Certain, Certainy.
Brussels;
May 2006
Last week Simon and I took advantage of the beautiful summer weather and went to Brussels for a few days. It was a mere two hour journey by train but felt exactly a world and a half away from The Hague and everything here. We arrived early Thursday afternoon and checked into our hotel, a five-star semipalace on the Rue Royale, a stone's throw from the park and the city centre. While our first impulse was to throw open our balcony doors and lounge the day away in overindulgent laziness, we forced ourselves back outside and found a little café where we had an quick lunch, scoured our map for interesting places to visit, and laughed at the Austrian tourists sitting next to us, speaking to everyone in German like it was the most natural thing in the world. Afterwards we picked our way through the endless tangle of alleyways and tiny cobblestoned streets, then made our way to the park to sit in the sun and listen to the man sitting on the bench nearby play the guitar for what we assumed was his girlfriend. Around six we walked back to the hotel to freshen up, then ran off to meet Sarah who took us for drinks at a little bar near her university. I hadn't seen Sarah since my last week in Barcelona last year so we had a lot of catching up to do, which left Simon with little more to do than listen to us ramble on about old times and throw in the odd response to Sarah's questions about Germany. After we walked Sarah to the station to catch her train home, we stopped by a off-license to grab some drinks, then returned to the park for about an hour to lay on the grass and talk about how happy we were to be there.
The second day began almost identically to the first, with a quick brunch at a café close to the hotel and then a metro ride down to the Avenue de la Toison d'or, where we shopped, shared a (frankly disgusting) waffle, walked around for hours taking pictures and alternated between bickering like a little geriatric couple and indulging in shameless public displays of affection. We finished off with a late lunch of sandwiches, tabouleh, and melted Pim's orange cookies and a quick walk through the Jardin d'Egmont before grabbing the metro back into the centre to meet Sarah and Nico for dinner. We grabbed a quick drink at the same little square that we had the day before, then got into Nico's car to drive to Ixelles, a suburd of Brussels with beautiful gothic architecture and seemingly endless rows of perfectly manicured gardens, galleries and tiny shops. We ate on the terrace of a restaurant adjacent to the Place Flagey, then went to Belga for a few glasses of kriek and more talk of Barcelona and everything that's happened since our time there. At the end of the night, Nico and Sarah drove us back to the hotel and we made plans for the two of them to come visit us in Holland in June, preferrably in time for the end of the year party we're planning at the beach on the 28th.
On Saturday we check out of the hotel at noon and left our bags with the concierge, then went back to the city one last time to poke around at the shops in the Galérie de la Reine, buy chocolates at the Mary Chocolatier and cherries which we ate while sitting in the sun somewhere near the Centre Monnaire. We returned to the hotel to pick up our bags and caught the train back to The Hague around six. It was absolutely packed and rather than sit the entire journey out on the stools in the smotheringly hot cabin corridor, we upgraded our tickets to first class and spent the trip in our own air-conditioned cabin. Simon studied European Politics and I read Voltaire and looked out the window every few minutes to see the landscape slowly transition back to the flat green farmland and tulip fields so characteristic of Holland. We parted ways at Central Station and I went home to shower and unpack my bag, then met up with Simon again at his flat to share a dinner and a bottle of sparkling wine on the balcony. With both of the other boys in Germany, the house was empty and eerily quiet but the jazzy lounge music Simon put on and the warm breeze blowing in from the sea gave the atmosphere a distinct summery feeling and we were both grateful to be able to spend one last night completely alone.
Now, with the amazing weather persisting, the city feels completely different. Perhaps it's the flowy skirts and smiles seen with such abundance on the streets or just the time away which has refreshed my impression so thoroughly, but in any case it feels wonderful and I wish these days could last forever. On Friday I'll be heading back to Brussels for the day with HEBOS for a visit to NATO, then catching a train on Saturday morning to Bonn. Despite the fact that a heavy term lies ahead, all I can think of is the fast-approaching summer and all that it will entail. Life seems to have slowed to the pace of a lazinly swinging pendulum and everything feels effortless, slightly surreal and simply beautiful.