Brussels (Belgium)
Brussels
07/07/25 -08/07/25
Sometimes, I just love taking random trips somewhere on a budget, spending as little as possible, and having fun at the same time. When I booked Brussels, I knew it wasn't cheap; in fact, it was a little more expensive than the UK. However, with my savvy head, I thought I would be able to keep costs down.
Did not happen like that unfortunately.......
Off to a good start, at Bolton train station, ready for my 07:38 Northern train to Manchester Airport. The train had 6 carriages, and I managed to get a seat, which was good. It wasn't too busy for that time of the morning, so all good.
Might not look like it, but I was still under the weather at this point, as the night before, I was aching, exhausted, and had diarrhea from the side effects of Mounjaro (weight loss medication) https://onlinedoctor.asda.com/uk/mounjaro.html.
I did feel a little better here. I spent the previous night resting up and decided to go ahead with the trip, as it was only 1 night.
I arrived at Manchester Airport a little after 8 am. As I only had a carry-on bag, I didn't need to bother going to the baggage drop, so I continued through security of Terminal 3.
Security was no issue; I managed to get through within a matter of minutes. There was one little annoying issue, though, in regard to what you should leave inside your bag and not before screening. In terminals 1 and 2 at Manchester, you are now told to leave everything inside your bag, including liquids and laptops, etc., something which I think makes life easier than having people faff around taking things out or not knowing what to leave in or out. Let's face it, it's the UK; rules are often confusing here. However, in Terminal 3, you have to take your liquids and large electronic items out of the bag, which I didn't do at first, as I assumed being at Manchester all three terminals would have the same equipment and rules, but guess not, but apart from that, it was smooth and very quick to get through.
Ok, now the anticipated wait, constantly checking flightradar24 to see where my flight is. I know I am not the only one who does this LOL.
My flight was with Ryanair. I had not flown with them for some years, but today I was flying on their Boeing 737 MAX 8-200, which was a slightly larger version of their only 737-800 fleet aircraft. I believe they have more seats and 2-4 more exits for easy escape, haha. It was operated by Malta Air, which was essentially founded by Ryanair and partnered with the Maltese government, but basically, it was Ryanair.
I was randomly placed in 26E, which was the middle seat. Luckily, the seat at the window was free, and the lady sitting next to me asked to sit at the window once boarding was completed, and I obliged. I moved to her seat, giving me a little more space and not having to sit in the middle.
The flight time was 1 hour; we were told by the captain that there were thunderstorms over Belgium, so it might be a little bumpy when we got closer. It wasn't that bad, hardly any jiggering at all, and a smooth and safe landing. Our flight did arrive late due to a late departure from Porto, but it wasn't a major issue.
Once I landed at Brussels (Charleroi), which is south of Brussels, I hopped on a Flibco (coach) from the airport to the Brussels Midi station in the centre, taking approximately 50 minutes. The coach was clean and efficient and had air conditioning and USB chargers for your convenience. The return ticket cost £31.98 with Flibco, as there isn't a train or metro service serving that airport to the city. This was an additional cost; I did not realise when booking my flight that this airport was not Brussels' main international airport, so that was my fault.
Another stamp added to my passport—I don't know what it is, but having a stamp from another country almost makes you feel excited and privileged that we as humans can travel so freely and also works as a scrapbook/blog entry for those frequent travellers like me.
I got off the coach at Bruxelles Midi station, which has connections to the Eurostar and other destinations as well as the local metro, which is what I was going on next, once I followed Google Maps to find the station entrance. If you are a frequent traveller, you will know the frustration at times at how reliant we are on Google Maps and just how terrible it is at sending you in the right direction; it's almost like it wants to fuck with your mental state when you are already sweating and stressed haha.
Got to the platform for my metro, following the Google Maps route. Jumped on the metro, which was considerably narrower than the trams in other cities that I have been to, including the Metrolink in Manchester. I was only travelling 3 stops and realised after I got on that I was going in the opposite direction, so off I jumped and crossed to the other side for the same tram number but in the right direction this time. It was a fun mini-moment of madness. To get through the barriers, you can use contactless credit/debit cards or a loaded Oyster-style card. Using contactless is capped at 8 euros per day, which I think, considering you can use any train, tram, or bus within the Brussels geographical area, is not bad at all.
Finally got out of the metro at the right stop, and it was 3 pm. My hotel was about a 5-minute walk from here; I stayed in a lovely single room. I did originally book a hostel for £22, but due to me not feeling well and having diarreha, it cost me an additional £87 to book this hotel (Atlas Hotel)
I was feeling a little lightheaded and peckish, so I knew I needed some food. I opted for a quick burger from around the corner. I ordered the Bearnaise cheeseburger with sweet potato fries and a Rambo lemonade. It cost £15.12; the burger was indeed very tasty, with lots of flavour, and the patty was almost wafer thin, very weird and unusual, but so nice. Given that I still had the shits from Mounjaro, I knew it wasn't going to go down well, but I was hungry, and when you're hungry, you're hungry. To be fair, I was probably more dehydrated than anything, but it was still good. The fries were very lukewarm, which wasn't great, but overall, for the price, it wasn't too bad. https://ramboburger.com/
It wasn't long after I had eaten and went to the shop to get 2 cans of soda, costing me £5.30!! I went back to my hotel, which was around the corner. I was just going to grab my camera and then head out. However, I had the most awful stomach cramps, further toilet trips, constant farting, and a migraine from hell, literally coming from nowhere. I thought I would just have a little power nap, as that was probably what I needed, but I woke up feeling much worse. Ended up staying in my room all afternoon and evening as I had no energy; I couldn't risk having a bowel accident while out, as finding a toilet around Brussels was like catching the gold paper in the Crystal Maze, haha. I was just floored, and I was only in Brussels for one night as well.
The next morning, I went down to have some breakfast and made sure I drank plenty of water so I was not dehydrated.
I was anxious about what to eat due to my stomach and shits, so I opted for pastries and some bread with salad on it and some pineapple juice. Again, it didn't help! I put my food on the table, and suddenly, out of nowhere, I felt a leak! I scurried to the toilet just outside the dining hall, only for it to be closed for cleaning. I was clenching my cheeks at this point and holding my stomach as it was so painful. I jumped in the lift back up to my floor and scurried to the toilet in my room. Safe to say, I didn't make it all the way without an accident. I was furious, as I had not even started eating, and I ruined a brand new pair of OnThatAss boxers hahaha. I cleaned up and went back downstairs to finally have my breakfast, with sheer anxiety filling my every aching bone in my body
After breakfast, I showered and then checked out. I thought with me missing sightseeing the day before, I wanted to get out early and explore the city, as my flight home wasn't until 19:40.
I wandered around the area outside my hotel, as I wasn't sure what was there. The streets were not the cleanest; however, they were charming in a way. I jumped on a bus," randomly said Delta, thinking, "Why not? See what is there or along the route." Tapped on the bus using a contactless card and took a seat. I only went 3 stops to the central station, as it looked like there were many people around, so I thought there might be something of interest.
I love photography and capturing weird and interesting photos, and found these Smurfs painted underneath an archway, which was nice and colourful. It might be classed as graffiti, but I thought it was awesome.
I ventured around, saw some trains passing in the distance, and wanted to pop to the station and see what was around. My bowels were not having any of it; I desperately needed the toilet again, and there was not one in sight. I went into the train station, where not a single person was around; it gave me 'Hostel Movie' vibes, eerie and ghostly to say the least. No toilets or staff, I don't even know if the train station was in use, to be honest. I left and walked around frantically trying to find a public toilet.
I managed to find my way back to Brussels main station, where I found a toilet (picture below), and I cannot begin to tell you the irony of this photo hahahaha
Had to pay £1 to have a shit, although the toilets were clean, I always find it rather annoying that public toilets are not always free, its a basic human need and not something we can control when we have to go and considering its an offence to shit on the street, the sheer need to charge someone to go to the toilet is diabolical. I mean by time you faff about getting your card out to pay, your bowels know you are there, it can see and tries to push out much faster the more you approach the toilet cubicle, but 'I made it'
The stress of all of this gave me another headache, and I was mentally and physically drained so I started to struggle to even walk or concentrate as I feared shitting myself again as I didn't know when I was going to need it. This is sadly one of the side effects of taking Mounjaro.
Saw this photo in the male toilets that gave me 'noncey vibes', it's a tad creepy to say the least haha Although, I was probably just as creepy taking the photo, but hey ho, weird things intrigue me
It was only mid morning and I had enough of feeling rubbish, having no energy, constantly wanting the toilet and afraid to look at food in case it sent poo signals to my bowels haha (could happen)
At Brussels Airport, we were advised by Ryanair that due to staff shortages, security and baggage queues were very long and we would need to arrive at the airport 3-4 hours ahead of departure. I decided that I just needed to be sitting down, chilling and by a toilet, not the best choice, but I opted to head back to the airport at 11am, jumped on the coach and arrived at Charleori at 12 noon, some 8 hours early for my flight. There was somewhere to sit, I had a coffee and was able to relax and put my music on and people watch, which was very therapeutic for me.
Around 3pm, after I had something to eat, I noticed large queues outside the entrance to departures, so I knew that it was a good time to start queuing up to make my way through security. At least I would be able to relax in the departure area once through.
This was the queue I joined, and this was only for those who didn't have bags to check in; that queue was even longer. I did time it, and it took around 1 hour and 12 minutes altogether to get from this point here and through security.
At this airport, security wanted liquids and laptops, etc, out of bags as standard for most; I did this and left everything else in my bag, including my camera, phone and wallet. I saw my bag going through the scanner and as it popped its head out, a red tag was placed on it and it was sent to the other side, I was pulled aside and asked to open my bag and take contents out (this was actually exciting as the guy doing the search was fit as fuck, proper daddy vibes) and the bag was drug tested, and items were then placed in a tray and scanned back through and I was then able to take my belongings (secretly hoping to be stripped searched, but that never happened)
Security done, hours early, so I made my way through to the very busy departure lounge. I didn't know what boarding gate my flight was going from, but I narrowed it down because the UK is out of the EU now, I knew it had to be gates that required border control, and I was correct, and we were boarding from gate 21.
The airport departure area at gates 21-22 was very crammed, a lot of passengers flying to Morocco were waiting in the area along with those flying to Albania and Edinburgh, there were limited seats and only one bar/cafe, which was very expensive. £3.39 for a bottle of water, which by the way tasted like tap water from my kitchen sink, so I couldn't even drink that as I didn't want it upsetting my stomach anymore than it was.
Yes ! Even Dick Turpin wore a mask !
Once the Albania flight had finished boarding, this was the state the waiting area was left in!
The return flight home was operated by Malta Air, but it was an old 737-800 flight that still had the old seating and interior. I had forgotten about the seat belts on these flights. If you are a fat man like me, you just about fit in the seat, let alone be able to strap yourself in for the white knuckle ride, haha. I was placed in seat 10C (aisle), and the flight was full.
One thing I was very impressed with was how efficient Ryanair was, they landed from Almeria and got to the gate at 19:22pm, they had to disembark, refuel, take baggage off, reload new baggage, safety checks etc and then board my flight passengers, get them seated, do the safety checks and taxi back to runway. All this was done, and we were in the air at 20:04, so I have to say that was very impressive for an airline, very quick turnaround.
If you have got this far reading through my blog, congratulations. As you will know, my trip didn't go to plan, in terms of being poorly, extra costs involved, it turned into a little nightmare in the end, and I never got to really experience or see Brussels, so I was a little gutted about it. However, I will venture back at some point in the future.
A breakdown of the costs I incurred on this trip and what the total was for my 1 night getaway
- Flight (Return) £43.98 (small cabin bag only)
- Coach (Return) £31.98
- Travel while in Brussels £14.52
- Hostel (Originally staying in) £26
- Hotel (booked on the morning of departure) £86.82
- Breakfast (Greggs) £2.95
- Train Ticket to Manchester Airport £4.85
- Hotel (City Tax) for 1 night £3.66
- Food and Drink £43.60
- The toilet charges £4.44
- Uber (to get home from the train station) £5.94
My next trip will be to Czechia (Prague) on 26th August 2025
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