Tuesday

In Brussels

It’s funny—my trip to Brussels today has reminded me of my first trip to Brussels.

On my first trip to Brussels, I flew in from Newark and made my way to the train station in the basement, where I bought a ticket to Rotterdam Centraal. I was charged some astronomical number that caused me to nearly have a heart attack—this was before the Euro was a physical currency—it was merely a theoretical currency. Fortunately they listed the fare in Euros—roughly 21€--something I did know about and something that relaxed me.

Manneken Pis CokeThe first thing I remembered about the airport was a walk through a long tunnel from the airplane to immigration; this time I was in a light and airy concourse with slightly odd advertisements for Coke until I had to go through a perplexing maze of escalators and tunnels to get to baggage claim.

Last time I was in Brussels I knew very little about the city; and, quite frankly, I am ashamed to admit that I still do not know a lot about the city. This trip is dominated by meetings—starting tomorrow morning at 11—so I won’t be looking around the city too much. I will make it through the Grand Place and wander by the Manneken Pis—the enduring symbol of Belgium and, I think inappropriately, object used to promote drinking Coke.

After getting lost trying to find my hotel (I took what should have been a 10-15 minute walk and turned it into an hour long excursion to nowhere), I grabbed a quick shower and then headed out for dinner. My hotel is essentially in the middle of the gay district and in my brief walk I saw a dozen gay bars, book shops, and leather shops before finding Fanny Thai, my stop for dinner. I picked the restaurant because of the three Thai restaurants in a row, it was the only one that was busy. My selection criteria worked. The four course set menu I chose was awesome and filled with incredible flavors. Like after my trip to Armenia, I am wondering why I tend to settle for bland German cuisine so often. There really is very little exciting about bratwurst in comparison to the ginger, basil and other flavors I couldn’t identify at dinner.

It’s 9:30 and I am already back at my hotel for the evening. It’s been a long day and I feel like crashing already.


2 comments:

ReveryWings said...

I'm a geography lover so this page looks fascinating. I'm going to have to come back next time I visit my highspeed connection friend. Enjoyed your narrative about Brussels but want to see more with the Tube.

Jill said...

That sure is way better looking than OUR coke machines though.

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