Turkey to brats: Germany

The day after Thanksgiving Steve and I headed to Cologne, Germany. By train Cologne is just shy of two hours from Brussels and we had heard that they have fabulous Christmas markets. We did not leave disappointed.

Within reasonable walking distance from our hotel there were about six Christmas markets. We ended up going to five of them. Each market had a little bit of its own personality. They are all different sizes, the booths are all different in each market and sometimes the market will have a specific theme. The first one Steve and I went to was right on the river and had a little bit of a maritime feel.  The vendors were all wearing captains hats and sometimes outfits. Some of the markets we went to had merry-go-rounds or Ferris wheels. One even had a pretty big ice skating rink.  Each market had a variety of vendors selling things like ornaments, candles, lace, jewelry, toys, candy etc.

What all the markets had were the traditional Christmas market foods like brats, pretzels, cheese and baked goods. They also all had beer and hot wine.  We of course took in more than our share of brats and hot wine. Each of the different markets have different vendors that are selling the hot wine. Beer and wine at the markets are served in plastic mugs or cups, instead they use proper glasses and mugs. Each market/vendor has its own unique glass or mug. They come in different shapes and sizes.  When you buy wine or beer, you also put a deposit on the mug. You can either choose to keep the mug or return it to get your deposit back. As you stroll through the markets, you see everybody walking around with these steaming mugs full of wine. It was fun to see all of the different mugs and beer glasses. We spent hours eating, drinking and taking in the sights of the Christmas markets.

Brats on the grill, the smell was intoxicating

It was a fun way to kick off the holiday season. Everybody seemed to be in great moods (I'm sure the wine had a lot to do with that) and everything was so festive. There were lights everywhere and you could almost always hear Christmas music (although in German). The only thing we were missing was a little bit of snow.

Happy Thanksgiving

At first we thought we'd be at home just the two of us eating a turkey breast or something completely unrelated to Thanksgiving, but we ended up having a wonderful thanksgiving. It was still a weird day, instead of being of being at the farm and having everything closed,  everything was open and nobody was planning for the big meal. Steve still went to work and I did my normal daily stuff.

Since we've been here we have made some new friends from the States so we decided to pull together a Thanksgiving of our own. I will have to give most of the credit to our friend Sarah, her Belgian  friend offered to host (which is key since the rest of us live in little apartments) and she took on the task of finding and making a turkey. Making the traditional Thanksgiving meal is a little trickier here just because some of the food isn't as easily available. Steve and I were suppose to bring a dessert and green bean casserole. At first for dessert I was going to attempt a pumpkin pie, I couldn't find condensed milk or a pre- made pie crust( of course I wasn't going to make a crust from scratch), so then I found a recipe for an apple type dessert. All I'm going to say is that it came out terribly. It might have been because I put it in the oven during dinner, but then didn't hear the timer go off for several minutes after it went off. Need less to say we didn't eat any of that dessert, and instead spent several minutes making fun of it and listing all the people who wouldn't eat it like stray cats, dogs etc.

To make the green bean casserole, I had to go to two different grocery stores to find cream of mushroom soup and only by luck (and three grocery stores later) Steve able to find crispy onions. The funny thing is he found them in the Asian section. I've had a lot of Asian food in my life and I'm pretty sure I've never had crispy onions on anything.

The group was a lot of fun. Overall there were 11 of us. Nine of us from the States, six of the nine from Minnesota(what a small world). Missed our family and friends of course, but loved celebrating Thanksgiving and making new friends.

Watch were you walk

The other day I was walking to the grocery store and saw a shadow over me. I of course looked up assuming it was a bird that was going to poop on me and saw that I was actually standing under the arm of a crane carrying a plank. I looked around to see if I missed a cautionary sign, but there was none. If I remember correctly, in the States any construction is blocked off completely but here you can just hang out around it apparently. I guess Brussels is more on the laxed side. I'm sure the crane had a good hold on the plank, but its like walking under a ladder, its just better to walk around it.

The yellow and black thing is the hook of the crane, its picking up the big green dumpster thing, look at all the cars and people around it. If it was windy I swear the thing would smack you in the head.

Paris

The very best thing about living in Brussels is how close it is to other parts of Europe. From Brussels we can get to Paris, London and parts of Germany in less than two hours by train. Its amazing since back home, the only place I can get in about two hours is Rochester(sorry that is not as interesting as London). So, since last Friday was Armistice Day (Veteran's Day) here in Brussels and Steve had Friday off, we took the long weekend as an opportunity to jump on the train to Paris. In about an hour and a half we were walking the streets of Paris enjoying the sites and food. These would be my tips for visiting Paris: be prepared for people to judge you, follow your map at Louvre very closely, very closely, eat as many pastries as you can, but skip the steak.

We saw the typical sites like the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel tower, Notre Dame and Champs Elysees. I'm sure I would get a big eye roll from the Parisians for saying this, but my favorite was seeing the Eiffel tower at night. The tower was bigger than I expected it, and at night its all lit up. On the hour, the lights twinkle, it reminds me of a gigantic Christmas tree with the blinking lights. During the day its still very impressive, but it didn't give me the same experience.

Steve at the Arc

 The Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame have such great detail and engraving. When you get to the the top of the Arc you can get a 360 degree veiw of Paris. Notre Dame is a beautiful church with fantastic stained glass windows and candles everywhere.

The Louvre is HUGE. I'm not a big art person, so I'm not sure I appreciated it as much as others, but the amount of artwork is incredible. BTW-the Mona Lisa is much smaller than you would expect and there is some is definitely some artwork I just don't understand. For example, there was marble sculpture of the kid with its arms around a gooses neck, what's that all about? Also, because it is so big we did get a lost for a little while, if you ever go to the Louvre look at your map very closely. Otherwise, before you know it, you start saying to yourself, "didn't we already walk by this painting?"

Steve and the Mona Lisa

I call this, wrestling for dinner

In addition to seeing the sites, we of course had some good food. The pastries are as good as you would think they are, that's all we had for breakfast were pastries. The French bread and the croissants were the best I've had. I would not however recommend eating steak in Paris. Its fine, but I'd rather go to the Capital Grill or Manny's in Minnesota any day. As far as the great Belgium fries vs. French fries debate, I hate to say this, but I think the French fries win.

A place to burn off those frites

I love having the gym right around the corner from our apartment. The place is called World Gym, and is very similar to a gym from back home. There's a cardio section, a weight room and then cardio classes. I'm especially liking the cardio classes, they are all taught in English and have been a fun way to burn all the calories from my frequent snack of frites. I've been taking zumba, body pump and step. Steve's been spinning as well.

I've noticed a couple of things about going to the gym. One thing is the decor. Back home advertisements and imagines in the gym or of the gym are all pictures of smiling 20 something year olds with super tight and toned bodies. Its the same in this gym except they don't have any clothes on and have no faces. You only see the body. Now these are not the same type of pictures that came up in my Google search for a massage in Brussels(those were a lot more scandalous), but it was still a little surprising when I got on the elliptical and noticed I was working out next to a man's butt. From what I can tell Belgians are more comfortable with nudity, it just part of normal culture.

I also very quickly realized that if I wanted to blend in, I could no longer wear my big bright yellow "I survived the Inca trail" t-shirt. All of the women wear "proper" work out gear. Tight spandex pants and tank tops,   coordinating outfits that even go with their shoes sometimes. A lot of the men wear spandex as well although not as much as the women.

A big part of the motivation during these classes are the instructors. Each has a different personality and body shape that seems to match the class they teach. For Zumba my instructor reminds me of Beyonce. She's curvy with big hair, she makes you want a bigger butt so you can shake it more. My body pump instructor makes you feel like you are working out with Arnold Sschwarzenegger. He's one of those men who also wears spandex. He's really muscular, body builder type muscular. He also has a strong Dutch or German accent and yells during class. Lastly there is another guy with a nice French accent who teaches the a different cardio class. All I know is when a guy with a french accent tells you to feel the music and roll your hips, you get motivated to keep rolling your hips.

Where we live

I've had people ask about where we live, so I thought I would share more about our place and the area that we live in. Our place is a one bedroom apartment with one and a half baths. The building is also a hotel, so we've got some of the perks of a hotel like a person who cleans our place on Fridays, and also a front desk person during business hours. Its nice but simple. It reminds me of an Ikea showroom.

The Dining room with our "office" against the wall

Our kitchen

The Living room

One of the things that I really like about our place is that we have a small balcony that looks out over the street. It gives us some good people watching, and also some great natural light into the apartment.

This is the view from our balcony on the left hand side, the building closest to us is the Radisson, the further one is a Parliament building

The view on the right hand side of our balcony

I'm really happy with our location, its a busier area with a lot of activity. At the end of the street is an area called Place Jordan.  In Place Jordan are the Parliament buildings, a couple of restaurants/bars  and a market. When I walk down to Place Jordan, I pass by other restaurants, a market, my favorite coffee shop and one of the train stations. If I ever decide to go riding around Brussels just down the street there is one of those bike rental/sharing places like they have in downtown Minneapolis. You can pick up a bike at one of these locations and then return the bike to any of the additional locations around the city. Of course I don't expect that I'll ride a bike here as I know I will most definitely get hit by a car.

Always thirsty

Since we've moved to Brussels, I have found that I am always thirsty (and no, this is not an excuse to drink more Belgium beer).

There are a couple of reasons for me always being thirsty. First, regardless of where you are nobody will give you tap water, they will only sell you bottled water, even in restaurants. Second, I am stubborn and can't quite bring myself to buy bottled water when the tap water is clean and equally delicious.

My fork is bigger than my Coke, that's not right...

Since I refuse to pay for bottled water when we go out to eat I'll order a pop/soda instead. I am still getting used to the idea that everything in the States is super sized, because I am still disappointed every time my drink comes to the table. There are no free refills (of course) and the pop comes in a bottle...a very small bottle with a very small glass.  I've also taken  a cut in my coffee intake, I have to order a large here to match up to what a small was at the Starbucks or Caribou back home.

There is a benefit to not drinking as much, and that is not having to go to the bathroom as much either. There is no such thing as a public bathroom here. If you're eating at a restaurant, they may or may not have a bathroom. If they do its in the basement. For some reason that freaks me out. Every time I walk down the stairs I feel like I'm either a) in the wrong place b)going to get yelled at, or c) walk into a cult meeting.

Otherwise, you have to pay to use the bathroom. I've had to pay to use the bathroom at the train station, a concert that we went to, even the McDonalds(don't judge me, I wanted some fries) asks you to pay to use the bathroom. Its about 0.40 to 0.50 euros each time, so about $0.60 to $0.75. I'm going to have to add a line item to my budget labeled "Pee money"