here we go.
It was a fucking BEAST of a Journey. Crow feels the words epic and surreal are appropriate for the circumstances.
Initially it was "Hey, lets catch the eurostar".
*poppet gets a text from noel about the 5 hour waiting time for eurostar*
"fuck that, lets get a coach"
*Poppet and Crow try for at least half an hour to organise a coach only to be told all are full.*
"bugger. Erm, we could try the ferry?"
"haha, Ferry funny, but okay."
*crow makes some important phone calls and we have a way to, wait for it, CALAIS!*
So we catch the Javelin train to Calais - Carlos, who is apparently an old hand from Dover, and the old massive man snoring in front of us, give us very specific directions and helpful hints about where to stay if we're stranded, then we race to the port in a taxi only to find massive fuck off queues and that we're not getting on the one we're booked for. But we'll get on the next one definitely.
Crow and Poppet wait for about an hour, which is really quite good as all things considering, and the police take care of a very angry romanian man who is all shouty and cranky in a way that's actually very nice of them, considering they would be well within their rights to arrest him for basically attacking them which is well scary.
We get on the boat.


We sit on the boat for an hour.

THEN the boat leaves. HOORAY!

We get to Calais.
Fuck. What now?

WAHEY! it's a BUS! To Bruxelles. But it's shut. And dark. But the engines running?
And then a veery nice Israeli man tells us that the man on the bus is supposed to be taking illegal aliens from France back to Belgium if they arrive, but if they *don't* then we can hitch a ride. Crow remarks that we may as well be illegal aliens and would we please be able to tag along with them?
So we wait another hour in the freezing cold weather, being entertained by a very anti-fluoride conspiracy theorist.
The bus driver, at midnight local time, decides that he can take us to Bruxelles Aeroport for 15 Euros each. BARGAIN. So on we hop.
And we drive. Half fall asleep, get to the airport, find no trains are running to Midi for 2 hours, so we kill time by stuffing our faces, looking confused, and trying to get tickets.
We catch the first train, flag a taxi and arrive at our destination after our very french driver works out the Flemmish names for streets.
AND WE FINALLY GET THERE!

at 6 in the morning. And they're not open.
So we make a snowman to pass the time, and are finally let in only to be told to dump our bags and come back at 2PM even though we REALLY NEED TO SLEEP.
But we smile and go on our merry way anyway because what else can we do?
So we went to the Atomium, and the comic museum, and went shopping. Sort of. And then we made our slow, limping way back to the hostel, whereupon we discovereed they did not have a communal kitchen. So we had a nap and now we're off out to get some food before we eat the small children visiting the hostel.
(Poppet some assembly required., Tue 21 Dec 2010, 17:44, 4 replies, latest was 15 years ago)

is this real, or a dream?

( Citizen Cavy Admires your passion for conformity, Tue 21 Dec 2010, 17:47, Reply)

Completely and utterly real.
it's quite erm....incredibly mindblowing/INCONCIEVABLE!
(Poppet some assembly required., Tue 21 Dec 2010, 19:59, Reply)

Ah Belgium
A country made of the crap bits Holland and France didn't want.
( Kroney, Tue 21 Dec 2010, 17:49, Reply)

glued together with chocolate

( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Tue 21 Dec 2010, 17:49, Reply)

And paedophilles
and they only invented chocolate to get to the children
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Tue 21 Dec 2010, 17:54, Reply)

To be fair
it is very fine chocolate!

The paedos must be after the more discerning victim.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Tue 21 Dec 2010, 18:18, Reply)

...and the spunk of a million paedos.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 21 Dec 2010, 17:54, Reply)

*High Fives*
*goes home*
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Tue 21 Dec 2010, 17:57, Reply)

currently floating from the sky
in small white flakes
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Tue 21 Dec 2010, 18:05, Reply)

Do you still like snow?

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 21 Dec 2010, 17:53, Reply)

I fucking don't.

( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Tue 21 Dec 2010, 17:54, Reply)

It was fine at the weekend, when I didn't have to be anywhere.
Now I do, I would like it to kindly bell the fuck off, please.
( Kroney, Tue 21 Dec 2010, 17:55, Reply)

I've been stuck working from home.
However I still have a couple of presents to get and it's too late to order on line now. Cunting bastard white stuff.
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Tue 21 Dec 2010, 17:57, Reply)

I'm not reading all of that, but I got angry at the morons in the paper who are all like "I KNOW ! LETS GO TO FRANCE/HEATHROW ! MAYBE THEY'LL LET ME ON !"
They deserve to be waiting outside in the cold, it's dawninsim, hopefully they'll get hypothermia
( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Tue 21 Dec 2010, 19:04, Reply)