The Even Greater Tokyo Region

"Rocket Science"

My cellphone alarm woke me at 5:45 this morning, and I dutifully snoozed it, and hid it under the covers to dull the sound to give me 5 minutes more sleep. After 30 minutes, I woke up when I realised that my alarm had been on vibrate mode. I put on the clothes I had neatly piled up on the floor the night before, put on my watch, my scarf, my hat, and two bags and went outside into the dark morning. I walked to the local station and caught a train to Rotterdam Central, where I looked around for an ATM to withdraw a large sum of money. By now the light was starting to glow dimly through the high cloud cover. I went into the train ticketing office, took a number and waited for my turn.

I had been thinking about this trip for a while. It started on my flight over to Holland. On the in-flight entertainment, a I watched a movie called "In Bruges". It's an English hit-man film starring Colin Farrel, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes and the city of Bruges, Belgium. It is a one of the most well-preserved old cities in Europe, a fairy-tale city, sometimes called the Venice of the North. I wanted to take a sightseeing trip to somewhere pretty, and cheap. I had it all planned out, 2 nights in Bruges, take a walking tour on the first day, drink local beers at night, hire a bike on the 2nd day and explore further, and then visit some museums in Brussels on the way home.

"All the trains in Belgium are not running today", the lady told me. "The strike in Belgium..."

What? But, I woke up at 6:15. I packed a nice lunch. I studied and took notes for the trip! This is possibly the most organised I have ever been. And it was thwarted because Belgium is on strike?

General strike paralyses Brussels

Yes, from what I gather, the entire country is on strike, not just the trains. And they want more money. Sure, I used to think that strikes were great ("Yay, no school"), but this is clearly going too far. I watched an episode of South Park recently where Canada went on strike, and now I hate South Park for giving Belgium ideas. Because, when you really think about it, Belgium is to Holland what Canada is to the USA, or what New Zealand is to Australia. It's the weaker, underappreciated little brother, who gets less attention, and more farts on their face.

I really didn't want to do this. I really didn't. I wanted to ignore the petty rivalry between Holland and Belgium. I had no reason to dislike Belgium until now.

This whole strike is a big attention stunt by a whiney know-it-all little brother. Trust me, I know the mentality: I was that little brother once. This article says "Trade unions called a one-day strike to draw attention to the rapidly rising prices throughout the country."

Great, thanks Belgium for pointing out that little-known fact for us. Next week I expect them to call a national day of fireworks celebrations to raise awareness of fireworks-related injuries and unneccessary CO2 emissions.

"Belgium, I know what it's like to be the younger brother, but trust me, you don't have to be a dick about it."