Thursday, May 21, 2009

Snow White came to Brussels

So, little tidbit (because I am procrastinating), Tomek, the Polish guy we were out with last night was talking about going to Germany. He actually didn't know where in Germay he was going, but he knew it was where Snow White was from. None of us had heard of this part of Germany, and were all kind of skeptical. Fast forward to today...

I decided to look it up, and apparently (according to Wikipedia) the story of Snow White has a ton of parallels with Margarete Van Weldeck (1533-1554) who was very attractive, had problems with her stepmother, grew up in Waldeck (a town in Germany) where children (known as dwarfs) worked in mines, etc. THEN, Margarete moved to Brussels! Where she attracted the romantic interest of several nobles, including Phillip II of Spain, who wanted to marry her, but she fell victim of a poisoning! (And died at the age of 21.)

So there you have it, the possible (probably) inspiration for the folk tale Snow White came to Brussels.

Holidays in Brussels...

Are great. Today Miguel has a day off, so we slept in, and then noticed the market just outside the window! (Living in Boniface has its advantages.) So we got dressed and wandered around before having a lovely breakfast of eggs, bacon and tea on the terrace of L'Ultime Atome (the same place we had drinks last night, they must be getting sick of us over there) and enjoyed the lovely weather.


The only problem with holidays here, though, is everything is closed. It's worse than a Sunday! We had to go into town to buy the beer I wanted to get for my dad (Tripel Karmeliet and Kwak), but it all worked out, and now it's time to pack!

It's going to be weird driving again, and not having to lug groceries up 3 flights of stairs. Hurrah vacation! USA (and Whole Foods), here I come!

Reason to love Brussels (other than the chocolate)

Tonight I went out for drinks with a few friends to say goodbye before my big trip to the States. we were all talking and having a good time, when I looked around and realized what an interesting group we were (at least based on nationality). We had:

1 Irish/Spanish
1 Irish
1 Belgian
1 Jordanian
1 Polish and
1 American.

Yep, Brussels is pretty cool.