If my hangover was a country...

[venta]

Life isn't half getting in the way of this LJing lark. In summary, I have been to Belgium with Mabel Gubbins and North British Sword, and had a jolly nice time. As noted before, the Belgian public is extremely polite and will form an appreciative circle the moment you break out the swords and give notice that you are going to do A Thing.

Sorry, not swords, but "Morris dancing staves". This, after much thought, is what we call our sprung-steel weapons whenever we take them through security. The idea is to make them sound so fantastically boring that no one could possibly want to ask about them, for fear we might tell them.

Anyway, in easily digestible form:

Brussels is good at beer. We went round the Cantillon brewery, a small-scale family operation which brews Lambic beer in the traditional manner using only wild yeast. If you've never tasted genuine Lambic, it's like nothing on earth. Unlike most this-is-a-stainless-steel-vat brewery tours, this one is fascinating.

Brussels is decent at chocolate. It was Easter, so it was all eggs, mostly praline-y. Ordinary corner supermarkets sell good quality dark chocolate in exciting flavours (lemon and black pepper!) very cheaply.

Brussels is bad at vegetables. You might get a side-salad if you're lucky. Our restaurants had been very carefully selected: walk in somewhere at random and vegetarian options will be either very limited or non-existent. If you're a meat eater, good luck with getting anything on the side with your beef stew and chips.

Brussels invented art nouveau, apparently. There are some amazing buildings. With little time for sight-seeing I missed a lot, but we managed half of a city-centre art nouveau walking tour on Monday morning. Two of us kept lagging behind, looking at little architectural details that weren't on the tourist information itinerary.

Brussels hates trees. Truly, they have the most aggressive pollarding policy I've ever seen. If a tree is allowed any branches at all, they will be trained into tortured-looking positions.

Brussels is quite close on the train. Even allowing for the early check in, I can be in Brussels more quickly than I can be home at my parents' house.

Comments

Morris dancing staves

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

I forget the detail, but this reminds me of a story I heard from uitlander about some botanists who were concerned about getting their specimen of Cannabis cannabis through Customs, so they labelled it "grass" instead in the hope that it would be too bland to attract attention.

[zotz]

I'm assuming the title's a Fish Story reference - and very pleased too. I got shown it by some friends a couple of months back, and very fine it is.

[uitlander]

Hurrah! You have been to Cantillion and discovered Geuze.

Some points to add. Brussels is one of the few capital cities without a river. Or rather there is a river, the Senne/Zenne, but it is now underground.

Forget art Nouveau, this is the home of surrealism. Once you understand that the whole place starts to make sense.

Dinosaurs! There is a museum full of dinosaurs!

And yes, beer and chocolates. This is what I used to say to people when they asked WTF I did my DPhil fieldwork in Belgium.

Re: Morris dancing staves

[uitlander]

Yup. And that is how, best beloved, the herbarium at Cambridge University got their sample.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I don't know what a Fish Story is. Should I?

My title is from a Ballboy song that appears in the play-with-songs "Midsummer".

[venta.livejournal.com]

Nice!

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

> Even allowing for the early check in, I can be in Brussels more quickly than I can be home at my parents' house.

Yes. That felt really weird when I visited recently. (Even allowing for the drive to Ebbsfleet.)

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Lambic is possibly the nicest beer ever.

[venta.livejournal.com]

We did accidentally discover Gueze when popping into Cantillon in December to arrange a tour. It is... Yes. Quite a thing. I wouldn't say I fell in love with it, but it's interesting and I can drink it (some couldn't).

I reckon Cantillon's Lambic tastes like what you'd get if you described beer to cider-makers.

I'm actually thinking of going back for a normal-person weekend in Brussels. The dinosaurs will have to wait till then.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I spent Sunday night in a fabulous bar called A La Becasse, which serves draft Lambic in lovely pottery jugs. Highly recommended, if you're in Brussels.

[zotz]

Yes, you should.

[zotz]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC5E4-LRrTk

[zenithed.livejournal.com]

I didn't know about the Art Nouveau thing, that makes Brussels sound more interesting than I'd always filed it as.

I'd almost forgotten about Midsummer - looks like the soundtrack's on Bandcamp: http://ballboy.bandcamp.com/album/midsummer-a-play-with-songs

I wonder what Ballboy are up to these days?

[rapperaddict.livejournal.com]

Am missing the beer. Who knew Raspberry or cherry lambic beer could be so nice! That said, it's unbelievably nice to see wild trees going whichever way they will again.

Have to admit that the beer and the possibility of the Breughel Museum is almost, almost enough to tempt me into a non-rapper trip aboard. Almost.

[rapperaddict.livejournal.com]

Has a wonderfully mad landlord/waiter.

[deborahw37.livejournal.com]

Morris dancing Staves :)

[shermarama]

The pollarding is usual round there, and indeed here, in places like town squares or station forecourts - it's a bit less aggressive out of city centres. But from what I've seen they still look lively and healthy when in full leaf; it's only when they're bare they look like geometric puzzles.