Beneluxurious

So when I last posted, I was still hanging out in Utrecht with Anand, and day-tripping around The Netherlands. Unfortunately, I got smacked with a nasty little head cold that kept me from getting any more ambitious than that. Still, we were determined to press on and take part in the Queen's Night festivities on Friday. The Netherlands is (are?) governed by a constitutional monarchy and, as I mentioned earlier, Queen's Night is a celebration of the queen's birthday. The Dutch commemorate this event in the following ways:

• Wearing bright orange clothing (the official Royal color)
• Selling all their unwanted junk on the street in what may be the world's biggest and wackiest yard sale
• Getting absolutely hammered

Walking through the streets during all this craziness was quite the experience. I spent several minutes haggling with a yard-saler who was trying to sell me an orange Jaegermeister-logo wristband. I wasn't interested at first, but he was really working hard to close the sale, and I appreciated his persistence. And I wanted some orange clothing to make me cool like everybody else. So I worked him down to 40 euro-cents apiece, and bought one for Anand and myself. I think it was a pretty good deal, because not only is this Jaegermeister wristband absurdly stylish, but it also doubles as a good iPod protector. Anand bought us some black market Heineken to celebrate a deal well done.

We also got a healthy dose of Americana that night. In one of the squares, some Christian evangelical organization had set up a stage of sorts and was doing an old-school tent revival. I wouldn't think twice about seeing something like this in the States, but in The Netherlands? I was surprised, needless to say. Anyways, the head preacher-guy would sing and shout the typical phrases, and a Dutch guy next to him would translate for the crowd. "Jesus Christ is risen!" "Jesus Krijst op roosijn!" "He is our savior!" "Het op oor saavdijks!" (Note: the Dutch translations I have written may or may not be grammatically correct. In fact, they may not be Dutch at all!)

Anyways, it was a fine way to wrap things up in The Netherlands. The next day, I hopped on the train to Antwerp, Belgium. This city really surprised me. I wasn't originally planning on going, but I couldn't find a decent Brussels hostel for that night, so I decided to give it a try. As it turns out, Antwerp (or at least what little I saw of it) is a beautiful town, with plenty of quaint cafes to hang out at and lots of picturesque cobbled streets and alleyways to get lost in. I'm glad I went.

After Antwerp it was on to Brussels, the so-called "capital of Europe." I wasn't as impressed with Brussels as I was with Antwerp. The main square and gardens were beautiful, but I got the impression that, just below the surface, it was really mostly a working town. All the glass-and-steel skyscrapers reinforced this. I spent most of my time wandering the town with an American named Mike, who despite his somewhat high-strung, semi-paranoid attitude ("I left a book and my toiletries sitting on my bed...anyone could steal them!") was a pretty fun guy. We logged plenty of miles exploring the city, including a trip to the quirky Atomium, which is essentially a 10- story steel representation of a molecule. I'm not sure what it's there for. It was actually undergoing renovation at the time so we couldn't go up in it, but we figured we had to see it after reading the brochure: "Come see the renovation!" That was the first time I ever saw someone touting the fact that an attraction was closed for repairs.

Well, I'm a little behind on my blogging at the moment; I'm actually finishing up my visit to Paris at the moment! I'll write about that when I get the chance. Au revoir!