After my week off in Rome I returned to Florence for two days before going to Belgium for five days for a little "vacation" before starting work the following week. Unfortunately this didn't leave me with much time to find an apartment in Florence. I'm not sure why I always make things hard on myself by not allowing enough time for this or that, but that's just how I operate and I feel that most things will come together in the end anyway, so I'll do what I can now and enjoy myself. That being said, I have four friends waiting for me in Belgium, so off I go...
After a short flight that cost me all of 28 euros I arrived in Belgium and was greeted by two smiling faces, Ellen and Laura. If you read my last blog you'll know that I met them in Valencia, Spain. We've kept in touch since then and they actually came to visit me in San Jose last year along with their boyfriends, Kristof and Lander. We had a great time together and I showed them around the Bay Area, so now it was their turn to show me around their country, which is not much bigger than the Bay Area itself.
From the airport we went to Lander's house where he and his parents greeted me with a glass of champagne, followed by a wonderful multi-course dinner that they had prepared. They were very welcoming and I enjoyed getting to know them. His mom only speaks Flemish so unfortunately I couldn't talk with her very easily, but his dad speaks fluent English and we had some good conversations. Everyone I meet in Europe seems to think our new president is the best thing to come along in a while and they assume that all Americans feel the same way, so I always have to spend a little time explaining my "alternate" point of view. The day I arrived in Belgium the new health care plan was announced and everybody I met wanted to know if I was happy about it because they thought it was great for America, but I just told them I needed to start saving my money now before it gets here and...anyway, Europeans are great, and God bless America!
The next morning Lander made breakfast consisting of the skinniest omlettes I've ever seen (they were good) and then he introduced me to Speculoos, a cookie that's something like gingerbread but not as spicy, and Speculoos spread which is like the cookies made into a paste. They put the spread on toast and other things and just eat the cookies as they are. I on the other hand decided that the two things should be eaten together and quickly made a cookie sandwich with the spread in the middle. This turned out to be an epiphany, as somehow not a single Belgian I met in five days of traveling had ever thought to do such a thing. I think it was delicious and I made everyone I met try it and they all seemed to agree, after getting over the slight shock of my proposal. I think it demonstrates (on a very small scale of course) a slight cultural difference between Americans and Europeans. They are content to say "yes that's nice" and enjoy whatever it is they have, while we would say "yes that's nice, but how can I make it bigger and better?" and then make something else. Sometimes it's better to leave well enough alone, but in this case I think I only did what needed to be done. I can't forget the response I got from Laura's brother when I told him about my "Specu-which", he just looked at me dumbfounded and said "together?", but he liked it too. Ok leave it to me to write a travel blog and do an entire paragraph about a cookie, I'll move on now.
Laura and Lander took me into the center of Brussels for my first taste of a Belgian city. I liked the style of the buildings and it had a cozy feel to it for a big city. Interestingly one of the most famous landmarks is fountain called Meanekke-pis (pronounced monica piss). It's a big deal to all the foreigners to see it but the Belgians think it's funny that it's so famous, especially since the statur is not even a foot and a half tall.
There was also a little girl version of this genious concept, but I'll spare you that one.
I couldn't help but think of how Belgium in a way feels like the U.S., in the sense that they live in mostly detached single family homes and drive moderate sized cars on large highways. The homes themselves are quite like ours on the inside too, although almost all of them are built of bricks. Actually, most buildings everywhere in Belgium are made of bricks, I've never seen so many. I like how it looks, though it makes me wonder if a Belgian wrote the story about the three little pigs? As many bricks as there are, if I had to sum up Belgium in four words they would be beer, chocolate, waffles and friets. In Brussels we visited the Delirrum Cafe, the place which offers the most types of beer available for purchase in any one place in the world, 2004 different beers to be exact. Unfortunately I wasn't really in the mood for a beer at the time, so I ordered off the first page I turned to in the giant book of beers, which happened to be "Cookie Beer", flavored with, you guessed it, Speculoos! Lets just say it makes a better cookie than a beer. There are however many very good Belgian beers to be had, my favorite being Duvel, with twice the alcohol content as a Bud, it definitely can be the devil.
Another special type of beer is called Trappist that is made by monks in monasteries. There are several "brands" and to get the best ones you have to drive to the monastery and buy directly from the monks, one case per car only. Laura's dad gave me a bottle and it was really good. I'm not a big beer drinker but these people know how to make beer. And chocolate.
The choclatiers on what seems like every corner are fantastic. I couldn't hardly pass one without buying something, the chocolate really is amazing. Of course I couldn't visit Belgium without eating a waffle, the most famous ones being the Brussels waffles. However they're not for breakfast. We'll I guess you could eat them for breakfast but they're way too sweet for me first thing in the morning. Mid-afternoon is ok though. But what I liked even more were the friets, never "French" fries of course. The best ones are fried twice, making them just a little bit crispier and even more tasty. But they don't stop there, instead of ketchup on the side they dip them in mayonnaise for just a little more fat. I tried it and must say it’s not bad, but I’ll stick with processed tomatos on my friets.
After spending the day in Brussels the next day we got in the car and drove north into the countryside where Ellen’s family lives. They have a farm and her dad raises dairy cattle and pigs, lots of pigs. Ellen showed us the stables and we drank milk straight from the large holding tank where it’s pumped directly from the cow and chilled nice and cold just how I like it. After spending some time on the farm we headed back to the city, this time Antwerp. The city is similar to Brussels, except the big business there is diamonds. I had the best friets there too (see photo above).
That evening we drove all the way to the northern coast of Belgium, maybe less than two hours drive from the middle of the country. Laura’s parent’s have a “beach house” there where we stayed the next couple of nights all together. Technically the sand was not a beach but a dune that was close to the North Sea. The house was small but had plenty of room for all five of us and we had a good time there. Lander’s friend Anthony joined us at the house and cooked dinner for all of us one night. He showed up with the white chef's jacket and everything, then he made a fantastic meal consisting of white asparagus with either smoked salmon or ham, and topped with a very rich tasting hollandaise sauce that he made from scratch, it was very good and the presentation was nice as well.
We visited a large outdoor market one morning that had all kinds of good things to eat, fruits and vegetables, but instead I bought some warm fresh baked macaroons that were really good and I don't even like coconut. The chicken truck was impressive too, and a pretty good deal (read the sign).
That afternoon we went to a place called Flanders Field, which was a World War I battlefield. We visited a museum there and then went to a place where they had kept in tact some battle trenches and tunnels that we were able to walk through. It was neat to see, but I can't even imagine what it must have been like to fight a war there. Thanks to those men who did so I wouldn't have too.
After a couple nights at the beach house we drove a short distance to Brugge. This is one of the more popular toursit destinations in Belgium. It's a beautiful city and there is a canal system similar to Venice where the buildings are built right into the water. We took a boat ride (motor boat, no gondolas there) and got a nice view of the city. According to the boat driver this is the most photographed dog in all of Brugge.
Even with all the canals, a bike is still the best way to get around I think.
On my last day in the country I got to meet Kristof's mom, but unfortunately his dad was at work so I didn't meet him. I should say he was at his other job. They run a used car business from their home, buying and selling cars, usually to people in Holland. I have never seen used cars look so nice in my life. They were all so perfectly cleaned and detailed it was impressive. If I ever need a tiny euro econo-box I know where I'm going.
My last night was spent at Lander's house again and his paraents perpared another nice meal for us, this time consisting of steamed mussels and friets, a typical Belgian meal. I usually don't care much for mussels but these were really good and I ate a bucket-full of them. I really have to say thanks to my friends and their families for showing me their country and opening their homes to me. Everyone made me feel so welcome and they all took great care of me and showed me a great time. I'm glad I got to spend time with all of them and I'm looking forward to the next time already. Now that we're practically neighbors I'm sure I'll see them again soon.
Enduring the rain to see the big ATOM.
That's how a butcher shop should look.
I'm seriously, they're crazy about friets!
Just a small beer isle in a supermarket....
...with big beer.
SCHOL!!
1 comment:
Joe , I'm happy to see you are doing well. It looks as though you made an accurate assessment of Belgium. Beer, fried potatoes.... America may be very similar to Belgium in several ways. Thanks for blogging. I like to see Europe in it's real state and not filtered through the news media distorted lens.
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