Stranded in Brussels

Well, the inevitable has finally happened. After years of traveling to remote and exotic locations, I finally had a missed connection on a flight that happens once a day, stranding me in a foreign city.

Fortunately, it was a foreign city I've never been to, so once I calmed myself down, it was actually a win.

Yesterday started pretty much the same as any traveling Saturday. I had done most of my packing Friday night (translation: I grumbled about packing and procrastinated until I finally got around to putting some clothes in a duffle bag hours after I should have), so after my run in the morning, all I had left was my carry-on stuff and then I was good to go to the airport.

I was flying United from Savannah to Chicago, and again from Chicago to Brussels, but then I switching to Brussels Airlines. It's still a Star Alliance partner (yay for frequent flier miles... I'm going for gold), but I wasn't able to print off my boarding pass in Savannah due to the airline change. I didn't think much of it, figuring I would have plenty of time when I got to Brussels.

Wrong.

The weather in Chicago was pretty terrible, which delayed us about two hours. We made up some of the time in flight, but in all, my comfortable two hour lay-over was reduced to 25 minutes, which is never comfortable, especially when 1) flying internationally; 2) connecting in an airport I'm not familiar with; 3) in a country where I don't speak the language; and 4) I don't have a boarding pass yet. So nope. Didn't make the connection.

And there's one flight a day down to Kinshasa.

Fortunately, United/Brussels Air/Star Alliance/some unknown benefactor put me up in the Sheraton (on airport grounds) and gave me meal vouchers for lunch, dinner, and breakfast tomorrow. After having to forcibly calm myself down (because honestly, what good does getting angry/frustrated get? They're not going to create more flights out of thin air), I got a shower and free lunch and decided that there's no point in spending my free day in Belgium cooped up in the hotel. So I got on the train and headed down into the city and walked around a bit, taking some pictures.

Playing with the panoramic feature on my iPhone while standing in the middle of Grand Place

It's a chocolate museum. Because, well, it's Belgium and they do that here

I saw the chocolate museum, which was actually pretty interesting. It went into the history of chocolate and how it's made, and then there was a demonstration (and treats). The demonstrator gave one line in French and then repeated the line in English. After a couple of trips to Africa, I've forgotten how well people in Europe speak English.

Belgian waffle with chocolate and banana

 And, of course, when in Belgium, you have to have a Belgian waffle. At least, that's what I told myself. It was very tasty... Much better than Belgian waffles I've had in the States.

So that was my day in Brussels. It's now 6 pm local time and I'm fading fast, so I'll probably be getting dinner soon and then going to bed, keeping my fingers crossed that the plane leaving for Kinshasa tomorrow is on-time (even though, realistically, I'll settle for it landing at any time, as long as it lands).