Land of Beer

Belgium. The land of beer. I love it.
We took a high speed train from Paris to Brussels at 3pm. We had decided that we were going to meet my cousin Nicolas in a rural town called Tilly after he finished work. The trip to Brussels was uneventful, as we took extra care to make sure we got on the right train. When we arrived in Brussels we discovered to our dismay that the majority of train employees had gone on strike around the time we left Paris. Great. So, unable to find help we were forced to scury between 14 lines checking for our connecting train to Ottignies. This wasn't exactly easy in a station filled with angry commuters, lost tourists and one Korean guy who told us he'd been waiting for a train to Amsterdam for over 5 hours. Did I mention the only help available was one person in a booth that was swarmed by hundreds of angry people pushing and shoving... Welcome to Belgium! Well eventually we caught a later train to Ottignies by the skin of our teeth and Nicolas picked us up there instead of Tilly, as there was no way to get there with the strike. We found out that night that the strike had ended that evening. So basically they decided to strike during the only time we would be on trains in Belgium. No luck but bad luck eh?
Nicolas and his girlfriend Catherine were very accomadating and super friendly. Catherine wasn't able to hang out with us too much as she was working on her thesis for school due quite soon, but we still had fun with her.
Nicolas showed us around Brussels, and to my joy, is somewhat of a beer connoisseur, so he introduced us to some phenomenal beers. Belgium has over 400 beers and a large number of them are brewed in Monesteries. The Trappiste Monestary beers are what we were shooting for, as they are the best. I got to try 4 of the 6 available brands as the other two are quite hard to come by. All six are still brewed by monks in monesteries! Now that I could devote my life to! The beers are quite strong ranging from 6 - 14 percent! That was a pleasant surprise standing up :) Price wise, even the specialty brews were a little cheaper than in Vancouver. Canada has some great beer, but Belgium easily comes out on top. I hope I'm still allowed back after saying that!
Speaking of being allowed back - in an attempt to better my surroundings, I chose to do laundry one night chez Nicolas. Unfortunately, our passports were in the hidden pocket. Yeah, hidden pockets, not such a great idea. So after being good and washed, we discovered the next day that our passports were a soggy mess. It must have been hot water as the cover had shrunk! We called the embassy who told us to come in and start the paperwork. We arrived at 12:15 in Brussels (3 trains from Tilly) on ly to find that they had closed for lunch at 12. When asked when lunch was over, they said they don't come back from lunch. Yeah, that's right. Last time I ever pay tax. Anyhoo, we had to spend another $20cdn to come back the next day to start everything. This time they rejected our photos and we had to go to 3 different camera shops before getting something suitable. Good grief. The next day we showed up around 11 hoping our passports were ready and they were. I'll give them credit there, at least they were quick. Cost me €96 for each one though. In the end all, including extra expenses, it cost me about $500cdn. Most expensive load of laundry in the history of time. Do you know how much beer that is?!?!
Amongst all the horror, Nicolas also took us to Bruge in northern Belgium. This was a beautiful little town with canals running through it. We had "Moules et Frites" (mussels and fries) a Belge specialty. Mmmmm. Washed it all down with a small white beer Hoegaarden. All this in the town square sitting in the sun. Life is rough.
One of the beers we came across was called Kwak. All the beers in Belgium have their own special glass. You should see the glass counters in bars! Kwak has a very unique glass. It is cone like with a round bottom so you can't put it down! No it's not so you have to keep drinking. It also comes with its own special holder. It was designed for carriage drivers in mind so they could put their beer down whilst driving! Hahaha this country rocks! Oh and did I mention that the majority of beer is served in half litre bottles!? I love Belgium. It helped so much to have my cousin there to show us around as well. He also took us to Amsterdam which I'll write about later as there's a party starting here in Cesky Krumlov and a half litre of Budvar is a dollar! Gotta go...

Ah, Paris!

Actually, we're in the Czech Republic now, but I haven't talked about Paris yet (or Belgium for that matter). Now that I mention it, I forgot about Le Palais des Arts in Lyon. It was really cool. Right in the middle of downtown, you enter through to huge doors into an enclosed square, (there's no roof just open sky). It's wonderful as it blocks out all the city noise, so all you can hear is birds and wind and the murmur of some people talking. To compliment nature there are 7 or 8 Rodin statues in the square. It had been totally restored in the last couple years so we were lucky to see it in it's near original state. We also went to see my cousin Karim and his wife Monique in the country. This is where we got to meet my latest 2nd cousin Anthony. He took quite a shine to Sally. I'll have to watch out for him when he turns 17 in ten years!
On to Paris!
I had the pictures processed "The kodak way" which stripped all the info from them and changed the filename format, so now they're out of order. Piss me off. Anyway, I've put them in a seperate gallery until one day in the far future I have time to rearrange them all manually.
We got there last week Monday by TGV (Train de Grand Vitesse). In other words, very fast train. It travels at an average of 325km per hour and is capable of 550km/h!!! Anyway, in line with our previous travel experiences we managed to get on the wrong car, and as we were unable to get through the train to ours, we were condemned to bounceing from seat to seat as people returned from the washroom or bar-car. Fun. Why didn't we just go to the bar car ourselves? Because we had huge bags on our backs and we didn't want to piss off the entire train... Anyhoo, we finally reached Paris and had an uneventful Metro ride to our hotel.
Paris' metro is awesome. It's designed with the idea that no point in Paris (which is huge and home to 10 million people) should be more than 500 meters from a station. We were able to get around easily, quickly, safely (you should see them drive) and cheaply. I wish we could have a system like that at home instead of the 8 billion dollar concrete scar that blemishes our otherwise beautiful city. I know it's nice for those who ride it, but have you seen an aerial photograph of Vancouver lately?
We went straight to the Eiffel Tower after dropping off our bags at the shoebox hotel. On the way we picked up some crepes to authenticate our presence in Paris. After convincing Sally to walk up the first half of the tower we started our upward trek of 1652 stairs, (to be honest though, I believe to the second stage there are just over 600, but the public is forced to take the lift from the second stage up). After about 4 hours of upward travel (JJ) we reached the top. You can actually feel the tower moving on the last section of stairs. Not too good for an overactive imagination... Stunning view from the top though. It was a little cloudy but not overcast so we got to see both sunny and cloudy views of the city. I stuck my head out of the security grate to take a couple of pictures, but lost my nerve pretty quick. A base jump would be kinda cool though! Need to buy a chute first...
The next day we went to the Basilique Sacre Coeur, another facinating architectular accomplishment, but the cool area was a square just around the corner called Montmartre. The square was filled with artists selling their paintings as well as artists peddeling caricatures and portraits.
We walked alot that day. All the way down to l'Arc de Triomphe and l'Avenue des Champs Elysees. There was a marching band and a group of veterans there which was neat but we weren't able to hang out too long as there was a ceremony commemorating soldiers and whatnot. We did get the unique experience of crossing the street around l'Arc de Triomphe. I mention this because if you've ever seen it, you know you would have to be out of your mind to cross that mad-house of a street. Of course it was blocked at the time to let the marching band through! Les Champs were great, but we were exhausted, so we agreed to return the next day.
Another beautiful day in Paris. We've really been lucky in terms of the weather. We got a late start but a nice walk along les Champs des Elysees in search of the "real Notre Dame" (not the one I mistook for it the day before that Sally won't let me live down). Along the way we were "accosted" by some caricature artists who said they needed a Mona Lisa (Sally of course) to attract customers. No obligation to buy, and only €10 each (regular price €30 each if you want to believe them). They were funny guys, so we said fine. After a short time we had a good crowd laughing at our caricatures (we both thought it was going to be portraits). The end result was quite hilarious, and since I showed the guy I only had €15 in my wallet (Paris is really expen$ive), he gave us both for €15. !We had a great time. Then a pigeon shit on our portraits. Hahaha, fortunately they were rolled up, but still... The only free souvenir! We had a great walk that day wandering through unknown areas, and seeing things we wouldn't have seen if we had used a day pass for the metro and gone directly to all the sites. We came across the Pont Alexandre III. A bridge crossing the Seine beautifully adorned with gold capped carvings and a picturesque Eiffel Tower in the background. Notre Dame was nice too, but I think we've had our fill of churches. No disrespect intended, but there's so many awesome cathedrals that we've seen that they start to lose their lustre. Around Notre Dame is a great area filled with all sorts of shops and retaurants, a crazy greek guy breaking plates, and jazz bars. We hung out there until our night cruise of the Seine. The cruise was nice. It afforded us some great views of Paris lit up including the Eiffel Tower. Next time, I'd like to be on top the tower at night to see Paris. It must be awesome. The boat moved too quickly for good shots unfortuneatly, but I tried none the less.
To save money, we ate a lot of bread and cheese, and bought French wine from the market. It's a rough life. We did splurge on some Indian food (cuz we're crazy like that) and it was awesome. Until Sally found ants in our cafe sugar. Oh well. More protein. Over all, Paris was really great. It was Sally's favourite city and also by far the most expensive we've come accross! We left Paris by high speed train for Brussels. That's another story though!

Quick Note

We're alive! Just a quick note as we're on our way to Prague from Belgium. I'm working on a really big entry for Paris and Belgium, but it's taking some time and I haven't posted in a while. So check in a couple of days for an update... Oh, and the beer in Belgium is insanely delicious. I'll get in to that later.

Lugdunum (Lyon)

We drove to Lyon on April 23rd with Alexandre in his Renault R19. We arrived at my aunt Brigitte’s to a great reception; read: lots of hugs and kisses, jumping up and down and clapping. You’ve got to know my aunt…
Alexandre stayed for the day, so we went into town, and walked around La Rue de la Republique, and Place Bellcour amongst others. Alexandre had a date later that night so he took off in the evening and Sally and I stayed up with Brigitte ‘till the wee hours talking and drinking wine…
The next day we went to my other aunt’s place, Lilliane in the ‘burbs. She has a beautiful home with my other uncle Michel. Though she says she had no food, we ate until we thought we would burst. Then we ate some more. I lost weight in Portugal. Not gonna happen here! My uncle Guy and his daughter Delphine showed up for coffee (café) after lunch, which was nice. Guy looks like my dad with a few extra kilos (as they say here) and a very French mustache :o)
Sally and I went out the next day alone as my aunt was busy. We must have walked 20km that day. We did what the Lyonnaise call “Les S”. It’s a series of switchbacks under an ancient aqueduct right in the city. It’s also a hell of a climb. At the top is the “Jardin des Chartreux” and a stunning view of Lyon. Well worth the effort. Funny thing is; we started the trek in search of water downtown, only to end up miles away sans water and starving...

The next day Alex showed up again. This was great as Sally and I both missed him. Sally gets along great with the family but she’s taken a shine to Alex, and he speaks english so it’s easier for her. On that note though, Sal’s français is getting pretty good. If she stayed here a few months, she’d be rattlin’ off like a pro. With Alex we went up to the Cathedral Fourviere. The quick and dirty of the story goes like this: Back in the day, when I believe what was the plague was approaching Lyon, the people gathered on the big (and at the time empty) hill to pray to the Virgin Mary for protection. They swore that if she protected them from the plague, they would erect a cathedral in her honour. The plague never came, so the cathedral went up. It’s a beautiful work of architecture capped off with a statue of Mary covered in gold! We didn’t get too many pics of the interior as they kicked us out after Sally started playing the bells. Just kidding - they were closing. After that we went into Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon) for a beer. All of Lyon is beautiful, but Vieux Lyon has a little more “je ne sais quoi”...

The next day we returned to Vieux Lyon with Brigitte to see it in the day. We went into St.Jean’s Cathedral where Brigitte showed us the painting in memory of my cousin Tony, (see my last entry). I can only hope that I touch as many lives as he did and leave behind as much love and respect. We went for some heavenly crêpes which we got to watch being made, it was pretty neat. After lunch Brigitte introduced us to real pralines. Sally now has an addiction. I have to keep them away from her. Alexandre went back home to prepare for his exams that night. It’s probably the last time we’ll get to hang out until next year when he hopefully comes to visit. (Provided I’m in Vancouver at that point…).
On Friday we went to Le Palais d’Arts in La Place des Terreaux. La Place des Terreaux has my favourite statue so far. La Fontaine de Bartholdi. It’s a stunning fountain with four horses escaping from it. Drawn by the horses is a Romanesque chariot containing a woman and two children. You have to see it to appreciate it (photo’s coming). The fountain used to be in front of the Hotel de Ville, 90° to the left. About 15 years ago, I think, construction of an underground parking lot began beneath it. As the fountain is so immense, it was moved temporarily as the ground wouldn’t support it. After the construction, it was to be moved back in place but money ran out or it wasn’t willing to be spent. This has pissed off a lot of Lyonaisse as the artist created it with the Hotel de Ville in mind for the backdrop, not some lame apartment complex. When I get back, I’ll Photoshop it back into place to see how it’s supposed to look…

Saturday the 30th of April we went to my aunt Lilliane’s again to stay for the weekend. It was really hot. The thermometer showed 36° in the shade. We hung out and relaxed on the terrace and suntanned. That is of course when Lilliane wasn’t feeding us. She’s quite the cheese connoisseur, so in a country that has more cheeses than days in a year; we tried quite a few great stinky cheeses. Pretty much the stinkier the better ;) Along with the cheese she had a cellar full of great wine as well, so naturally we had to drink them too. We had a nice tan (burn) by that night. The next day was almost as hot except we had a nice cool wind that kept us from knowing when we were burning… Unfortunately the wind brought the rain and since Monday it’s been cloudy / raining. Oh well, I came here for the experience and the family, not the weather.

Lilliane has ADSL, so we were looking forward to finally uploading our pictures of Lyon etc but as life would have it, her PC died the day we got there. Figures. Brigitte has subscribed to ADSL as well but it hasn’t started up yet since she moved on the 4th. Despite many calls, much frustration and many bullshit promises, her ADSL isn’t up either. Listening to her calls to Tele2 reminds me so much of Telus. At least ADSL sucks everywhere. If they get it running before we leave for Paris on Monday I’ll upload the photos…

Tony

This entry is a small tribute to my cousin Tony who passed away late last year. He was 35. He was a great person who touched the lives of those people who were fortunate enough to meet him. He is survived by his brother Athanos (Tom) and in the memories of those of us who knew him.

The last time I saw him, he was leaving Kamloops to move to Greece. I had it in my head that I would take this trip within 2 years and visit him in Greece. It took me 3 years, and I missed him by a few months. Life is cruel.

This painting was painted by Patrick Marques, a reknowed painter in France (and possibly elsewhere) and a close friend of Tony and my aunt Brigitte. It can be found in St.Jean Cathedral in Le Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon). Tony passed away as it was being completed. As a tribute to Tony's memory, Patrick painted a small cross towards the bottom left corner in red and black that is in fact a “T”. It can only be seen on the enlarged copy of the photo. It is Patrick’s belief that, as the church chose to purchase this painting over several others commissioned, Tony made it upstairs.

The other picture is of Tony. It's a photo from Brigitte of Tony in Geneva.
He’s the one on the right.