I think we were due for some sort of vacation failure, and we got that done nicely today. It was our last full day on the trip so Mel and I decided to head into Brussels to see a few things while the others took the car back to Ghent for another day there.
We got dropped off at the train station and bid the others a good day. We should have realized something was fishy when we noticed there were hardly any other people around during rush hour. It was quiet, a little too quiet.
The train station doors were locked and there wasn't a soul to be seen inside. There were a few people outside the station having a smoke, but they seemed to be permanent residents of the smoking area outside the station and had no intentions of going in.
After some asking around I got one word being repeated to me, "greve". Nobody knew what the translation was for it, but once someone mentioned "syndicat" I figured out there was an all day strike on for the trains (and busses as it turns out). The lazy jerks didn't even bother with any sort of picket line or signs, just no work. WTF? If you're going to strike shouldn't you make some sort of public display of annoyance?
So instead of a nice day (and the weather was the nicest we'd seen in a while) in Brussels we ended up walking around Mons all day again. Still made the best of it and enjoyed ourselves (after all, the beer in Mons is just as tasty as anywhere).
But the strike wasn't quite done messing with us. It also messed up our ride home and some scrambling had to be done to get us a ride as our cell phones weren't really working.
Even that all worked itself out though and barely even delayed the most important plans of the day, cooking and eating delicious frog legs! If you haven't tasted them, yes, they are very much like chicken wings. But unlike wings you can take frog legs and pretend to make the frog jump around the table and telling your wife about how delicious Kermit is.
-Ryan
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