Posted November 08, 2015
Yesterday evening we went to Brussels to attend a concert in Bozar. We departed well in advance in case of any eventualities, knowing that the Belgian highways can be a messy place at times. So, the concert starts at 20:00h and we arrived in Brussels around about 19:10h. There were some initial troubles; there were roadworks in a big alley headed into the city, and the smartasses in charge of logistical management had placed traffic lights at the FIRST EXIT of a big roundabout (-_-) - Belgium. We spent the next 50 minutes looking for a place to park the car ... to no avail. There were no clear indications of large parking spaces a pack of peasants from the rural area of Limburg could readily interpret while under extreme stress.
You might ask, why take a car to the capital and not a train or bus if you know that this kind of trouble is likely to come about in a little country where everyone has their own car and has to park their own car, and everybody consistently uses their cars for sole personal transportation?
The answer: it actually takes far longer to get to Brussels from where we live (Maaseik), using public transportation, than to get to Amsterdam from where we live, using public transportation. Not only that, but public transportation in our area is so sourly neglected that we could still have taken it to the capital to arrive there on time, but then we wouldn't have had any means of getting back to our place after the concert (because of no trains/busses going our way after a certain hour). Hence, the car was our only option of getting there.
When it was 20:15 o' clock we turned back to Maaseik, having missed the concert. The one time they perform Berlioz's Grande messe des morts (Of all the pieces you could miss) in Brussels - and we missed it, having driven past the concert hall twice with the tickets in our pockets.
I must say that I remain fairly apathetic under these unfortunate conditions. There are of course worse things; but fuck me, it's frustrating. And I just needed to oust it here.
You might ask, why take a car to the capital and not a train or bus if you know that this kind of trouble is likely to come about in a little country where everyone has their own car and has to park their own car, and everybody consistently uses their cars for sole personal transportation?
The answer: it actually takes far longer to get to Brussels from where we live (Maaseik), using public transportation, than to get to Amsterdam from where we live, using public transportation. Not only that, but public transportation in our area is so sourly neglected that we could still have taken it to the capital to arrive there on time, but then we wouldn't have had any means of getting back to our place after the concert (because of no trains/busses going our way after a certain hour). Hence, the car was our only option of getting there.
When it was 20:15 o' clock we turned back to Maaseik, having missed the concert. The one time they perform Berlioz's Grande messe des morts (Of all the pieces you could miss) in Brussels - and we missed it, having driven past the concert hall twice with the tickets in our pockets.
I must say that I remain fairly apathetic under these unfortunate conditions. There are of course worse things; but fuck me, it's frustrating. And I just needed to oust it here.