title: the beaux city of brussels

victory! here, at last, loyal readers, is the documentation of the weekend i turned 20!
my big goal in brussels was to see the mannekin pis, because quite honestly i didn't know the first thing about the city before visiting. i didn't even know they spoke french there. so yes, i saw the mannekin.but then i saw the rest of the city, and the mannekin pis is absolutely not the coolest thing there.lots of sculpture.
i also have to comment on this particular image:the view from this spot in the park looked just like some kind of city from star trek. it was so futuristic and blue.

title: and so, to ghent!

fortunately, bruges does not speak for all of belgium. ghent is awesome. it's like if bruges and brussels had a brilliant lovechild. it's full of art and medieval charm, just to the right scale, and everything is affordable for a lowly student such as myself. (don't get me wrong, you can go expensive if you want to, but it's not forced like in CERTAIN towns.) plus, the people are friendly here and the oldsters aren't scabs. i had coffee with a woman who has lived in ghent all her life, and had been going to that particular coffee shop (mokabon, where you can go to the best cappucino ever for only 2 euro) since she was nine years old. a cute young couple also sat with us, and spent the entire time pinching each other as they stirred their coffees. and that was only the beautiful beginning to my day.

one more cool thing: there is a street in ghent where you can do graffiti without getting in any trouble. behold.
does it not speak to the innermost happiness of you soul?! they love art in ghent. i also took in the s.m.a.k., where i saw some crappy modern art and some cool modern art. in addition to its exhibits, there is "coming people": the museum displays art students' work, chosen by curators from the museum itself and from international museums (this year it was a person from japan). also, they actually allow you to take (non-flash) photos in the museum, which is an awesome idea. i'm still working out whether or not any of the photos i took are good enough to be worth posting. only photoshop will tell! for now, just enjoy this beautiful image from a junk shop (where, incidentally, i wound up haggling for and buying a melodica):wow.

title: bruges: the simple

if you have ever seen the movie in bruges, you will know that colin farrell spends nearly the entire thing making fun of how boring bruges is. let me halfheartedly apologize for referencing this movie in my post. i know it's all bruges is known for and that it's so cliche to use it as a jumping-off point. if that bothers you, you should probably go away. there is a reason that said film is the only thing in bruges that people talk about. let me allow colin to explain:

"if i grew up on a farm, and was retarded, bruges might impress me; but i didn't, so it doesn't."

yeah, that's pretty much true. it's a lovely old city, really, but everything is super expensive and everyone is old. old and cranky. all the museums ad cathedrals are under construction, so they're either not worth seeing or closed. they don't let you see jesus' blood for some reason, so even that small novelty is out the window. plus everything smells like groty egg farts, all the time. this first photo is an extremely typical street-shot of bruges.
what are you going to do? pay 4 euro for a bottled beer and feel sorry for yourself, then go to ghent.