The city of...

So, the big test. I am in Paris, city of all sorts of nouns. I'm staying on the floor of Lisa's apartment, which I comprehended was small... but in it's entirety it is actually smaller than my bedroom! So very little space to move with a house guest... So I feel entirely indebted to Lisa- you are fabulous, Lise!!!!

So far, I like Paris. This experience is based on arriving in Paris at 5pm Sunday, a walk around Lisa's area (which includes viewing Pont Neuf and Pont Des Arts, bits of Notre Dame, and Fontaine St Michel. Oh and no criticism of any French I use is allowed. Only encouragement, I am a fragile French attempter. Any nastiness may send me back into my shell entirely) and then dinner. So not much, today I will strike out on my own while Lisa does things one must do having been out of town for a week. I am going to see Notre Dame, I think. And... stuff. Lisa keeps asking what I want to do or see, but apart from a few things (churches, Louvre, Musee D'Orsay), I really don't know. Stuff.

Belgium has definitely got a good rap from me. Bruges was beautiful, whether it's fake or not it is just gorgeous. We have surmised that perhaps Lonely Planet warns people off it because it is very tourist driven, there are tourists all over the place. But hey, I'm a tourist, so I can't complain. Went to a chocolate museum while Lisa took a canal tour- with the amount of inevitable 'being lost' one does in Bruges (wind-y medieval streets are not conducive to well directed strolling), we didn't manage to each do both of these activities, but we each liked our choice.

Yesterday we split up and strolled around Belgium. I ended up taking photos of street art for Lisa!!! And trying to order things in French, which mostly went well. Then I drank beer. Both Lisa and I found that, even if you consider drinking something else, the fact that you're in Belgium and the great beer is so cheap compels you to just drink beer. Here are the beers I drank in Belgium:

Kreik (Cherry)
Duvel
Palm
Westmalle Tripel
Forbidden Fruit
Jupiler
Triple Karmeliet
Bruges Blonde
Grimbergen Dubel

Not bad for three days of beer drinking! (And of course sometimes I had more than one beer... Jupiler was incredibly cheap, at one hostel it was only 1 euro!)

Beer and chocolate

Well, this is Belgium. Chocolate on Grand Place, beer in various locations including Place Saint Katherine and the hostel. Brussells is quite nice, despite proclaiming itself an 'ugly city' in the map I picked up. I think it's pretty!

Got into Belgium around lunchtime yesterday, found a hostel and wandered the streets, sampling belgian food and drinks along the way (fries, chocs, beers). Grand Place is AMAZING, everywhere you turn there is another beautiful building. Today we went to three museums: the Comic Art Museum, the Belvue Museum (history of Belgium) and the Brewers Museum (sparse on displays, but the cheesiest movie which was also very informative and thrist inspiring... so we went for beer afterwards).

Tomorrow we head to Bruges for a day trip- a medieval town (or town recreated in the medieval style, according to lonely PLanet). Supposed to be very beautiful and romantic, so I'm looking forward to it. PLus we're going to a chocolate museum there :) With tastings.

Most annoying thing about Belgium has also been quite amusing- each hostel we've been to could only put us up for one night at a time. So we changed hostels tonight, and tomorrow will return to our original hostel for another night! Then Sunday it's off to Paris, and Lisa's tiny apartment :)