…Jet Lag. After an eight and a half hour long flight we finally made it to our destination country of Belgium. Most of the people in our group have never been on that long of a flight so suffice to say, none of us really slept all that well. At the time of this writing its about 3:00pm local time and we have all retreated to our hotel rooms to relax and rid ourselves of the occasional crankiness.

Culture shock does not begin to describe my current feelings right now because everything really is completely foreign to me (bad pun intended). Once we got out of the plane and went through immigration, we got our first glimpse of Europe. The ride from the airport to the hotel took about 15 minutes but it was a good start to some sightseeing in Brussels business district. Once we got to the hotel and unloaded our luggage, we were informed that our rooms wouldn’t be ready for a couple of hours so we were off in our little groups to explore the city.

Pro Travel Tip: When exploring a new city by foot, it is a great idea to do so in a small group. Not only is it safer but odds are that at least one of those people will know how to get back to the hotel…unless you are in my group. After walking aimlessly for a few hours, we had to rely on our trusty iPhones to guide us back to the hotel.

During our wonderings, we were trying to get familiar with the city so it would be easier to navigate in the future and after today’s walk, it didn’t help one bit. We were able to find The Grand Place which is the central hub of all things Brussels. I have a feeling that we may spend a lot of time there because everything you could ever want is there and it really is remarkably beautiful.

Oh, it’s also snowing here. Shit.