Shady Deals

So, I finally decided to rent a car so I can explore the area a little more. There is a Hertz shop right across the street from my office, so I decided to book online and pick it up during my lunch hour. I found a wagon so I could pick up Elizabeth and Bailey next weekend, it was 350 Euro for two weeks. A little expensive, but I figured I could rent something smaller after that.

On Tuesday I walked over to what appeared to be an abandoned building with a handwritten "Hertz Car Rental" sign on the door. There was no walkway, I just walked through the mud. When I get in there, it's a completely empty warehouse with two guys sitting silently at their computers, cables all over the floor. After a few minutes of typing, he finds my reservation. After a few more minutes, he asks for my credit card and says it will be 975 Euro! After a good bit of discussion I finally figured out that the online price doesn't include the European VAT, or insurance. Insurance alone was almost 500 Euro! Needless to say, I cancelled the reservation and got a small car for a whole month for 500 Euro total. I'm going to have to rent the big one for a day to pick up Elizabeth, but now I have some transportation to get to work and around town.

The really shady part of this Hertz came as I was walking outside with one of the guys to inspect the car. My coworker came with me to find out how much it would be to rent a small automatic for a month...they quoted him 800 Euro, 300 more than my manual. Anyway, as I headed outside, the other guy motioned for my coworker to come over and told him that he could get him an automatic for a month for 500. The guy admitted that he didn't work for Hertz...but we couldn't figure out who he was or why he was sitting in the Hertz dealership. He said to meet him at the Hertz store between 1:00 and 2:00 because the other guy "can't know about this". Arek is still debating whether or not to take the "deal", but it just seems scary...but funny!

Driving out here is pretty scary. There is a rule that people from the right almost always have the right-of-way, and they take it. You can be cruising along and someone from a sidestreet will just drive in front of you, assuming you will stop. You have to be paying very close attention. If that weren't bad enough, many of the streets in town are cobblestone and narrow, some are only for bikes, some are only for buses, some are one way, and some "roads" look like sidewalks. There are cement barriers that pop out of the sidewalk, but lower for busses to drive up on them. I've almost been run over several times.

Just another day in Belgium!