This is the end..

I'm done with Brussels. My internship is officially over, and the interns are all leaving in droves. I haven't written much lately because I haven't done anything overtly exciting other than the usual clap trap of life which is interesting to few other than those who were there, despite the fact that it was quite captivating at the time.

I know Brussels relatively well now, and it is growing on me. Everything is much closer together than it seems initially. I had a good exploratory trip out toward Laeken (where the royal palace is), and found that despite the lengthy metro trip, it was actually quite close by to our area... relatively anyway.

Now I will go to visit J in Heidelberg, and then move on the Copenhagen, and then London, and then Edmonton.

Prague pictures

Pictures from Prague

sorry for the lack of explanations.... but here's a pile of pictures from Praha.

Prague

Another weekend, another trip... Prague.... I am officially going broke in the worst way possible. Nonetheless, Prague was beautiful as always. SUPER hot though. SUpposedly it was 39 degrees in some areas of the Czech republic. So we sampled the generous Czech authorities' provision of water spraying trucks in the street, which actually made a huge difference to our lives. Prague is much pricier than it was... though still not too bad if you stay out of the ultra intense tourist zones. Enjoyed the pear orchard... enjoyed the presidential palace.... stayed in a decent hostel. Back to work tomorrow.

Pix

I uploaded some pics of Dubrovnik...

Tour de France

The internet from the neighbours is very cyclical, so i will take this extremely fast opportunity to write that I went to the tour de France today.... I felt very ferris bueller's day off because I had to skip the end of work,.... it was actually a very good atmosphere and impressive.

Continued: Sorry, but our internet is broken, so we have to steal the neighbours' and it seems to have a very fast on-off cycle in which we can actually use it... strange but true. Anyway, the tour was definetely worth seeing. Such, good atmosphere; everyone was really excited. I climbed a tree and watched the whole proceedings from there. I'll post pics when the internet eventually starts to work again. The reason I could go is because its a parliamentary Strasbourg week, so the Brussels contingent is left with relatively little actual work to do.

Nothing as exciting to report this weekend. We basically stayed around in Brussels. Brussels is starting to scare me a bit. In this past weekend I personally witnessed or knew people who witnessed at least three relatively major crimes. One girl's purse was stolen, along with pretty much everything she has that's important. Another girl who works at CEPS, and who was already attacked in a park earlier in the spring, had her car literally attacked while she was driving it. They smashed the window stole her stuff, realised that she was alone, and then ransacked and vandalized the car. I can't help but feel that is something you would expect from Mexico City or Mogadishu, not so much the supposed show case of the European Union. Her car had Italian plates, and they apparently often target foreign plates. The other incident was just outside our house, and was some sort of fight, we couldn't quite tell what, but it involved a lot of foul language, smashed bottles, and squad cars eventually showing up. This brings the number of violent incidents we have witnessed up toward double digits.

Other than all of that, I went to a conference at CEPS on Friday... good change of pace from work. This week I'm more or less alone in the office, while the rest of the staff decamps to Strasbourg. I think it will be fun.

On the weekend we had curry dinner on Friday, and there was big stagiere football party thing at a stadium in Etterbeek, which was actually much more fun than it sounds. We all had to wear jerseys to get in, so I'm now the proud owner of a knock off Barcelona jersey, which was good for making friends.

Sunday was actually sunny, and we went to the park. Then S had a goodbye, since she's leaving already.

Dubrovnik

it feels kind of useless to blog about this, because I still can't quite get over it. Suffice to say Dubrovnik is utterly spectacular.

Somehow we truly lucked out on the hostel. We booked it completely randomly, and basically on the criteria of as cheap as possible. It turned out to be pretty much the nicest place I've ever stayed. It had views on three angles, including the ocean, a palm tree, a little garden, the roofs of the old town, the mountains, the conservancy of music (whose music would waft up at all hours of the day), and the old city walls. The place itself had lots of room and light, a bathroom with a spectacular view, a kitchen, and was well located. However, I won't reveal any details in the hopes of maintaining it as a well kept secret. THe price was ridiculously low: 16 euros per night. I doubt I will ever stay in such a gem ever again. The only slight problem came on the last morning when they somehow gave the next guests their keys before we'd woken up in the morning. It was a bit of an awkward meeting.

Other than that, we took a day trip to a nearby town whose name escapes me. It was more relaxed, slightly less touristy, and much cheaper than Dubrovnik. I am now planning on becoming a property mogul in the area. Its surprising that tourism is apparently only up to mid 1980s levels, even all these years after the war. A lot of the old communist style hotels are still lying empty and full of shell holes. The local museum dedicated to the resistance is a real piece of work in nationalist writing.