Archive for July, 2009

Wafflin’ on

31/07/2009

Currently I’m enjoying a cold and refreshing glass of Jupiler with the Antwerp sunshine cast over me. Not a bad way to spend half an hour.

The city seems pretty cool, again it’s quite pretty but there seems to be a fair bit going on too.

Cathedral of Our Lady was the only landmark I took in but it was probably the biggest cathedral I’d ever been in and has oodles of impressive art pieces in it that made it worth the visit.

I’ve not ate in ages and I’ve had my eye one one of those beaut looking waffles since I landed in Flemland so I reckon that will be my next task, followed by the train home.

I’m going to have to stop visiting so many cities or I’ll have to get a seperate back-pack for my fridge magnets, they’re coming thick and fast. Day trips are deadly to us frid. mag. cols.

Tomorrow we will be day trippers in Gunt, sorry I mean Gent. Trains are dirt cheap at the weekend (Friday inclusive) which is good, it only cost me a bit over 6 Euros for a return fare today. I’m hoping this will mean it will be cheap to get to Luxembourg on Sunday.

As we will be out pretty early tomorrow in the interest of it actually happening we are just going to have some cans in the flat tonight and watch some episodes of the brilliant Band of Brothers, which arrived in the post for Pekka from Play.com the other day. Anyway, we’re out properly tomorrow night.

Waffle update: it was probably one of the most unhealthy things I’ve ever ate (cream and chocolate oozed all over the bugger) but unlike a fried Mars bar, it was well worth it.

The picture is of a gimp-suit shop I walked passed in Antwerp, you know, like you do.

PS Jimbo, the address you gave me was spot on, you owe me 120 Euros all in with the p&p. Don’t say I never do nowt for ya.

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Mussels from Brussels

30/07/2009

I watched ‘In The Name of The Father’ last night which I thought was excellent but was dissapointed when I done a fair bit of reading afterwards and discovered that half of it was fabricated. This spoiled it somewhat for me as some subjects are too important to have daft amounts of Hollywood poetic-linense applied to them.

Antwerp was supposed to be on the agenda today but I couldn’t be bothered so went for a walk round Brussels instead. I’ll do ‘twerp tomorrow.

One place I visited while on walk about was The Belgian Comic Stip Centre which I found to be rubbish, at least for non Flemish or French speakers. It’s not like I’m into comics but they do have certain charms, I used to read Judge Dread as a kid and I still love Tin Tin, so I thought I’d see what the place was like and kill some time. Unfortunately I’d say 95% of the exhibts and exhibit information are not in English, they do give you a little A4 folder with some stuff in English but it’s only a fraction.

I met Pekka in the Grand Place when he had finished work and we went for a couple of beers in the Che Habana Cafe I had spotted earlier. It was actually pretty good, I thought it might be a cheap souless cash-in but it had an authentic Cuban feel to it. We tried a Kriek cherry beer (Belgian) and then a Cubaner (Cuban beer funnily enough).

After that we went to get some scran from one of the countless restaurants in the area. Traditional Belgian mussels and fries were what we had in mind.

We sat down at one gaff but decided to try else where as the prices were considerably heftier than most other places we had past, this is where events took a turn for a worse. Both the table and the seats were wobbly and as Pekka rose from his chair the table was nudged and my wine glass and a fair bit of cuttlery went flying loudly enough to cause a stir from the guests at our restaraunt and also several others in close proximity, what was worse was that my wine glass had not smashed but half landed in a titled position on my wrist so that in the half second I had to remedy the situation my life flashed before my eyes and I turned my hand and grasped at the base of the glass but it was not to be, crash and more jeers from people of many nations. Of course the made it all the more embarassing to leave so we sat down and literally stomached the inflated costs. We are one slick pair of muddas.

PS Lame post title again but we’ve been through this people.

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In Bruges

29/07/2009

I’m just on my way to Bruges now after having ordered a return ticket and enquired which platform the train departs from, all in French. I do struggle a bit with mimicking the accent but I think that’s partly because I resent having to.

You see it’s perfectly acceptable for David Ginola to turn up on Match of The Day’s World Cup coverage, flick his flowing locks a few times, wink at Des and then proceed to knock out excellent standard English but with a completely blatant French accent. So why is the reverse considered uncouth. I’d love to be fluent but say everything in a ‘mad for it style’, that’d get right on their nerves.

26 Euros for a return, not too bad but maybe a little pricey when it’s only an hour away. It may transpire that it could work out to be cheaper to have got an interrail ticket, or a series of different interrail tickets. The problem is with the amount of complicated options available married to the endless possibilities and variables of my route, it’s basically a bastard to work out. So I’m winging it and hoping I get lucky.

The first place I visited was the Our Lady’s Church with the building itself being pretty good but the paintings, sculptures and carvings it houses being the real treat. There was one 16th century sculpture of The Madonna (I knew mad Madge was getting on a bit but that shocked me that did) and Child by Michelangelo that was particularly good.

After that I went up The Belfort which should be 8 Euros to over 25s but the lady decided to charge me the under 25s price of 4 Euros so I wasn’t complaining. It was quite the walk up the 366 steps in cramped conditions but it gave a good view of the city rooftops when I finally got there. Just before the top I had a little rest in a small room as there was a sign up saying the different tunes that would be played every quarter hour by the bell I think (but that doesn’t sound right?), anyway at half past it was supposed to be ‘Oh Danny Boy’ and it was only 5 minutes off so I hung about, it never materialised though.

Next up I had a look round the Salvador Dali Museum-Gallery adjacent to the Belfry, 8 Euros in on a student card. It was quite small so I wasn’t there too long but I enjoyed it, surrealism appeals to me.

Lastly I sampled a little bag of authentic Belgian chocolates from Chocolaterie De Burg. Yum and yum once more is all I can say, beaut they was.

So all in all even though I was only there a short while I managed to squeeze a fair bit in and I warmed to Bruges. It’s a very pretty city but still nothing has come close to the beauty of Praha for me.

The journey home doesn’t look like it’s going to be much fun, the aisles of a pretty long train are jam packed never mind the seating and there is a baby screaming like I’ve never heard, I reckon it’s possessed. Still, only an hour. Actually, a load of people have got off in Gent so my gluteus maximus is now happily parked on a seat.

PS I know it’s a lame post title today but since when has that bothered me, or you. I don’t even like the flick.

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Battle of the Bulge

28/07/2009

We just took it fairly easy last night, I was knackered as i’d been up to 5 the night before and my accommodating Finnish host had work in the morning. A nice meal out in a very European restaurant (I had stoemp saucesses which is basically bangers ‘n mash) washed down with a few bières blanches and that was us.

I’ve awoken very late after having slept like a baby (which is a stupid saying, I didn’t wake up, scream and cry loudly, then have a glass of milk and nod off again 3 or 4 times through the night) so I won’t do too much today. A little trundle back into the city centre maybe but I need to spend a bit of time planning stuff.

A basic plan has started to formulate. I reckon I’ll stay here until Saturday, that way me and the Peckster can have a proper night out on Friday. As Belgium is pretty small I may do a few day trips on the train to places like Antwerp and Brugges. Come Saturday I reckon I’ll head to Luxembourg on the way to Germany. Anyway that’s the rough first draft readers.

Many hours later and I now have a more concrete plan. I’m going to stay in Brussels until Sunday and then go to Luxembourg for 2 nights (I’ve booked a hostel) and then get a train to Cologne.

Other German cities I will likely take in are Bremen, Hamburg and Berlin. I did fancy Munich too but it’s a bit out of the way so I might have to leave that for another time.

Tomorrow I’m going to head to Brugges for the day, Antwerp on Thursday and then Pekka will come with me to Gent on Saturday.

This evening we went to a decent local restaraunt and then to a couple of bars for some fine Belgian lagers. The Bismark pizza (ham and eggs) I had was belter. I’m enjoying this Flemish cusine a little too much.

A famous but less than impressive IMHO Brussels landmark was viewed while near the main Grand-Place, The Manneken Pis. It’s a statue of a little boy pissing that is supposed to embody the irreverent spirit of the city (according to my rough guide to Europe anyway). I did get a wee fridge magnet of it mind, and so it begins again.

I watched the rest ot the ‘The Baader Meinhof Complex’ when I got in after taking in the 1st half this afternoon. Interesting stuff. Ridiculous levels of hypocrisy shown by the ‘revolutionaries’ though.

The photo is of the mint birthday card Pekka got me.

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Palermo calling

14/07/2009

I was planning on being away by Thursday but the twonks at Nationwide have other ideas. I’d got my new bank card but some numpty I was dealing with misunderstood the request I was making and has proceeded to cancel that one and order me a new one putting me back to square uno. So I’m thinking Monday is realistic now.

Also the Vespa is back on the agenda as it’s the way I really want to do it and I’ve been pricing up the InterRail stuff and if you’re 26 or over it’s not really a good deal, you’d have to be pretty much travelling all the time I think for it to make sense. It wouldn’t give me the freedom I want from this trip either.

My mate is working on the scoot at the moment so I’ll see what the outcome is on that one. If it looks rosey I’ll just make sure that I have decent European break down cover that includes transport all the way back to Albion if I can’t fix it myself or a local garage can’t. It wouldn’t be an ideal scenario but as long as I didn’t have to pay to get it shipped back I think it’s worth the risk, I’d just get a budget flight back to Europe then maybe and carry on where I left off (depending how far into the trip I was anyway).

If the Vespa isn’t going to be sorted anytime soon I will just make my way to France and play it by ear all the way, sorting 1 leg at a time in the cheapest fashion possible. That’s hobo style.

Picture is of a street sign that caught my eye in Niagara.

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Send the blogger back

06/07/2009

Hello all, it’s been a little while hasn’t it?

Just a short post to say that it looks like my adventures will be continuing on the train. I’m still having a lot of trouble with the Vespa and even if I get it sorted now I wouldn’t be confident taking it without getting some decent miles on the clock first. It could prove very costly if I had to ship it back to Blighty from the mainland.

I assure you I will one day ride the 2006 PX I own from Manchester to Palermo though, or the same frame anyway!

So over the coming days I’ll be sorting out my plans. I will post a rough route once decided, it’s going to be a lot looser than the US trip though, which will be a nice change.

Lastly, you may have noticed some minor improvents to the site, yep there are finally pictures! I’m just putting the best ones on Flickr and a greater quantity on Facebook. There is also now a search tool and a tag cloud to mess about with. Blimey it’s all happening.

The pic is of the Flight of the Conchords apartment.

Be with you again shortly readers.

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