Belgium! and, German train strikes :(

Hello from Belgium!

I have been here since Saturday afternoon, and just haven't been able to upload photos due to a limitation on use of bandwidth at my friend Ryan's apartment. Coming soon! I visited Brussels, Ghent, and Antwerp so far.

I haven't written much about the German rail strikes that have been going on since my trip began - for the first time in 15 years, the union is demanding an increase in pay and because they can't reach an agreement, they have been going on strike repeatedly since late summer. So far I was only affected by it in Berlin, when I had to take a bus rather than a train to get around the city.

Until now, that is. The union is on strike again for 48 hours - exactly when I was intending to leave Belgium and go back to Germany, and at first with uncertain ongoing implications - which would affect my ability to get my flight back to the US. After a few hours of anxious weighing of a bunch of imperfect and highly uncertain options, it looks like the only impact will be that I have to leave Belgium half a day early, and I'll still get to (hopefully) see the German alps.

More soon!