ToDo: Invent Brilliant Title

I found Belgium to not be visually stunning (though medieval Bruges is rather cute) but it made my tummy happy.  Beer.  Waffles.  French (Belgian!) Fries.  Chocolate.

Mmmm, chocolate.

Also, mmmm, waffles from a vending machine.  Fabulous invention.  Spongey, but tasty.

I’m intrigued by the ‘symbol’ of Brussels, Manneken Pis.  I can’t help drawing obvious comparisons with Den Lille Havfrue of Copenhagen.

The small siren is rarely dressed-up (barring those burqa incidents).  She doesn’t have over 1000 different costumes.  I’ve never visited her and discovered a whole crowd dressed similarly and singing songs.

Manneken Pis might be a little more indelicate in comparison to his northern neighbour but has never had his limbs or head chopped off.  And as far as I know, the symbol of Copenhagen is unable to ‘mermaid’ on her audience on cue.

I had a wonderful visit to Seattle over Christmas/New Year.  Did bugger-all.  Just hung out, and it was grand.

One of the most surprising parts was discovering what I missed most about Seattle.  After the people, of course, the thing I miss most about Australia is the food.  I was shocked to discover that the thing I missed most about Seattle was, after the people of course, the food.  And not just because I’m generally ambivalent about eating.

I had Adovo Chicken Pasta from Desert Fire, coffee from Victrola, tacos from Chipotle (twice!) and gingerbread waffles from Coastal Kitchen (also twice!).  I also had enough Starbucks lattes to tide me over between Copenhagen airport visits.

The other thing I also always miss is the book shopping opportunity.  When I hit Sydney airport on a visit home, it’s straight to the newsagent.  As soon as my gob is full of Cadbury, I’m perusing the new offerings of the Australian publishing industry.  Incidentally, why is so much sci fi/fantasy written by Australians?

So as usual, I over-patronised the bookstores on this visit too.  Luckily, a nice check-in agent at SeaTac told me that instead of charging me $50 in excess, she could give me a box and I could take advantage of my "2 pieces" allowance.  Repacking on an airport floor is a tad embarrassing, but then if I had any shame, I’d probably not be trying to smuggle so many books.

Yep, it’s as pretty as they say.  I had vaguely hoped it wouldn’t be, so I could be jaded and wordly and all "I mean, it’s nice enough, I s’pose…", but it really is kind of awesome.  Spires and bridges and Gothic and Baroque, with big old splashes of Art Nouveau to keep things interesting.

Most surprising: Svičkova(beef and dumplings and gravy and friends) is tasty.

Least surprising: I’m now a huge Mucha fan.

Most obvious: Sightseeing in winter is rather unpleasant.

The last travel post was about Barcelona, where I went back in September.  I’m a little behind.

In the interim, I spent two weeks in Australia, visiting my brilliant nephews.  (Oh, seeing Fee and Nic and my dad and sister and brother-in-law and Most Excellent Mother and step-bro and grandparents.  And the whole rest of the family at my cousin Mike’s wedding.  But it’s my nephews who were the coolest.)  Observation: Australia is a fucking long way from Europe.

Then I came back to the cold bit, where it was colder and much more orange, and spent a week conferencing.  Then, I popped off the continent again to go visit Ed in Montreal (lovely city) and then down to Orlando (dreadful city) for further conferencing.  Satre was wrong: hell isn’t other people, it’s a packed Disney World monorail at the end of the day. 

After that, I came back again, where it was even colder and had replaced the orange with grey.

I’ve only had one weekend away since then, but I’m off to Seattle next week for Christmas/NY.