One Last Word on Belgium

In case you still don't believe me about Belgium being very interesting, let me tell you one last thing that they don't advertise: prostitution is legal in Belgium. I didn't find this fact in my guide book!

There's all this hype about Amsterdam's red light district; well, in Belgium, even a small city like Gent has it's own red light district. Koen took me to have a look, so interesting! Apparently Antwerp and Brussels have red light districts as well. I'm not sure about the smaller towns.

The ladies display themselves in the windows: goods on sale in a shop. And you can get all shapes, sizes and colours. Some ladies sit alone, some sit with their coworkers. Some sit chewing gum. Some chat on their cell phones. Some windows just had an empty chair in them, I assume the lady had a customer.

I was so intrigued I wanted to stare at them, it's one thing hearing about it, but it's a totally different story actually seeing it. I really wish I could've taken a picture of the ladies, but the picture above is the best I could do. It shows the alley leading into Gent's red light district. If you can enlarge the picture you'll see that the building in the centre has the silhouette of a naked lady on it, and the building to the right is called "Le Pink Bar."

So, instead of going to Amsterdam for prostitutes and then to France for beautiful ancient architecture, just do it all in Belgium, where you can also drink the world's best beer and eat the world's best chocolate and maybe even dabble a bit in diamond trade if you like.

Who knew you could pack so much into such a little country?!

Sitting at Doha airport now, 02h37 Doha time but I can't sleep. 4 hours to go til I can board the plane home. I have my fingers crossed that I make it in time for Coldplay in JHB! What a way to end an amazing holiday!!!

Belgium Part 2

Belgium has got to be one of the most interesting countries in Europe. It's a little country with a 30km coast line, with The Netherlands on it's north border and France to the south. It's capital, Brussels is home to the UN and the EU headquarters, and it's considered the centre of western Europe. Yet Belgium has no government, they haven't had one for the past 18 months, it's a world record.

The country is divided along the lines of language and money. To the north are the wealthier Flemish speakers, and to the south are the poorer French speakers. The south used to be a bustling mining and industrial area, but around the 1970s most of the mines dried up and now the south rely on the wealthier north for support. So while economical power lies mainly in the hands of the Flemish, the French still want to have equal rights, and as far as I can gather, they often feel marginalized.

Neither Flemish nor French want to compromise, so there's something of a stalemate at present. There have been rumors of Belgium splitting into Flanders (the north) and Wallonia (the south) but the south don't want to lose the economic wealth of the north. And despite all of the bad blood, in a recent poll, most Flemish speakers said they were proudly Belgian before being Flemish and don't wish to separate from the south. Apparently a sort of compromise is imminent, and Belgium hopes to have a new government soon.

All of this aside, being in Belgium you see and feel none of the political tension. Belgium is famous for chocolate, diamonds and beer. Another strange combination.

I didn't spend much time in Brussels, but the central station in Brussels is huge and has local as well as international trains coming in and out constantly. Brussels has a cathedral which is bigger than Notre-Dame. I didn't go in, I just took pictures from the outside. Brussels is also very French speaking, despite being in Flanders (Flemish area) geographically. Brussels is actually considered separate from Flanders or Wallonia and also has a separate government.

There are always festivals, conventions and gatherings in and around Brussels. When I was leaving Brussels via central station, a huge Brazilian party seemed to be going on in front of the station. Men and ladies were dancing around on stilts, singing and banging on drums and other musical instruments.

From Brussels I took a train to Genk, as I mentioned before, and on Thursday Koen took me exploring.

We started off with Antwerp, city of diamonds. We went into the "diamond area" where Jews in traditional dress walk around. (Diamonds & Jews - such a cliche!)

I also saw many other nationalities and heard many other languages. I swear it looked like there was illegal trade going on on those streets. And it wasn't just me who thought so, when we got out of the area, Koen said he didn't like the feeling of being there, it seemed a bit shady.

If you want to buy a diamond or diamonds in Antwerp, you have to go through security checks before even being allowed in the same room with the diamonds. Yet, there was just recently a robbery which took place there and it is also rumored that, somehow, blood diamonds manage to make their way into the trade.

(Notice the guy to the front and right of the above picture. Look shady? You'll see him again soon!)

The above picture shows what used to be the market square of Antwerp. These are still found in all Belgian cities and are called the Groot Markt. According to Koen, Antwerp is the second largest port in the world. I haven't checked his facts yet, but the road to Antwerp was full of heavy duty trucks coming and going from the port.

The legend of Antwerp is that there used to be a giant along the river, who used to demand payment from all passers by. Then along came a hero called Brabo, who cut off the giant's hand and cast it into the river. So on the shield of Antwerp there is a hand, cut at the wrist. And the statue in the market square is of Brabo throwing the hand far into the water.

Antwerp also has a very impressive cathedral (Onze Liewe Vrouwkathedraal) where they had paintings by Reuben's (a very famous Belgian painter from the 16th century) on exhibition in the cathedral. This cathedral miraculously survived the pillage of the renaissance era.

From Antwerp we went to Gent. The background of the picture above is real, I promise! I know it looks like a painted backdrop. The big building you see behind me and the shady guy, is Gent's cathedral, which is from the 14th century.

Gent is a university town, where Koen studied and he has very fond memories of falling from his bike on his way to class after long nights in the favourite students' area: Overpoort. Gent is Belgium's largest university town.

We also did a little tourist boat trip which takes you through the medieval part of Gent, then I ate a hot chocolate covered Belgian waffle, before sampling some Gent Jenevers at the famous Dreupelkot.

To my delight, because of the "We Are Music" festival on in Gent at the moment, the shops were open until later than usual. And there was music on every corner. I'm not sure if Koen was as happy about the shopping hours as I was. I made sure we found a chocolate shop. We tasted a lot of chocolate, and I bought a bit.

Finally we left Gent and arrived back in Genk around 23h00. Poor Koen had to work today and drop me at the station (NOT in the same direction of work) before going to work.

I was on a train back to Leuven by 7h35. It was still dark, as well as cold and rainy.

Now, I need to get ready for the airport and figure out how to fit everything into my bags. I have to make a plan to ensure my check in luggage doesn't weigh more than 23kg. I think my shoulders are going to be very sore by the time I get to SA, from lugging my overstuffed backpack around!!

Belgium

I arrived in Belgium on Monday, but have not said much about Belgium, I just jetted off to Paris as soon as possible.

I stayed first with friends in Leuven, which is 20 minutes outside of Brussels by train, Valerie and Pieter. Leuven is a university town and the two of them work at Leuven University hospital usually. At present, Valerie is pregnant with twins and housebound, cos the little beans keep wanting to come out of her before their time. Their latest ultrasound showed that the one is 1,4kg and the other 1,3kg, so Valerie & Pieter feel a bit relieved now. But she still keeps her feet up for most of the day, everday the beans stay inside her, the better it is!

Yesterday I had a lazy morning with Valerie, eating croissants and chocolate for breakfast. Then I went into Brussels for a bit, before catching a train to Genk, near Hasselt, where my friends Koen & Gloria live, which is to the north east of Belgium, very near to the Dutch border.

Today Koen is my tour guide. We hope to do both Ghent and Antwerp. Hopefully I will be able to post pictures tomorrow and write a bit more about beautiful Belgium.

Paris in a day... impossible!

Paris, Paris! It's been written about in songs, books and movies for ages. None of what's been written can live up to what it actually is. I'll try my best to describe the little bit that I saw of it.

I arrived in Garde du Nord station on the Thalys train from Brussels. I found the ticket station and went to buy an all day pass so that I could ride the train/subway between locations and try to save time, instead of walking too far.

The ticket booth read: tickets and information. So I tried to make the most of getting information out of the guy selling me my ticket. He didn't seem too pleased, maybe because I was speaking in English.

Garde du Nord is a big station connecting Paris to most of the rest of France and also to the rest of Europe. The trains into Paris were so full! And the smell wasn't too good either. You had to push to get onto the train and then stand squashed up against someone else.

My first stop was the cathedral of Notre-Dame, which means "Our Lady" which as Catholics know, refers to Mary the mother of Jesus. The cathedral started being constructed in the 12th century. Some of the stained glass and sculptures are still preserved from then! It is spectacular and no picture can capture it.

Since the cathedral is called "Our Lady" there are obviously many figures and figurines of Mary. It seems that there was a big trend toward the glorification of Mary during the time that the cathedral was built. The adoration of Mary was not always such a big part of the Catholic faith.

All around the cathedral there are little areas where you can light candles and place them in the stand. There are signs suggesting a donation for lighting a candle, but the signs also say that it is up to you if you want to donate or not. You can also buy a candle if you like. Most of my pictures inside the cathedral are a bit unclear, because camera flashes are not allowed inside the cathedral.

The cathedral is not only a tourist spot, they have mass four times a day. I was surprised to hear a mass starting as I was walking around. Mass just carries on and those who want to join the mass do, those who want to continue taking pictures do too.

Around the sides of the cathedral are little chapels and small areas used to display art and objects made for the cathedral hundreds of years ago. The left hand side has little alcoves containing paintings in the style of the one above.

These were works painted by famous artists of the time. They are called "Mays" because they were put into the cathedral in the month of May, which is the month of Mary.

Some of the works have been removed and are on display in museums, all of the works still in the cathedral depict scenes from the book of Acts in the Bible. Apparently being commissioned to paint one of these was a big point in an artist's career back then.

After Notre-Dame, I had decided to go to Musee d'Orsay which contains works by Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Matisse and many more. It is housed in a turn-of-the-century train station across the river (Seine) from the Louvre. I had decided not to go to the Louvre, because of time constraints.

When I arrived at the museum, there was a queue to go in. I stood in the line for a while, and then decided that since I had only one day in Paris, I should spend it outside seeing Paris.

As I walked away from Musee d'Orsay, I came across what I thought was a very typically French scene on the steps of the museum, which is in the picture above: people eating lunch on the steps listening to live music.

Since I had opted to wear a little "Paris" dress and carry a little bag to match, I had had to leave my very big "Western Europe" guide book behind. I collected some maps and information booklets at an information stand on the street. Looking at the little booklets, I then had to guess what I was seeing from its location in relation to unmistakable points.

The bridge above, I hope is Pont Alexandre III, which is a celebration of Franco-Russian friendship.

From here I did a lot of walking, finally finding Champs-Elysees, in quite a roundabout manner. Along Champs-Elysees there are many shops, I didn't get too distracted, only stopping in one or two, my eye on the goal of Arc de Triomphe. This was erected by Napoleon to celebrate the victories of the Great Army. It was commissioned in 1806 and completed in 1836.

There is also a tomb of an unknown French soldier, buried there in 1921, where a flame burns and an inscription says: Here lies a French soldier, who died for his country.

From there I walked toward the Eiffel tower. It is visible from the area around Pont Alexandre III, and from many other parts of the city, so I had an idea of the general direction, and consulted my map to make sure I didn't go down the wrong road.

I didn't even attempt to go to the top of the Eiffel tower. I'm sure the view would be amazing, but the wait in the line at the bottom is time I did not have! It is an iconic part of Paris, and it was good to get to see it.

By this time I still had not had anything to eat. I didn't feel hungry at all. I did feel a bit thirsty, but I kept thinking that I needed to see more. By the time I was walking away from the Eiffel tower it was around 17h00. I decided to look for a little cafe and wondered into a neighbourhood nearby. There weren't many tourists, lots of little cafes and restaurants. But most of them were closed at that time. Cafes and restaurants usually close between 15h00 and 19h00 in preparation for dinner.

Eventually I found a little cafe on Rue de Charles Michel. The waiter was really friendly and even had a menu in English for me, even though it didn't seem like many tourists frequented the cafe. I had some wine, lots of water and a baguette with camembert cheese. The cheese was probably the best camembert I've tasted.

After asking the waiter for some directions, I had an idea of how to head back to the centre of town. Somehow, I still headed in the wrong direction, and found a little pattisier: Le Bon Panneton, where I bought some macaroons and fondant au chocolat.

By the time I got back to the centre of Paris, I arrived in time to see the sun setting just behind the Eiffel tower. It was almost 19h00, so by this time the tourists were mostly gone and the Parisian were out of work: jogging, walking their dogs, sitting on benches along the river and on bridges. It was much quieter and more peaceful.

I tried to get to the Louvre just to take a picture of the front area. I walked through the park: Jardin des Tuileries and could see the glass cube at the front, but then a security guard came along and told me the park was closing and the gate to the Louvre was locked already. I turned back and sat on the foot bridge which links Musee d'Orsay to Tuileries, contemplating my day.

I think next time round: I will make sure I have more time. I will wear more comfortable clothing. I will carry a bigger bag.

Parisians do dress smartly, but no one really cares what you're wearing. One of the shop attendants was quite taken with my dress, he followed me around a bit, asking where I was from, talking to me about rugby and complimenting me on my dress. (He guessed I was from New York, the rugby conversation started when I said I was from South Africa.)

Personally, I still think practicality takes precedence over appearance when it comes to spending a day walking around a city. Next time I want to stay over in Paris, so a pretty dress for the night out will be in order, but jeans can look good and are quite alright for sightseeing.

I suppose I'm just not enough of a fashionista. Practicality is not part of a fashionista's vocabulary!!

My advice: go and see Paris for yourself! Nothing can describe it adequately.

Don't go in summer. Judging from the crowds at tourist spots yesterday, which was off peak, the summer months must be crazily busy. Yesterday was a bit cloudy, but the temperature was 21 degrees celsius and warm enough even for a Durbanite and sometimes the sun even came out from behind the clouds.

And never, never, try to do Paris in one day!

Paree...

Paris is everything you could imagine and more! Pictures will never do it justice. I walked and walked and walked. And when I realized I was hungry and thirsty, I decided to carry on walking a bit more. One day is barely enough to even scrape the surface of what Paris has to offer, and that's just what's in the guide books.

It's after 23h00 and I just got back to Leuven, many train rides later. I need sleep. I'll try to describe Paris tomorrow morning, before I go exploring Brussels.

If only time (and money) were limitless...

Stockholm-Brussels-Leuven

A traveling day today. No real pictures of Belgium yet, the one I did take refuses to be rotated to a normal view, didn't want to strain my poor readers' necks and eyes, will load proper pictures soon.

Stockholm had turned cold and wet when I left this morning. Landed in Belgium: sunny, 25 degrees celcius! I was sweating because I'd put thermal underwear on this morning in Stockholm!

Unfortunately, I don't think Europe's weather's going to hold up much longer, prepared for the worst this week.

Have a train ticket to Paris in my bag... I'm quite giddy with excitement, not sure how well I'll sleep tonight! Early morning tomorrow morning.

Swedish Food & Culture

As I mentioned before, Swedish food is so different from anything I've eaten before, so I saved a whole blog post just for that. Since food and culture are so closely related, I'll throw in a little extra on what I've noticed of Swedish culture.

Interestingly, there are similarities between South African and Swedish food and culture! Swedes drink something called filmjölk, it's basically maas, with fewer lumps. They eat it with their cereal at breakfast. The above pic shows a breakfast bowl: filmjölk, Kellog's Special K, topped with äppelmös, which is basically apples boiled and mashed. Any sort of sweet fruit topping can be used: berry jam, strawberries prepared in the same way as the apples.

This is standard breakfast fare, and is usually followed by bread of some sort.

Because Swedish summers are so short and intense, with very long days, Swedes love to make the most of being outdoors, and don't even want to have to go inside to gym, so you find these little gyms set up in parks. Not a moment need be wasted indoors!

Sweden has the highest number of summer cottages per capita in the world! (But the among the lowest number of hospital beds per capita in Europe.) A summer cottage doesn't have to be anything fancy and is usually on an island out of the city. Going through the Stockholm Archipelago, I noticed red and white cottages were the most common. The red and white is how Swedish houses were painted traditionally.

Understandably, fish and seafood are eaten often in Sweden. The food is often quite rich and the flavours strong. Because the winters are as intense as the summers and longer, the fish or meat had to be preserved to last through times when fresh food was not obtainable. So even today, food is often cooked with strong flavours and spices which were used to preserve food in the old days. The above is a salmon soup we had for lunch when we went to Grinda.

Yesterday we had a crayfish party. This is very traditional. It usually happens toward the end of summer when the evenings are still warm. It is always held outside. Lanterns and balloons are strung up and everyone wears bibs and hats. There is crayfish, of course, and snaps is integral to it all!

Last night, for my benefit, we had a bit of a nontraditional crayfish party. We started off with midsummer food. On the plate above there is potato, two types of salmon: cold smoked and warm baked, pickled herring, boiled egg with caviar paste, sour cream and knäckebröd (crispy bread). Normally all of this is not eaten at a crayfish party. (Note the small bottle and cup.)

After all the midsummer food, we got to the real stuff. Swedish crayfish are fresh water crayfish and are quite small, so it's not difficult to polish off a large amount, expecially between 6 people.

And of course, the snaps. I was deceived by the small size of the bottles. That stuff is potent! The little bottle on the left can be shared between two people. (It's poured into the small cup seen in the midsummer food picture.)

Before drinking the snaps, everyone sings a snaps song while holding up their glasses. All snaps songs have the same theme. One goes something like this: I am a bird, I am a bird. My owners feed me fish, but all I want is snaps, give me snaps!

Then everyone shouts 'skål' and raises their glasses higher before drinking it in one gulp.

We started the party a bit early yesterday, so it could end early and everyone would be alright to drive back to Stockholm today and be ready for work tomorrow.

After the usual big breakfast, everyone helped to tidy up, and now just Anna and I are left at the cottage, sitting on the couch. It seems very quiet.

We'll leave a little later and stop at her brother's house on the way back to Stockholm. Tonight will be my last night in Stockholm. Tomorrow, Belgium, I hope...