Sunday, June 02, 2002
In light of the way this trip is turning out, I've temporarily renamed this blog. I suspect that no one cares what I've had to drink while over here, but for my own edification, I'll list the ones I had in Brussels: Maes, Judas, Kriek, and Corona. I also went clubbing for the first time, which was...interesting. You see, one of the people in our group had a friend from Austria who goes to school in Germany who happened to be in Brussels with his friends while we were there. On Friday, these Germans and most of the people from our group went clubbing, with the result that one German girl was hit upon by all sorts of people, two were crying (one because she was looking to..um, score, and my friend jokingly hit on her, the other because my friend put his hand on her shoulder and she freaked out because she doesn't like being touched), and the other one wasn't talking to the Austrian for some reason. As it was explained to me before we all went out on Saturday, I came to the conclusion that touching or flirting with them was a bad idea, since I was afraid they'd start screaming if I even looked at them. Thus, I danced with the girls from my own group (I got the impression that because I didn't do the bump and grind, I wasn't highly regarded as a dance partner). The German guys were very cool, though. One worked for Porsche, to all the Americans' interest, and both were very shy. I helped one of them ask two of the girls in our group to dance, and it seems like a fun time was had by all. It occurred to me that after three beers I'd lost fine motor control (I wasn't drunk, but I don't like moving if I can't control every single aspect of how I move; if you know me, you know that I walk very precisely, and that I even do other movements with precision), so I just sat and grooved to the music, happy that I'd helped my new friend dance with some pretty girls.
Brussels isn't that interesting of a city. They've got a very quaint town square, complete with Rococo architecture from 1698 and a huge tower that can be seen from most of the city. Other than that, however, there isn't much. There's a huge thing that looks vaguely like an atom from a World's Fair that they slap on postcards, and a statue of a naked little boy peeing. I kid you not. Apparently he put out a fire a couple centuries ago in that pose, and the rest is history. The Belgians make a lot of money selling trinkets to foreigners who will later be embarassed to own them. The most inventive I've seen are a cork with the statue on top so that when you mix drinks, it comes out...well, you know. A close second was a corkscrew with the screw...again, you know where. I felt vaguely dirty near that statue, so I didn't hang out there very much. I did eat a Belgian waffle over there (I'm sure the Belgians don't actually eat them, and just serve them to tourists), which was very good. I got lost a lot, too, which was okay since I found a place that served the best spaghetti I've ever tasted for only about six euros.
Speaking of euros, I found out that the person on the euro coins doesn't exist. Neither do the buildings on euro notes. I'm at a loss to explain this, other than to suspect the French.
Brussels isn't that interesting of a city. They've got a very quaint town square, complete with Rococo architecture from 1698 and a huge tower that can be seen from most of the city. Other than that, however, there isn't much. There's a huge thing that looks vaguely like an atom from a World's Fair that they slap on postcards, and a statue of a naked little boy peeing. I kid you not. Apparently he put out a fire a couple centuries ago in that pose, and the rest is history. The Belgians make a lot of money selling trinkets to foreigners who will later be embarassed to own them. The most inventive I've seen are a cork with the statue on top so that when you mix drinks, it comes out...well, you know. A close second was a corkscrew with the screw...again, you know where. I felt vaguely dirty near that statue, so I didn't hang out there very much. I did eat a Belgian waffle over there (I'm sure the Belgians don't actually eat them, and just serve them to tourists), which was very good. I got lost a lot, too, which was okay since I found a place that served the best spaghetti I've ever tasted for only about six euros.
Speaking of euros, I found out that the person on the euro coins doesn't exist. Neither do the buildings on euro notes. I'm at a loss to explain this, other than to suspect the French.
