Belgian Fries, Brugge & The $70 Tank of Gas

Belgium has been nice to us. It's been great being able to relax and enjoy some nice late summer weather and Mai has been an incredible host.

Since we don't speak the language, it's been very frustrating trying to interact with Mai's friends and people around town, so we've taken it upon ourselves to try and experience as much as possible - hands on - in an attempt to overcome the language barrier.

On Thursday night, Mai took us to get a Belgian sandwich and fries called mitraillet, which in French means machine gun, but in Belgium it refers to a special kind of sandwich that served with frites or fries.

Going to the shop was a treat and I'm glad Mai was with us because she helped translate the many choices that we had not only for sandwich fillings but also for sauces for our fries. There must have been about 20 different sauces ranging from Brazilian (spicy) to Ketchup-Curry and Sweet and Sour. Sandwich fillings ranged from lamb to chicken to breaded cutlet to meatballs! Our meal was so delicious and I have absolutely no idea why there aren't any of these shops in the US (I believe there's one in Seattle and one in NYC).

On Friday, we borrowed Mai's car and drove about an hour and a half to the beautiful city of Brugge (Bruges in French). With a population of just over 100,000, Brugge is a filled with old buildings and a canal system that reminded me of Amsterdam (just smaller and prettier). It was interesting seeing the change from French speaking Belgium to Flemish (Dutch) speaking Belgium and how the people in Brugge spoke French, Flemish and English (compared to the French-only speakers in the Walloon region of Belgium. For more information, check out wikipedia's entry on Belgium.

I drove from Mons to Brugge and Gavin drove back and we were both a bit scared in the beginning since Belgian traffic signs are very different from what we are used to. After a quick lesson in Belgian driving (really, what would we do without the internet?) and a stop at the gas station, we were ready to hit the road!

For more pictures, click on my Picasa Web Album link at the bottom of the page.


We totally pigged out on frites and Belgian sandwiches called mitraillet.


Brugge.


53 Euros later, we have a filled gas-tank! (The car is tiny, too!)

Brugge

Sep 14, 2006 - 17 Photos

 

Bonjour from Belgium

For the first time in a long time, I am writing in my blog about events that just happened. In other words, I am caught up (well, with the exception of the entire time when we were between SF and Montreal!).

We got to Belgium on Tuesday and flew into Charleroi which is outside of Brussels and close to the area in which we're staying in: Mons.

Mons is a cute town near the French border that has 4 Universities and about 91,000 people. It has a great small European city that is pretty much untouched by tourists, but close enough to major cities (Brussels is about 40 min and Paris is about 3 hours away). It reminds me of Hilo, where I grew up because of its small town feel and friendly people. It has a great pedestrian square with cafes and restaurants. It's a great place to enjoy a Belgian beer and people watch!

We're staying with Mai, who we met while she was in Hawaii visiting her friend (and my former co-worker), Valy (who we stayed with in DC. Whew!)

Last night, Mai took us to a "bbq" in Mons which was out in the woods, but it ended up being more of a bon fire event with a bunch of boys in their mid-20s who spoke French and no English. (I know what some of you are thinking, and cut it out!) It was great to get out of the city and enjoy some fresh air and see the stars, esp after the crazy times we had in London and Ireland ... It was exactly what we needed and we would never have been able to find this sort of thing if we were playing tourists and staying in a hotel.


Gav & Mai and a great spread of fine cheeses and wine!


Chateau de Havre


The Belgian boys and their fire.

Ireland and a TON of pictures

Ireland is a stunningly beautiful country and we were blessed with four days of perfect weather, so you can only imagine how many pictures I took (being the trigger happy camera wielding boy that I am). I've tried to whittle down the ones that I thought were the best and put them in my Picasa Web Album, by Google.

The pictures are from our stay in Dublin then Cahir Castle, Kellarney & Kerry, Galway & Clonmacnoise.


We're such rebels (with or without causes?)


The freaking Xmas Card

Ireland Slide Show

Sep 14, 2006 - 32 Photos

Luck-O-The Irish

editor's note: written on Thursday, Sep 9

After our crazy time in London, I felt that anything would have been a disappointment but boy was I wrong when we got to Ireland. Sure Dublin seems like another large British city since the architecture and building heights feel quite like London, but that’s where the similarities end. Filled with incredibly friendly people (and HORDES of American tourists), Dublin is a now a major European Capital city that is experiencing incredible growth and a hungry economy that is surging faster than the Guiness can be poured.

In an attempt to Create Value™ (Dublin is one helluva expensive city) we decided to give the Back-Packer’s thing a go. The first time Gavin visited Europe after college, he did what most recent college American college graduates do and got a rail pass and stayed in hostels along the way. I didn’t get a chance to do the whole Europe thing after I graduated, so I figured this would be my first time at it and boy was I in for a shocker. Some say that I’m a coddled and spoiled brat, but I’ve really gotten accustomed to having my own living space and privacy and it was quite a rude awakening when I found out that we had to share a 6 bedroom closet with a middle aged German couple and two young Aussie girls. (I figured it would be all male or female or trans-gendered or something, but that’s not how it works in Ireland! So much for the conservative Catholics!) Let’s just say that after a few beers to calm my nerves and some well needed ear-plugs and a face mask, I was ready to have quite a nice sleep. If you can get over the smell of feet, then staying in a European Hostel is quite the way to Create ValueÔ.

Ryanair and the £1 Fare

For those of you who aren’t In-The-Know, Ryanair is Europe’s leading low-fare carrier. Patterned after Southwest in the US, Ryanair flies an entire fleet of Boeing 737s and are as bare-bones as you can get. For example, their seats don’t recline, the safety cards are printed right on the back of the seat in front of you, there are no seat pouches and they charge you for just about everything (drinks, snackies, checked luggage, and other amenities). If you have a flexible schedule and know how to work the system, Ryanair can be the absolute cheapest way to get around Europe. For example, Gav and I got £1 (equivalent to $1.89USD) airfares from Nottingham East Midlands, England to Dublin and again from Dublin to Brussels. Now that’s seriously hard to beat! Of course, we had to pay the taxes imposed by the British and Irish governments, but you can’t escape that stuff.

Cricket

editor's note: This blog was originally written and meant to be posted on Aug 30.

In addition to Creating Value™ , we've also been on the look out for Cutural Experiences. These could be as simple as trying a new dish (soul food in the south, fish and chips in London) or learning new slang.

While in London, Gav and I got introduced to cricket. I always thought cricket was some obscure game that was played in England and the rest of the commonwealth and that it was boring, and I was right. People are quick to bash baseball, but let me tell you ... cricket is boring stuff.

On a sunny Wednesday afternoon, we were treated to an intra-office match of cricket played by Her Majesty's Treasury. We met up with Ryan (who's Aussie) at his office and went


Ryan & Gav on the way to the cricket match.


Ryan, the batman, striking a bowled ball and successfully defending the wickets (he also scored a few runs).

Loving The Lounge Life

editor's note: This entry was originally written and meant to be posted on Aug 31.

On our last night in London , Ryan took Gavin and I to one of the swankiest cocktail bars that I have ever been to, Lounge Lover. We were joined by his two friends Jesse & David. It was quite the way to celebrate the end of what was a great week and a half in my favorite city. We enjoyed wonderful concoctions and each of us shared stories from our travels around the world. Two Yanks and three Aussies in a foreign land, linked by a common language and all from former colonies of the British Empire.

Party Party Party! That’s our Image!

editor's note: This blog was originally written and meant to be posted on Aug 29.

For those of you who might not know this, Gavin and I love ourselves a big-ass gay dance party and London has one of the best parties in the known world: DTPM. Happening every Sunday at the usually straight and very posh club, Fabric, DTPM combines the best dance music and the absolute hottest guys I have ever seen in one location (and let me tell you, I’ve gone to some great parties in my time!)

On three day weekends, or Bank Holiday Weekends as they are known to the British, DTPM turns into the crème dele crème of parties.

Gav, JL (who was visiting from Seattle/New York) and I met up with a few of our new London BFF’s and danced the night away. Good Times were had by all!

If you’re ever in London for a Bank Holiday weekend, I highly suggest you make DTPM part of your itinerary.

A trip to the British Museum

editor's note: this post was originally written and meant to be posted on August 29

If there has been one thing on our trip that I have enjoyed the most, I have to say that it’s drinking. J Secondly, I love going to museums. In each city that we make a stop in, we try to do something educational and visit an art gallery or do something cultural. (Gavin says that we pick the gems of each location, which I’d have to agree with.) We visited the Getty in Los Angeles, the Field Museum in Chicago, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Smithsonian in Washington DC and in London we had to check out the British Museum and National Gallery. The United States has some of the world’s premier museums, but there’s something to be said about a collection that dates back hundreds of years. I mean, you can’t even think of acquiring some of the antiquities that the British have in their collection. I’m not condoning how many of these items had come to rest in their hands, but I am happy that I can see them … for free. Talk about massively Creating Value™.

The most stunning thing about both the British Museum and the National Gallery is that they have entire collections of artifacts or paintings from a classic artist or time period. When most museums would be happy to have ONE mummy, the British Museum has about a dozen. When some galleries would be glad to possess a painting Well the British Museum has about a dozen. No joke!

Probably the most popular of all items in the collection would be the Rosetta Stone. If you’re not familiar with this very important artifact, it allowed linguists to translate ancient Egyptian writing into English (or French or some other modern language). For more detailed info, I suggest you look it up.

British Museum

Aug 29, 2006 - 9 Photos

A Boy Named Ryan Robertson

It was a year ago when I got the call from Seattle that a dear friend has passed. How could someone who meant so much to me and also someone who I really looked up to suddenly be gone at such a young age? Now I stand here one year later and I am still filled with the same questions and feelings which still linger. I miss you now just as much as I ever did and wonder how you were always able to cast your spell on me and leave me just as (if not more) bewildered than I ever have been before.