A Post I Started a Long Time Ago

MALASANAS: So this blog entry finds me in Spain, the Australia of Europe. After half a day of Belgian lunacy, a train ride to Amsterdam and then, obviously, two days of bars, coffee shops and trawls to the red light district I´m finally in Spain. I just picked Kate up from the Metro and as soon as she´s checked in it´s off to the park for jamon y queso y pan.

But what have I been up to so far? After a spectacularly early flight to Brussels I managed to screw my head on with a couple of coffees and headed up to the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts and it´s fabulous collection of Bosch, Brueghels and Moderns. After almost four hours in the labyrinthine gallery I was back on the streets to sample that Belgian speciality, pommes frites. Fucking chips. That´s all they were. I mean I knew that but I was hoping for something more. The PissWeak Awards for 07-08 may already have a winner.

After sampling a range of Belgian beers on the town square I set out in search of dinner. Steering clear of the streets and streets of tourist places offering mussells and chips I opted for Little Africa, a small enclave of streets way off the main drag recommended by my tourist map. So I located said street, found a restaurant, plucked up the courage to enter and was confronted by a host who didn't seem to believe I wanted to eat. When I finally convinced her I wanted a menu, and crossed the signifcant language barrier, she wouldn't let me order half the things on the menu, finally settling on a goat curry. She bought me a beer, the goat curry and two older looking blokes with Robert Mugabe style glasses decided to start a conversation with me. Lisa and Elerig will testify to my atrocious French pronunciation, so it was little wonder the conversation failed to progress. Somehow I succeeded in making friends and after I'd paid the bill the wouldn't let me leave, instead they insisted on buying me beers.

Unfortunately I never did get to seek out my special Belgian beer cafes, but I did get drunk and I did wake up with a minging headache.