pretty illegal to bring a knife onboard an aircraft, but when I checked on a website it said that knifes and scissors up to 6 cm are allowed. So I prayed that this information was accurate. And, thank goodness, it was. After several minutes they released me and my bag and I was ready to go towards to gate. Never was passing through security so tense as that day.

And so the journey continued . . .