Belgium

The best thing about Europe is that other amazing countries are so accessible from wherever you are! During my trip to England in Summer 2006, I hopped the Chunnel train to spend the weekend (July 15-July 17) with Ana-Maria and Yves. For those keeping score, Ana-Maria used to live at my mom's place, and we attended her wedding in Peru in 2005. I observed in glee as the monolingual English erupted into Dutch, French, and German (there are three official languages in Belgium) and found my way to Antwerp amid train transfers with ease in French. We spent Saturday in the picturesque and romantic Bruges, hopping over to Ghent for dinner and raspberry beer. Sunday was spent in Antwerp, and on Monday I spent the day in Brussels. Although my careful itinerary fell apart when I discovered that practically everything in Brussels is closed on Monday, I did see the "Mannequin Piss" and a beer and chocolate museum! The photos from that weekend can be found here, or in the full trip set if you'd like to see them in order.

London

Public service announcement: if you have one day to spend in Brussels, don't make it Monday because pretty much all the major attractions are closed. Deb was sad. Also...plane letter people, I swear I'll write postcards, I even bought the stamps, but I'm too darn tired. So you'll probably get them all after I get home (because I don't have any more time alone until Wed morning).

If you're wondering, here's the schedule:

Wed July 12 - Gants Hill (London)
Thurs July 13 - Guilford (Surrey)
Fri July 14 - Golders Green (London)
Sat July 15 - Bruges/Ghent (Belgium)
Sun July 16 - Antwrepen (Belgium)
Mon July 17 - Brussels (Belgium)
Tues July 18 - Cambridge (UK)
Wed July 19 - Southampton/Winchester (UK)
Thurs July 20 - Bath? (it'll happen on one or both of these days
Fri July 21 - Bath?
Sat July 22 - Gants Hill (London; uncle's party)
Sun July 23 - somewhere out in the country (with other uncle)
Mon July 24 - Golders Green (London)
Tues July 25 - London (ya this is the one day to actually do stuff there)
Wed July 26 - fly out


So back in London now...keyboard has returned to normal (except that the @ sign is in a really weird place). And before I spiral myself into bed...

HOLAOYOAOWS!!!! CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE WAFFLES CHOCOLATE BIG STATUES OF CHOCOLATE GIMME SOME MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE STATUES AS BIG AS ME ALMOST. IT COMES IN TONS. TONS OF CHOCOLATE. WAFFLEY WAFFLES....MMMM....BEER...WHITE CHERRY RASPBERRY MORE MORE MORE MORE!!! THE CHOCOLATE REALLY IS THAT GOOD....THERE WAS A MUSEUM!

Ahem. The average Belgian eats between 9-9.5 kg/year. I'd be obese because I just can't resist..but I'd be so happy. Again, Belgian chocolate IS THAT GOOD. Without it we'd live in a horrible world. Goodnight.

Belgium

Hi Everyone,

First of all, here in Belgium, the As are Qs on the keyboard and the Ws are Zs. So Im not going to bother to chqnge them. Just zqnted to drop a line qnd sqy hi - Im hqving q lovely but hectic time becquse it is qnother city every dqy pretty much. Things qre moving reqlly fqst, qnd I dont hqve the energy to tqke reqlly fqbulous photos especiqlly knozing thqt my mom qlreqdy took qll the same ones a month qgo. I zill do zhqt i cqn though. I do hqve internet qccess here qnd in London, so drop me comment to sqy hi. Hope you are all doing well. Here qre q couple of photos from todqy - the first is me in front of the trqin stqtion in London qbout to embqrk for Brussels; the second is q photo tqken in Bruges; hqd to get up qt 430 am to mqke the trqin so if I look tired thqt is zhy But I am keeping q dqy to dqy diqry so I zill hqve lots to post zhen i get bqck: