In Brussels

It’s funny—my trip to Brussels today has reminded me of my first trip to Brussels.

On my first trip to Brussels, I flew in from Newark and made my way to the train station in the basement, where I bought a ticket to Rotterdam Centraal. I was charged some astronomical number that caused me to nearly have a heart attack—this was before the Euro was a physical currency—it was merely a theoretical currency. Fortunately they listed the fare in Euros—roughly 21€–something I did know about and something that relaxed me.

The first thing I remembered about the airport was a walk through a long tunnel from the airplane to immigration; this time I was in a light and airy concourse with slightly odd advertisements for Coke until I had to go through a perplexing maze of escalators and tunnels to get to baggage claim.

Last time I was in Brussels I knew very little about the city; and, quite frankly, I am ashamed to admit that I still do not know a lot about the city. This trip is dominated by meetings—starting tomorrow morning at 11—so I won’t be looking around the city too much. I will make it through the Grand Place and wander by the Manneken Pis—the enduring symbol of Belgium and, I think inappropriately, object used to promote drinking Coke.

After getting lost trying to find my hotel (I took what should have been a 10-15 minute walk and turned it into an hour long excursion to nowhere), I grabbed a quick shower and then headed out for dinner. My hotel is essentially in the middle of the gay district and in my brief walk I saw a dozen gay bars, book shops, and leather shops before finding Fanny Thai, my stop for dinner. I picked the restaurant because of the three Thai restaurants in a row, it was the only one that was busy. My selection criteria worked. The four course set menu I chose was awesome and filled with incredible flavors. Like after my trip to Armenia, I am wondering why I tend to settle for bland German cuisine so often. There really is very little exciting about bratwurst in comparison to the ginger, basil and other flavors I couldn’t identify at dinner.

It’s 9:30 and I am already back at my hotel for the evening. It’s been a long day and I feel like crashing already.