Arrived in Brussels, after fighting Thalys

I'm finally here, recovering from the just-experienced chocolate shock I subjected myself to voluntarily. It seemed a better idea up front than it does now...

Anyway, the trip from Paris went much less smoothly than anticipated. Even though I had had the foresight to book tickets on the train in advance, I ended spending almost 30 minutes to actually get my tickets. The Thalys online shop says chirpily that you should just use you credit card in one of the many ticket machines when you arrive at the terminal, and the ticket will be dispensed. Sounds like a good deal, and that's what I've come to expect of e-tickets.

Unfortunately, what they don't say, is that not all VISA cards are accepted by the machine. While they will happily eat your money in the online store, they will then refuse to print your ticket when you arrive at the station. A friendly, non-English-speaking train attendant explained to me in lively French that my VISA card needs a smart chip for the machine to read it, and that I would have to go and wait in line in front of the ticket booth to actually get my ticket, silly as I was, not bringing a proper VISA card. Good thing I don't speak French [but it's amazing how much rudimentary language skills + loads of context helps your comprehension].

With a deep sigh, I "pardoned" my way through 40 people waiting in line before me, and finally arrived at the ticket booth. I provided a printout of my e-mail receipt to the clerk behind the counter, at which point he started scratching his head profusely. After a little while, he found something he understood: the reservation code, and things were finally solved, about two minutes before departure. A short, unceremonious dash across the platform later, I made it into the train car as the doors closed.

I'm happy to report that rest of the trip went without any hiccups. The only remaining annoyance was that there's no direct metro line between Gare Midi and Gare Centrale in Brussels, so getting to Grand Place took a bit of additional planning and metro map consultation.

No matter. I'm here. I still have plenty of time before the beerfest, and I'm obviously using it to complain about silly things, so my life must be good:)