Shalom and Au Revoir

This was our last day in Israel. The Canadian branch of the family went to the airport and we decided to start walking around in Old Jaffa. It was the four of us and Mike's aunt Marina for a little while. We started off walking right by the port and then went a little inland and drank the best orange juice that I have ever tasted. It was a pleasant and relaxing day.

Mike's two cousins and his great aunt came and joined us. We left the aunt with Lena and Marina and went walking around Tel Aviv's Neve Tsadik neighborhood. I tried to remember where the Israel apartment was from the last time I was in Israel, but since we didn't take the beach I could not find it. If anyone remembers where it is, I would love to know. We went as far as Allenby before turning around. The day was bittersweet for me. I love Tel Aviv, and didn't really get a chance to show Mike what I liked about it when I was there last. I will have to come back with him at some point and just spend a couple of days there.

Our airport experience was thankfully pretty painless and were slept all the way to Brussels this time. With five  hours at our disposal, Mike and I separated from Lena and Ann and just walked the streets by ourselves. We got to see the Grand Place without anybody else there. We tried to go to Parking 58 again, and again it was closed.

*** Apparently, Brusseliers (or Brusselians as Mike likes to call them) drink like fish and are the nastiest partiers in all the land. As Mike and I walked around the old city, we saw a large amount of groups stumbling around clearly dressed in previous night's clothing. At 7-7:30 in the morning I find that to be record setting. People were getting greasy breakfasts, falling into ditches, having dramatic tear stained fights and making up. Color me impressed. Also, the amount of trash on the street was ridiculous. Shop owners were hosing off their business areas and street cleaning machines were in full swing. The streets were covered in (as Lena delightfully put it) piss and puke. By the time we were leaving for the airport, most of this had been washed off and the streets smelled more appetizing.

After our second defeat at Parking 58, Mike and I went south and walked the southwest part of the old city. The sun was slowly warming the street and everything looked peaceful. I felt that this was a proper goodbye for us. We walked around until about 8am and then ran to Mokafe located in a pretty cool indoor mall. Lena and Ann were already there eating waffles. Use-It recommends the waffles at this place, but I think that they are better at Le Paon, however, the crepes here - are from a different planet. I had the crepes flambe and Mike had the banana chocolate crepes. Oh. My. God. Throw in two great cappiccinos and the world is a wonderful place. After our wonderful breakfast we tried to go to Parking 58 and got rejected for the third and final time. I guess it just wasn't meant to be. Au revoir Brussels!

Israel and Almost Jordan

The next days of our trip took on a completely different feel. Mike and I had an uneventful flight to Israel and got to Ashdod relatively early. Lena and Ann were still sight-seeing in Jerusalem so we just hung out with the rest of the family until they got in. I really only have one amusing anecdote of the day. I was having a side conversation with Ann, when in the lull I heard Mike's aunt say "A vy znaete zapah Shafrana?" .... silence ... laughter from me, Mike and Lena. Apparently, saffron is pronounced as "shafran" in Russian, and Mike's aunt Ira was talking about spices that get added to teas. The poor woman didn't understand why her seemingly benign comment got such a reaction, but was a good sport about it when we explained what happened.

The day of the wedding, was otherwise uneventful. Ann and I went and got pedicures from a Russian lady who disapproved of us in different ways. When I asked her to paint my toes  pale pink, she refused and told me that the color was ugly. We compromised on a different color, mainly because I was so amused. The wedding itself, was a lot of fun, the food was delicious, the music blasting, the dancing abundant, and the bride and groom looked like they had a blast. I loved that there were no toasts. Everything was just easy and relaxed.

The four of us went to Eilat the next day. We tried to go to Timna Park, but it was closed by the time we got there. Our hotel was a shit hole located right off the runway of the Eilat airport. DO NOT EVER STAY at Dalia Hotel. Eilat was very different from how I remembered it. It's basically a giant mall with restaurants sprinkled in. Russians have taken over and you hear more Russian than Hebrew when you walk down the street. We found a restaurant recommendation in Frommer for Denise Restaurant and after a bit of a walk found it and had the best dinner I have had in a while. I don't think that what happened the next day was in any way related to the restaurant because we all shared our food.

The day of our trip to Jordan, I woke up feeling a little off. When I went to get breakfast I started feeling nauseous and opted out of going to Petra. This was probably the best decision of my life. I will spare you the details, but I have never been this sick. Day lost.

The next morning, while I felt much better, I was not 100%. We checked out of our hotel and had brunch at cafeCafe. Everyone loved their food. I had some tea and a croissant and I thought it was pretty good as well. We managed to get into Timna this time, but the dirt roads did me in and we didn't go everywhere that the rest of the group wanted to go, or spend as much time there as we would have otherwise. I feel a little bad about that, but considering that at one point I broke down into tears while there, I feel like I did all I could. We spent the evening with family again.

More Waffles and Beer please

We slept for 12 hours before finally getting up at 1 pm on Sunday and we needed it. Everything looks so much better with a little sleep. The day started with more waffles. This time, we opted for the Brussels waffle and went to a place right on the Grand Place called Le Paon, which had the best restaurant waffles (and the worst service) in all of Brussels. I recommend coming here anyway. At first glance, this place looks tiny, but it holds at least 4 floors of the building and has a very nice atmosphere and a true rude Belgian wait staff.

After our very leisurely lunch, we decided to go on what's known as the "European Walk" in the Use-It map. I highly recommend going on this walk, as it brings you a different flavor, than the old city. We walked through many cute streets and gardens. In order to even get to the beginning of the walk from the old city you have to go through the Brussels Park. It is a beautiful green haven with fountains, sculptures, and joggers running right past the no jogging signs. Is located across from the Royal Palace so it's a pleasure to walk to (and through). I saw a "Dinner in the Sky" setup right in front of the park and I have just one question.... what do you do if you have to go to the bathroom?

After walking through the park I recommend going to see "The Sequence" by Arne Quinze, which is a breathtaking public art installation made out of planks of wood. Some of you might be interested to know that Arne Quinze also created an installation for Burning Man. I don't think the picture does justice to the work, but it just grabs you and demands attention.

We were only a block or two from the beginning of the walk and were very pleased to see what marks the actual beginning :). I don't know how well you can see this, but these cars are giant flower pots!

We walked towards the art nouveau area filled with cute old buildings and wrought iron balconies. Even though it was raining, it was still very beautiful everywhere. I noticed that the shutters that close-up businesses were painted and took a couple of pictures.

We also passed by a lake surrounded by beautiful houses. Apparently, back in the day, the whole area was swamp land. The swamps were all drained and paved over and only one lake remained. The city ordered that any house overlooking the lake would have to have a beautiful facade in order to keep real estate prices high.



Another notable destination on our walk was museum park. There was some kind of a festival going on, so we didn't linger too much, but apparently the park holds three of Brussels' largest museums: Autoworld, The Army Museum, and the Royal Museum of Art and History. Stop by if it's your thing. the park is another one that is very pleasant to stroll through with tall trees and wide alleys. I was a little disappointed, because I thought that this is where mini Europe was located. It turns out that mini Europe is not in the European quarter as expected, but in a completely different direction. I guess I will have something to come back to (or see more real Europe instead).

At this point, we were a little tired and a little hungry so we went to Maison Antoine for some fries. the fries are all about the sauce. We tried curry ketchup, Brazil (curry mustard), and Andalouse sauce (mostly mayo). Besides fries, Antoine's sells a variety of junk food including egg rolls, and sausages on a stick. Along with our fries we also got some Mergez. This place is open till the wee hours of the morning, so if you happen to find yourself in the European quarter and in need of some greasy delicious food, Antoine is your man.

Thoroughly satisfied with life, we headed back to the old city again. Our path took us through Leopold park. The park used to be a zoo, until all of the animals died suddenly. I found this fact to be very strange and could find nothing else about it. The closest bit of information I found, was that the zoo was badly mismanaged and went bankrupt. No where does it talk about the death of the animals. Our final destination was the European parliament. Mike and I both found the following choice of port-a-potty placement troublesome. (Yes this picture is straight)

Mike and I had a choice to make at this point, we could either go to our hotel and take a nap before our 3 am flight, or power through. We opted to go to our hotel, change and get right back out there. We had dinner at Le Fiacre, and tried a little beer there. Mike had rabbit (surprise, it tastes like chicken) and I had some hind of fish. Neither of us was particularly impressed. after our dinner we wanted to get a good view of the city and went to Parking 58, but were minutes late for being able to go up and check out the view. Our final destination was Le Archiduc, a 1930's jazz bar with a cool vibe, and a small cozy feel. Unfortunately, we missed the live show, but still listened to some great music and had cognac (Mike) and beer (Chimay Bleue for me). Bon jour Brussels, Shalom Tel Aviv!!

Waffles and Mussels in Brussels

I was completely exhausted by the time we arrived in Brussels. Even the excitement of finally being here could not overshadow that fact that it felt like someone put sandpaper in my eyes. We found it pretty easy to take the train from the central station and then rolled our suitcases right into Grand Place. After a little scrambling we found out how to get to our hotel (Alma Grand) and dropped off our bags.

No one can blame us for wanting a waffle in the middle of Grand Place. The smell makes undeniable demands on your stomach. We sat in the outdoor portion of a cafe and people watched while drinking our coffees and eating delicious delicious waffles. I will go into an aside on waffles in Brussels here, it just must be done. There are two kinds of waffles that you can get in this wonderful city: the street waffle and a cafe waffle. The street waffle is round, crispy, and very sweet. It gets its crunch from the fact that the sugar inside the waffle caramelizes as it cooks and it feels that god himself has prepared this in his own kitchen. (Mike liked the other kind better, but for me, this is it). The Brussels waffle is softer and is square or rectangular in shape. It is not as sweet, but has a light airy quality to it. it is also amazing and I have no idea how they achieve these results with simple earthly ingredients. In both cases, I recommend only whipped cream (or nothing at all) as the topping. Coffee gave us a little jolt, and as we still were not able to check in, Mike and I went for one of the walks recommended by the locals in Use-It, "The North Walk".

We had a promising start at the Botanique, which is a beautiful park a little away from the old city.

Parts of it have an English garden feel and plenty of locals were picnicking, relaxing, and sobering up in the park. Honestly, this was my favorite part of the walk so I wish we had saved it to the end. Then next part of the walk just had us walk toward the north train station. Along the way we stumbled into the red light district, set up in the same way as the one in Amsterdam (although I found the Dutch women prettier) and a busy Turkish market district which sold everything from food to flip-flops and gave me the feeling that I was in Chicago in Devon.

The rest of the walk was pretty blah. We went through a part of the business district, which was empty due to the fact that this was Saturday, walked by the Citroen museum and by le petit chteaiu which apparently currently houses refugees waiting to hear if their request for Belgian citizenship has been approved. By this point, I couldn't keep my eyes open, so we had more coffee at a corner cafe and crawled back to our hotel for a well deserved long nap.

Even after our nap we were extremely tired. We had mussels and other assorted sea creatures at a cafe close by and walked around the old city looking for comic murals. We stumbled upon the city symbol during our walk, so we felt justified in going home shortly after. There are several legends as to why this There are several legends about the peeing boy:

is the city symbol. I have copied this passage from Wikipedia: There are several legends behind this statue, but the most famous is the one about Duke Godfrey III of Leuven. In 1142, the troops of this two-year-old lord were battling against the troops of the Berthouts, the lords of Grimbergen, in Ransbeke (now Neder-over-Heembeek). The troops put the infant lord in a basket and hung the basket in a tree to encourage them. From there, the boy urinated on the troops of the Berthouts, who eventually lost the battle.
Another legend states that in the 14th century, Brussels was under siege by a foreignpower. The city had held its ground for some time, so the attackers conceived of a plan to place explosive charges at the city walls. A little boy named Julianske happened to be spying on them as they were preparing. He urinated on the burning fuse and thus saved the city.
Another story (told often to tourists) tells of a wealthy merchant who, during a visit to the city with his family, had his beloved young son go missing. The merchant hastily formed a search party that scoured all corners of the city until the boy was found happily urinating in a small garden. The merchant, as a gift of gratitude to the locals who helped out during the search, had the fountain built.
Another legend was that a small boy went missing from his mother when shopping in the centre of the city. The woman, panic-stricken by the loss of her child, called upon everyone she came across, including the mayor of the city. A city-wide search began and when at last the child was found, he was urinating on the corner of a small street. The story was passed down over time and the statue erected as a tribute to the well-known fable.

Another legend tells of the young boy who was awoken by a fire and was able to put out the fire with his urine, in the end this helped stop the king's castle from burning down.