So then I arrived in (note: if this is NOT the third city you are reading about, scroll down to the entry from the 21st or 20th!) ...

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

Ok, well that picture is maybe a little old :) Someone or other was digging and came across this site, and then they excavated it and build a museum around it, and the ceiling is glass so that you can see it as you walk by on the street. I took this picture through the overhead window, but I'd love to go back and go inside another time. Anyways, my host met me at the train station. I had had to make a hard decision about who to stay with. My choices were José, a 21 year old math grad student from Venezuela and Julio, a 29 year old customer service rep from Spain. Anyways, from reading comments on the website I could tell that Julio would be able to tell me a lot more about the history of the city and show me all the sights and everything and had more experience hosting people in general. But in the end I decided that I would rather stay with someone my own age with similar interests. So here's José. He studies topology and is a pretty laid back guy. He's in Belgium to learn French.

We headed back to his place to drop off my stuff, made some food, and then headed out. This is the view from the balcony of his apartment, which he shares with a girl from Switzerland. She was off visiting family and friends. They also have a really colorful kitchen. So, without further ado, the view from the balcony:

There's a church just out of sight on the right side of the picture. Apparently the proximity of the church was a deciding factor in his current religiosity. As we walked we passed this (other) church, in front of which were the ricey remains of a wedding:

And a skatepark (it's down there in the shadows of the picture, I swear! ps Look at the beautiful clouds!!)

And then we encountered a crowd.

They were near the statue that you see in the background, apparently one of the most famous things in Belgium. It's a peeing boy. I'm not really sure why it's so famous. Hang on. Here, read all you want about him: http://www.trabel.com/brussel/brussel-manneken.htm Anyways, they had a mobile one out as well as the fountain one. And it was on a cart with a means of operating it from behind, so they were chasing people around and squirting them. It was all quite festive. There was even free beer. Ok, so here's a picture with both in it.

We also many different varieties of street music:

And we were late to meet some friends of José's. Eventually we met up with Kristoff (I am not actually so sure about the spelling of his name) and umm, I forget the other guys name. Then I hung out with Kristoff for a while and ate pizza while the other went off to do something, I forget what. Kristoff's pretty awesome. He's from Germany, been doing a United Nations internship as an economist. Crazy how I tend to meet those types! And he's 2 meters tall. NOT that that matters at all :D No, but really, he was a lot of fun to talk to. And then the 4 of us all went to a traditional pub thing and had some beer, and then headed off to a concert, where we had some more beer. There exists in Belgium the most delicious cherry flavored beer... Anyways, we walked...

And came to our destination, an Iris Jenkins concert, on one of many stages running because of a big music festival going on. She was pretty good! I don't know French, but c'est la Vie...

And then, we were sitting around enjoying the concert, when someone tapped me on the shoulder. "Are you Kim?" "Yes?... Oh my gosh! You're Martina!!" Both of us: "Whoah!!" Ok, yeah, listen to how crazy this is: Martina had wanted to host me through couchsurfers, but then one her roommates decided at the last minute that he wasn't ok with having a stranger over. The city of Brussels has over a million people. Including the metropolitan area doubles it. Plus the city was swelled for the festival. Somehow, we happened to show up at the same show. And she recognized me, on the basis of a picture online, FROM THE BACK. She basically recognized my hair. And so she circled around once to see my face, decided there was a good chance it was me, and came up to see. It was basically the craziest thing ever! Oh, I guess I should add that something similar had happened to José while we were at the peeing boy, where he met someone he had been intending to meet but before he had expected to. But MY experience was totally the craziest! I love couchsurfing! So we chilled out at the concert for a bit, then Martina and I headed off to get changed at our respective places-of-sleeping. On my way back to José's I saw:

Ok, I know it looks like any old church. But look closer! That's Hebrew around that curve! I've never noticed that on a church before. Maybe it's really old? Or just really in touch with its Jewish roots? Or Jewish, I suppose, but if you saw it, it generally screams "church." Which is why I was so intrigued by the Hebrew writing on it.

The above picture is the obligatory "I-saw-the-atomium-if-only-from-a-distance" picture.

"Built for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (Expo '58), the 103-metre (335-foot) tall Atomium monument represents a unit cell of an iron crystal (body-centred cubic), magnified 165 billion times, with vertical body diagonal, with tubes along the 12 edges of the cube and from all 8 vertices to the centre. Nine steel spheres 18 metres in diameter connect via tubes with escalators as long as 35 m, among the longest in Europe. Windows in the top sphere provide a panoramic view of Brussels. Other spheres have 1950s exhibitions. Three upper spheres lacking vertical support are not open to the public for safety reasons."

For more, see the rest of the Wikipedia article. Here's just a random chunch of the skyline:

And I'm back to José's. Well, mostly. I misremembered which door was his, so spent a while trying all 4 keys on the key ring on 5 different doors. Eventually I stepped back and figured out which is must be based on where his balcony was. It turned out to be the door next to the one that I tried originally.

I guess it's hard to read here, but the subtitles on the sign for "Andalouse" are in Arabic. There's a lot of Arabic influence in Brussels.

This rooftop made me think nostalgically of the chimney-sweep scene from Mary Poppins.

Anyways, I got into the apartment. I had been allotted time for "being a girl." I spent almost all of it reading Harry Potter. Then I quickly changed into my dress and headed out. The plan was to meet a whole BUNCH of couchsurfers for another concert at 9pm. After getting lost and walking around with a guy from Afghanistan for a while, I eventually met everyone else at the old Stock Exchange building. There were several residents of Brussels as well as a few other visitors who came with there hosts. There was a young couple from Seattle and a pair of girls just out of high school from Australia. We numbered at least 20, all told. And so we set off for the Grand'Place, touted as one of the most beautiful town squares in Europe. We had been through earlier as well. It's pretty by day, and so cool at night!

I guess the pictures a bit unclear. The bottom mass is a mass of people, there's a stage on the left, and we're in a huge historical square. It was really cool because one of the natives was telling a couple of us all about the history of various buildings around and in the background there was all this awesome rock music going on. The buildings include a row of guild houses from all the prominent professions of back-in-the-day, the Town Hall, and the Bread House. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) named it a World Heritage Site in 1998. Actually, I've seen several World Heritage Sites in the past months, I just haven't been mentioning them. Having concerts with lightshows in old places is so excellent!

After a while, we slowly organized part of the mob to go Salsa dancing, which Martina and I had been angling for for a while. We eventually got 10+ people down to a little Salsa Club, and had a great time. Until 5 in the morning. Near the end I began to lose my voice. I had been feeling better after the restful night at Valérie's, but by 5 in the morning I was feeling it. Oh, and NEVER EVER walk around Europe in high heels! It is the dumbest thing ever! You know all those cute cobblestones that are everywhere? They are completely treacherous to walk on. Ugh. Anyways, sorry for that outburst :D It was actually a great night, don't listen to anything my feet say. So it was 5am and I knew that if I went to sleep I would sleep for A Long Time. Which would have jeoporadized my next sleeping arrangements, because I had a good 8 to 9 hours of travel ahead of me. But since I had agreed to surf José's couch, I did so, albeit quickly:

(Do you like my new dress?) And then I was off. José was nice enough to walk me to the train station before going back to his place to collapse himself. I spent an hour at the station, reading Harry Potter (of course :D) Here is the train station at 6 am, approximately as I, with my blurry eyes, saw it.

It was actually kindof neat to see the train station 'wake up.' And then I found my train a little before 7am, and found a place to sleep. Unfortunately I was joined by a sketchy guy, so I only slept for the hour that I desperately needed, and then I woke up and read Harry Potter. Eventually a couple of families came it. One of the little kids kept trying to walk under the table without ducking, but was 3 inches too tall for that. I got tired of moving my hand in to block it from hitting its head, and eventually just leaned over and left my hand there. Eventually I had to get off of my nice ICE onto a Regional train. And then I arrived at my destination. But I was So Close to finishing Harry Potter that I got off the train and sat down on the platform and finished reading :D And then I made my way out of the station to see...

KONSTANZ, GERMANY

Konstanz is a little University town of 80,000 on Lake Constance. Lake Constance is this really awesome lake. One of the things that attracted me to it, of course, is that it is shared by 3 countries, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. This is me with my host, Melly:

Inconveniently enough, I had gradually lost my voice over the course of the morning, meaning that I was incapable of anything beyond a broken whisper by the time I arrived in Konstanz. I was also really congested, terribly tired, my feet were still sore and complaining, and I had a really nice bruise left over from clumsiness the night before. In this state, I met Melly and her friend Pipo. I have no idea how to spell Pipo's name. She's Finnish. And it's a nickname for something harder :D Anyways, they met me on the Fahrradsbrücke. They had just been sitting along the river relaxing. Here are some pictures from that area:

We went back to Melly's place and relaxed, I got to have a shower, we listened to some music and made some food. They were so amazing for me! For one thing, they insisted that I relax and enjoy myself. But what really was nice was that Pipo had the same terrible cough. I mean, it was terrible that she did, just as it was miserable for me. But I didn't have to feel like a sick leper, and instead had someone to commiserate with. We climbed out the window to eat on a porch that we didn't technically have access to, and had a nice, relaxed dinner and conversation. Then we watched 'When Harry Met Sally," apparently one of the many classic american movies of which I have been ignorant. (The movie stars Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan.) I have a couple of assignments to take care of watching once I'm back in the US :) And we had yummy snacks! And then we watched an episode of Friends (the first I had ever seen... it was amusing) before falling asleep. And sleeping until noon. That was nice; it's been too long! Well, actually I slept until 6am Boston time, 5am Wisconsin time. But thinking about it that way ruins my sense of slothful satisfaction, so I won't ;)

In the morning we got up and went for a walk. Here's Melly picking a pear; yay pear trees!

Oh, and Melly is an amazing painter, too. Her work is so beautiful! If I had a picture, I would definitely show you, but sadly I don't.

Just a street...

We stopped at the Creperie where Melly works and her friend made me a free crepe! I chose the nougat and creme one :D What an excellent job...

Then we walked over the Swiss border and I bought some chocolate. And then we went down by the lake to relax...

Ahh... such a nice vacation spot :D

This statue (of a woman, I guess the pictures's not clear... ask if you really want to see a detailed picture of her) was controversial when put up. It revolves! (on the end of the pier. which we walked :) )

So, it was really nice and relaxing. They invited me to stay another day, but I decided to go back to Kassel. We walked to the train station. After they left, there was a brief moment of panic when it seemed that I would not be able to get back before morning. But that got sorted out and I got in to Kassel at 11pm, my time of course.

And the next day I slept late, posted the first entry about the weekend, bought myself some green tea, took a nap, went to the gym, and went to sleep again. It was fairly low-key and restful.

And today I went to work (we have new offices!) and got to work on a different project (yay change of pace!) and generally had a good day. And then bought some groceries, ate some, and got myself to the internet, where I've been ever since :D

My mood is well expessed by this snippet of conversation via gmail chat yesterday:

me:   yeah, see you in a week!! we’re going home!!
Carolyn:   finally! Yay!
Me:   :)

Let me out!! I want to go home!!

Kim

Ok, continuing the epic story of my weekend that I began to tell yesterday. And also fixing the Grand Duchess Charlotte picture, which for some reason didn't show up in yesterday's post.

Right, so I had been in beautiful Luxembourg:

But then I left via train...

And the sun set...

And I arrived in... (I'll bet you can't guess!) ...

MONS, BELGIUM!

See, I told you you couldn't guess! So, I was in Mons because I had been talking to another couchsurfer about going there for over a month, and because it is smaller and therefore not so touristy, and because why not? So Valérie met me at the train station and took me to her absolutely amazing apartment. And we had a little bit of dinner and then went for a walk around the city at night. Here are some pictures:

Those, incidentally, are The Original Fries. French fries are not in fact of french origin; they ought to be called Belgian fries. We went to this little place that I would never have looked at twice, but Valérie says that people come from all over to eat there. And it was, in fact, packed with customers. Mmm, those were delicious. Served with mayonaisse and spices, as tasty as it is traditional.

And then we went back and I got to check my email (WHY does every single country in the EU insist up having a unique arrangement of keys on their keyboard?? Grr...) and go to sleep! Yay, sleep! Here's my guest room:

I'm assuming that Valérie got the decorations on her semi-recent trip to Morocco. Oh, I guess I haven't properly introduced Valérie. Ok, well, she's lived in Mons most of her life, majored in archaeology, and is now working at a bookstore. She has a cat and, like most Belgians, speaks French. Oh, yeah. On the way there I had a great conversation with a hairdresser. Especially great because of how little English she spoke and my even more scant French! We actually managed a fair conversation. Anyways, other things about Valérie: she used to play the violin, has a couple of siblings, and was an amazing host!

So in the morning she woke me up for breakfast at 8 and then headed off for work 20 minutes later. I used the computer a bit, still ironing out what I was doing for the next couple of nights. I hadn't had any replies about the next night, but then suddenly had 2, and I had to make a tough decision. And I showered and went on a daytime tour of the city by myself. The weather was nice :) Pictures:

I think this is a famous statue that Valérie told me about the night before, when the church was closed.

The Golden Coach. 'The Procession of the Golden Coach is one of the most important historical and religious events of the country and dates back to the 14th century. On Trinity Sunday, the coach parades across the town the reliquary shrine containing relics of Saint Waudru. At the ascent of the Rampe Sainte-Waudru, the crowd helps the horses pull the coach and a real human tide pushes the Golden Coach up the incline.' (One of my favorite tricks for retaining information is to take a picture of the explanatory sign by something. And I think they forgot the word 'to.' in their English translation. But there you have the text verbatim.)

Isn't he cute :)

This dragon is important to the city. Every year they have some sort of festival and people dress up as knights and try to take the fire from the dragon, or something. But we're friends:

This is the amazing fries place (Friterie) by day, looking all deserted:

And then I considered going to an art exhibition (surrealism at the beaux-arts mons), but decided against. I tried to go back to Valérie's place, but somehow got completely lost instead. For at least an hour. But I made it back, despite the fact that everyone spoke French and I didn't remember Valérie's address. I tried pointing to a picture taken near her place (the first one I showed you of Mons, of a WWII monument with red flowers planted in the shape of a heart in front.) But eventually I gave that up. At one point I met a stray cat and let it lead me. I'm not kidding. It was so friendly :) At another point I cleverly realized that GB on an EU license plate means Great Britan and asked the people in the RV for directions, but they had just got into town as well. Eventually I found the big round church again and was able to backtrack from there.

So I packed up my stuff, tried to be helpful by washing the breakfast dishes and tidying up my room, locked the door behind me and left the spare key in the mailbox.

I had to run part of the way to the train station, but got there with about 59 seconds to spare! Then I headed off to...

Well, I guess I'll write about that tomorrow :P Because right now it's my bedtime.

Wow. I am now at the end of the 4th day of a 5 day weekend. Yep, 5 days! I asked for Friday and Monday off, and Herr Foth said that I might as well take Tuesday as well, since we're changing offices at the beginning of the week and there won't be much to do since all the computers and things have to be set up again. So, it's been a crazy time. The amt of sleep I've gotten in consecutive nights, beginning with Wednesday: 11, 2, 8, 1, 12! I decided to fit everything that I've been meaning to do but haven't into this weekend so that my last weekend will be free for trying to pack 3 suitcases worth of things into 2. I spent all of Thursday night/Friday morning posting that last journal entry about last weekend, doing laundry, straightening up the apartment, finalizing arrangements for the weekend, and of course packing my bag. I am so proud of how my packing skills have improved. I packed everything I needed into one non-bulging backpack! And I had everything I needed to travel comfortably and no extras. I even got to bring my laptop! Anyways, I took a 4am (4.01, actually) train out of Kassel, and a little over 7 hours later was in Luxembourg! I got a couple of hours of sleep on the first train (of 4). After that I read some Harry Potter, having acquired a digital copy. And then I arrived in:

LUXEMBOURG

Luxembourg's a pretty spiffy country. I think I read that the people there have the longest life expectancy in the world. And the highest GPC. The kids are taught in Luxembourgish when they are young, then French, and later German. They must be proficient in all to pass a test at the end of their education. And of course they study some English along the way as well. Luxembourg is also the cleanest place I remember being. I saw exactly one instance of graffiti, and it was small. In Prague, incidentally, there is 3D grafitti. It was crazy. Anyways, here are pictures!

On the train ride:

When I finally got into the train station I was a little bit nonplussed, because one of my trains was late which pushed back everything and I got in a little later than planned, and I had barely slept, and I had only eaten a little bit at the Frankfurt station along the way. And the weather was being iffy. And I was feeling a bit of a cold threatening to come on. And I didn't really have a plan for what I was going to do in Luxembourg. But then I looked around, and realized that it was beautiful. This is the ceiling of the train station:

I stopped in the information room considered taking a bus tour of the city, but decided against and walked into it instead. It was about a 10 minute walk in. Here are a couple of shots taken as I walked into the city:

They film movies here for some reason... :D

This picture was taken for the fountain in the lower right. In the background is the Ancient Jesuit College turned National Library. On the very right you see a little of the Cathedral to the Blessed Virgin.

Inside the Cathedral:

I walked downtown, but then it started to rain. So I stopped for some coffee to soothe my worsening throat and some food because it looked yummy. Which cheered me up. I realized once again how important food is to my mood when I haven't slept. These fruit-topped pastries are common in Germany and apparently Luxembourg. Mmm!

Then I wandered around aimlessly for a little bit and came upon a sign for an exciting looking tour. So I tracked down the tourism office that the poster referred to. It turns out this tour is only for families; I am too old and/or single to have fun. But I found what turned out to be better for me: a pamphlet-guided walking tour. I headed out and found the first building. And was promply confused. The pamphlet says, "Town Hall: built 1830-1838 in neoclassical style, site of the formed Franciscan convent." It looks like this:

The words above the door and under the flags say: Hotel de Ville. I spent a while looking at it more closely and trying to determine whether it was the town hall or a hotel. Eventually I asked a couple of german women if they knew, and one of them explained to me that hotel means town hall in Luxembourgish. "Es vie ein Hotel für Chefs" is how we rationalized it, actually. Hotel also means hotel in Luxembourgish. It reminds me of the day last week when my boss asked me to explain the difference between 'please' and 'you're welcome,' since both map to 'bitte' in German. So, moving on, here is a statue of King and Grand Duke William II of Orange-Nassau, who granted the Grand Duchy its first parliamentary constitution, presumably between 1840 and 1849, when he was ruling.

And here's Palace of the Grand Dukes, parts of which date to 1572.

And then I found music store with a sale on CDs. The most amusing of which was Hillbillies from Outer Space. In my opinion :)

I realize that the pictures I am showing you look bright and sunny. That's because they're the pretty ones. However, a good half of my pictures are dark and cloudy. The weather was completely ridiculous. I put my sweater on and took it off once every 5 minutes. Anyways, here is another spot of sun lighting up the Dicks-Lentz Monument, erected in 1903 to pay homage to the two national poets Dicks and Lentz.

And here I am in front of a valley. This picture was pretty hard to take, what with the wind blowing my hair in my face, the sun taking a while to come out (I sat down and read a bit about Luxembourg), the bags under my eyes, etc.

The walking tour had a lot to see, and a bit to read about each place, and it actually gave me plenty to do. At one point along the way I stopped at the library and used internet -- the first library I've been able to do that at!

Near the Cathedral again:

Grand Duchess Charlotte Memorial:

Seen from "the most beautiful balcony in Europe."

This bridge looks so space age!:

A really old tower, I forget its history. But I think it is among the oldest around. Luxembourg got traded around a lot, but never really destroyed. And each new regime added to the defenses, so it was slowly turned into the "Gibralter of the North" by the Burgundians, the Spaniards, the French, the Austrians, and the German Confederation.

Then I went down into the casements. I guess technically I went into The Bock Casements and Archeological Crypt. It is the best thing in Europe, I swear! And it only costs 2 Euros for adults, and you get a whole 20 Euro-cents off if you're a student. I suppose that's 10%, but it still seemed silly to me. Ok, here's me being excited by the Archeological Crypt, antechamber of the Bock casements and home to the origins of the city of Luxembourg:

It's kindof dark there. You may have noticed. I noticed that a couple of families had brought flashlights, and the kids were running around having a good time with them. At times I used my camera's guide light and flash to get around. The main bits were lighted, but there were side passages that you could explore, too narrow to turn around in some parts! Staircase:

You can go something like 40 meters total down into the rocks, on different levels. The Bock casements had room for a few hundred men and 50 cannons. I actually went down that spiral staircase first and just explored at random a little bit before starting over and following the recommended path with information about each location. It was so much fun! Earlier in the day I had had trouble smiling for pictures and not looking tired or grumpy. But the casements were so exciting that I couldn't stop smiling the whole time. We smiled a genuine smile :)

Cannon!:

I actually skipped down part of this:

And then I got myself back to the train station as quickly as I could, only getting distracted a couple of times. The sun set.

And now I'm tired. So I'm going to write about the rest of my weekend tomorrow. Goodnight!