Muscles in Brussels.doc

I am back in Amsterdam, with a one Mr. Michael Murphy in tow who will be staying for a week. It's great to have a friend here for such a long time so I can show him all the wonderful places in the city.

We were joined by our friend Paul who took a weekend off from Oxford and came down by train. I met the boys at a central metro stop in the city after a very short three hour bus ride to the EU Capital. It was great to see Michael. It's been a long eight months where our talks about politics, theatre, and the like have had to take place over skype. I look forward to a number of good chats this week. It was also good to see Paul after our adventures in Stockholm back in November.

The weekend in Brussels was unlike some of the other travel-a-thons of the past. The three of us decided to mainly take it easy and soak up the city rather than burden ourselves with a whole schedule of museums and must-sees. Our first stop was a patio while we waited for the check-in to open at our hostel. There we sipped on some beers in the sun and went over a bevy of updates. After months of not seeing friends, the stories seem to just pour out. We stayed at the Van Gogh Hostel (apparently the artist lived in the building at one point). It was clean, modest, and we shared the room with another guy. We nicknamed him Scotland because he had a Marks and Sparks water bottle that said Scottish Water on it - he wasn't from Scotland.

That first afternoon we walked around the centre of the city. The Grand Place is an enormous piazza with beautiful old buildings with gold accents on the roofs. The square was packed, but we managed to take some obligatory photos. There was also a giant (like huge) comic strip that was being assembled in the centre of the place. I think it was some sort of comic book event. Apparently, comics are huge in Belgium. We saw the tiny Mannequin Peeing statue that everyone mentions. He was wearing a silly costume. I can't imagine how many pictures such a small and seemingly mundane statue must appear in. For dinner we stopped in at a Thai restaurant and sat out on their patio. Michael had a dish that was served in a Pineapple and Paul and I both had curry.

That evening we went to a special weekend party after getting a tip about a great spot not to be missed. We searched for about 10 minutes in the area where the party should have been (in regards to the map I had) before realizing that the party wasn't near the subway station, it was IN the subway station. Two weeks ago it was a party under a bridge, now it's a party in a metro station. Europe. We had a great time. It was neat to explore a deserted metro station at night where the music reverberated off the concrete walls. We stayed quite late - once again I felt like we were surrounded by a crowd "in the know."

After a sleep in the next day, we walked towards a beautiful mosque on the horizon from our hostel and spent a good hour just lounging in the park outside. The sun was extremely hot and it felt good to just relax and chat with friends. We went to an organic restaurant for lunch (how trendy, how healthy) and had some decent grub. The Iris Festival was going on that week so we checked out all the booths, performances, and free swag scattered throughout the old town area. Like the day before, we walked and walked around the city just content to be in a new place.

That evening we went for a wonderful pasta dinner at the patio around the corner from our hostel. I rarely go out for dinner in Amsterdam (to save money) so it was great to be able to indulge while on vacation. From there we went back to the hostel, had some cheap Jupiler beers, and went out to a club. The cover was 9 Euros, but with that you got 3 drink tickets for 3 Euro drinks. A bit of an odd system, but I guess it guarantees three drinks a head. It was a big club with a DJ booth built into the wall overlooking the main area. Again, we boys had a great night. No OPDs to speak of, sorry friends.

The next morning we split paths after a really restful, but considerably fun, weekend in Brussels. The ride back to Amsterdam was long and drawn out, but I was happy to arrive home and show Michael the city I've settled into. Update on that to come.

Doc's Prescription of the Day: I did not sample one Belgium chocolate. For shame? Maybe. Have some chocolate in lieu of my transgression.