Day 2: Lost in Liege

Dan and I had made plans to meet in Liege and travel to Brussels after his class. He woke up early to go to school...okay well not exactly early if you know my buddy Dan you know that he does not wake up any earlier than he has to, and for those of you who don't...cut to 9:35 and Dan has to be in class at 10:00. So he leaves me a map...of Liege...on a chair...with a note....in french...thanks Dan! So I woke up early...and fell back asleep, I mean hell I had been up for 36 hours the day(s) before. I dressed quickly and got to the bus station, only to be stared at by the 5 year old...I love being an American! I jumped the bus and rode to an exit I was familiar with, I headed toward, what I thought was the supposed meeting place. Note to self, if you are going to leave a note, on a map, for a friend (you really do like) use a Post-It. I happened to get lost and find my way back to the main drag of Liege, only to try to find someone to ask where to go. I went to a little mart off a side street, totally reminded me of Diagon Alley, and in my broken horrible accent I asked the man if he spoke any English, he sort of grunted and pointed to a woman in the corner. And let me tell you, between her skill at sharades(sp?) and my guessing ability, I understood that I needed to take a right out of the store, follow the street to the chicken vendor, and take another right at the donkey house. Well I don't know if it was her sharades or my guesses, but there is no donkey house or chicken vendor...(according to Dan: except on Sundays) but I did find my way to the square, or the Carré. Which led me to the university...where I got lost....again! So I wandered around looking for a place on the map, that I didn't know existed, because they don't use Post-Its in Belgium.

An hour later I decided that Dan had been back to the apparently and was waiting for me, or at the train station. So I jumped on the bus and took it to the train station, only to find....no Dan. Off to the apartment it was...the bus was swamped, and I could barely fit, so I squeezed on. There was a man on the bus, and Dan had told me about the Police that check your passes, I had forgotten mine, and being the pompous American ass I didn't want to pay for another one. So I eyed that man like a hawk deciding that when he moved I was jumping train (bus). Well about three stops before mine, the man moved...I jumped out of my seat to get off at the next stop, and as I had already pushed the stop button, I turned to see him scratching his leg...false alarm. Well I had pushed the button, so I was gonna have to get off. My stop just happened to be in the middle of nowhere, on a mountain, about 2:30 in the afternoon. I walked to the next stop, thinking I could catch the next bus coming by...about 10 minutes later it appeared on the horizon like my saving grace. As the doors opened what do I see to my surprise...and his...was Dan! He said, "Hello", I responded, with a, "hi" and we were off to the house...he looked at me and said, "I have one question for you...how did you wind up here, in the middle of nowhere...?" "Dan it is a long story and someday I will tell you." (when he reads my blog) so we laughed about it for about an hour and then off to Brussels, but that will have to wait for another time. Hope you are enjoying my world!