Pass that Dutch

The meetings ended yesterday and today was all mine. I started off the morning with some shopping around the Gran Plac before meeting up with another guy who also stayed an extra day here. We signed up for a half day tour of Antwerp. All in all it was a great day, here are a few of the places we saw.

Here also are a couple photos from here in Brussels...

Seriously, this is a serious crime...

I love SOCA, or at least the SOCA guys that were here this week : ) I got to see the new badges they have....they look like fridge magnets. They also happen to share their logo with a popular 80's cartoon show (they brought it up but I have to agree with them). Can anyone guess what show it is??

Waffle Planet

In the wild waffle kingdom there are many species of waffles. From the rare and elusive craptastic El Salvadorian waffle to one of the most commonly know waffles, the Belgian. Here in Belgium the waffles are plentiful and roam freely among the land. They hold a certain celebrity status here; right up there with Belgian beer and chocolates and even make there way onto postcards. So of course when I came across a waffle place today I had to grab one. I've got to admit it's one of the best waffles I've ever had. Here's a photo of the Belgian waffles in there natural setting.

Tales from the Crypt

So surprise, surprise, we went out drinking tonight. One of the places we tried was called Le Cercueil or "the crypt" in English. We were in the same area the night before and some locals told us that they were going to "drink with the dead people". We thought they might have had a little too much to drink but the place really existed, it was just their explanation of the place that was lost in translation. Le Cerueil was down a winding hallway which when you enter was pitch black, the drinks came in skull mugs and the tables were coffins. We even got the "VIP" lounge area which was just a separate room. Nothing to scary about it, in fact it was really like some bad college bar and you expected some one to light up a joint at any minute. We all made the best of it and had some interesting topics of discussion. Here's one that we pondered for awhile.... which one is worse to be called a wanker or a jerk-off??

Bonjour!!

Comment ca va? All is going well here in Brussels. Didn't have any drama getting over this way like last time. The only drama I came a couple days before my departure. I went into work on Saturday to finish up a chart I had started so I could bring it to the meeting. So I finish it up, check the printer and what do I find???? The plotter is out of paper meaning I can't print my chart. Why you ask?? Because someone, who shall remain nameless (cough, Judy, cough, printed off cables which shouldn't have been happening. Now I'm guessing she didn't mean to do this but none the less I was still irritated. I figured I could burn a copy to a CD and bring it along with me. Once again it wasn't so easy, the CD drive wasn't being recognized by the computer. So in the end I came in for nothing since I couldn't find a way to take it with me this week.

Coming back to the present, I landed bright and early this morning along with two others that came in for the meeting. We checked into the hotel without too much of a problem. My room of the three wasn't ready so I had to chill in the lobby for an hour. The afternoon was spent going on a hop-on, hop-off tour of Brussels with the two guys. We saw this one thing that appeared to looked kind of like a giant jack but apparently it's supposed to be a unit cell of an iron crystal. It was built for the world fair in '58. Not exactly what I would have picked to draw the crowds in but I guess they didn't ask me. Here's a picture of it in case anyone is curious.

Anywho, the meet starts tomorrow afternoon at one so in the mean while I'll try and post about the city's most famous statue, the Manneken Pis. A demain!