I'm a Tourist: Bruges pt. 2

"If I had grown up on a farm... and was retarded, Bruges might impress me," -Collin Farrel in In Bruges.  While in Bruges one walks and looks at pretty things.  I mentioned yesterday Bruges kinda skipped the Industrial Revolution, and maintained its medieval appeal.  I'm pretty sure the short of it is that Antwerp (over Bruges) became the economic capital in Belgium in the 15th century.  Thus, no one built factories or any industry at all in Bruges.  In fact, until 2002 the goal of the planning department was to maintin the "historic aesthetic."  A portion of the people living in Bruges put up signs declaring they wanted more contemporary work.  I'm pretty sure I found every piece.  All four of them.  I found them because I really just wandered aimlessly for about five hours.  I also mentioned that I went to the Chocolate Museum and the Frites Museum.  

The two museums were not worth the entrance fee.  They were relatively small and didn't spend much space on the Belgian aspect of the products but on the overall history.  I would have been much better off just roaming around a bit more and finding chocolate.  Because I wasted a good ten Euro on those two museums I skipped out on one of the obligatory tourism events:  Climbing to the top of the tower at the central market.  It would cost me five Euro to walk up stairs and look at the city from above... but the cost and the incredible line made me avoid it all together.  Basically, I picked a direction and walked till I hit a canal.  Then I spun in circles a bit and picked another new direction and walked till I hit a canal.  I followed a few canals until I hit a waffle.  Then I picked a direction and walked till I hit the hot chocolate place.  I imagine you can see the trip in your head from where you sit.  Eventually I started picking tall buildings and aiming for them.  All in all I think I roamed down a bunch of the secondary streets, which were still just as pretty as the main ones.  

During all this I went through a range of emotions.  The beginning of my trip was, "yay, I can take pictures of all these pretty places."  By the end I so saturated with pretty that I craved angry looking things.  Every moment of contrast became wonderful.  I had a great time looking for those products of contemporary life stuck within a time warp.  The bridge and covered space aren't not really within the main city, they were nice but independent of the city.  I really enjoyed the Toyo Ito pavilion with the honeycomb structure.  I also liked the private moments where Belgians actually made sure to put up something new.  

I realized I didn't have too much to say about my roamings so I tried to keep it short.  I'm going to Antwerp with a few people from the office this weekend so I may have some social action shots for next week.  Also, I didn't get to take advantage of Belgium's early movie schedule.  We got Watchmen two days early, but I just couldn't make it out early enough to catch the movie.  Oh well, Let me know how it is... I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to go.

I'm a Tourist: Bruges pt. 1

I've given you the introduction:  Train ride outta the city on the IC.  I gave you some teaser photos that gave a general overview of what I did.  I've got two posts worth:  Sweets and Walking.  I was recently told I've generated a sweet tooth since arriving here.  I have always enjoyed sweets, but never in as much abundance as Belgium.  I've actually realized that its almost an economic decision:  Waffles and Chocolate is super cheap to try.  Belgium has one of the largest populations of Michelin Starred Restaurants... which I'd love to try, if they weren't over 100 Euro per shot.  Heck, if I don't eat or make any purchases at all next week, maybe I'll go to a Two Star so I don't go too far over my weekly budget.  But I've digressed, halfway through writing this post I was able to edit a sentence in the introduction, "there isn't that much to write" was changed to:  There will be TWO posts.

Bruges is a bit strange in that the train lets you off way outside the main quarters, I imagine this is because the city famously "missed out" on the industrial revolution.   I had absolutely no idea which way to go post arrival so I just followed the crowd.  Yes, there was a crowd of people getting off the train on a Sunday morning at 9am to see Bruges.  Yes this is a good indication that Bruges is pretty popular with the foreigners.  It took about fifteen minutes to make it towards the center, though I could have taken a bus there in about five... for a price.  That price being 1.20 euro, which I didn't want to spend on a three-quarter mile walk to the Central Market.  

The main attraction to Bruges is both in its lack of Industrialization as well as its title of "the Venice of Belgium".  Which is an overly specific way of saying, "there are canals here."  Most of the time the canals are on the outer edge of the main town, but they do break in every now and then.  One could almost consider the canals being polite as to not bother the rest of the infrastructure.  There are boat tours, but I'm pretty sure that is the only function on the canal.  There seemed to be no private access at all save for a back yard fronting the canal itself.  I didn't see any cafes with patios facing the canal.  My photos may have represented them in a better light had it been summer, but I also believe there are well over one billion photos of the canals online.  People also enjoy the city as a relic of older times, everyone except the people living there.  I can imagine it is like trying to live a normal life as a resident of an apartment above the Marrakesh portion of Epcot Center in Disney World. Also, you work in Finance and on your way to the office you have to stop into the Future World for your cup of coffee and Newspaper.

I read up on Bruges in a very cursory way and decided I wanted to do two specific things and two generic things and leave the rest of the day to chance.  I wanted to go to the Belgian Chocolate museum and Belgian Frites museum.  I also wanted to consume some Belgian chocolate and look at some lace (this is not a euphemism, they are well known for lace).  Chocolate and lace are supposed to be very popular and high quality in Bruges in general.  The common problem seems to be the tourist trap versions.  I didn't really know how to avoid the tourist traps so I went into a self proclaimed tourist trap, "the most popular hot chocolate in Bruges," for my chocolate fix.  I produced a photo yesterday of the completed cup of hot chocolate, so today I wanted to give the origin.  For 3.50 Euro I got a hot chocolate a tray of Belgian chocolates and a dish of whipped cream.  The hot chocolate is really just a mug of steamed milk and a dish of melted chocolate.  You are meant to dump and stir.  There was sugar on the saucer... for those who don't find chocolate sweet enough.  The whole process was interesting, but seems like a disappointing waste of dish chocolate.  If you look closely enough at the completed image, you can see my attempts at removing the last morsels of chocolate from the dish without licking the dish directly.

I have to be honest and review the hot chocolate in regards to similar versions I've had in the past.  #1: City Bakery hot chocolate-  I think the belgian was a little better, I had a very strong flavor of the chocolate but the City Bakery hot chocolate looks better while drinking.  One reason I imagine the Bruges shop serves this way is to make it look delicious to start.  Once you pour and stir the melted chocolate it isn't the most attractive mug.  There are bits swimming about and such.  #2:  Starbucks Chantico-  believe it or not three or four years ago Starbucks served Chantico, a very heavy drinking chocolate.  I used to imagine the espresso sized portion as a warm liquid brownie, but I'd give the Belgian drink the tip again because of its texture.  I'm not sure they used whole milk alone as it tasted a little thin.  But I actually enjoyed the viscosity of the drink in contrast to the strong chocolate flavor.  I think with the Chantico you get overwhelmed with the density of the drink itself before you can appreciate the flavor.  Also the Chantico was too sweet... but oh well.

Enough on chocolate, BRING ON THE WAFFLES!  I only ate one, don't worry.  I don't have much to say about the waffle except the vendor was kind enough to mention the waffles are different here.  I mentioned that I did not want my waffle dipped in chocolate and he replied, "well, you know they come with powdered sugar on them."  This is already a sweet pastry with sugar syrup heated onto of it... now covered in powdered sugar.  I'm not sure how they do things in Flanders, but I like my waffles here in Brussels thank you very much.  He also served it with a fork.  I won't go much further, I don't want to get too frustrated with this new waffle experience.  But I did want to share this photo I took of a waffle store.  I'm also curious why there is a Chocolate and Frites museum but no waffle museum.  We actually call them Belgian Waffles.  Maybe someone else invented waffles and they're frustrated with France for stealing Frites so they don't want to steal the thunder from someone for waffles.  New rumour:  Belgian Waffles are actually from Luxembourg, you heard it here first.

In Bruges: A Prelude

I want a good hour to write about my trip to Bruges.  I also don't want to try to link all the photos so today I'm going to upload a teaser of photographs and soon I'll upload the whole album for you to peruse.  You may also have questions about things that I didn't originally notice that I can address when I make the full write up.  I promise the write up will come this week, I would do it tonight but we have work early tomorrow (think normal people mornings).

I'll leave it up to you to decide whats important in there.  That's a pretty typical Scott walking tour of a city.  I was thinking about doing a blog or two on previous trips to give some background on my inspiration for taking this trip.

Oh, last but not least... I'm gonna go to Antwerp this weekend so my Tourist days are continuing at a pretty steady pace.  I only hope I never leave my tourist status behind... if only they still sold fanny packs here in Europe.

Pommes Frites Part 2: Belgium

I'd like to clarify from yesterday.  JustFoster mentioned that IC was InTerCity which makes the inner city joke a lot less funny.  But he also suggested they are like "interstate highways" and run all over Europe.  This is true and not true.  They do run all over Europe, but within the individual countries.  Most countries have their own IC that connects their major and minor cities to each other.  There is usually a separate line that leaves the country, though in the case of Belgium we are connected to Luxembourg and Holland (what is called Benelux, I learned that from JustFoster too).

On to the Frites.  I've got two trips to write about, the first is a local and the second was in Bruges.  I found out one of the more popular and classic Frites Stands in Brussels wasn't too far, within walking distance actually.  It was down near the EU quarters to take advantage of all the lunch based folk.  The weather was nice and I was in the mood to try communicating with people who didn't speak any English.  The place to do that is Maison Antoine.  They've got frites and a TON of snacks and sandwiches.  Frites run around 2.00 euro for a bag and sauces range from .40 to .60

 euros.  I was told to try the house tartar sauce, which was very nice.  I read that one way to tell a good frites stand is if they ask you if you want salt.  What would have helped is if they told me what that sentence was in French... so I don't know if they asked me about salt.  I know they weren't salty and found some salt packets in my bag, so I'll guess it was up to me.  To be honest, the pommes frites needed no salt and the tartar had just enough acid to cut through the heaviness of the potato.

It is a little unfair to call them heavy, but the tartar sauce did levy something so I'll stick with the gut reaction of heavy.  Antoine's frites (as are most belgian frites) were double fried to give a fluffy interior and a crisp shell exterior.  They're also relatively thick cut, at the Frites Museum in Bruges they actually had a measurement scale to determine the frite classification.  Someone in the late 80's liked Bucky Fuller so much they used the magical hexagon shape to make a frite.  Apparently they absorbed significantly less oil but no one cared for them.  I'm gonna go for a little shocker here for a second, bear (does anyone know if its bear or bare) with me.  Think about Belgian Frites like the best and most fresh McDonalds fries you've ever gotten.  These are probably the ones you remember from when you were a kid and they just aren't as good anymore.  They had a crispy tasty shell with a potato powder snow interior.  I actually haven't received frites that were too hot either, which I credit to the toss method.  Post oil bath, the frites glide through the air out of a bowl for no other reason than to rid the excess oil and cool them a bit.  They're served in a paper cone with a funny fork for stabbing.  

The second frites I got at the Frites Museum in Bruges, and they were good too but they salted them a little too much.  I got just plain mayo, and I was proven wrong about the no ketchup thing when it was the #3 sauce on the menu.  The saying must go to snobby Belgian Americans who need to show off their Belgian-ness... or Americans who just love mayo and want a reason to eat it (--> this guy).  I never knew that potatoes thrived in Ireland because they were the only crop not torched (cause they're underground duh) during tax raids in the 16th and 17th centuries. 

Oh well, like my continuing dedication to Beer and Waffles, I will boldly eat as many frites as I can find.  Also Mayonnaise, I like mayonnaise.  There wasn't anyone around to take a picture of me in there.  I actually wish I was lying, I'd love to be the Frite ready to commit cannibalism next to his out of scale children.  Also, why does the wife frite have a flower pinned to her head? hair?

Defeat at the hands of an Alarm Clock.

I went to Bruges.  I slept through my alarm clock on Saturday and deemed the trip not worth the money if i was going to be there so late.  I have time, oh yes.  Instead I decided I'd take a trip to one of two locations: at trial trip.  I would go to Bruges or Antwerp, and I flipped a very special coin to find out where I'd go.  The toss ended up pointing towards a sleepy tourist town:Bruges.  Yes there was a Colin Farrel movie about Bruges in the past year, and no I haven't seen it yet.  

This was a good trip for me because it helped me understand how easy the trains and 

tickets and such are.  I've got two or three good easy local trips that I can do for a single day.  I woke up nice and early, walked down to the train station and bought a ticket.  There are two major trains out of Belgium that I understand:  IC and Thalys.  IC is 'innercity' which is a strange phrase for Americans but it goes to most of the cities in Belgium and a bunch in Holland from what I can tell.  Thalys is the high-speed;  I may use this for a trip to Paris.  One fun fact on Belgian train travel... weekend trips are super cheap.  My round trip was 11.40 euros and took about one hour each way.  I was really happy with the day because the weather was so nice, it ended up around 50 degrees the majority of the time.  And SUNNY!  

I had a relatively short walk into the center of town around 9:30 and saw the main square relatively empty.  That was the last time during the day I was without tourists.  Bruges is a really tiny place, I don't have anything to scale against it.  Take my word though, I was able to walk around the entire city in half an hour.  It is also one of the most popular tourism city's in all of Belgium.  By mid afternoon the place was packed, mostly Brits.

This was a nice contrast from the usual French, but I have actually just started getting used to French signs.  Bruges is in Flanders though... which is dutch instead of french so I've gotta figure out dutch signs now.  Though, at the same time... everyone speaks English because of how important tourism is.  I actually watched the waiter in a cafe greet all the people that came in, he kept his hand on one of three different menus (English, french, dutch).  Depending on how "bon jour," "hello," or whatever the dutch greeting is, he would grab the corresponding menu.

Anyway, I'm gonna leave you guys hanging for the real information from the rest of the week.  I've got at least one more post on my four hour tour.  In addition I have to put in a follow up to to Laurens post on Frites (I went to a frite museum today to study up).  I'd also like to write a bit about my deadline week at the office.

Oh, I'm not gonna do a real "personal development" post.  The short of it is this:  I did my m'w'f of push ups and sit ups even during the dead line.  It was a little rough doing 80 push ups and sit ups at 4am but I got them done.  I didn't do any language stuff... which is frustrating.  I really would like to get somewhere with french before I leave and I'm afraid I won't.  I'm going to make this a week where I push a little harder with it.

Beer!

The first time I saw the shop "250 beers" I realized I was way out of my league.  I started looking around online and contacted a blogger by the name of Chuck Cook (http://belgianbeerspecialist.blogspot.com/)  who admitted he may not be the best person to point out places within Brussels and aimed me towards Joe Stange (http://www.thirstypilgrim.com/).  Chuck is a blogger from the US who writes about all beer from Belgian origins, he's been to Belgium on more individual trips than I've been here days and I imagine he can probably drink me under multiple tables.  Joe is an American Expat living in Brussels who is literally writing a book on Belgian beer.  He suggested two different places to start in Brussels:  Cantillon Brewery and Chez Moeder Lambic, the latter he will join me at when I get there.  I don't think I will take a trip there for a week or two to get past a big deadline so for now I just tried my best with Cantillon and some store bought beers.

Cantillon was one of the better alcohol based tourism events I've participated in.  On a previous trip I went to both the Jameson and Guinness tours in Dublin and they aren't really worth it in comparison to Cantillon.  The pull of this trip is the reality of the beer production.  At the Jameson tour they tell you it is a farce and just show you some historical artifacts.  Guinness wasn't much better, but at least they are situated on the site of an existing factory.  Cantillon is a functioning small brewery, as you walk around you can smell the hops and see the storage barrels foaming because of the fermentation.  It was wonderful and ended with a tasting of two classics:  Gueuze and Kreik, Lambic beers.

I've decided I'm entirely unqualified to discuss the subtleties of these beers in depth so I'll give you the technical explanation first.  Lambic is a "spontaneously" fermenting beer.  I'm not sure what that means and guess its similar to how the Baby Jesus was made:  Magic.  There is no added sugar or yeast to this beer and all fermentation occurs naturally.  After spontaneous fermentation they barrel up the beer for one to three years.  Afterwards they mix it all to make Gueuze and some of the other mixed beverages or bottle just the three year old Lambic for the special reserve.  You can actually store these beers in a cellar and they will mature for up to twenty years.  My father is now thinking that instead of having a wine cellar, he needs a Belgian beer cellar.

The tasting was interesting, Gueuze is literally the "champagne of beers" and I'm not talking about Miller High Life.  I really can not begin to describe it beyond this very cryptic statement:  It doesn't taste like beer at the beginning, but by the end of the glass it does.  It is sweet and sour, but still beer.  The Kreik may be a little easier for me... It is mixed with cherries for almost six months and it makes the beer smell horrible.  I can actually see my fathers face scrunching up a little at the thought of Cherry Beer.  I'll say this though, it was not sweet.  It was more like cider and had a sour bite to it.  Needless to say, I bought three bottles of different types and drank a bunch to "test" them out.  I did save one bottle of Grand Cru for a personal celebration later.  Those of you in NYC can try out Cantillon beers at (http://www.beermenus.com/beers/cantillon-bruocsella-grand-cru) a few fine establishments.  Know this though... you will pay at least four times what I paid.  I would suggest the Gueuze to start as it is very accessible and tasty.

Today I decided to buckle down and do some more research.  I went down to my local corner store and bought some Chimay and some Grimbergen.  These are examples of Trappist and Abbey beers.  Chimay, as a Trappist beer, is produced under the supervision of real life monks.  When you purchase a Chimay you are helping to pay rent for their monastery... seriously, their monastery.  Grimbergen is an Abbey Beer living a dirty lie.  Abbey beers were created to look like they are from a monastery and are usually commercially produced under a licensed name.  When you purchase something like Grimbergen or Leffe you are supporting a lie and should be ashamed of yourself.  I enjoyed Chimay before I left NY but wouldn't get it very often as it was cost prohibitive.  Eight dollars for a smallish bottle was a little much for me at my well priced beer drinking locale.  Now that I can get the same bottle for 1.50 Euro I'll drink it at lunch if I'd like because its still cheaper than the bottle of water you may get.  I tried out Chimay Red and Chimay Blue.  I prefer the Blue, but after finding out that its 9% alcohol decided it may not be the best choice as a lunch based beverage.  The Blue is still one of my favorite beers in general, though I won't begin to try comparing it to Guinness they are different beers for different occasions.  I didn't actually like the Grimbergen very much.  This isn't because refuse to support a lie, I actually don't mind the lie.  I didn't like it because it had a metallic taste to it that I couldn't get over.

I promise I will continue to test as many beers as I can as often as I can.  I can also promise my blog entries may start to get a little funny if this I keep up with that much beer.  I will document my struggle between Lambics and Trappists, you guys should send me beer types that say "Belgian" on them and I'll do my best to research them here.  LaurEm posted a suggestion last week that we do a Pomme Frites comparison and because of that you guys don't get the Frites write up until some States Side folks send me some images.  Anyone can send me pics and descriptions of their favorite Frites in the US and I'll try to put together an objective comparison.  We all know the French version is also a dirty lie, so try to only show me Belgian style.

I'm a TOURIST! Pt. 2

The subtitle to this weeks episode of Tourism is "Wherein Scott finds out he is still allergic to shellfish."  I was born in Maine, both of my parents are from New English.  This means I am genetically required to enjoy shell fish and sea food.  Unfortunately genetics also decided to throw a cruel wrench into those requirements and made me allergic to most shell fish.  My parents thought it was a passing phase when I was young and kept feeding me Scallops... Einstein said insanity is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.  I do enjoy shell fish (except scallops, I am psychologically opposed to scallops) from time to time. 

 But it has become a bit like alcohol, if I consume too much... well, you get the picture.  This weekends adventure brings us to Ste. Catherine.  I am lying a little, this is two different weekends that I happen to put into one.  This is probably a secret most travel writers wouldn't tell you.

A few days ago I told you guys I was starting to get into a morning routine: Wake up, shower, breakfast, headphones, work.  This is kinda like NYC except I've got a real commute and time to actually get into my music.  When I decide to TOUR things, I ditch the headphones because I want to pay attention externally not internally.  I only made this a conscious decision when going to Ste. Catherine as it is the same Metro stop as I go to for my office.  Immediately after getting out of the train, I took my headphones off so I could see my routine walk in a different light.  While I have noticed my surroundings during my morning routine, I haven't really examined them.

It turns out (according to mr. Time Out Brussels) Ste. Catherine is the old fish market, with the mass of restaurants as the only relic of that age.  I went to two separate places, one known for their Mussels the other for something different.  Now, if we were to consider mussels liquor, I have an extremely low tolerance so I found a place that had Appetizer portions.  I still ended up insulting the waiter by eating half a bowl of mussels, "You only ate Six."  I corrected him, "Huit" (that's eight in french, and I'm a jerk).  I'm unsure if he would have preferred the alternative had I finished the entire bowl.  

The second place I stopped at was Mer Du Nord, or North Sea.  This place was awesome for a lot of reasons.  You stand outside at a bar and order small plates.  This isn't necessarily a physical small plate, but more of a metaphorical small plate. The plates are meant as a tasting... going to a "small plates" restaurant you would usually order a bunch of small plates and enjoy the ride.

  Mer Du Nord is a ride in the North Sea:  Cold, lots of seafood and wine for lunch.  I watched the chef cook some shrimp on the grill while he fried my Haddock.  They had a wine list stocked with both White House Wine and Red House Wine.  I spent like seven Euro on that plate of fried fish and an OK glass of white wine.  I actually really enjoyed the experience because it was more about being social than it was about the food itself.  Don't get me wrong, I liked the haddock and the tasty salad with tartar and mayo, but the food wasn't the highlight.  

That's all for today, I thought I was gonna add more of the tourism in but there was plenty of content with just the two restaurants.  I've got some blog posts planned for the next few days, but we'll see what happens with office time.  Oh, I pulled 70 hours last week...  AND got sick from Mussels yay!  I think I just need more waffles.

The Cell Phone

I'm gonna level with you guys. My original goal was to write one post per day. I told you my strategy (the routine) of getting home, making dinner and then writing before anything else. This week I came across a snag in my strategy. The All-Nighter. I originally assumed everyone reading my blog would know me, but that is naive now a days so I'll explain what I do. I am an architect. I work long hours for low pay. I like my job and sometimes I like my job more than sleep. Because of this, I am likely to stay awake over night. By Thursday morning of this week, I had finished more hours than most would work in a full week. My new goal is to post 7 post per week. If I get smart, I will write one or two extras and hold them back as I would like to keep a once per day thing if possible.

OK, On to the real post. Cell phones, they're different here. That much should be pretty obvious. During my first few trips to Europe I tried out 3 different things, with the 3rd being the most successful. My first trip, I rented a phone from a US company. Not an awful choice, but a little more pricey than necessary. Second trip, NO phone. I like this method because it meant I wasn't really tethered to anything at all: not time, not people. On the other hand, the off chance that I needed a phone? Out of luck... obviously. The third trip, Dublin, I did a little research before I left. Economically, the best method is to purchase the cheapest cell phone in the country you're going to and just keep it for later trips. In Europe you have a SIM card (like a memory chip) which links you to a specific country, contains your contacts and generates your phone number. If you go to another country in Europe you can swap the chip and use it there. The first day I was in Dublin I went into a phone store at random, found the cheapest phone there and bought it for around 30 Euros including a 10Euro credit.

There are two concepts to understand with a European phone, UN/Locking and "Topping Up."  It is a common practice for mobile service providers to "lock" a phone and make it usable only within their network.  This means if you get a phone through Vodaphone and go to a country without Vodaphone service, its very likely your phone will not work.  There is also a huge market for UNLOCKED phones in Europe.  A lot of times you can buy them from the store unlocked, there are also shady looking places where you can get unlocking done.  Finally, about 10 minutes of GOOGLE searching should provide you with a legal, free, easy way to unlock your phone.  "Topping Up," occurs when you refill the minutes in your phone.  Almost everyone runs their phones on pay-per-minute service and refills when necessary.  You buy a card from almost any corner store and go through a few menus on your phone.  Simple.  Except those menus are only in French or Dutch, and I don't' know French or Dutch.

My phone... I bought my phone locked through Vodaphone.  I moved to Belgium, which doesn't have a Vodaphone representation.  So I did the obligatory 10 minute Google search.  This yielded some interesting information.  Of all the phone manufacturers on the market, Motorola are some of the more difficult phones to unlock.  In addition, my ONE specific phone model is not unlockable by any of the standard means.  Usually you just put in a number on the back of the phone into a software, and the software generates a code to unlock your phone.  People produce software that works for a huge number of phones, and not a single one is compatible with my phone, awesome.  I thought, I'll go roam around and find one of those shady places that will unlock my phone for me.  I go to a phone store, the one I purchased my SIM card in to ask about unlocking phones.  He tells me, "It is illegal to Lock phones in Belgium, so there isn't a large number of options, just this guy down there street."  It is my luck to bring the only unlockable phone to the country that doesn't allow locking to begin with.  I found the guy, realized he didn't speak English and just showed him the phone.  He says, "20 Euro,"  I know this is still 10 -15 Euro cheaper than buying a new phone so just hand it over.  He takes the phone in the back, is gone for 5 minutes and then my phone works.

That is basically the end of the Phone Story.  Though an interesting event occurred a few days later, while I was in my office.  I was walking around and all of a sudden heard an awful and very loud ringing noise.  Everyone, including myself, looks around for this loud noise.  Until I realize that awful noise is centered on my pocket.  One of my co-workers says, "That is your ring? That's horrible."  "I guess that is my phone, no one has ever called me before."

WEEK 1 DONE!

So I have completed my first of 12 weeks at JDS.  I will try to bring you guys an update about what the office is like with some photos eventually, but I don't feel like being a tourist in the place I'm supposed to work... yet.  I will say this, Friday is WINE DAY!  Tonight I'll share with you two things: one subway based, one room mate based.

Exhibit 1:  On your left you see an image.  That image is a representation of me being dumb.  I decided to re-enact the events that lead to me being done in this photo.  This is my subway stop on the work side of my commute.  Maybe I'll include more photos later of my trip to and from the office, but for now this is all you get to see.  This is St. Catherine and there are two entrances.  This one, and another one really far away.  One night I heard the train coming so I thought... Oh, the escalator isn't working I'll run down the stairs and try to catch the train.  WRONG!  Clever Belgians have escalators that start moving when you step on a plate near them.  I almost tripped and fell tumbling into eternity on an upwards moving stair.  I am now beginning to understand the subtlety of the bright red circle with a line through it.

Exhibit 2:  A few people wanted to see some of my room mates, and tonight seemed to be the best possible night to introduce Kellim.  Kellim, Niall and Lynn are like my Belgian Clippy.  If you have to ask, Clippy is the wonderful animated paperclip from Microsoft products that offers useful information when you're doing things.  These three individuals have given me so much extremely necessary advice and help in my first week; I'm not sure I would have made it without them being so kind.  So, Kellim... He is an American, which is nice.  He is rather blurry, but promises it isn't contagious.  I also just finished having an hour long conversation about African Tribal War chief Staves... Oh, that's Central African Tribal Warchief Staves.  Kellim is an African art dealer, and just showed me his prized collection.  He is also an architecture fanatic and has explained how necessary it is to go to Rotterdam.  Finally... Kellim is the person quoted my first day saying "Dude... Brussels Sucks."

Metro

I haven't fully explored the outer reaches of the Metro lines, but I can explain some of the nuances of the Belgian metro that I've learned.  The first is the ticketing system, since almost every city I've been in has some variation.  Brussels uses the "trust" and stamp method.  You can buy a ticket and put it in a machine where it stamps it with the time.  You then have a period of time (between an hour and 90 minutes... depending on who you talk to) that you can travel on any public transportation.  There are either three or four main lines, but the majority of the time you'll only use three (or two).

Brussels is a radial city (think a bicycle wheel with everything aiming towards the center), so one subway line rings around center city.  The two other main lines actually converge through the majority of the center city going east-west.  Once they pass the edge of center city they separate and head out in different directions.  My favorite part about the subway so far is the timing map.  In each station there is a map that shows the location (and time estimate) of all the trains on the lines.  You can run down the stairs and see that 2 trains are coming... the A train will be here in 4 minutes the B train will be here in 9 minutes.  

My exploration out to the Atomium took me the furthest out to the grounds for the '52 Worlds Fair.  I didn't spend any time going to the huge spanning warehouse sized museums of the exhibits or "Europe land."  Europe land is a miniature sized map of Europe for children that has small replicas of popular landmarks (from the 50's) in the major cities.  I thought I'd include a little more on the Atomium since the waffle may have obscured its true beauty.  The second photograph is taken on the escalator going through one of the connective tubes.  That was probably the most interesting part.  Unfortunately the restaurant at the top was like 20 Euro per dish... with a meal consisting of 2-3 dishes.  Its kinda like being offered Steak au Poivre as the ferris wheel comes around to the top of the circle. 

Anyway... I'm getting a little more used to 12 hour days.  #4 is done with #5 most likely on its way.  I'm not sure what I'll write about tomorrow, maybe suggestions?  Questions? Email me... Scott DOT Corey AT Gmail DOT com.  (I've heard if you include your real email address in these things your spam will increase even MORE than usual)

I'm a TOURIST! pt. 1

While I'm in Brussels I will attempt to be a tourist on as many occasions as possible (which I am now learning could be very few and far between).  In addition to being a tourist in Brussels I would like to see Antwerp, Bruges, Rotterdam and Paris.  The first two cities are local... half an hour to 45 minutes on the train.  Rotterdam and Paris require a little more than a day, with probably one over night.  Both of those train rides are still under 2 hours on the High Speeds.

OK... So my first few days I did light tourism because I was trying to get acquainted with the city and know what was around.  I avoided public transportation for a day or two and just walked everywhere, only learning that my apartment isn't very close to the center of the city.  I needed a Duvet cover and had to go to the Centre Deux, a department store.  I knew approximately where it was, looked in the direction and just walked.  I found this cool orange wood sculpture down a street entirely by accident, the thing was massive, extremely dense and towered over the street like a cloud.  

Another day I got the chance to meet up with someone who lives in my building and works at the EU.  He got me into the EU Parliament which is a massive network of structures that is for all intents and purposes a miniature city.  I saw the main meeting rooms with all the different language translation boxes.  It was a fun experience, I imagine similar to getting to see the inner workings of the UN in NYC or Geneva.  The image is of the unnecessarily foreboding entrance.  

That afternoon I wanted to measure how far a walk it is from my apartment to my office.  I would like to walk it every day, but the time involved was a little much.  That night I found the huge pedestrian district with the "restaurant alley" that I wrote about in a previous post.

  The overall district is pretty lame; most of the restaurants, chocolate shops and retail spaces were boring chains.  It was mostly tourists, as I wasn't the only one taking photos but it was fun to people watch.  I also found "Chinatown" which is comprised of one street with about 3 Asian grocery stores and a few Chinese restaurants.  Its the only place I'll find Jasmine rice, soy sauce or sesame oil so that's where I'll have to go.

My final tourist day was Sunday.  I took the metro out to my office for a real estimate on my daily commute and found a cool little chocolate shop with some good prices.  I'll talk more about it, but the short of it: Basil Truffle... delicious.  My second and major stop for the day was THE ATOMIUM!  The Eiffel Tower of Brussels... and vastly underwhelming.  

Basically it is a big ugly set of spheres that you can occupy, and they're tall or something.  Oh, I thought the only real way to represent this place was with a Waffle.  You guys read the post about waffles right?  Anyway, I'm gonna go and get some sleep... Three 12 hour days in a row are taking their toll.

Very important news!

WAFFLES!  I'm convinced Brussels has designed its street food to make people fat... which apparently doesn't work on Europeans but Americans beware.  The three big street foods:

1. Waffles, I wish I could do justice to true Belgian waffles.  They are unlike any waffle I have had.  They are very airy but crisp.  I imagine the batter has quite a bit of sugar because when you chew these waffles it has a caramel stickiness to it.  They also dip them in chocolate... ridiculous.

2. Pomme Frites, "french" fries I've been told are actually of Belgian origin.  To be safe, continue calling them Freedom Fries.  I don't have much to say about these just yet as my original studies have been purely in waffledom.  I will note that there is usually a large variety of sauces and fun little forks involved.

3. Chocolate.  I guess its not really street food, but in the pedestrian areas its not uncommon to be 3 chocolate shops in a row, all filled. I'm not entirely sure if I may have been in some special "chocolate shop area,"  it was absurd never the less.  I avoided these for now but when I attempt to enter a chocolate shop, I will tell the tale.

Making the Move

A few years back I was fortunate enough to take a short (4 days) trip to Copenhagen, Denmark.  This was my first trip to Europe, and I was amazed at how comfortable I was in such a foreign place.  Fast forward to 2008 and I am given the opportunity to work for a Danish Architecture firm whose work was inspirational to me during my first trip to Denmark.  I jumped at the chance and decide to make the move, the catch is that I need to do an internship period in Brussels, Belgium before I can move up to Copenhagen.  

This blog is meant as a recording of my experiences in moving and working as an architect abroad.  I will be documenting travel, personal development, food, work experiences and what it takes to move overseas.