3 Countries & 5 Train Stations in 24 hours

I was especially proud of myself on the day I met my family. It all started when two friends and I decided to take quick trip to Amsterdam from Brussels, Belgium. We booked a hotel the day, packed up our stuff, and said good buy to everyone and caught a taxi to the Brussels-Central Train Station. When we arrived, we booked the first train to Amsterdam.

Upon arriving, we walked to our hotel (which was only about a half mile).  In the morning after only getting a few hours sleep, I walked back to Amsterdam Central Station and booked a train ticket to Nantes, France for that afternoon. Nantes is a small town located in West France.  I hopped on the train and arrived in Paris where I had to change train stations.  Alone, I had to take a taxi from one train station(Paris Nord), to the other one (Paris Montparnasse). Due to my train arriving in Paris 25 minutes late and sitting in grid locked Paris; I ended up missing my train to Nantes. When I arrived at the other train station, I looked at that huge board, with all the departures, and ran as fast as I can with three bags to catch another one leaving to Nantes. I spoke a little French and the conductor let me on because he saw how I missed my train. Minutes later, the train left. When I finally arrived in the small city of Nantes, nothing was written in English underneath the signs, like the Paris train stations. I followed the pictures on the signs, read a little French, and got out of there. It was by chance that my family’s hotel was very close to the train station. When I finally met up with my family and my cousins I was shaking because, within 24 hours, I was in five train stations (Brussels-Central, Amsterdam  Central Station, Paris Nord, Paris Montparnasse, Nantes)and three countries (Belgium, Netherlands, France).

 I now look back on that day and give myself a pat on the back because I never thought that I could do what I did, let alone, before. Now when I go to Chicago or any major city, I am not going to think twice about my ability to get around.