Back from yet another trip... and a sudden realisation there are 2 weeks of holidays left!

on the train back from Brussels yesterday and it hit me again. the feeling of limbo kind of creeped up on me again. it felt strange because i kept thinking, oh yea i'm going home. yet this isnt really "home home" though it is beginning to feel more like my home than Singapore, which to me seems so distant. it made me think that 'hey here i am going on a trip away-away from home' and i started wondering if i consider Coventry home. surprising i do. in the sense that i was actually really looking forward to school starting and being back in Whitefields and going to classes and meeting up with people for meals or going for some social event (be it a Singapore Society thing or otherwise). i like my life here as much as i miss the friends i left behind in Singapore.

anyway, i need to fill you guys in about the rest of my trip, right? :)

after checking out from the hostel in Bruges we walked around the town AND BOUGHT CHOCOLATES. i couldnt stop myself. and we visited Grutthuse Museum which is an old mansion converted into a museum showcasing tapestries, kitchen utensils, paintings, furniture, ceramics, gold and silver plates, even torture weapons from Bruges's history. it was a really good visit because we had audio guides and they were full of information and very educational. by the way, did you know that 'liberal arts' was a greek idea and mathematics and astronomy were considered 'liberal arts'?

we had lunch in a really nice place called Chagell (which my brother says was the best meal) and i had tagliatelle with scampi in a creamy pesto sauce. YUM! my brother had a mixed grill which was good though the sausage didnt taste that nice. then off it was to Antwerp. my general impression was that it seems to be a very dusty city. i could feel all the dust blowing in my face and my eyes were watery most of the time. we walked through the diamond district to get to our hostel and while they were really cheap, it wasnt as glitz and glamour as i had expected it to be. for some strange reason it reminded me of Cairo from all the Indiana Jones movies i have watched. hahaha... but the nice thing about Antwerp was Our Lady's Cathedral (which has a collection of Ruben's paintings and very good explanations about them) and that the shops (as in clothes) were all on a huge pedestrian street. plus we found this quaint little eating place that sold nice hearty soups.

after a day in Antwerp we set off for Brussels. first stop was the Comic Strip Museum which was all in French so it took a looooong time to decipher what the various comic strips were about. we had mussels for dinner because people have been telling us how you MUST have mussels in Brussels (or Belgium... i've heard both). my conclusion? the mussels i had in Dubrovnik (Croatia) were nicer. think it is the way it was cooked because in Brussels the mussels were too salty and i kept biting into grains (cant figure out if they were salt or sand - but judging from the saltiness, i'd say salt). the following day we went to the flea market at place du Jeu de Balle and after navigating our way through the 'junk' we found some really cool old postcards. we even visted the Musee du Cacao et du Chocolat (the chocolate and cocoa museum) which was cool because we got a free biscuit dipped in chocolate and watched them make chocolates in front of us (which means free samples as well!).

by the way, i think i have grown fat because i have been drinking beer at almost every meal (with the exception of the a few meals where i have had wine/ice tea/milkshakes) and eating seafood and snacking on chocolates. sigh. i think holidays are not a good thing to go for... the repercussions are too disasterous.