Literally the only thing I knew about Belgium was they have waffles named after their country. Other than that it could've literally been anything and I wouldn't have been surprised. We jumped a cheap bus there from Amsterdam and arrived late at night. I'd been in contact with a couchsurfer all day and she was fine with us showing up later, but we still didn't want to keep her up so we hopped on the metro right away in order to get uptown. And we were impressed by it. The handles on the subway were leather and each station was decorated spectacularly. Our first impressions were good ones, but we were very tired and simply on a mission to find our couchsurfer, which, sometimes, can be difficult. It wasn't actually that difficult though and we got a very warm welcome from a woman. She was wonderful. Super enthusiastic to host as she'd just gone on a couchsurfing vacation in Italy. After tea and some chitchat we were sleeping soundly on the futon in her living room.
We woke up the next day and had a nice little breakfast with our host. We weren't planning to stay another night but she offered to lend us her scooters (push scooters that is) for the day so we could properly explore the city and we couldn't resist taking them for a ride. And so the day was spent, scootering all over Brussels, checking out parks, statues, and beers. But then, suddenly, I saw something. I saw something on the pavement! Oh my god I saw it! So, technichally, it kind of happened. We found El Camino de Santiago, just not where we thought we would. Through the middle of downtown Brussels there was a trail of golden shells. The sign of El Camino. We'd found it! At least I can say, though I plan to amend it ASAP, at least I can say I have set foot on El Camino de Santiago even if I haven't hiked it yet.
Brussels, though short, was fun. We left the next morning via Flix bus for Hamburg Germany in order to get ready for the approach to Metal Hammer Paradise. We'd decided to splurge and rent a car the day we needed to make it to the concert location. A lot of the reasoning being there was no other way to get there. So we had two nights to spend in Hamburg . The first night was spent exploring the dockside and stealth camping under some brush in a public park. We spent a lot of time in the tent on this trip, but I loved it. What we ended up doing most nights was buying a bottle of wine and I would read to Kayzia. We were reading Name of the Wind which is one of my favourite books and I almost always seem to read it while I'm traveling. So even though we spent a lot of time in the tent, it was a lot of time well spent.
The next day was also spent exploring and ended us up at a small bar across the street from a concert we were trying to get into. Chvrches were playing, but unfortunately we couldn't get tickets so we spent some time drinking cheap beer at the bar across the street. We had a wonderfully nice bartender named Inna whom we ended up becoming quite good friends with by the end of the night. After it got busy and she was swamped for a bit we went and got her some food and continued chilling trying to figure out our gameplan for the night. The only question is where to camp. Turns out we stayed around until Inna got off work and as kind as she is she offered to let us stay at her house for the night! The people you can meet while traveling are amazing.
So a few stops on the metro later and we were clambering into Inna's house with our packs. We spent the night hanging out, laughing a bit, talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger, and watching the video diaries that Inna had compiled while going to school for video. It was awesome. Inna was incedible and it seemed so random for this all to happen we couldn't believe it. We had such a good time with Inna and I know we both still talk to her on Facebook. The next morning she took us back into town with her where she went her way whilewe went ours. Next thing you know we have a rented car and we're driving on the autobahn to Metal Hammer Paradise!
The concert was being held at a beach resort which we found a little strange for a metal concert, but all the same the venue was huge and beautiful, though a little bit cold. One of the best parts of this trip for me was watching how excited Kayzia was to be there. How much she loves Truckfighters and watching her get in there and mosh. It was a fun night, a really really strangely beautiful night in the weirdest of ways.
Be happy,
Beacon.
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