To honor the fact that I’m still (very much sort of) in business school, I’d like to frame this post as in the now very obsolete and pretty silly to start with “LIFO” inventory model. That is, Last In, First Out.
This is one of the few situations where I think this model is more fitting than the old FIFO model, because if I tried to go that route you would be hearing/reading a lot of euuhhh..zee wine, zee beautiful sings, zee wine..euuhhh
So lets ‘Navi’go’! Right now I am on the train on the way home what I can only call a decadent weekend in the land of chocolate, waffles and chaotic politics..La Belgique!
Truth be told I actually barely made it there.. Which is probably no surprise for most, come to think of it. Booked my ticket through SNCB not SNCF so when I got to the train station in Paris (at 7 am after 20 minutes of sleep the previous night) they told me that I had to pick up my ticket in Belgium…
“umm I’m going there…?” After running a couple of panicked laps back and forth between train officials one of the men huffed and agreed to take Elaine and I on board. (I think there may have been some waterworks crowning…) We ended up in first class as we figured out later, but were 100% too zonked to really appreciate it.
When we got in we decided that we would spend the day in Bruges, on the advice of a Belgian friend from school. The town was indisputably the definition of quaint. We started the day with a bus tour. You know there’s not too much to see when the audio guide talks about lace factories and windmills. I really loved the main square though, ( it looked almost identical to the one in Prague to my surprise! There was even a Dali museum) We rocked it of course..what a delight. His work was also paired with Sarkozy’s Dad’s, which was totally unexpected but cool. Apparently he used to do advertising for Dior and a couple others and now he’s into modern art. I encourage you to check it out. For dinner we paired the local specialty (mussels and beer) with some unintentionally philosophical conversation.. (we still hadn’t slept since the day before)
Finally, after a nap in a park, a few chocolate stops and some serious confusion at the train station we made it to Brussels! We conquered the metro right away, which was a small but pleasant victory given how tired and disoriented we’d been since we began our travels.. After a little wander we found the sweetest little Italian restaurant (I think they had just opened) and had a really simple but delicious margarita pizza before heading home and sleeping like logs..
The next morning I woke up to some chanting outside the window…the army boys were running the Brussels marathon! Eager to start the day, we ventured out to a breakfast spot recommended by aforementioned Belgian friend (he actually told us exactly what to order so we didn’t even take a menu). Breakfast was delicious, a mysterious waffle,crepe,naan hybrid called a morrocan crepe. Outside on the patio the sun was shining and we enjoyed a personal concert from the most charming accordion player. He must have been well into his 70s but was still so charismatic and energetic. (Carolyn, you would have just adored him!)
After touring the city for a bit we checked into our not-so-glam hostel and then went to meet Olivia and Lauren, who were studying just outside the city. Together we had a ceremonial waffle (from the yellow truck, another great tip from said Belgian!! wow, eggos are a crime.) After that more city wandering…saw the palace and gardens, the market square, some churches, mannequin piss, Brussels museum (which housed mannequin piss ensembles from around the world.. the Canadian one was Native gear, clearly!) and more..
Our next stop was Delirium—a famous beer café with 2002 types of beer and home of ‘the best beer in the world’, Delirium Tremens. We tried it of course, and I decided to go the extra mile and drink out of a boot! This was mostly a joke for my polish friends back in Paris who make fun of me when I say ‘about’ and ‘house’..and maybe it was me being a little bit sad about missing the 200th Oktoberfest..alas! Can’t win em all. Anyhow, so after sharing our drinks and some stories with some friendly Australians we said goodbye to Olivia and Lauren and went in search of our next ‘best’ on the list – steak tartar! We went to Au Vieux St. Martin, another recommendation, and had what I think was the best meal I’ve had in Europe so far! If you’re ever in town it would be a crime not to eat there..
So by now it is Sunday night, and our neopet statuses have moved from starving/dying to satisfied/one too many boots. We migrated to home base (tried to use the local bike system but couldn’t manage). I got a call from the Australians.. “Is this some sort of joke?” turns out the bar we sent them to meet us at was actually a gay bar (sarreee). Anyhow, after hearing the discouraging news that there is nowhere nongay to party on a Sunday night, we headed back to Delirium, which had treated us quite well previously! Instead we landed across the way.. to Café Floris, an absinthe bar.. our spirits (pun intended) were lifted quite quickly to say the least!
Then when things were already going better than we’d expected we met some more friends! A girl, Neomie, who was in circus school, and then two guys, Alex and Hadrien. Neomie, who was really into speaking English told us about circus life and her crazy travels.. The guys were pretty quiet at first and struggled with English. One told me that he could never hear the difference between ‘hungry’ and ‘angry’ haha. After a while Neomie had to head out but Elaine and I stuck around with the guys. We chatted and laughed like we’d known each other forever. It was really sad to say goodbye, but they often come to Paris for business and visits so perhaps we haven’t seen the last of them!
The next morning we wandered into a different part of town, the ‘champs elysees’ of Belgium, rue Louise. There were a lot of posh shops and restaurants, and we stopped for a really cute brunch. Then we found a great last season designer shop and unfortunately/fortunately parted with more euros… (they really feel like monopoly money, quite dangerous!)
Our next stop was described as ‘the Eiffel tower of belgium’.. for a city of people who openly dislike parisians they made quite a few references to them. The Atomium was really sweet, it is a construction of gigantic metal balls that look like (you guessed it!) an atom
After our saunter in the area we went back to the Place Sablon for the grand finale of our eating concierto..a huuuuge seafood platter- another local specialty!
We must have been feeling a little too pleased with ourselves because the big bad travel monster decided to pay us a visit…We ended up missing our train home to Paris by 3 minutes and having to catch the next one, which brings my inventory count full circle.
After a what I couldn’t believe was just a weekend of travel, and quite a few learning experiences I felt energized for the next trip and for more adventuring in my home city, Paris! To be honest, although Belgium was a nice vacation especially in terms of food, Paris still takes the cake, (the pain au chocolat, the mousse, the macaron..)
Sticking to the LIFO model, lets keep moving back… This is where it gets tricky because I haven’t been taking notes of my activities, and you know what a stellar memory I have. I guess I will be short! The weeks and weekends before my trip were quite full…I was lucky to make it to a lot of the Paris Fashion Week after parties and mingle with some really cool folks. One of my favourites was a Vogue/GQ/Glamour photographer, Sacha, from Germany. We met him at VIP room (its a really swell bar, especially when its filled with people wearing borderline costumes. Its also the one Carrie goes to at the end of one of the seasons of Sex and the City, which was fun to know!) He was a real peter-pan and very humble too given his line of work. We went for a drink with him in St. Germain later in the week and he showed us a bunch of his photos from the week on his iphone. He also took our picture, which was a real treat!
Other highlights of my life and times in Paris:
-Dexter’s Visit: This weekend was quite telling of times in Paris. Friday night I had a party in my room in anticipation of Dexter’s arrival… We had a communication malfunction but somehow ended up at the same club to see the DJ Calvin Harris. I again (somehow) found Dexter in the sweaty crowd and we jammed the night away until closing! Saturday night le Bureau Des Eleves (BDE) threw a crazy party at the school for ‘Nuit Blanche’ (A celebration in paris where nobody is supposed to sleep!)… I think there were something like 2000 outsiders that travelled to come to this event so it was pretty wild.. hard to see school in the same light the next Monday to say the least..
Sunday was a recovery day as per usual…did some cultural touring of the city, napped then went to see the premiere of Social Network. (Dexter saw JT but I just missed him, darn!)
-Ran’s Visit: This was a weekend of some great discoveries in and around Paris. After stocking up with an upgraded version of the classics- baguettes, confit de canard, rose petal jam, brie, strawberries and champagne we journeyed to Palais de Versailles. Wow, Louis was a lucky bastard. This place is really just jaw-dropping. The sheer size is astonishing, not to mention the impressive detail in every room and façade and the perfectly groomed grounds complete with fountains, man made lake(…haha my mouth just started watering..) One thing that was a real surprise about our tour of the chateau was that there was a Takashi Murakami exhibition on… such a wild contrast with the style and décor of the palace backdrop. We saw some really cool pieces though so it was a real treat! We also tested the waters and rented a rowboat for part of the afternoon. It was admittedly tough breaking out of our loungy picnic but this ended up making the day for me. Especially when we jammed to Au Champs Elysees and accidentally t-boned a French boat and sent someone pieds au-dessus de la tete..hehe
- Our first family vacation: The family and I went to Sacre Coeur and the Espace Dali in Montmartre, I think it was after a night of heavy partying… Again, this seems to be the routine we’ve worked into in search of some spiritual balance, lets call it. After a really big night out its assumed that everyone should be up and ready in their museum wear by 3..
- Mon 20ieme! : This was just a perfect day! I did some solo wandering in my neighbourhood and found a beautiful independent boutique owned by an ex-model, Cendrine. Somehow we became GFs instantly, she helped me pick out some great accessories to go with the dress I got as a gift from the girls of the fam. I did some more wandering and then went for a street-facing quiche, wine, and start on the Alchemist, which I’d picked up on Ashlee’s advice before leaving. Somehow inside was wedged the letter Ross sent me for my birthday last year..i think I welled up a little when I found it. Someone up there has really got my back. I realize I say ‘somehow’ quite a bit but I think its illustrative of the magic of the city… so that evening, SOMEHOW what was supposed to be maybe 15 people having cocktails and snacks in my room before heading out turned out to be more like 50… we pretty much took over the whole floor since nobody could really move in my room, it was wild! Little to say we were late heading to the bar, which was a cool outdoor club on its last hurrah before closing up for fall/winter! It was on the outskirts of the city so I think only 7 people or so made it, haha. The concept was pretty cool though, it was on a little island and we had to take a ferry to get there! You get 10 drink tickets with the cover, which people treat as a challenge.. When we got home the family reunited in my room for an afterparty… some jamming, photoshooting and seductive lightsaber dancing. We saw the sunrise and made it all the way to the morning baguettes!
As I struggle with this post that I started 3 weeks ago (and even made a couple of notes for) I’ve come to another realization (and am in the process of convincing my body to follow suit).. that sleep is only good for one thing: remembering what you’ve been doing! Other than that there is simply too much mystery, beauty and adventure to be missed so I think I can do without…
First Out, Last In
