Weekend in Brussels

Here's a recap of my weekend trip to Brussels, Belgium:

Friday night, Meg and I took the train from Amsterdam to Brussels. The train stopped in Rotterdam also, so Dan and Bryan hopped on there. We made it to our hotel, the Euro Capital, which was next to the south train station in Brussels (Gare du Midi). Not the best area of Brussels, but the hotel was nice (and a decent price) and we were still within walking distance of everything.

We checked in around 9pm and then headed out to find somewhere to eat for dinner. We ended up at a restaurant close by the opera in the center of the city. We lucked out because everyone cleared out about 5 minutes before we got there to go back to the opera, so the place was dead. By the time we finished dinner, the opera was over and we left just as the place filled back up.



After dinner, we walked to the Grand Place and saw that there was a light show going on. Very cool. On weekend nights, they play songs and do a light show against one of the buildings, the Town Hall. Dan got a great video of it that hopefully, I can post here later.



Ater the light show, we decided to find the "24/7 bar"... it's actually named L'Aca. It's a bar just outside of the touristy area and is mostly filled with locals, which makes it less crowded and cheaper. This is the place where Matt and Dan went when they were in Brussels two years ago and tried just about every beer on the menu. Throughout the course of the weekend, we drank quite a few different beers, too. I took a picture of each of them (of course!). Here's Meg and I with our first Mort Subite Kriek (Sudden Death Cherry beer):



Saturday, we walked around and hit some touristy spots. First, we went to the Cantillon Brewery... they make kriek beer (cherry) and gueuze (blend of 1,2,3 year old lambic beers) and some other varieties. We walked through the brewery and got a tasting at the end. The beers seemed a little harsher than what I had been drinking in the bars.



After the brewery tour, we walked back to the Grand Place and had some gluhwein (warm wine)... it was freezing cold outside! We all had a belgian waffle, which were really messy. I got nutella and bananas on mine... no picture of that because I had too much chocolate on my hands to get the camera out.



We saw the Mannekin Pis (the peeing boy). There are many stories as to what the history behind this statue is, but most stories have something to do with this little boy saving the country in a war because he urinated on the other soldiers to distract them or on their bomb to difuse it or something ridiculous like that.



Then we stopped in a chocolate store to buy some goodies...



We ended up at L'Aca again drinking some more beer... big surprise. It was raining and we wanted to be inside somewhere warm. After the first round, Dan went up to order Bryan and himself another beer... the bartender didn't speak English well, so Dan tried out his French. Something got lost in translation with the bartender because Dan came back with a glass of white wine for Bryan and a beer for himself. Bryan was a little disappointed. It was very funny... well, maybe not as funny to Bryan! : )



After that, we just pointed to what we wanted on the menu. While we were sitting in L'Aca, some sort of global warming protest went by. There were thousands of people in this thing... it lasted over 30 minutes.



After a few more Belgian beers, we dropped our stuff off at the hotel and took the metro to Place du Luxembourg. There is a bar there called Fat Boys that plays all kinds of sports... NFL, college football, English soccer, etc. We had gone there last year to watch the Michigan v. Ohio State game and the place was packed. Unfortunately, this time it was dead. There weren't any major games going on. We had burgers and fries and more beer.



We went to another bar called The Sphinx and had a few drinks. The place turned into a club, so we left. We found an Irish pub and spent the rest of the night there. Meg and I left around midnight and the other two stayed out.

On Sunday, we were supposed to check out at 11am... about 11:10, Meg and I were sitting in the lobby and the guys were not. About 11:15, we started to think that they may not actually be awake. Good assumption. We went up to knock on the door and Dan answered half asleep. It took him a second to realize what was going on... yep, it was after 11 and yep, it was time to go. They made it down to the lobby super quick and we were out the door. Of course, not before the doorman could hit on Meg a few times. He really liked her... a lot!

Sunday was a little sunnier, so we went to a Christmas market. There was a ferris wheel and an ice skating rink and tons of booths set up with food, gifts, etc.



There was this crazy carousel for kids. The carousel had animals, boats and planes that the kids could ride. There was even a cockroach that a kid could ride in! Instead of the typical boring up and down that carousels go, these things go up and down and sideways and through the top of the carousel. It's very strange. My favorite was the space ship... it took off and went through a hole that was cut out of the roof of the carousel. There was this kid on the ride in the space ship and he did NOT like it at all. He was bawling inside the ship every time he went around... we kept watching and thought it was so funny... so, of course, I took a picture. You can kind of tell in these pictures that he's crying. Poor kid! : )





We took a ride on the ferris wheel, which gave us a great view of the market and the city.





After that we had some more warm wine, this time with amaretto mixed in. So good! We ate another beglian waffle and had some awesome cheesy potatoes that they were cooking in these huge pans.



We went to catch the train back to Amsterdam, but the schedule had changed and it left from a different station than where we were (figures!)... so at the last minute we had to jump on another train to take us to the North train station (along with everyone else going to Amsterdam). Luckily, they held the train for all of us and we managed to get on. We all crashed a little on the train ride home!

For more pics, click here.

Immigration and Cafe Kobalt

Today we had an appointment with the Immigration Department in The Hague (Den Haag in Dutch). This appointment was to get our residence ID and another sticker in our passport. Whatever. I'm glad this was the last appointment... all this stuff is crazy for just a three month visit! Meg and I left from Amsterdam on the train and got to The Hague around 8:45am, which was great because we were meeting the woman from the company that's handling our work VISAs at 9am outside of Central Station. One problem... we were at Den Haag Holland Spoor, a totally different train station from Central Station. Our train didn't even go to Central Station. Oops. We looked at the map in the station and saw that Central Station was not far and we decided to just walk it. We started down the street and saw these big signs for tourists that tell you which direction everything is. We think... great... follow the signs and we'll get there. Of course, the signs did not correspond exactly with the direction we thought we were supposed to go, but at the time, we didn't think much of it. About 15 minutes later, we are walking down a street following the last sign we saw and run into another sign that says Central Station is in the completely opposite direction of where we are walking towards... oops, again. Apparently, one of the signs we were following was pointing the wrong direction (probably blown by the massive winds). About this time, we get a call from Dan asking where we were... and also about this time it starts raining even harder. Dan says they will pick us up in the car that the lady is driving. Fast forward to 40 minutes later... they finally make it to where we were standing... in the rain... drenched. We had stayed outside waiting because we didn't want them to drive by and miss us (we were just on some random street corner). I guess they got tied up in some major traffic at Central Station.

So, while we were waiting for them, we decided to take pictures... such tourists! Here's me by the signs we saw when we realized we were not going the right direction... this is also where we waited for 40 minutes.



We finally met up with the lady and jumped in her car and headed to the Immigration office. After the meeting, she dropped us off at Central Station so we could catch the train back to Amsterdam. Lucky we didn't have to find it on our own this time. : )

Here's a pic of Den Haag Central Station. Anyone want a bike???



Tonight, we went out to dinner with a group of people from work. We went to this restaurant called Cafe Kobalt. It's just outside of the tourist district and is a very popular place.



The food was very good and we had a fun time. I had the gnocchi and Meg had the daily special (some sort of chicken dish).



When we were getting ready to leave, a cat jumped up on the table and started walking around. No one really thought much of it. They said that it's typical for cats to be in places around the canals because they kill the mice. It's very common to have mice in places near canals... makes sense, because I had a mouse in my apartment when I stayed here last year. I've been keeping an eye out in my current place, but so far haven't seen any unwelcome visitors. (Knock on wood!)



We booked our trip to go to Brussels, Belgium this weekend. There was a great deal (40% off!) on train tickets to Brussels. Chocolates and beer, here we come! : )

Happy Sinterklaas Day

In the Netherlands, people celebrate Sinterklaas on December 5th. It's a holiday where children get presents from Sinterklaas (Santa Claus) and his helper Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). Adults write each other poems and give gifts as well. For some people here, this holiday is bigger than Christmas day (which is more of a religious holiday rather than a day for presents).

In our Rotterdam office, everyone gets a name of someone else in the office and they have to write a poem for that person and get a small gift for them. When Matt was working in Rotterdam, he had to write a poem and read it aloud in front of everyone. : ) In our Amsterdam office, Sinterklaas Day is more of a child's holiday, so the office has a party for employees' children only. Lucky for me, because my poetry is not great!

The tradition is that Sinterklaas takes a boat from Spain with his Zwarte Piet helpers to the Netherlands to deliver all the presents to the children. Once he gets to the Netherlands (around the middle of November), there are a lot of parades and he travels throughout the country to schools to visit the children.

There is some controversy over the holiday, though... well, more with the Zwarte Piets. Especially by people who aren't familiar with the tradition and didn't grow up with it. People dress up and paint their faces black in order to be the Black Pete character. Even little kids dress up like this for the holiday and they have masks that have black faces. It's strange to see. The Petes are said to have the black faces because of the soot from chimneys. Last year, they tried to change the image and make the Petes different colors like red, purple, blue, yellow, etc. (saying they passed through a rainbow while on the boat ride from Spain), but that idea really didn't take.

Here's a pic of Sinterklaas and two Zwarte Piets:

Wynand Fockink and my dinner

A place everyone should stop for a quick drink when visiting Amsterdam... Wynand Fockink:



It's a distillery with a small tasting room that originally opened in 1679. The tasting room is very popular... this is where the "slurping" happens. Flavored liquers are served in small cordial glasses that when filled up can't be moved without spilling. So, everyone leans over, puts their hands behind their backs, slurps off the top of the drink and then picks it up to drink the rest... you don't want to miss out on any of the good stuff! : )

Dinner... I am still trying to figure out what to eat here. I've picked a few bad things already from the store. Apparently, I've forgotten what I used to get last year or it just isn't tasting the same to me. Since I don't really cook much and they don't have all the frozen food options that I'm used to in the States, I bought some of these:



Kip Good Noodles (aka Dutch Ramen Noodles)... yeah, I feel like I'm back in college eating these, but until I find some other stuff I like or learn how to use my crazy stove... Good Noodles it is!

It's been sooooo cold here the past couple of days (probably still warmer than Chicago, though)! I have a "fireplace"... I fired up the thing tonight because it is freezing in my apartment. It works great! I'm nice and toasty now! : )



Tonight, I'm planning to do some research on places to visit while I'm over here. We are trying to do a quick trip this weekend, but can't decide on where to go... probably somewhere by train since we've all been flying so much lately.

Oh, I almost forgot... good luck to team Jack and Coke (Matt and Andy) in their Euchre championship game tonight!

Outrageous

Tonight, Meg and I stopped by this gym that is close to where we live to see how much it would cost to join for the short time we are here in Amsterdam. Meg's Lonely Planet book said they have a tourist rate of 29 Euros a month, which we thought would be really good. The place was similar to Bally's. We got the tour and heard the whole spiel before they would tell us the price... turns out the place has a 40 Euro administration fee, a 150 Euro start-up fee and is 80 Euros a month. The guy tried to entice us to join by waiving the 150 Euro fee and charging us only 1 Euro for that. So, for three months, I would have to pay 281 Euros, which is like over $400. My company will let us expense the cost of a gym, but not that much. We have two other places to check out that aren't as close to where we live. It will probably be the gym that is farthest away that is the cheapest.

Sushi Night

Today was so rainy and windy... it felt like Chicago! Meg and I went to the train station to get train passes and then did some shopping. But, we didn't want to be outside too long considering how crappy the weather was. Good thing I brought back some movies with me from the States... I watched Wedding Crashers.

Tonight, Meg and I went to A-Fusion for dinner, which is an awesome asian/sushi restaurant not too far from where we live. Josh and I used to go there last year and they have really good sushi rolls... especially the spicy tuna roll! It's made different than what I'm used to... here, they put the spicy stuff on the top of the roll - like chili pepper type powder stuff and pepper and sesame seeds. It clears the sinuses right up! : )

Meg and Bryan are in the NL now, too

I woke up early today to get out to the airport to meet Meg and Bryan. Their flight arrived around 7am. We first stopped off at Amsterdam to drop Meg off at our apartment building. She is staying in the same building as me, but the apartment above me. Then, I went with Bryan to Rotterdam to meet up with a girl from our office that had the keys to Bryan's place. All went very smoothly... I was back home by about 2pm. I slept off and on most of the afternoon.

Matt and I tried out the internet phone calling today, but I think my headset is crappy because it kept muting on me and wouldn't un-mute until we ended the call and started a new one. Totally sucks! I'm going to buy a new headset and see if that helps. Hope so, because it would save SO much money to be able to talk over Skype instead of calling cards and cell phones.

Tonight, Meg and I went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant... the food was pretty good and I ended up with some leftovers for tomorrow. We each also got a rose from the waiter. : )



Then, we walked home with a little detour through the RLD since Meg had never seen it before. I thought since we lived so close to it, she should know where it's at just in case she accidentally ends up taking a shortcut through there sometime. It's a big NO-NO to take pictures in the RLD... if someone sees you, they will take your camera away (and could possibly beat you up if you are too obvious about it). I found this pic online (which is pretty tame)... just to give you an idea of what it's like. Basically, it's set up with a bunch of buildings with small rooms, each with a window in the front and red lights around the window. There is a curtain in the window that is open when the place is "open for business"; otherwise the curtain is closed.