we hope you have a pleasant stay, said the SMS I received from a Swedish mobile phone company the minute I walked off the plane. The only small catch was that the plane I had walked off was from Stockholm to Oslo and I had just returned to Norwegian soil after a few days of work and fun in the Swedish capital. Ah well, the Swedes have no reputation to loose among Norwegians when it comes to brainpower, but they do have a lovely capital ... here's the Orpheus Fountain in front of Stockolm's concert hall, close to the central hotel I stayed at (a four star hotel with NO coffee making facilities in the rooms; how do they expect you to wake up in the morning?):

On Monday morning I found myself standing in the middle of scenic Belgian countryside: the only sounds to be heard were those of cows mooing. The problem with this idyllic scene was that I was supposed to have been on Brussels airport, checking in for my flight back to Oslo, and trains are not too frequent in the Belgian boondocks. I eventually arrived the airport three minutes after my plane took off. Needless to say, I got to know Brussels airport much better than I have ever desired that day, before I eventually was able to board my newly bought return trip. There’s this old saying about getting up on the wrong foot, now how about getting on the wrong train? I can certainly think of better ways to start your week…

The irony of it was that two days earlier, two of my travel companions missed their flight back to Stockholm as the bus they boarded to Charleroi got stuck on the bus station. My friend who lured me to Brussels in the first place was due to fly to Columbia, Missouri, one hour after me, but got held up for a day in Amsterdam as her flight was overbooked. 

These obstacles led me to do explore a bit more about this city we all found it so difficult to get out of. According to Wikipedia “The name Brussels comes from the old Dutch Bruocsella, Brucsella or Broekzele, which means "marsh (bruoc, bruc or broek) home (sella or zele)" or "home in the marsh",” which makes totally sense to me.  One day I might look back on my close escape from marsh city and smile…

...in Liverpool with friends, but am off to London very soon.