Sunday in Brugge

The weather was supposed to be nice on Sunday (sunny but coldd) so I decided to go to Brugge because I haven't been since October and it really is one of the best cities around, and while I am 30 minutes away I figured it was time to take advantage!  It was also inspired by finally watching the movie 'In Bruges' on Saturday so it reminded me to go finally climb the bell tower.  That was my main mission of the day, but I was a bit disappointed because the carillon is under construction so over half of the panoramic view was closed and will be until June.  Looks like I will come back in June :-).  The climb was quite easy, to be honest I just felt like I was going to my apartment... getting quite used to walking hundreds of stairs a day living on the top of a non-elevator building!  But the last couple levels had very small staircases so I finally know what Jenni and John were talking about!  Beautiful day and I was able to get some nice pictures.  I started to leave because the annoying pushy tourists all seemed to be in the tiny top level at the same time, then after climbing down 2 levels I realized I forgot to take a picture with my phone because I wanted to use it as my new home screen image.  So, I climbed back up and I was glad I did because it was quite empty then and I was able to get even better pictures. 

 

I had lunch at Brasserie Erasmus which is where Emma and Jessie ate and they said it was delicious and they are correct.  I ordered a bowl of soup and the Club Maison sandwich which was brie cheese and walnuts - different but very good!  I then did a little shopping and finally bought my Leffe glasses so now I can enjoy a Leffe correctly! 

When I arrived in Gent, I finally took pictures of the Vridagmarkt since I had my camera on me and it was sunny!  I park under this market everyday and it is a 1 minute walk from my apartment and is full of restaurants and bars and tourists taking pictures just like me :-).  

Running!

Since I have started training for Ragnar I am getting excited about running again!  My boss forwarded me an email from the BeLux sports group for work that is organizing a 'team' to run the Brussels 20K and since work is paying for the entry fee, it is 3.5 weeks before Ragnar (perfect warm-up), and to run a race in Brussels would be awesome so I signed up!  There are 30,000 people who run the race and the registration was full within the first 4 days of being open so I am excited for this one!  

After talking to 'Coronita' in Spain, she mentioned that there are different races all over the country so I started looking into it and decided I wanted to try and run a race in every major city in Belgium.  I am running a race at the end of April with a colleague - it is a 6 person marathon relay in Antwerp and they need one more guy to run a 10K leg which is a perfect amount.  After doing some research I found that I could run the race in Oostende - along the sea, and in Gent as well but would miss the one in Bruges which is kind of sad because that was the one I was looking forward to!  But I am excited to run the Oostende race as the last couple KM are on the boardwalk right on the beach / shoreline and the Gent one will be an experience because I live here (just found out it's on a Thursday....!??!?  sad face!).  This is on a Thursday because it is a holiday for Ascension Day, and they also get Friday the 14th off because their Labor Day is May 1st, which is a Saturday this year so they will observe it on Friday the 14th - long weekend.. where will I go?!?

  Now I just need to keep training, I have run 6 times in 9 days so I hope I can keep it going - very scenic runs as I usually run laps around different bridges along all of the different canals in and around in city.  Oh, and I need to figure out how to register online because running.be website is only in French and Dutch...!

Weekend in Gent

After getting back to my apartment around midnight on Friday, I wasn't about to wake up early on Saturday and drive some place for the weekend, plus the weather was supposed to be nice and I had made plans with a couple of colleagues for Saturday and Sunday so I thought it would be good to adventure a bit more in Gent.  The first thing I wanted to do, was to go for a run and start training for Ragnar 2010.  After the rain stopped, I made sure to get my first run in and it was a bit difficult to say the least, but it was a start and I was determined to run at least 3 times in the following week.  Next, I wanted to FINALLY solve this magical mystery garbage bag issue.  I still have yet to find real Gent garbage bags and on the way back from my run I found a little super market / convenience store (very small Walgreens in comparison) that I thought would have them.  So, I headed out in no particular direction to see what was going on in the city and see if I could find any other stores - knowing I had the one near by as a back-up.  After walking around a bit I didn't find a store so I ended up going to my back-up plan which of course didn't have garbage bags.  I then found a hardware store, and I asked if they had garbage bags and the man replied 'Nope, but I do have vacuum bags.'  His English was pretty good so I asked where I could get garbage bags and he said any grocery store, but they keep them behind the counter so you have to ask the cashier - good. to. know.  He mentioned a grocery store near the Vridagmarkt (one block from my apartment) which I didn't have any luck finding so I headed back to my place and I noticed the store next door to my apartment was open for once - just looking through the window I noticed they had ironing boards and paints/painting supplies so I thought might as well check.  And of course - they have garbage bags but I at least knew to ask the guy at the counter immediately!  So a long walk around town for nothing...  But - I still need to find the blue recycling bags...

Next trip outside was to find some food.  Since I started running I wanted to keep it a bit healthy (for a day at least) and something fast so I went to Subway.  Ordered a couple wheat 30 CM subs.  The small size was 15 cm so I assumed the large one was 30 cm, and remembering unit conversions back from high school, 1 IN = 2.54 CM so I knew I was roughly close. I wanted two wheat 12 inch subs, but really had to say ''Groot" for large and "brune" for wheat.  So I got 2 large 'wit' or white subs instead.  The girl mentioned she didn't speak English very well and when we got to the vegetables / toppings that's when the fun started.  Since I just came back from Spain I had my languages mixed again, so when she asked me if I wanted cucumbers, I answered 'Si', then she asked me a question and I answered 'No, just mayonnaise please.'  And this is when her colleague, which spoke much better English, started laughing.  Evidently I was asked 'What languages do I speak?' and I answered 'just mayonnaise.'  The subs tasted pretty much the same and were quite delicious.

Later that night I went out with a colleague and one of his futbol teams and it was a lot of fun.  Different party style over here and everything is open very late, so we didn't end up going to the bar / club until almost midnight and left around 4.  I woke up late the next morning only to get around and go straight to a wine tasting with a group of colleagues.  One of the guy's father organizes a wine tasting every year as he knows a lot of the winery owners in most of the French regions.  So, I tasted some very good wines from the different regions of France and found out that if you are a Bourdeaux drinker, that 2005 and 2009 are great years for Bourdeax - they are actually quite good.  I bought a couple sweeter white wines just to make sure I have a couple good bottles of wine in case I ever have visitors again!

When I arrived back in Gent, I went straight for the friejtes stand to get some food.  I went to one of the small stands near the genever bar and it seemed there was a fire behind the genever bar!  I hope nothing happened to it!  Check it out:, if you look close you can see the owner of the genever bar's painting for the back entrance in the alley. 

Spain Trip 2

Damn those French - always messing up everyone's travel plans. Delayed mom and dads train to Amsterdam by 2+ hours, scared Jenni and John for thinking they wouldn't be able to get to / from London and Paris - plus dealt with delays and a crazy trip to the Brussel Zuid station on a Sunday evening - see post 'Jenni and John Guest Post #2'. And now, this week the French air traffic control went on strike - and how do you get to Barcelona from Brussels - flying over France of course. Evidently the planes were only allowed to fly over France at specific times so we ended up getting delayed over 2 hours flying out Tuesday night. Which ultimately meant not getting to hotel and in bed until 3AM - short night.

A bit tired on Wednesday but still had a good day at work and a better evening. There were over 10 people (all from the client except for one other, who skipped dinner) staying in the hotel that night so we all went out to dinner and drinks after. Great food, nice to get to know more people from the business, and I tried I first authentic Spanish sangria - delicious.

Its amazing the lifestyle over here. We showed up at the restaurant at 845 and the place was empty - we left around 1145 and the place was packed and people still arriving for dinner - they eat and stay up so late, the beauty of the siesta. Unfortunately we don't believe in siestas because I could have used one on Wednesday.  After dinner we went out for a drink at the bar across from the hotel and they only had one Belgian beer which evidently people didn't want so were were drinking Budweisers and it hit the spot.  A colleague ordered a Corona and they are actually Coronitas in Spain (and evidently Mexico... never been there!), it was a female that ordered it so she now has a new nickname - Coronita.  

Most interesting thing that happened Thursday was when we arrived to the parking garage by our hotel there was a few people trying to pick up and move a car that was two spots away from us. We couldn't immediately understand why, but they ended up backing into the front end of the car to the left of them - it was a perfect right angle. The back left part of the car they were trying to move was against the front bumper of the other car. So we helped them push / pick up the car off of the other car, quite humorous. After we kept saying 'cervezas' as we thought they should buy us a cold one.

The flight back on Friday was much of the same, a three hour delay but at least we took off on Friday. Had to cancel my dinner plans but more sad that our flight didn't get canceled - I wanted to stay in Barcelona for the night! Next trip will be when my first project should be over, so I will definitely plan to stay the weekend then.  The good thing about being delayed is we were able to see the sunset over the mountains when we walked out to our plane! 

 

Stupid Ryanair!

Saturday in Dublin - Part Two

Now, my history lesson was over and it was time to understand the real history and culture of Dublin - beer and whiskey. I decided to go to a bar in the 'Temple Bar' area, a couple blocks of nothing but good Irish pubs and since I wanted something local I chose the Porterhouse which is a local brewing company. I grabbed a pint and ordered some chips and enjoyed the scenery and the ability to ease-drop since they speak English - an older couple enjoying lunch and a pint doing a crossword puzzle, a younger couple enjoying lunch and a pint with their less than 1 year old, and of course 3 teenage girls sitting at the bar nursing their hangover with sprite and water telling stories about how they didn't go to bed until 6 am.

After lunch it was time to get down to business. I walked over to the Jameson Irish Whiskey distillery, which used to be one of the main production sites however it now just exists as a landmark and museum. I arrived at the right time only having to wait 20 minutes until the next tour and I spent some time in the gift shop before hand, so I would know if and only the items I would want to buy before they got me drunk and had the tour finish in the gift shop - what did I buy?? You will have to wait - the front runner would be the travel sized bottles of all of the different Jamesons. The tour started off with a ten minute movie about the history and what not but ended with something spectacular - they needed 10 volunteers to be the 'taste testers' at the end of the tour, they first offered this to the women and you better believe I was the first male that was given a Jameson baton to prove I was selected as a taster. The rest of the tour was neat, short and sweet. It ended by showing another short video of how Jameson is enjoyed around the world - very interesting. The local choice was with cranberry, NYC was with (you guessed it) Coke, other places were straight up, on the rocks, with apple juice, and with iced tea. When the video ended, the screen turned into a window and you could see the bar with all of the drinks prepared - your choice to pick one.

But, since I was a taste tester I didn't get to make a choice and was directed to a table with a couple different whiskeys. I was hoping we would get to try the different Jamesons - the 12 year, the 18 year, etc but instead it was used as a prop to show how Jameson was the best tasting. They gave you 3 samples:
1) Jameson (of course)
2) Johnny walker black label - scottish whiskey or scotch really, which the women around me didn't like so I drank all of theirs!
3) Jack Daniels

The Jameson really did taste the smoothest and the best compared to the other two, but I would have preferred they use Maker's Mark or Crown Royal to represent North America.  After this they gave us a certificate with our names on it that we could roll up and put into the baton which was quite neat!

They then gave us the straight up whiskey as our choice drink since we were expert tasters. During this, I met a couple ladies from London so we went and had a drink in the bar which was nice to have some company for a bit. But I cut it short, quickly bought my Jameson small, plush rugby ball from the gift shop, as I had to hurry to get to my next stop for the day - the coveted Guinness storehouse!

It was a short walk and before I even arrived at the entrance I walked past the famous Guinness gate that was in all of the "Brilliant" commercials.

This tour was self guided which was kind of nice because I wouldn't have been the most attentive listener after my previous visit so I definitely did them in the proper order. It was neat to walk through the process and see the history of the brand and how its made. Fun fact - Arther Guinness signed a 9000 year lease back in the day where the factory and storehouse is in just west of the center in Dublin. AND I found more of my roots as Arthur Price helped him in this!

Proof:

You had two options for how you wanted to enjoy your Guinness - either at the top in the Gravity bar which had a pretty nice view of the city, or on the floor below where you could learn how to pour the perfect pint AND pour your own!  Of course I wanted to learn how to pour my own and the one I poured was used as an example by the guy who was telling us how to do it (maybe also because I was the last one to pour - minor detail). Here's how you pour:
1) Tilt the glass at 45 degrees and pull the tap toward you to pour the beer into the side of the glass, slowly straightening the glass as you go
2) Pour until the beer is in the Guinness Harp
3) Let the beer sit for 2 minutes
4) Pour the rest of the beer by pushing the tap away from you - no gas is mixed in - to top off the perfect pint.

 

 

Captions: Top - perfect pour!

Bottom - Put my 'MP' stamp in it

You also get a personalized certificate for this!! Overall amazing day in Dublin.

Saturday in Dublin - Part One

Woke up early as usual and was starving because I didn't really eat dinner - although the Guinness is rather filling!  Walked around and went first to the Trinity College campus since I was staying right next to it - quite small but very neat. Then I stumbled on a little cafe and thought it was time to order the full Irish breakfast - pretty good!!

 

Captions: Pic of Trinity College Campus (Top)

Irish Breakfast

Next, I headed over to the Dublin castle - according to my book the castle is only open from 2-430 on weekends but I wasn't sure if I really wanted the tour anyway - but they since have changed their hours and it might have been a recent change because they just had a piece of masking tape over the old days and hours, with the new hrs written in marker. But it worked out perfectly because the first tour started at 1030 and I arrived just before ten. So I decided to go on the tour and I was glad I did - it was pretty neat and always interesting to hear a bit more about the history of the building itself and the country. They mentioned a couple American presidents as well as Americans who were at one time the Ireland president - neat and wasn't expecting it. Pics. Lots of neat paintings of the British queen when she lived there when it was still under British rule in the 1800s. Same old story though - much of the original castle was burnt down due to a fire that reached the tower where the gun powder was stored...

Captions: Top - only building left from the original Castle
Middle - Original furniture - the bigger base was for the woman for their big dresses
Bottom - Great Ballroom

Next, I walked over to the Christ Church and St. Patrick's church. Both were very neat but was unable to go into the St. Patrick's because a graduation ceremony was just finishing and chose not to go into Christs church because it was 6 euro. St Patrick's church had a neat park next to it which u can see in the pic below.

 

St. Patrick's Church / Park (above)

Christ's Church (below)

Dublin! Friday Night

The flight was on time and was a short 20 minute cab ride from the airport to my hotel.  After checking in I was anxious to go find my first Guinness in Ireland.  I left to find a couple pubs and find my way around the city. First pub I found that was not completely packed I entered and found a spot at the bar - I was sure to order a Guinness and it was beautiful.

Definitely had a different taste over here and I think it tastes better even. Its much thicker / fuller - but delicious. Also ordered an order of potato skins which were quite good. It was nice to pick up a paper and be able to read / understand the articles!  I found out that Lady GaGa was performing in Dublin that night and on Saturday so I kept that in the back of my mind in case I needed something to do.  Then walked around until I found another pub that had live music, which didn't take long.. Found a seat and enjoyed a Guinness and understood what it was like to be in a real Irish pub. Then headed back to the hotel to get some shut eye before waking up early to start seeing the sights.

Squash

One evening last week I went to play squash with a colleague and it was quite interesting.  I was under the impression that it was similar to racket ball, which it is in some respects but still took a bit to get used to.  Smaller racket, smaller ball, AND the ball does not really bounce at all.  He killed me in the first two games but after that I started to get used to it and won the next two so I was happy I was at least being competitive.  Overall, it was nice to do something athletic again and the most interesting part, was at the gym / athletic complex we went to they had a bar on the main floor which was packed with people having a beer after their work out!  We didn't stay for a drink but we were hungry so we went straight for the frietjes - but I do not know which one was worse..!