Belgium

This past weekend, after my Finance exam I went to Belgium with JD and Neeraj. No, this is not a city Bcop. It is a country next to France. This Country, in my opinion, is known for 5 things (food & beverage related); and I conquered them all.

1. Waffles (Belgian) - count: 4
2. Mussels - count: 2 bowls (~ 80 total)
3. Chocolate - count: 1, but I also brought home some good stuff
4. Frites (fries) - count: 2 cones
5. Beer - count: it only took 1 sip to know that Belgium makes the best.

The 1st night we spent in a small town called Brugge, about an hour north of Brussels. This is a flemish (Dutch) speaking area. Plus, like the Dutch, they have a plethora of bikes.
At night, the town was quiet and a pleasure to look at
By the way, we stayed at a castle. Only 100 years old. Unfortunately.
Outside...Inside...
Brugge has some cool canals which we took a short boat trip on. I just love these old looking towns.

After Brugge, we went to Brussels. This is one of the main buildings in the main square.Excuse me, but I ordered a large!
Where the magic happened on Saturday night.The above street contained a no name bar in a long narrow ally way that we sampled a few Belgian beverages at. Then at about 9:30 pm, the bag pipe man started to play. I think that is when the night crossed over into legendary.After some more walking around town, and a brief exchange with a "shadow economy market employee" to get directions, we made it home to our hotel.

The next day we did some more Brussels touring, and here were the 2 highlights of the day.
This cool looking car.


and our last waffles. (Neeraj & JD)

What is a Hibou? I think someone copied my blog.

Normandy

After a Managing People exam last Monday, I took a trip to the Normandy region. Most of you will recognize this as the beaches that the Allies (mostly US, UK, and Canadian forces) landed on D-Day, quickly pushing the Nazi regime back. While, this was the main reason I went, you must know that this region extends further then these beaches and has a lot of amazing sites.

Back to the story, we (Danijela, Elycia and I) drove from Paris to Mont Saint-Micheal. This is a little mountain with a big church. The big attraction at this place is that at certain times of the day, the tide will rise high enough to surround the whole mountain. Unfortunately, we were not there at the right time of the year to see this natural art.

Nonetheless, at night it felt like I was on the set of Les Misérables.
See Exhibit A & B.
The place is astounding at night...
It's not too bad during the day either.
After a night and morning there, we heading up north to Bayeux (the 1st town liberated by the Allies). We checked out a WWII museum, which was remarkably interesting. We then headed to the American Cemetery.

Here is the view when you walk in.. all those white things are tombstones.
The cemetery holds close to 10,000 tombstones for American soldiers.
A fact that mildly surprised me was that it is owned and maintained by America, on American Land, in France. The more surprising fact was that there are about 5 German cemeteries in the area. 3 hold about 10,000 each, and another has over 20,000. Those are astonishing numbers! Plus, they must be run by Germany (don't quote me). I guess this means that everyone is friends again. Unfortunately, as time was limited, we did not get to those.

Omaha beach. Pretty crazy to think about what transpired on this beach. Saving Private Ryan anyone (although that may have been steps over on Utah beach).
Inside one of the bunkers.
I think this was a big gun here.
Since this trip was a trip that I had been waiting for since I arrived in France, I thought would have been disappointed due to over anticipation. However, that was very far from the truth. I experienced where the world changed and I walked on land that too many people took their last breath on. Yet, even though this is a horrible thought, without this tactical operation, the war would have extended even longer. Or could the Russians have won it all by themselves from the east? Think about that for a sec.

In any event, I recommend this trip to every one that comes to France. After all, it's only a 2 hour drive from Paris.

Rheims

This post is a little out dated, as I was in Rheims almost 2 weeks ago, but here we go.
I took a day trip to the capital of the champagne region. The day went as follows...

10:30 - arrive and then proceed to wander for a bit
11:30 - find map and head towards champagne cave
12:15 - arrive at cave only to find out that the next english tour is not until 2:30. Decide to walk from the south of the city towards the north to see where a WWII treaty was signed.
1:00 - Arrive at this location only to find that they close for 2 hours for lunch. So, I meander my way back south, take some photos of a big church and eat an orange.
2:30 - Took an hour tour of the cave, learned the history, and learned how to make champagne. Since I was not on my A game, due to not having eaten a real lunch yet, the knowledge passed on to me did not stay up in the noggin. The 2 points I did retain are as follows...
a. At this plant/cave, the thousands of fermenting champagne bottles are turned manually a few times a week.
b. During the fermentation process, some of the yeast? hardens at the top of the bottle, thus, when they initially pop the cork, this hard sediment shoots out. Then, some sorry replacement champagne must be placed in the bottle.

There were rooms and rooms and hallways of this.
3:45 - walked around a bit some more and then came back to Paris (1st class seat on the train).

More Pics

I have uploaded some more pics. Please go take a look if you'd like. Click me.

I couldn't wait for the poll to end and I went to Normandy. I will try to write about it soon.

Here's a preview of...

Mont Saint-Micheal

American War Cemetery
German Bunker in France
Normally I would write more, but I actually do have work to do. I have a Finance test coming up on Friday.

By the way, I am officially going to Israel Dec 1 to Dec 5 to visit friends & family and to see sights that I have never seen before.

Metro Strike

A metro strike started last night at 8pm. For more info, click me. As I write this at 7:30 am, it is still going on. You may be wondering how this will change my life. Well I will tell you...

Today, and hopefully only today, I will have to use my legs to walk to school.

Here are the problems with this...
1. It's a 45 minute walk (hopefully not more)
2. It is up hill BOTH ways
3. There is a hail storm

I tell ya, kids have it so easy these days, with their fancy metros, blinking rolling shoes, and those damn TVs.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!!!!

A little bit of this and that

1st - for those of you that have never seen my appearance on a game show, enjoy.
http://www.r3-consulting.net/chainreaction

2nd - I finally had VB (Aussie beer).
3rd - I was thinking how amazing it was that I never stepped in Doggie Dung (more on this in another post), alas, it finally happened this weekend, but in Rheims, not Paris.

4th - While in Rheims this weekend I saw a champagne cave for the 1st time. Pretty amazing.
This is champagne stacked 4 feet high and going back 30 yards. This is just ONE of the rooms.

5th - I think I may go to Israel in December for 5 days. That would be awesome.

6th - Chris Farley is back...
7th - So it looks like I will not be getting a hair cut for a little bit. Or until I feel like I need it. Thanks for the feedback.

Back in the Fatherland: Updated

So I was in Germany for the 1st time in my life this past weekend. I gotta say, the parts I saw (Munich/Oktoberfest) were remarkable. For those of you who don't know, Oktoberfest is an annual debacle of a beer festival (more info). Millions of people go to Munich Germany during this 3 week period, which starts in late September (go figure), to experience this amazing Bavarian event. First of all, as you may have seen in the pictures, people get dressed up in typical Bavarian garb. This involves men wearing Lederhosen and women wearing Dirndl. I am not sure that I could ever wear such an outfit, however, most of the men that do wear it are drunk most of the only day that they sport the outfit. The plot of land that is used is vacant all year round. On the grounds are amusement park type rides, games, venders and about 12 different tents (each holding massive amounts of people and a different type of beer).

I experienced Oktoberfest in true fashion by making a full day of it. I was on the grounds from 10am until 10:30 pm. I spent most of the day in the Augustiner tent, and enjoyed Oktoberfest beverages, food, and people. By the way, when I say tents, I mean wooden structures with an opaque tent like roof. The hall was packed with people and for the 1st time in my life I experienced a male bathroom line that was longer than the females. Unbelievable. I will say this to all the women reading this, I am sorry for all those times we are in and out while you are still waiting. Yet, this does build character in your careful planning abilities.



Because I am a food guy, I must say that the half chicken (Wiesn Hähndl) I ordered was delicious. They must drop it in a tub of oil to make it as crisp as it is. Plus, it was very salty (no complaints though). I am not sure if that is a Bavarian thing, or if it was implemented to make people drink more. At about 7pm, it was time to venture out of the tent for a little walking and one last beverage. The festival was a happening place, but not as rowdy as inside the tents. The last stop we made was the Lowenbrau tent where we sampled their brew and ate one last half of chicken. Overall - this was a great experience (probably because I've never seen so many different nationalities drunk at one time).

One more thing, they have pretzels in Germany that are bigger and almost comparable in taste to those steamy ones in Philadelphia.

Check out my Sunday morning breakfast...

That's right - pretzel with cream cheese and chives.

As for Munich, it was a nice looking city. It is pretty remarkable that the architecture looked so authentic and old, even though it was probably only built 60 years ago.

One last thing I must mention is that when crossing the street with pedestrian crossing lights, typically it is common to walk when there are no cars coming, even if the light is red. However, in Germany, if one does this (only foreigners do this), the Germans will yell at them. Very weird for a couple of reasons on a few levels. One, it just proves how the German culture is very rigid. I am not saying that this is a bad thing, it is a fact of their culture. Two, I felt uncomfortable being yelled at in German. Stupid Hollywood movies.

Maybe off to Amsterdam this weekend to see Brooke!

New Pics

I posted some pics from the past week. There will be an update regarding Munich and Oktoberfest as soon as I have a bit more time.

Quickie

I have my first graduate level exam tomorrow in the AM. Can't wait. Then I leave for Oktoberfest!

See Paris Dan! (With Pascal)
See Paris Dan's new car...See Paris Dan run (I wish I had a picture), when real owner sees me lurking around car.

I wish point 3 actually happened.