Koln and Brussels

I awoke early in Berlin on Friday to head to Cologne, but got waylaid and didn't make it there until around 6. As in Munich, the hostel was very corporate, where you have to make your own beds and the computers cost 2 euro/hr. The first thing I did was go to an internet cafe (because you can't connect your camera to the hostel machines) to write the last two posts.

Kolsch: 20cl glasses mean you have to order the next
as soon as it arrives

After that I went across the street to the a Gaffer Kolsch brauhaus, where after sitting I immediately realized I didn't have my camera. Fuck. Back across the street to the cafe, it was nowhere to be found. I searched high and low and asked around, but the guy working the place thought I was annoying and nobody had seen it. So yeah, 400 pictures gone, and no more personal photos for the blog :(

That cast a pretty dark cloud over the evening, not to mention it was still pouring, so I had no real interest in doing anything. There's a huge cathedral (like, really really huge) in the middle of town, and what seemed like a good nightlife, but I wasn't going to be good conversation so I just read in the hostel. Ok so that was a pretty crappy day.

I think the pictures are going to get a lot better now...

I wanted to be in Brussels for as long as I could before coming back to London today, so I got up early again. I stayed in a "design" hotel, which I think means the decorations are all really bizarre, because I couldn't find any hostels that late on a weekend.

A favorite Magritte

Once downtown I settled back into a Belgian routine: lambic and pancake for breakfast, a museum, coffee to stay awake, see the main attractions in the city, and find some bars and a restaurant for the night. The museum was old, ancient, and modern art, as well as a dedicated Magritte museum. Naturally the part I was most interested in, modern, was closed for the winter. The Magritte was better than I thought though, since I didn't know he did "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" and "The Son of Man" (the apple in front of the bowler hat from Thomas Crown Affair). Actually neither of those were in the museum..

This is one of those cities where everyone is trying to sell you something or get you to eat in their restaurant (moules frittes), and gypsies are constantly asking tourists for money. There seemed to be a huge night culture, as everywhere I went had many restaurants and bars. I chose a place at Rick Steve's recommendation with communal tables and spent dinner chatting with a couple girls from the Netherlands.

Manneken Pis - the OFFICIAL mascot of the city

This morning I made it back to London by 10:30, where I'll be until I leave on Wednesday morning. I have a job interview Tuesday. Also, surprise, I'm staying with Kate for the next three nights. I'm really excited to see her and glad she offered - it'll be nice to save a little money at this point in the trip.