Bruxelles

So I began my brief European tour from Brussels, Belgium. The following are a selection of pretty pictures I took!

It is really hard to get all of Grand Place (that's gron plass) in the one photo. This is one-quarter of it

This is a tower - my new Brazilian friend Cintia and I spent way too much time trying to get all of it in the one shot

Eventually I had the bright idea of sorta crossing the street and going round the corner a bit, and it was a lot easier!

We found the Tintin shop! I bought a new badge to include in the collection

The Mannekin Pis... it's kinda small.

I found a record store! With Bob Dylan stenciled on!

And then me and John Lennon hung out for a bit. We're so tight.

In true fashion, I wandered down a back alleyway.. and found a Secret Garden

This is King Albert on a horse. He lives in the centre of a large roundabout which makes it really easy for pedestrians to get run over, and in front of a hotel which used to be a church. Not terribly ostentatious, really.

[Edit: Wait! this is a total lie. I can't remember which King-on-a-Horse this is. And he lives near SQUARE]

Perspective!

A cute little statue in SQUARE... whatever that is.

This is the Park of Brussels, across from the Palais Royale. If you look closely, they've worked it so the branches of the trees are all intertwined.. I think it would be pretty impressive in full bloom

And the Palais Royale itself.

Then I wandered down another alleyway... Only to find a rainbow!

The inside of your garden variety shopping centre. Fairly impressive.

Camilla Parker-Bowles - THE MUSICAL!

My goodness, you must remind me to come back to see THAT :S

The Atomium - a feat of 1950s engineering, the most recognisable feature of Brussels.

The question it inspires is - WHY?

Personally I think it's utterly self-indulgent

..But it is rather symmetrical, which I like. Cintia and I got some Irish tourists to take a pic!

Then we wandered over to the Belgian Comic Book Musuem, where I made friends with some cartoon characters.

Tintin is my favourite, though

Apparently French-speakers have Charlie! What I want to know is, Where's Wally?!

Marsupilami: a cartoon I had forgotten about!

And I had no idea he was Belgian

I wish I had taken a Smurf home with me...

And, after all this sightseeing was done, there was much drinking to be had. I met a Frenchman, and so Cintia, Thomas and I wandered down to the city to find some food. We ended up finding the Jeanneke Pis, which is, basically, Mannekin Pis' sister... I didn't take any photos, so you'll have to use your imagination. We wandered into Delirium Bar, which has.. oooo I don't know, 2000 or so Belgian beers in house.. Only 25 of them are on tap, but! Pretty impressive. We met some a Mexican two Americans, and some crazy Spaniards.

To finish my somewhat disconnected story, I will give you some advice.

Getting back to hostels at 5am, full of wonderful Belgian beer is ONLY a good idea if you are not checking out the next day...

And I also must add that I had so much fun in Amsterdam that I took precisely ZERO PHOTOS.. More fool me I guess.

So the next lot will be from lovely Cambridge, whence I am composing this.

Seriously, I invaded Isaac Newton's old college dorm.
BRILLIANT.

With love,

TCT

xx

En Route

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

2:50pm, GMT+0

STILL-ON-A-BUS, CALAIS, FRANCE

With any luck, the more astute of you noticed an interesting discrepancy in the last post. Namely, the marker. Anyone? If you haven't picked it, the last post was written in France. Yes, my dear enthusiasts, I was not kidding when I said I was on the road again! It has been a week-and-a-half since I touched down in Glasgow International Airport, and already I am on my third European country. I will not elaborate on the details of the last week, on account of there being a limited photo record (I know, I know :(

But suffice to say there was the long-awaited reunion with a dearly missed friend in England, some fond farewells, a wonderful week with the family in Scotland, the frequenting of some well-known and new-found bars and clubs, plenty of Murder, She Wrote, and way too many unhealthy substances consumed. All in all, a successful week-and-a-bit. Here is the bit where I swear to you that I am returning Glasgow soon-ish and can promise a good helping of visual media then.

But where am I now? Well you must know by now I'm on a bus! Good. In fact I'm fairly out of Calais by now, travelling north-ish. I've been on buses or in bus stations for the last 18 hours or thereabouts, and am therefore probably mad. I left Glasgow (with it's hint of snow) at 10:00pm last night, arriving at London Victoria much too early this morning to really comprehend the new bus driver's explanation that the trains were stuck somewhere and we were therefore catching the ferry to the continent.

Now, this was definitely news to me! I was rather under the impression that a coach, being the landlubbing vehicle it is, would be driving to the continent. Luckily not, for this morning I saw the White Cliffs of Dover (capitals necessary) rise out of the hills as we rounded the bend to the Port. But the biggest surprise was yet to come! Okay, so maybe noone else is surprised by this. But it turns out that when you drive onto a ferry on a coach, they let you on deck. This is cool, because on P&O's The Pride of Calais they've got about a billion bars, duty-free shopping, some restaurants, a food court, and a bunch of secret doors you can find (if you look hard enough) that take you out into the fresh air.

I bet you can guess what song I had in my head the whole time. Hint: T-Pain.

And I swear to god this is true, you really can see France from England.

(You knew that? Well done. I thought it was a metaphor for something.)

So I got some fresh air, took some photos, giggled to myself a bit, decided it was too cold, went inside, and had a pint. Perfection.

Yes, those are the White Cliffs of Dover...

Everybody look at me cos I'm standing on a boat!

Now I leave you as I continue on this hellish bus ride (Okay, fine, it's really not that bad, and it's cheap. And the next stop is Lille.) because by tonight I'll be in Brussels, Belgium! And I get to spend more than an hour there this time! I am super excited. I have been practicing my French:

"Bonjour monsieur. Pardon, je suis en Australie. Parlez vous Anglais? S'il vouz plait?

*Mutters* Oh god please please speak English oh god oh god."

Also I am hoping I have not remembered incorrectly and Brussels is mostly Flemish-speaking, cos then I'm fucked.

With love,

TCT

The Traveller Returns!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

2:30pm, GMT+0

ON-A-COACH, CALAIS, FRANCE

My honoured followers! It has been some time. You have perhaps been wondering what became of me? Well, it's a long story. Needless to say, the delay in my travels was unexpected and unfortunate. But, (finally!) I am on the road again, and promise to deliver even more indulgent tales, photographs, and oddly over-punctuated; sentences.

Where we left off, your intrepid traveller (read: vagrant) was on her way to Dunedin for a conference of the academic type. The conference was brilliant, Dunedin is fucking cool, and it should definitely be noted that couchsurfing in a broken-down caravan is the best way to do it. Alas, there is a very limited photographic record of that particular week. Probably due to a) the fun I was having, and b) the fact that squinting at countless photos of badly-resolved powerpoint slides on Quantum Photonics is boring by definition.

However! There was a day trip to discover the home of New Zealand's burgeoning steampunk scene, some really really really good cheese, a castle (actually, it's the castle), a fancy dinner, intelligent company, many drinks, a bar-that-used-to-be-a-church, the quirk of evolution that created Dunedin noise, rooms whose power points were great at hide-and-seek, the longest bus ride ever to see the most disappointing lake ever, and seconds for dinner every night.

So, obviously, it was the best week ever.

But could it be topped?!

Tune in to the next episode - same bat-time, same bat-channel.

With love, the Curious Traveller.