A weird year finished off weirdly as well, but this time in a very good way. About two months ago my friend Brian, a New Yorker originally from Dublin asked me what my plans were for New Year’s. I told him I had none yet and he invited me to join him and a few friends in Dublin. I’d never been, and the prospect of going with someone who knew the city made it even more appealing. Brian, ever the gentleman, took it upon himself to book me a hotel room close to the action that didn’t cost an obscene amount [View Full Entry]

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I should have been here by now, settled and learning how to temper dark vs. milk chocolate, and finding out firsthand that white chocolate actually smells kinda bad when you're tempering it. But no. I don’t even have a place to live yet. I was in Leuven again for less than 48 hours, although I planned on staying for a week, but before that it was for a month, at least in the hotel I booked. I wrote Laike two weeks prior to coming out and didn’t hear from her again until the day before I flew out. It took another [View Full Entry]

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This weekend was my first time ever in Austin. I've been wanting to come and visit for ages, and when my friend Susan (who used to live here) told me about the Texas Burlesque festival and our mutual friend Elena (who currently lives here) offered to let me crash with her, I was all over it. After Elena got me from the airport on Friday afternoon, we went to grab a drink she then took me out to dinner at a fabulous Italian place where we met two of her friends. There was a man at the table next to us [View Full Entry]

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Woke up and had to get out of the houseboat and out of Amsterdam. Gene and Gina decided to do a load of laundry before we left but by the time we had to go it was still damp because the dryer wasn’t doing its job all that well. We packed up their car, and I took them up on their generous offer to drive me to the airport. We got out of the city center just fine, but then traffic came to a literal standstill for just long enough to miss my flight home. By the time we realized I [View Full Entry]

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Because of the stress and exhaustion from the early morning robbery, we didn’t get to go to the Van Gogh museum as we’d planned. The day just slipped away from us. We did some walking around the city though, got to enjoy a few hours of sunshine and some drinks in the one day of good weather we got on this trip. We’d made reservations that evening at an Indonesian restaurant I’d recommended, since I’d told Gene and Gina that a good “rijstaffel” (literally translated as “rice table” in Dutch) is an essential part of a good Amsterdam tri [View Full Entry]

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The first thing I noticed when I woke up Saturday morning was that I wasn’t hung over. When I thought about the all the drinks I’d consumed the day before, I couldn’t believe it. We started drinking from early afternoon and basically kept going all day and into the night. I think I must have had five glasses of wine and seven bourbons. I should have been in the hospital, but I wasn’t even hung over. Gene made breakfast in the houseboat’s kitchen, and it was good. Some scrambled egg whites with fresh basil, whole wheat toast spread with goat cheese [View Full Entry]

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This trip to Amsterdam happens to be my sixth or seventh. Hey, don’t make assumptions as to why I can’t remember precisely; I’ve lost track of just how many times I’ve been to Paris too. I know, it’s hard being me. However, it’s been a few years since I’ve been and this particular trip also had something of a twist to it due to whom I was going with. The thing is, prior to this weekend, I had never met Gene and Gina. I’d never even spoken to them on the phone. Gene is the best friend of my last ex, [View Full Entry]

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I got back from Belgium yesterday afternoon after a busy Saturday. After my flight from Copenhagen was delayed and I finally got back into Leuven, I sprinted towards the chocolate shop after dropping my bags off at the hotel in Leuven. I slowed down a bit and then stopped when I saw the shingle outside, since I kind of knew that what was about to happen would impact my life pretty profoundly for the next few months, at least, regardless of the outcome. It took Laike (the daughter who co-owned the shop) maybe ten seconds to come out of the kitchen [View Full Entry]

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Since I had a couple of days to kill on my trip out here because it looked like I would take care of everything I needed to on my first full day here (didn't quite happen though) and I've already spent so much time in Leuven over the years, I decided a few days before I flew out that I wanted to go to a city in Europe that I'd never been to before. It made sense to go to Scandinavia, since it gets cold there pretty early on in the fall. My first thought was Stockholm, but I ended up [View Full Entry]

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Finally, an entry from abroad that actually involves some travel. Your dreams have come true kids; it's even better than Christmas morning. I arrived in Belgium this morning, here for a few days to talk to the chocolate shop proprietors to iron out the details of my apprenticeship and to find a place to live. It didn't quite turn out the way I thought it would. The chocolate shop is closed until Saturday. This actually isn't too bad though, since I leave on Sunday. The shitty thing was that I was supposed to meet an estate agent about finding a place [View Full Entry]

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