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A lot has been going on! The move to Brighton is in full swing - haven't actually shifted yet, but more on that later.
We went to The Best Rock Festival in Europe (TM), Rock Werchter! Twas awesome - acts included Muse, Green Day, Pearl Jam, Pink (somewhat incongruously) and a raft of others, including your favourite theatre metallers, Rammstein. There were flames coming out of his, erm, rocket.
One of the more intrusive elements was the heat - 41C at one point! The pink varnish on my toenails was melting; we reached the Terminal Festival Ickiness stage within hours of arriving.
Green Day were huge - their set included letting a couple of moshpit members get on-stage and sing; one of them was rewarded with a guitar! Very cool. The whole shebang is super-impressive - around 100,000 people have a good time. The beer flows, the food is greasy and the portaloos didn't smell too bad. Our crew of 12 peeps was a lot of fun, although pitching tents next to the bar was not so good. Who'da thunkit?
Cunningly, we had booked a hotel in Brussels for the night following the festival.
Brussels gets a lot of crap -
boring, Eurocratty, grey, etc. Many people happily place it just above Scunthorpe in the 'cool city' pantheon.
Don't believe a word of it.
Whether it was just that anywhere with a shower would have been excellent, who knows. We wandered in and were immediately drawn to the continental European feel of it all - slightly jaded buildings in their haughty architecture, patisseries, tree-lined avenues, etc. We went to the main plaza, where the 18th century plonked all its baroque buidlings - they were showing the Tour de France on a big screen, and people were watching it from beer-laden tables. Knowing a good wicket when we see it, we followed suit.
Aah, the beer. It's been elevated to an art form over there, and it shows. The stuff has a lightness and vibrancy that is missing from Old Blighty's brewing efforts; more importantly, having one before midday is not a sign that you don't wash regularly, as we established the next morning.
An early dinner followed, and on the walk back to the hotel we couldn't resist a drink at one of the many bistros that dot the Bourse area. It was positively spilling over with Europeaniness - 20 and
30-somethings enjoying the balmy weather and the atmosphere. We could have stayed for hours, but we were exhausted - sleep is in short supply at camping festivals.
Finally, can I get a woot-woot for the Eurostar - if only all travel could be that easy... We turned up 20 minutes before departure, walked through customs and boarded a train from Brussels to London. As opposed to arriving 2 hours early at a crowded airport full of stressed people...
We had 24 hours in Brussels, and we used them well - we'd definitely go back for a second bite.
Which brings us back to the UK - we are currently battling to get not one, not two, not three but six (6) references to get into a flat. It's been quite a derring-do, and on top of that an attempt to hire a car was stifled when I failed to produce an additional two pieces of evidence on top of my passport and my driver's license. The bureacracy on these Isles can surely be maddening...
Mon is very busy at work, and I have packed our stuff up in anticipation of our long-awaited move. We're excited about being in one place
for a long time!
Excuse the slighly longer-than-usual blog. Hope you liked it anyway.
ps Lurkin in the Gherkin is what Flemish sounds like to the uninitiated...
love to all
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Jan
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Your 24h in Brussels
As a Belgian, I enjoyed reading your piece on Brussels. Brussels is great fun and one of my fav cities. Hope you will have another opportunity to get there - take a couple of days. J.