NIB: the end of the middle

To the tune of 'took all the trees, put 'em in a tree museum, and charge the people a dolla and a half to see 'em - now, don't it only seem to go, that you don't know what you got 'til it's gone...'

Leave it to the world and its mysterious ways to let me fall head over heels in love with the by myself of traveling on the day before one of my best friends from home joins me for two weeks. Not that I'm not excited, I am incredibly, I've been looking forward to Steph joining me for a long, long time (and we'll spend our first few days by a lake with LOTS of trees, no museum)... I just love the irony at play.

From the time Steph booked her ticket in March, for July 7, I saw this date as something that would come way, wayyy at the end of my trip, a sign that I was coming to the tail end, and wrapping things up, so to speak.

Little did I know that on July 6th many of the bits from the trip would come together to put a huge smile on my face and really make this feel like the end of the middle.

For one, as described in the Brussels post, I found my favouite religious house, a church, which had Christian, Jewish, and Muslim prayers inside it (disproportionately, but still), as well as an atypical Jesus statue, and a crucifix with a woman, seemingly displaying equality of the sexes.

For two, Jeanneke Pis just made me so so happy - more notably the fact that a random English businessman, whose name I did not even get, told me about it very haphazardly- little did he know...

And for three, the people. In the span of about 3 hours I met an Iranian woman who must have been slightly older than me and her family from Belgium, the Netherlands, and Australia. Then I met two Pakistani men, one living in Bahrain, the other in Norway. Then an English man, who lived for 4 years in NYC, before relocating to Paris (and who bought me a beer!). Then, unexpectedly ending up walking into a light show of some gothic cathedral, I met 5-7 university-aged kids, in Brussels for an 'economics field trip' which sounded like the twin of 'zones', as it was structured incredibly similarly. I met 3 waiters, of whom I think only 1 was local, with whom I engaged in witty banter as they described to me how to find Jeanneke - and a screaming, screeching, yelping (American?) woman locked in said restaurant's bathroom, 'I'm locked in, I'm locked in' --- whom, when she was calmly asked by me, 'ok, don't worry, I will get somebody to open it up, but I just need to know if you're in any other danger' screamed, screeched, yelped a little bit more 'i'm locked in, I'm locked in'. (yes, the waiter and I would exchange smiles over the incident).

And up until this point, I had not even exchanged names with anybody. But I went all around the world in a matter or hours.

Lastly, with 45 minutes until the last metro back to my hostel, and having no clue where it was or where I was, I actually opted to purposefully not take the map out of my pocket, because 'that would be too boring'.

I've been told that sometimes, I can display the most genuine of smiles, and that when I do, it's quite catching. And I'm not saying that to brag (I think we all have a smile something like that), but I'm saying that because I was pretty sure, as I was walking toward where I thought the metro was, reminiscing upon the evening (and wishing I had an auto-blog from my thoughts to my iPhone), that I had one of these smiles on. And I suppose that was confirmed when I got abruptly stopped in my tracks by a Moroccan guy who told me 'tu m'as vraiment pris'

Fortunately, he could show me where the metro was.

Unfortunately, he was creepy and I think he said he was kicked out of Morocco for 'I don't agree with the rules' (there was a pretty decent language barrier). I also didn't care to know more on the situation. Fortunately, this added a continent to the people I'd met that night. And fortunately I had many true excuses as to why I could not see him again and had to leave for my metro now.

Unfortunately, my genuine smile was gone (replaced a little bit with a little uneasiness) but fortunately, I knew it had definitely, definitely been there.

So here's to the beginning of the end!