Top Ten Things I WON’T Miss About Brussels

1.     Doggie-do – It’s a little known fact that Brussels is the Doggie-do capital of the world.  Neither of us could ever understand why no one felt compelled to clean up after their dog.

2.     Store hours - The lack of stores open after 6:30pm was a constant source of frustration, given our tendency to eat (and plan) late.  Sunday closures were also challenging, but on the bright side, they led me to discover Indian cooking at the one open corner-market down the street.

3.     Confusing road signs – I don’t think we ever managed to reach our destination without a few wrong turns, despite arming ourselves with increasing numbers of maps.  The main obstacle was that each major road had a multitude of names (one French, one Dutch, two numerical) yet none of them ever seemed to map to our map armamentarium.

4.     The weather – We arrived in January for a wet, cold (for us) winter and left just when spring was finally taking hold…in June!  I thought Vancouver was rainy (166 days per year) but Brussels takes the cake at 220 days per year!

5.     Expensive water – While beer and wine were extremely affordable when dining out, a large bottle of water that cost 1 euro in the store would typically be marked up 6 times…I think it’s clear what Belgians consider essential with their meal!

6.     Laissez-faire attitude – We both got along with Belgians on the whole – they were generally friendly and laid-back – but sometimes the degree of laissez-faire was a tad frustrating.  One vivid example is the time I was sold a broken cell phone: the store staff seemed completely oblivious to the fact that it was an inconvenience for me to have to return to the store and then wait 45 minutes for them to fix it.

7.     Elusive food favourites – Jerel and I each lamented the unavailability of a few food favourites – for Jerel it was pinto beans and ‘real’ tortilla chips, and for me it was edamame (a new addiction from China).

8.     Erratic drivers – Even after learning the ‘rule of the right’ (feel free to cut someone off if you’re on their right), the other drivers always seemed totally erratic to me, making me a highly anxious (even more than normal) passenger.

9.     Public smoking – I don’t think I need to elaborate here… Unfortunately, this one applies to most of Europe (and I guess most of the world besides the US and Canada).

10. Our building door – Attractive as our steel door was, I always dreaded having to hip-check it with all my might whenever I entered or exited the building.

Top Ten Things I WILL Miss About Brussels

1.     Speaking French – I never tired of putting my many years of French Immersion schooling to use; I also loved hearing Jerel attempt any of his handful of phrases: “une grande bouteille d’eau petillante, s’il vous plait”.

2.     Spinning classes – I came a long way from the first class, when I caused a scene by falling and skewering myself on the handlebar pole of my stationary bike, to my last, when I was in front of the class as an instructor in training.  I will miss those sweat-fests!

3.     Central location – The standard comment about Brussels is: “The best thing about it is its central location in Europe”.  I grew fond enough of Brussels to take offence to the implicit ‘dissing’ of our temporary hometown, but can’t deny that Jerel and I enjoyed many a weekend away.

4.     My local cafes – On weekdays, I could often be spotted at one of my two favourite local coffee shops, diligently working on a manuscript, planning the next weekend jaunt, or reading the French newspapers.

5.     Consistently great dining – Jerel and I sampled a wide variety of cuisine in Brussels - pub food, Moroccan, Thai, Italian and more - and were never disappointed.  Fresh ingredients and good produce seemed to be the secret to success.

6.     La Trattoria – Our favourite way to end the week was with a mellow night at La Trattoria, where the pizza Milano was unbeatable.

7.     Boutique shopping – Shopping for dinner became a fun hobby, as it entailed hopping between specialty shops, offering freshly baked breads, a vast selection of stinky cheeses, and the freshest produce. 

8.     Farmer’s markets galore – Brussels has an abundance of open markets featuring not just produce, but also flowers, cheeses, breads, nuts and of course, waffles.  My favourite was the Wednesday afternoon market in the trendy Chatelain neighborhood.

9.     Tasty treats – Who wouldn’t miss the aroma of fresh waffles wafting from the many ‘waffle trucks’, or the abundance of exquisite chocolateries and patisseries.  I never fell for the double-fried-fries with your choice of hundreds of sauces, but based on the lines many others did!

10. Local parks – Our apartment was a hop-skip and jump away from three of Brussels’ many green parks: ‘Abbaye de la Cambre’, ‘Etangs d’Ixelles’, and ‘Bois de la Cambre’.

Turkey Part III – Going with the Flow

The final phase of our travels in Turkey was a mellow five days at “Flow Datca”, a quiet beach club in southern Turkey.  The club was on the outskirts of Datca, a small coastal town that is popular with Turkish holidaymakers, but has not yet been inundated by the western European rabble.  The region is known for windsurfing as well as for honey, almonds, and olives, all of which we made a point to enjoy.

For most of our stay at the resort, we were the only guests, which made us prime targets for the eager-to-please staff.  The front desk clerk cheerfully handled a range of requests from changing rooms (Mom, you’d be proud) to usurping his computer, the guitarist enthusiastically serenaded us with American tunes, and the chef willingly catered to our tastes.  Each evening we had the best table in the house as we dined on yogurt dip and eggplant mezzes, followed by specially ordered white beans for Chana and daily special for Jerel, and finishing with a massive platter of fresh fruit.

When we weren’t consuming copious amounts of fruit, honey or eggplant, we were either hanging out by the pool, windsurfing at the French outdoors club next door (see, French is a useful language!), or roaming around Datca, where we tried truly fresh almonds for the first time – they had a remarkably intense flavour with strong hints of vanilla.  We also squeezed in a full-day boat cruise with twenty-odd Turkish tourists, during which we visited the Greek ruins of Knidos and made refreshing swim stops at several pristine coves.

From Datca, we flew to Istanbul, where I had booked us a beautiful hotel on the water near the airport (about an hour out of the main city).  Enter major travel blunder number two…it turns out that this scenic hotel was actually located a good full day’s drive from Istanbul.  Ooops!  To make a long story short, at dusk we finally checked into a nearby hotel, which featured great views of the freeway and the surrounding truck yards.  As the front desk clerk judiciously put it when asked where we could go for an evening walk “the location here is not the best”.  Although Turkey was wonderful, we were both relieved to return to ‘normal’ life in Brussels. 

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Turkey Part II - Charging for the Ionian Ruins

From Istanbul we headed towards the ancient city of Ephesus, via plane, taxi and mini bus (aka dolumus), settling in the nearby town of Selcuk. It was a tall order for Ephesus to live up to the hype, but it succeeded. The ruins included an intact coliseum, an imposing library façade, finely engraved Ionic columns, and unearthed terrace houses complete with sculptures, mosaics, marble floors and bathtubs. Despite the blazing sun and lamentable lack of shade, we happily explored the expansive ruins for a good four hours before walking (of course) back to our hotel.

Selcuk itself was underwhelming, but our warm and welcoming hotel with its beautiful rooftop terrace overlooking St John’s church and the local castle more than compensated. We enjoyed two delicious and entertaining dinners at the hotel. The best part was the “pre-game show” in which an eccentric Turkish waiter helped us to chose our mezzes from a selection of nearly 20 mostly vegetarian dishes (eggplant galore!) on display. Our enthusiasm for the food was rewarded on the last morning when the cook provided impromptu cooking lessons as well as a parting gift of his special spice mix.

During our stay we also visited the local Hamam (Turkish bath). Chana grinned gleefully throughout the scrubbing and sudsing sessions, but the process was a bit more concerning for me. As the hairy Turkish man peeled off layers of my skin, I thought hard to recount from physiology exactly how many skin layers there are in the human body. The oil massage finale was the best part, although I drew the more brutal of the masseurs and left with some body parts feeling better and others feeling worse.

From Selcuk we rented a horribly underpowered Fiat and drove south to visit two other famous ruins: Priene and Miletus. We were among the only tourists to brave the heat and the hilly ascent to Priene, giving us a rare chance to pose amongst dramatic Greek ‘props’. Miletus was especially exciting on account of the ancient philosophers that had lived there: Thales, Anaximenes, and Anaxiamander. We left puzzling over how Thales thought that the world was made of water when there didn’t seem to be a drop in the place.

Our road trip ended with one of two blatant travel planning errors of our trip (stay tuned). Based on some misguided pages from the Lonely Planet, we had planned to spend our 2-year wedding anniversary night in the beach town of Oren. We arrived to find that the only hotel in town was painted a 1980s-style piercing shade of lime, the “beach” was strewn with litter, and that not a soul spoke English. We promptly exited Oren and identified a new destination - Yalikavak, a small town on the Bodrum Peninsula. Yalikavak turned out to be a much more desirable choice, and we celebrated our anniversary with a romantic seaside dinner.

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Turkey Part I - Basking in the Warmth of Istanbul

We had only 3 days to embrace the ancient city of Istanbul. Despite this fact, and Chana’s mandate that we walk absolutely everywhere, we managed to take in a healthy number of sights. The Hagia Sophia won the blue ribbon for impressiveness with its massive domed interior, juxtaposition of Byzantine construction and Muslim adornments, well-preserved mosaics, and view of the Blue Mosque.

The Blue Mosque rivaled Hagia Sophia in size, but offered a very different environment. The experience started at the doorway, where doormen draped Chana with blue sheets to cover her hair and legs. The plush rug and blue mosaic walls were immaculate and provided a serene atmosphere for worshipers.

The most anticipated sight was the Kariye Museum. The museum
is a Byzantine church which holds spectacularly preserved mosaics; the type you “go to Istanbul to see” according to my art history teacher. For us, the anticipation was amplified by the fact that we were foiled on our first attempt at a visit. After walking 6 km to the mosque (thanks, Chana) we arrived to find the museum closing early at 4:30 pm (enter the grumpiest Jerel of the trip). Fortunately, a dose of Starbucks coffee at bustling Taksim square and some spectacular views from the Galata Tower provided an antidote.

As we covered the sights, we were struck by the mix of the religious and the secular and the pace of modernization. We saw multi-generational families in which the women’s dress code correlated dramatically with age: from the 70 year-old woman fully covered and wearing a traditional shawl, to the 18 year-old wearing a tank top and shorts. We noticed that the architecture recapitulates the modernization: moving north along the Bosphorus, you are met first with the old city, filled with ancient buildings; then with aging buildings housing Starbucks and Zara, and ultimately with the steel and glass skyscrapers of the incipient business centers.

Our biggest takeaway from Istanbul was the warmth of the Turkish people. We noticed this in their greetings - based on the number of hugs and kisses one family exchanged at a bus stop, one would think they had been separated for decades. As tourists, we were welcomed at every turn. We dreaded the persistent barrage of restaurant solicitations, but once we sat down for dinner we were treated like family. The staff at the hotel’s front desk were perhaps the best exemplars of Turkish hospitality. A mere query from Chana incited a flurry of activity involving half of the hotel staff, who cheerfully created a make-shift travel agency and booked the next leg of our trip.

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Pounding the pavement in London

As Jerel’s final project in Europe came to a close, Chana seized the chance for a weekend trip to London. She arrived with two missions: to visit with two Canuck-turned-Londoner chums and to add one more city to the growing list of “cities in which Chana can charge for a walking tour”. We were sad to miss our other London dwelling friends, Peter and Natacha, but happy to take them up on their generous offer to stay at their flat (complete with a yummy loaf of freshly baked bread).

Chana got a head start on her tour training on Friday, with a leisurely jog to Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Hyde Park, and Buckingham palace, including a chance sighting of the changing of the guards. Saturday, Jerel joined for the full-on tour day, whereby we hit as many of London’s ‘must-see’ sights as possible, all on foot. From Clapham, we headed north to see Harrod’s, continued to Buckingham Palace and Big Ben, and ended with a stroll along the Thames to the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge.

We were equally successful on our social missions. Chana and Bronywn had calculated that we could spend precisely 3.5 hours together on Friday night if we rendezvoused near London Liverpool station. The three of us shared a delicious meal, serenaded by an electric violin, while Bronwyn and Jerel regaled Chana with ‘loads’ of stories about British expressions. Among the favorites were “the complete history of the word posh” and the word ‘pudding’ which apparently means any type of dessert.

Saturday evening, we met up with Andrew (a friend from Chana’s UBC days) and his girlfriend Helen in their old ‘hood (Islington). We started with a pitcher of Pimm’s at one funky pub and ended with dinner and ‘pudding’ at London’s first pub serving organic food …those of you that enjoy the Naam in Vancouver would have felt right at home!

We wrapped up our weekend with shopping in the bustling streets of Covent Garden. In typical fashion, we lost track of time and arrived at St. Pancras station just in time to catch our Eurostar train back to Brussels for one final week in the city of waffles and chocolate.

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Amsterdam Assembly

Unlike most bloggers, I rarely write a blog entry in close proximity to the inspirational event. The problem is that I am far too good at keeping busy (aka procrastinating) - planning the next trip, going to the gym, ‘puttering’ around the apartment and occasionally hunting for a job. Today, however, I have inadvertently given myself ample time in front of my computer without access to my usual procrastination tactics.

What should have been a 3 hour train ride from Amsterdam to Brussels has magically turned into a 6 hour journey to Paris and back...I was so engrossed in writing my latest overdue blog entry that I missed my stop! I would have loved to stay in Paris for the night but unfortunately I need to get back to Brussels to show our apartment to some potential new renters.

Onto Amsterdam… Four of us converged on Amsterdam for a festive weekend: Chana, Jerel, Mom and Katharina (plus Mom’s colleague Jennifer). The timing was perfect: Katharina had just aced the last portion of her medical school exams in Berlin, Mom’s conference in The Hague had concluded, I was determined not to leave Europe without seeing this (in)famous city. Jerel and I arrived by train late Saturday night, and barely made it to our hotel intact… one of us (the newbie) was nearly demolished by cyclists several times on the way home, having not yet adjusted to the extra (silent) lane of traffic on every street.

Sunday morning we kicked off two days of wandering Amsterdam’s narrow streets, criss-crossing its café-lined canals, and sampling its cultural and historical offerings. Jerel had to leave Monday morning, but was still able to join the crew for his most eagerly anticipated event – an evening boat cruise through the canals.

Aside from the abundance of bicycling juggernauts, the most memorable part of the weekend for me was our visit to the Anne Frank House. The exhibit was very simple– a few passage excerpts, photos, and videos - yet the experience of being in the space where Anne Frank hid for two years and trying to imagine what she and others must have felt was incredibly moving. Another sight that also merits mention is the very inviting, state-of-the-art Amsterdam Public Library, which I was gently encouraged to visit by a certain library-lover. I missed out on the Van Gogh museum (Saturday’s activity) but heard from mom and Katharina that it was very impressive.

Tuesday morning we all went our separate ways – Katharina by train to Berlin, Mom by plane to Vancouver, and me by train to Paris…I mean Brussels!

For more photos, please click here.