Wow, this is officially my last entry for this trip. Today I leave for Brussels to catch the Eurostar train to London, and then go to the airport and crash for the night until I leave tomorrow morning. I've had fun the past few days. Met up with a girl and the day before yesterday we actually rented bikes and went to this tiny town outside of Bruges called Damme. We also went to the chocolate museum (overrated, but the samples were good). After that we took one of the cheesy cruises down the canals. Funny how every town with more [View Full Entry]

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Hello all....it's a beautiful day in Brugge, and why am I in an internet cafe, you ask? Pretty much because I've been hit hard by the Belgian beer : ) and there's too many tourists wandering about during the day for me to cope with at the moment. This place is much easier to get around at night when there's less people, and all the buildings and canals are lit by the sunset. I got here yesterday afternoon, and it's still pretty warm by Edmonton standards. Before that, Amsterdam was way, way worse, though. Thirty-two degrees during the day kind of [View Full Entry]

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Once again the menu above does not give enough choices...most frustrating. The Passchendale Museum and Tyne Cot Cemetery are incredible. A lovely home, rebuilt post WWI in the 12th C style of its origin, was turned over to the government to be made into a museum and it is lovely. The organization of the rooms allows for easy flow of people and a sequential understanding of events in the Ieper (Ypres) area from 1914 to 1918. Historical and anecdotal books are available for sale, too, which is nice for us history buffs. Today a couple of classes of schoolchildren went through, [View Full Entry]

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I went to Belgium last year looking to see what Hercule Poirot was all about. I don't know what exactly I was expecting. Maybe a country filled with men still wearing suits and drinking tissane. Antwerp was part of a day trip on a big tour and it was my favorite city in Belgium. I found the architecture stimulating and the people to be friendly. The Main Plaza was a great place to hang out especially with the Cathedral of Our Lady right there. I should go back some day and investigate the artwork more. [View Full Entry]

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Brussels has to be one of the most underrated cities in Europe, really. By this time I have travelled to most of the heavily hyped cities, and seen what people will tell you is beautiful and so on, but Brussels has just as much to share as any of those places. I arrived around 1700 on the Thursday, dropped my things off at the hostel, and went for a walk around to see the city at dusk. I walked through the Parc de Bruxelles to the Royal Palace, admired it for a moment, and then over to the steps at Mont [View Full Entry]

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I AM OFF!!! This is it, the big day has finally arrived. I am leaving for the Far East, I am heading into numerous adventures and extraordinary experiences. I have just left my mother on the platform of the train in Brussels and anxiously await to see what the world has to throw at me. The first thing it does, to test me of course, is to stick me in a carriage full of giggly teenage americans from Texas, doing Europe in 10 days. Their main topic of conversion has so far been the cute european men and the the really [View Full Entry]

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Hey guys - Well its been a pretty eventful week(and a bit). Brussels was pretty cool - caught the Eurostar over (which meant leaving here anout 5am). So many old buildings and you can buy beer ANYWHERE - i.e. you can get a brew with your Happy Meal at McDonalds - crazy. Went to U2 on the friday night - was really cool - huge crowd and awesome atmosphere. We were about 20m away from the stage so were a bit tight on space but good times anyway. They didnt play a whole lot of their classics that I was looking [View Full Entry]

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So I tried on a 31,000 Franc watch the other day. Yeah, that's roughly $25,000. I tried on a couple that were 16,000 and 17,000...but 31,000 felt much better. Yeah, 31,000 is much more my style. Haha...when I was in Geneva I went to Patik Phillipe (a very, very, very swanky watch joint) and tried on a couple $25,000 watches...I was thinking of picking up a couple :) I actually made up this whole story, acting like I was seriously going to buy one. It was fun. When the lady asked what watch I was wearing, I responded meekly, "Fossil". That [View Full Entry]

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I've officially slept on my first airport floor! It was terrible. Catching a 6 am flight out of Dublin may be economical and timed well for a daytrip to the land of chocolate, but having to curl up on the dustladen floor beneath the escalators was too economical for me. Apparently a good tip for airport naps is the arrivals area - they cush it up for those who are waiting for others. First brush with braying footie fans - a pack of prematurely acromegalic losers armed with warm six packs. Recall that this is 5am in the morning. I watched, [View Full Entry]

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We arrived yesterday in Brussels and it has become, thus far, my favorite city. It is small and accessible with patisseries around every corner. I had the biggest and best eclair of my life yesterday afternoon. Words cannot describe. Andy and I were very excited to come here because they have three of our favorite beers: Stella Artois, Carlsberg and Tuborg....only the first is Belgian....oh well. The center of the city is littered with chocolate shops, lace shops and diamond retailers. Apparently while you are in Belgium you are supposed to purchase lace in Brussels and diamonds in Ant [View Full Entry]

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