Such a lovely place (such a lovely place)

So the internet's not free, but it's pretty cheap. I've got about 45 minutes left right now.

I'd like to start this off with the crazy dream that I had last night, rather than anything that I've done in Brussels. That's how weird it was.

Of what I can remember (which is a remarkable amount, considering what usually happens to dreams upon waking), the dream began with me saving a girl my age from some seemingly random attacker. Little did I know that I had entered into something that I had no idea existed. As I found out, some evil spirit/demon/creature was hunting this girl (although I can't remember why). As I found out, this spirit possessed people. and then used their body to make its evil ambitions reality. The mechanics of it are pretty fuzzy, though. Anyways, by saving her I marked myself as the spirit's enemy as well. What follwed really hit upon a slew of movie cliches, including, but not limited to, a car chase on a winding dirt road through a hilly forest at high speed. This dream was so intense that when I punched the possessed person chasing us, I actually punched the air next to my bed (I woke up, briefly). The only part that I remember fairly well, aside from the car chase, is in a hotel room, one with a door to an adjoining room. Now, by this point, we had picked up another person fighting against the spirit. I think her name was Liz (although not any Liz that I know). She was in the adjoining room, and the Girl and myself were in the other room. Somehow, Liz gets possessed, and we end up having a fight to the death after she breaks through the door to get to us. I remember this really clearly, because I stabbed her in the heart with a pen. Yeah. It was pretty gruesome, as you can imagine.

Anyways, that was the start of my day today (What fun!). Now back to the beginning of my stay here in Brussels.

***

The first leg of my trip to Cologne was fairly awful. I was in a 6 passenger compartment - completely full - with two women who either wouldn't stop talking or wouldn't stop getting up. I barely slept for the 6 hours, and I was in a middle seat, so I couldn't even lean on anything. Interestingly, though, nobody came by to check tickets for that whole leg. I guess they didn't want to bother people so late at night (it was a ride from 00:30 to 6:56). I did get booted off the train in Aachen, though, which luckily is most of the way to Brussels. They didn't have much of a sense of humor about the whole business, and I wasn't trying to argue anything past "I've actually already paid." I had to buy a new ticket, and got into Brussels a whole hour or two later than planned.

After checking in at my hostel, I stowed my bags, and started walking. First, I hit a Turkish district - Doner Kebaps and Turkish Pizza as far as the eye can see. There wasn't much in the way of interesting sights, except for this one park I walked through on the way back. It was on a steep hill, adjacent to a school. The whole thing had a terraced feel to it, although it wasn't really designed as such. It also had one of those spinning platform things that are banned in the US, since they are so dangerous, making it far better than any US playground.

After that, I took a nap for a couple of hours and then went to meet Moritz, one of Tom and Dorothee's sons. He lives in Brussels, and works for a community organization trying to improve ties within the communtiy. He's a really nice guy. He invited my to a dinner held by his organization for their something-eth anniversary. Quiche, salad and bread -very french. Also, Belgian beer is amazing. There are 250 varieties made in Belgium, many originally made in monasteries. After dinner, there was a performance of Latin Jazz and Roma/Gypsy music. It was wicked good (pretty much everything good that you might associate with 'Latin', although I could have swore that I was listening to the Eagle's "Hotel Califormia" at some times. Then it was time for bed, since I had had about 6 hours of sleep in the past day.

Today, I had that crazy dream, and then I met Moritz for a small tour around the city. We wlaked through a sunday market, and then a flea market, where I bought a copper turtle serving dish (a copper dish shaped like a turtle). That's for you, mom and dad. We walked through the historical parts of the city, I took some pictures, and Moritz was an excellent guide.

After the tour, I went to the Belgian museum of Comic Book Art. I can't recommend this place enough. I must have spent 2 or 3 hours there, just looking at and reading the comics on display, and absorbing the whole experience. I bought a plush Milou (Snowy for all you American TinTin fans). The high point of the musem might have been the exhibit on sterotypes in Europe as seen in comics. The examples were all really funny, even if I couldn't read them all ( a testament to the art). Of particular interest was a British comic about Marie Antoinnette dodging out on her beheading, only to end up in as Anne Bolynne in a reenactment of her beheading. Yeah. There were also lots of comics about Tea Time from a French perspective, of course.

Not much to say after that. The weather is pretty cold, and it looks like it might start raining a bit.

That's all for now.
Keep reading for the conclusion to this week's shocking episode!