Week 33: France, Belgium, The Netherlands

Paris
I finally visited the Louvre! Pretty frigging big. It's got art and stuff, ya know. The only noteworthy part of the visit was how hilarious it was to see people crowd around the Mona Lisa trying to a catch a glimpse like they were going to have some revelation once they saw it.

After the museum, I went to Le Grand Appetit, a vegan, macrobiotic restaurant and had the Grand Assiette (large assortment). Slightly expensive (because everything in Paris is more expensive) but very tasty. Despite all the random shit I've dealt with in the last little while at least I'm happily eating at veg*n restaurants frequently.


Brussels
I swear Europe is trying to kill me. It was incredibly windy when I arrived in Brussels, so my attention was divided between trying to orientate myself towards the hostel and not getting blown over. This took my attention away from noticing that the middle area of the road was raised, so there was a slight curb. My attention might have missed this but my foot found it and then my face found the ground as I couldn't maintain balance with the temporary 40lb growth on my back. The backpack did break my fall slightly though which was a mixed blessing; instead of being crushed by the bag into the ground, I only received two scrapes. The downside is that two bottles of wine were sacrificed (not the important ones thankfully). More frustrating is that I only found out an hour later as I was removing my wine drenched clothes from my bag.

The next day I visited the Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée (comics museum). It's pretty hilarious that I spent nearly as long here staring at pages of Tintin and Les Schtroumpfs (Smurfs) as I did in the Louvre. I love comics quite a bit. The only disappointing bit is that the museum doesn't seem to have been updated to recently. The latest pieces seemed to be from the early 90's. But the Smurfs turned 50 this year, so there was a temporary exhibit explaining every possible aspect of the Smurfs which was pretty cool. I was very tempted to waste a lot of money books and figurines but I was held back by a lack of funds and the realization that I'll have to carry everything around on my back until the trip is done.


Brugge
Went to De Bron vegetarisch restaurant for lunch; holy shit it was busy. All the tables were full, so I just joined a four seat table that only had two people at it. It felt a little awkward for me but it seemed to be a perfectly normal for them.

Belgium has strong beers; I couldn't find one that was less than 6%. So, when I went out drinking with a couple of Brits, I felt the pain for the majority of the next day.


Amsterdam
I went to two raw food cafes while I was in Amsterdam which I was really happy about because I haven't seen any raw food places in any of the other major European cities I've been to apart from London. The first place I went to is called Rawfood Cafe and is housed the same building as a dance studio. I sort of got dinner and show because the cafe and studio are separated by sliding glass doors. I had the falafal plate and chocolate mousse. I enjoyed the salad that accompanied the falafals but it is amazing that you can make "falafals" that aren't deep fried while maintaining texture and flavour. But the pièce de résistance was the chocolate mousse; basically, it was to die for. And raw cocoa is pretty energizing stuff because for about an hour afterwards I had a bit of a body buzz going on.

The other restaurant is Unlimited Health which is a part of a Yoga studio (no show here though). The plate of the day, four separate salads, was premade (probably that morning), so it slightly lacked the fresh, crispness of a dish made per order but I still enjoyed it. It always fun to have a variety of items on a plate and the size was considerably better compared to the amount of food I have received at other restaurants for €10.

The hostel I stayed at is large and fairly impersonal, so I didn't make any friends. But I was determined to try legal 'shrooms whilst in Amsterdam, with or without accompaniment. I went to a smart shop and purchased a 35g packet of Golden Teacher. I planned on only eating half that night and then the other half the next day but after an hour I felt I wasn't getting an enough out of them, so I decided to eat the rest. Woowee, what a night. It was probably the best trip on mushrooms I've ever had. Of particular enjoyment was the exterior of the Rijksmuseum, the clouds/moon/sky as they moved about and the trees in Vondelpark (which is just out front of the hostel).

The only other thing that I have to say about the Netherlands and Belgium is how amazing it see so many people riding bikes and how much a part of their culture it is. Seeing the sea of bikes at the bike racks in the city centres or at the train station is incredible (and blinding on a sunny day).


Stay tuned for next Sunday's blog; it'll have a surprise.
- Kasza