Why are you so nice?

This story is a few months old but hey, since I only told my closest friends about this, it's still something to write about.

This happened to me in Brugge (or Bruges, whichever you prefer). Brugge is very small, very beautiful. I've heard of Brugge only once before I went there, and that was when I watched that Colin Farrell movie (a very good movie too, please watch if you haven't). And I went to Brugge because the backpackers I was with couldn't find anything fun to do in Ghent (or Gent). My uncle used to study in Ghent so I spent a night at his university friend's house (now a lecturer at Ghent University and has a family). Oh, the other backpackers stayed at one of the backpackers' hostels because they planned to get drunk and so we agreed to meet at the Ghent train station the next morning.

My ticket from Ghent to Brugge

In case you're wondering, Ghent is a university town.

Okayy, that's just the intro hehe.

And so my ass went to Brugge. The very beautiful Brugge, and very beautiful people. I spent 2 nights there. The first night was spent at a backpackers' hostel (I stayed at St Christopher's, decent place and very cheap. Has wifi). And the story I'm about to tell you happened to me on the second night.

This card is for young people only. Stress on the word "YOUNG"

Narrow streets

Horses! Smelly horses

Rows of cafe

                                                         

I couldn't use my credit card in Europe, and since train tickets took up the hugest chunks of my cash, I spent as low as possible on accommodations and food. Even  pinching pennies saw me reduced to only €20 and a few cents and about £50 at the end of the day. Brugge was to be my last stop before London and I still needed to buy tube tickets to Baru's house in London and to Wales so I prefer not to convert my last remaining £.

So on the second day in Brugge, I combed the streets of Brugge and entered museums and shops till my back and feet hurt and still I managed to do all that before 7pm because Brugge is a small city. After dinner, I sat down and contemplated whether I should just stay awake until the sun rose (the sun hadn't even went down at 8pm okay masa tu) or should I just sleep at the train station. My ticket to London was 12:56pm the next day and it only took me about 2 hours to get to Brussels from Brugge. And Brussels at night scared the shit out of me so I didn't want to go there so late at night. Oh I stayed a night in Brussels before I went to Ghent and trust me, the rempits in Malaysia got nothing on the thugs in Brussels. which is a shame, really, since Brussels is amazing during the day.

My ticket to Brussels. My ass is too lazy to rotate.

Brussels at night

Brussels during the day.

Back to my story. So I sat at a bench and thought what I should do. At this point, I've parted ways with the other backpackers. The girl I travelled with refused to wake up that morning (she was heavily drunk) and a few of them continued their ways to Berlin (before Belgium, I stopped at Hamburg and my cash was running low so I had to give their invitation a pass). And came an old man in his 60s. He was riding a bike and sat down beside me to take a short break before continuing with his biking and I chatted him up. During the chat, I found out that he used to live in Malaysia for 10 years because he worked with the Embassy of Belgium. And after learning that I had nowhere to go that night, he offered me a stay at his house. And stupid me terus agreed without thinking lah pulak. He told me to wait there for a while because his house is quite far from the park and he would pick me up in his car. While he was gone, my Mom called and she asked me where I would be staying that night (she called me every day because this was the first time I travelled alone) and when I told her, she was spitting mad because I agreed to follow a stranger to his house even though he's an old man. The longer she talked, the more terrified I became and I made a decision to just go to the train station (which is only a walking distance from the park) without waiting for the old man.

And can you believe it that the old man came looking for me at the train station? He waited for me for almost half an hour at the park and he was worried because I was alone. He went to the train station not expecting me to be there but he went there anyway and boy was he glad when he saw me sitting on the floor (because I was charging my phone and the power socket tu jauh pulak daripada kerusi). At first I refused to go to his house (can't believe my Mom still managed to instil fear even thousands of miles away) and the old man said, "it's okay, then I'll stay with you till morning. At least you won't be alone" and sat with me on the floor and how can you not be grateful for that?

After a while, I couldn't help but felt sorry for him because it couldn't be easy for an old man to sit on the cold floor all night long so I agreed to go to his house. And man, his house is unlike any I saw before this. A house so nice I was sorry to drag my dirty self into it. And he lives alone (he's a widower and his daughters are all married. I asked him why he didn't marry again and he just laughed and said he already has a girlfriend. Rasa macam geli pun ada when a man in his 60s panggil girlfriend dia girlfriend). He made dinner for me and offered me his guest room but I said the study room was enough for me. I chose to sleep in the study room because errr..there was a PC there and at that time, I still didn't believe that he was a nice man. Thank goodness that old people go to sleep early so I snooped on his personal mails and emails and Facebook page and employment files and emailed his details to my family because in case anything happened, my family would know who's to blame. I swear to God I did this. I felt the tiniest bit of guilt while I snooped but then I figured my personal safety was more important.

And because of all that snooping, I went to bed at almost 4am and woke up the next morning at 6am because I planned to take the first train to Brussels and spent my day walking around the town before I left for London. When I woke up, the old man was already up and was cooking breakfast and I took a very satisfying shower and felt the cleanest I've been ever since I started backpacking. After breakfast, he sent me to the train station and get this, gave me  €50 because he was worried my €20 wouldn't be enough to buy me food. And shameless, grateful me took it.

Can you imagine? Even after all that I did to him, left him without an explanation, made him wait for me for almost half an hour, sat with me on the cold floor of the train station, thought the worst of him, refused the guest room he has readied, snooped on his personal mails and emails and Facebook page and forced him to wake earlier than usual so that he could send me to the train station the next morning; he was still happy to see me and worried enough for my safety to come looking for me, fed me dinner and breakfast, relented when I wanted to use the study room, and still gave me €50 because he was worried I would be starving. That was the moment I knew how ashamed I was of myself for being cynical  and not recognising kindness when it was handed to me on a platter.

There's no photo of him and his house so you just have to believe that I'm telling you the truth. Posting photos of his house would be an invasion into his privacy and when I googled his name, there were results which means that his name is recognisable enough and he doesn't need an ingrate like me to name-drop his name.

But then I should've known he's somebody important since he drives a Maserati.

One of the first things I did when I arrived home was e-mailed him that I have safely returned to Malaysia and thanking him profusely saying I can never repay him. And he replied, "Hearing that you've safely arrived is repayment enough".


Aaaaa how can anybody be this nice?

p/s: just read this post again, and oh God so many grammatical errors. I was soooo excited to tell this story that I sounded like I was on crack and I came up with so many confusing sentences! But I'm too lazy to correct each and every one of them because I'm sure you smart people can understand my incoherent ramblings :D