{"id":2625,"date":"2015-10-11T19:09:38","date_gmt":"2015-10-11T19:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennywilsonmusic.wordpress.com\/?p=2625"},"modified":"2015-10-11T19:09:38","modified_gmt":"2015-10-11T19:09:38","slug":"my-european-musical-adventure-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennywilson.space\/index.php\/2015\/10\/11\/my-european-musical-adventure-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"My European Musical Adventure Part 1 October 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Me<\/a>
Me in Brussels. Beginning of the trip!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So, here I am on my second travelling adventure of the year. I\u2019ve got the bug now. A bit like a latter day Jack Kerouac in search of kicks and excitement. Well, okay, visiting several European cities in a very short time! In this case, from Tuesday 29th September to Wednesday 7th October 2015. This is a shorter time than my Interail Spanish trip in April but I\u2019m visiting nearly as many cities. I\u2019ve also taken my accordion along for the ride. Am I\u00a0 mad, it weighs a ton, or seems to after a very short time. Still, the idea is to possibly do a bit of busking on the streets of Europe and also maybe get involved with open mics and jam sessions. I thought the accordion would be more interesting and exotic than a guitar which is lighter but takes up more room, and there are millions of guitarists around. It makes me yawn just thinking about it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Okay, the train ride to Brussels went very smoothly. Changed at St. Pancras no problem. It\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve been on EuroStar. It\u2019s a bit like taking a plane with all the security checks! I managed to get through without setting any alarms off. I\u2019m getting good at this now! The train wasn\u2019t quite as luxurious as I had expected it to be. There were no electrical sockets or WiFi. This makes the buses I have travelled on so far actually better. In fact, the one I\u2019m travelling on at the moment even has a selection of films you can watch. Now, if only I could speak German! Never mind though, the scenery is gorgeous!<\/span>
\nThe journey from London to Brussels took only two hours. The train is staggeringly fast although you don\u2019t really notice it. I got to Brussels late afternoon and walked from the station to my hotel, Hotel Francois. For once I found it easily but ended up waiting for over an hour for the person to come to the reception. He never arrived. One of the guests woke up a man who was sleeping in room 1 and told him I was waiting. I\u2019m not one to complain but this hostel is about the worst I\u2019ve ever stayed in. All the rooms were unlocked all the time so there was no security (or key) and I got a bunk bed with no pillow or blanket. To be fair, the place was clean although there was no toilet paper. It was also right in the middle of the beautiful old town. I managed to survive their for two nights though. Brussels is very expensive and the Hotel Francois cost \u20ac20 a night. The nearest alternative cost \u20ac90 a night. That\u2019s why I stuck it out. By the second night I was getting used to it anyway.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

That night I had a walk round the town and had a tasty kebab supper. I also took some pictures of the city at night and looked where I might do some busking. I went back to the hotel and eventually managed to get to sleep. I was in a room with five people and it was pretty noisy but I must have been tired. Didn\u2019t wake up until 9.30 a.m.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Brussels<\/a>
Brussels at night. Beautiful.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Brussels.<\/a>
Brussels. Love the trams!! Just rode around on them for the hell of it!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Brussels<\/a>
Brussels Cathedral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Busker<\/a>
Busker in Brussels. You need a licence and can only play in certain places.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That morning I decided to try some busking. Unfortunately, there was virtually no one about. The town doesn\u2019t fill up \u2018til gone twelve. I decided to put the accordion in Left Luggage at the station (it was beginning to get really heavy) and do the busking later. Then I had a good look round the town. I tried to rent a bike but had the same problem as when I was in Valencia. I couldn\u2019t get it to read my credit card. Very frustrating!! So I got a 24 hour travel pass that I didn\u2019t realise expired at midnight. Okay, as you have probably realised, after a promising start things were not exactly going to plan. Well, that\u2019s part of the adventure. That is my rule. You take and deal with anything that comes, good or bad. And later on it got really good. The busking never happened because of various problems I hadn\u2019t thought of like local laws and regulations. Officially, all buskers need to be licensed and can only play in certain places. What did happen though was a brilliant jam session at the Caf\u00e9 Flor\u00e9o near where I was staying. Had a great time playing all night with some excellent\u00a0musicians and made a whole load of new friends. Fantastic! I slept well that night!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cafe<\/a>
Cafe Floreo, Brussels. Great live music bar!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Cafe<\/a>
Cafe Floreo, Brussels. Great jam night on Wednesdays.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I got the bus for Frankfurt on Thursday 1st October at 16.30 from the Gard du Nord station, Brussels. Everything went smoothly and I found the bus stand easily and I was in good time. I wasn’t sure I was looking forward to a six hour journey though, but it was an opportunity to have a good rest!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, here I am on my second travelling adventure of the year. I\u2019ve got the bug now. A bit like a latter day Jack Kerouac in search of kicks and excitement. Well, okay, visiting several European cities in a very short time! In this case, from Tuesday 29th September to Wednesday 7th October 2015. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,66],"tags":[117,136,208,250,269,317,334,461],"class_list":["post-2625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","category-travel","tag-belgium","tag-brussels","tag-folk","tag-imagination","tag-kenny-wilson","tag-music","tag-open-mic","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennywilson.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennywilson.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennywilson.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennywilson.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennywilson.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kennywilson.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennywilson.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennywilson.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennywilson.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennywilson.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}