It's blog time.
So Africa.... it's been a while. I've missed you. Now just like the good ole friends that we are, let us reminisce about all the good times we used to have:
So it all began last July.... Mum and Dad drove me and Alexis to the airport for the first of our epic flights to Nairobi, Kenya. We got all checked in with no issues and were off before we knew it to Minneapolis. That was the easy part. Our flight was much too large for the capacity of the baggage conveyor belt and I nearly witnessed death by killer luggage for a child who was standing too near the belt before her father grabbed her out of the way just in time.
We took the overnight flight to Amsterdam and on our approach I was very happy to see that the Dutch fully live up to their stereotype by putting windmills everywhere. From the airport we went straight to the Heineken brewery (where else would one go in Amsterdam?). It was much overpriced and set up like a museum with a bar in the middle and we had a jolly good time taking many a ridiculous photo and drinking many a Heineken.
Next we went for a stroll through town eating bread with cheese and salami and drinking wine straight from the bottle. We sat by the water and embarked on a fight to the death with the local birds for possession of our food. Next our stroll took us through the red light district and we witnessed many stoned tourists and next-to-naked women in all the windows. It was not a good time... interesting from a cultural anthropologist-like perspective but I was sooo not in the mood.
We took the train in the evening to Brussels and went to meet Alexis' big sister Chantal and her boyfriend Theo. They live right in the city-centre (perfect for us tourist types) however, its on the 4th floor so I had to drag my excess of luggage up floor flights of stairs. Not fun when I couldn't even remember the last time I slept. And on top of it all Theo doesn't speak much English so I had to somehow make my brain work in French for the next few days. But my efforts were rewarded with Belgian beer: the best beer I have encountered on this planet thus far.... and so many varieties! I had cherry beer, white beer, dark beer, 9% alcohol beer! It was great!
Chantal and Theo took us to a baptism in the Rwandese community of Brussels (a rather substantially community). There probably hundreds of people there and it lasted well into the night. This was my first taste of proper Rwandese food and boy-howdy it was awesome!!! So after a full day of food and complimentary drink, Alexis and I went out for waffles with two of his friends from the proverbial "back in the day". I promptly lost my wallet and all that was in it and had a little nervous breakdown. Then we went to a Rwandese bar, drank some more beer and ate brochette (savoury meat and onions on an stick). I felt substantially better among good eats and even better company. I only had a few dollars in my wallet so in the morning I cancelled my credit cards, transferred all my money to Alexis and came out of the whole experience no worse for wear.
We were lucky enough to be in Brussels for their Fete National (National Day/Holiday)... the equivalent to Canada Day I suppose. There were all sorts of parades and expositions and we nearly saw the royal family except that it was so crowded and security was so tight that we quickly gave up trying to get anywhere near them. So we went over to Grand Place instead and I immediately fell in love! The architecture oh the architecture!!! It made me weak in the knees. Then we saw little Mannequin de Pis, touched Lady Luck, ate more waffles and drank more beer. That night we took the last train out of Brussels to Ghent for their annual week of partying and festival-ing. We got there around midnight and met up with a couple of our friends who would later be travelling around Africa with us. We danced the night away and then took the first train back to Brussels in the morning. Chantal was not pleased when we woke her up at 6am to let us in.
The next day... or rather later that same day we walked around the Royal Palace grounds and went to visit Chantal at work at the European Commission. She took us to see the European Parliament and we took in happy hour and a nice pub out front. Then we rushed back to the apartment, packed and hopped on the last train back to Amsterdam. Our flight to Nairobi was at 10 am so we had to take the train the night before and spent the night at the airport. It was sad to be leaving Europe and our excellent hosts behind but I was very excited to be setting foot in Africa in less than 24 hours. After a miserable night at the airport we got on our flight and were asleep just as soon as our bums touched our seats. We didn't even notice when we took off.
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