Blogs from Belgium, Europe - page 172

Belgium! Quite a shock to the system after Barcelona, the people speak English, they don’t try to run you over as you attempt to use the crosswalk, and instead of leers and whistles from 70 year-old men with canes you hear “Bojour” or “Hallo”. So refreshing. Friday as previously stated was rainy and miserable and Britt and I were exhausted so we stayed in Ghent and nothing too exciting happened. I met our wonderful hosts Emily from Kenya and Wim the Belgian and baby Bran. Saturday was better weather and the trains in Belgium are buy one-way get return free on weekends so we though we’d better take full advantage of that and get to Brugge, a lovely town but I thought it had a very touristy feel. I kept thinking of how good a job ... read more

I knew it would be a bummer have to work on the 4th of July and miss all the regular Independence Day fun, so to make up for it, I took my 4th of July holiday on Friday and headed out to a 4-day music festival near the Belgian city of Werchter on Thursday afternoon with a bunch of Shell buddies. Not much for fireworks (except for Rammstein, of course), but what could be more American than rock n' roll? Yeah, ok, so apple pie and baseball come to mind, but cut me some slack here k? We invented rock, so let's go with that... Here's the stats: 4 days, 60 bands, 280,000+ people, a proud festival tradition going back to 1974, and more junk food, beer, porta-potties, and debauchery than you would ever want to ... read more

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, ate lunch on the lovely grounds, played on the playground, and filled the air with the laughter of freedom, an appropriate sound in those surroundings. Tyne Cot is the largest British cemetery in the world. ... read more

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 fun way us europeans drive our cars. They have brought with them oversized bags, filled with gossip magazines and souvenirs from London. The american male companions of the giggly bunch make regular appearances at our ... read more

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, disoriented and exhausted. They cartoonishly inhaled beer after beer, interrupting only to cackle madly at each others' sodden remarks and to shove beers in the hands of nondrinkers. The whole plane stank with their sweat. ... read more