Tourism Synergy

It has been a busy weekend. Friday night I went to a going away dinner for my friend Sarah. Unfortunately, she was a little overwrought. She started crying while we were heading over the restaurant. hmmm...we had a large group going and guess it was tough rounding up everyone. And then some people wanted to switch to a different restaurant at the last minute. She was stressing about that. (this situation nicely demonstrates why I have never felt a calling to event planning)

The restaurant was Greek. I love Greek food. They only gave us 1 menu for 15 people. sooooo weird. (and may I say, sooooo Belgian) I guess their thought that we would all order a bunch of dishes to share. That really wasn't working out. I could see that it was only minutes before Sarah would start crying again so I snuck over to the bar, appropriated a stack of menus and handed them out.

oh well.

I sat with some nice people. Lots of fun discussion. Apparently, there is an open spot for a member from our delegation on the parliament's women's rights committee. I am going to suggest to my boss (a man, btw) that he take it:)

The next I went to Ghent with Sarah. Against all the odds, we managed to have a wonderful day. We got off a lot later than we had intended to because Sarah was running overslept and then we had confusion about our rendezvous point.

We got coffee at the station and Sarah spilled some of hers. I told her that the spilled coffee should represent the problems we had had that morning. We would leave it behind and move on with our day.

Alas, I spoke too soon. As we were sitting on the platform Sarah's mobile rang. It was one of her colleagues from the job she had just finished the day before. He was yelling at her that she hadn't handed in her work mobile. He was unhappy about her plan to have a friend drop off the phone monday morning and wanted it back NOW.

He continued to call (and yell) throughout the day. I told Sarah that she should just turn off her phone. (That-to me at least-seemed the logical thing to do when one is being constantly called by an angry shouting person making demands one can't fulfil) Sarah said she didn't want him to do this because she didn't want him to think she was avoiding his calls (why not let him think that?)

oh well.

The expression "glutton for punishment" comes to mind.

When we got back to Brussels in the evening, Sarah arranged to meet the guy at Place du Luxembourg to give him the phone. She had to go back to her flat to get the charger for the phone. I was dispatched directly to the place to buy the guy a drink in case she was running late. (ok, maybe I'm the glutton for punishment) fortunately, it never came to that.

The twains did meet at the Place du Luxembourg and a peaceful handover of phones took place.

oh well.

The phone situation gave the day a feeling of being "on the lam"- like Thelma and Louise or something.


Ghent is fantastic. We went first to the st. Baafskathedreaal and saw a cool Van Eijk retable (a painting comprised of multiple panels). It is called "The Mystic Adoration of the Lamb". It is probably the most famous historical object in Ghent. The coolest part was when the audio guide said that the retable had been stolen by Nazis and taken to...Neuschwanstein!!! It spent most of WW2 there. It was awesome since I have been to Neuschwanstein. I love tourism synergy.

We took a boat tour on the canal during which we saw the gate that is the only surviving part of the castle where Emperor Charles V was born.

In the evening we were supposed to go to farewell cocktails for another friend who was leaving. It started at 8:30 but between the train ride home and the phone handover, Sarah and I did not get there till 11:30. exhausted.

oh well. I showed up. That showed that I care. I hope.

I asked for a martini, shaken not stirred (perhaps it was myself I was describing) and sort of sank into corner hoping that in this instance actions would speak louder than words. Man, what a long day! Life is crazy sometimes.

oh well.