Adventures in Brooklyn Heights

Now safely in Brussels, have walked quite a bit, perhaps in circles until I found the Mont des Artes (sp?), which was basically behind Brussels Central, where I started. Yeah, so still figuring out basic directions. I am trying to conjure sense out of well, nothing. Matthew will be quite helpful in this situation: he has the male instinct of protection and has a keen sense of direction. Someday I will learn. Maybe first thing, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Got it. Now if only I can find the North Star.

I am at the 10th floor of the Musée des Instruments de Musique (MIM) having coffee. I have a spectacular view of Brussels. I can see the Atomium from where I am sitting. Life is pretty good. Meanwhile I struggle with my French. Theoretically I have working knowledge of the damn language but my serveuse today looked like she was having a lobotomy listening to me enunciate “la cuisine va ouvrir à quelle heure?”. In the course of the next ten minutes though, I think I got better. I successfully ordered a carpaccio de boeuf (just got here as I am writing this actually) and une verre de jus de tomates. I should probably eat. So I will get back to writing in a second.

Funny anecdote I just remembered: to get to this restaurant, one has to take an extremely old school elevator to the last floor. Also, this is apparently a very kid-oriented museum, so a barrage of 12-year olds came on the 3rd floor. Everyone knows I am on the midget side so I tower over exactly none of them. One boy decided to speak with me and was asking if the 6th floor was the right floor for something in a very loud voice. The rest of the group shushed him. It was very funny. I said, je ne sais pas, quietly. On their way out he apologized to me and blurted out a “vous êtes très jolie.”. Ha, I got that one. Kid’s got game. He will do well in life. Okay, back to my boeuf.

I was hoping there was wifi in this overpriced cafe. But no. I am willing to pay the price because of the view. It is pretty great. The beef is also not so bad. I can hardly find any wifi in Brussels. I didn’t think that would be the case. At least in Paris every little cafe seems to offer wifi gratuit.

A ton of people just came in the restaurant. I think the game plan is to leave your children to roam the collection of musical instruments and chill at the cafe. That sounds pretty good. I will take note of that for future reference.

Alright I am getting out of here.

I am currently in Montréal for my connection to Brussels. This year has started off quite strongly in the travel department, and we only just started Q2.

By the way, I am writing quite abruptly by encouragement of a dear friend, who incidentally, apart from Suri’s Burnbook is the only one I read in Tumblr these days.

So I am off to Brussels for half a day before hopefully finding my way from The city centre to Charleroi Sud without wanting to cut Ryanair’s throat. No violence, I hope. I am going to be in Budapest for a couple of days to visit a very good friend from college, who is now living the dream as a tax lawyer among cute Hungarians. I mean, if you are going to be a tax lawyer, that’s the way to do it.

I am hopefully going to write about last month’s trip to Saigon, Barcelona and a surprisingly stellar 17 hours in Düsseldorf, Germany where currywursts are tops and the alstadtbummel is as fun as it sounds. And then maybe I will say something about this trip. Right now I am contemplating about going to the duty free shop right in front of me and getting the tiniest perfume. I am not checking any bag so I skimped on the liquids. Hmm. I am not as interesting as I thought. But hold your horses, we are just in the airport ou aeroport I guess.

This is the first time I am traveling to Europe alone. The husband is on a conference in Frankfurt so I decided to have a little fun on my own. Yeah, conferences are not much fun per se but at least you get to fly business. I on the other hand am weighing and re-weighing my cabin luggage lest Ryanair makes me pay 50 euros for hold baggage. Bleh.

Anyway, in a few hours, Bruxelles! I get to practice my French again. Let’s hope I am able to sleep on the plane.

C’est tout. La prochaine ville, Bruxelles. Bisous, tout le monde.

March was Saigon, Barcelona and Düsseldorf, April is Brussels and Budapest and May will be Montréal. Cheers to lovely travels!