jibber jabber 

I had such high hopes for Belgium. I guess I still did mostly enjoy myself but my girlfriend got pickpocketed in Brussels within 3 hours of arriving so that tends to make a bad first impression. The hotel sucked too which didn’t help. Oh and its the only city i’ve ever experienced a sheisty taxi driver. Most expensive mediocre breakfast I’ve ever had. And world’s most useless metro ticket machines. The main old square in Brussels is super rad, love the architecture but I don’t have much else positive to say about Brussels. Well OK two things. The store Stijl is amazing and we had breakfast in a little ma & pa deli/cafe with a friendly dog who liked to beg for table scraps from the customers.

Antwerp was funner. More to see/do. Our hotel was f’n amazing. If you get a chance go to m0851 guesthouse. delicious waffles from random street vendors. I didn’t get a chance to sample too many belgian brews but Stella’s here in Vancouver’s got me covered on that front. belgian fries aren’t as good as I remember. i guess i’m used to the thinner double fried stuff we get here now. and i love their sparkling water. can’t remember the brand but its soo fizzy pellegrino is flat by comparison. mmm… bubbles…

well so much for german efficiency. the curse of our time spent in berlin was the breakdown of the u-bahn and s-bahn. not a day went by without us getting screwed on the rail system due to some sort of construction or other problem.

most likely it was the arctic weather, but berlin did not make a good impression. if it wasn’t for our friends showing us around i probably would have left after a day. however, with the local knowledge i did have a good time.

on the culinary front i had some great schnitzel from markthalle, discovered the highly addictive soda named bluna, developed a taste for kasespatzel and i’m still upset that i wasn’t allowed to try the half-meter bratwurst.

damn knut was sleeping when we went to the zoo but we got to see giraffes. i love giraffes. campbell, owner of darklands, and his lovely girlfriend estefania led an expedition to one of their haunts, the wonderfully enigmatic clarchens ballhaus for a chamber music recital. i also experienced THE nuttiest new year’s eve ever. let’s just leave it at russian dance party and enough fireworks to simulate the invasion of baghdad.

got to spend almost a week in barca recently as part of our EU vacation. while i had a good time i’m not sure i would go back. we were staying in a great hotel right in the Born district so right in the thick of all the cool kids area but it just felt like there wasn’t much to do that we were into. don’t get me wrong, its got great architecture, great food, nice people, good weather, etc but it just wasn’t for me.

i loved the la boquiera market. reminds you of where meat comes from. an actual animal not a cello wrapped styrofoam tray. had some great meals with the highlight being Cuines Santa-Caterina where we had an all-time tuna tartare on a bed of guacamole (thanks to @grapesofkath for the recommendation). the ginormous Zara’s and H&M’s are a sight to behold. found a new lust object that i ended up not buying and can’t find anymore.

not much to write about really, so now its been there, done that. next stop, berlin. oh and the paella… such a let down.

yvr -> bcn -> sxf -> bru -> cdg -> yvr

can’t wait. oh and we got in here.

i totally forgot we were totally in the area when this happened. can’t believe we missed it all.

yeah yeah so i promised to photoblog and twitter from japan. i didn’t. but its not for lack of trying. turns out free wifi is not very prolific in japan. seems their cell network is just too damn good. i brought my 2G iphone as my sole connection to the internet. so that meant no 3G connection and no wifi connection. if i hadn’t preloaded the iphone with subway maps and other travel resources it would have been a brick.

japan was freakin’ amazing though. love tokyo. we were there for two weeks then left to travel around for a week and then one last day in tokyo before flying back to van. when we arrived back in tokyo for that last day, it felt like coming home.

i was pretty apprehensive on the way over about getting around but man once you figure it out its so frickin’ easy. you can go anywhere you want so quick and if you get a Suica card you don’t even have to think about what the correct fare is. which is good cause your brain so so busy taking in everything there is to see and do over there.

did a bunch of shopping and wandering around just soaking it all in. shibuya and shinjuku (our home base) are awesome little areas to hang out in. so many experiences i don’t think i can remember them all or put them to paper.

perhaps more will dribble out over time. definitely need to go back sometime soon.

a couple pics are up on my flickr.

oh and my new favourite dish can be found here. i think it was number 22 from the vending machine.

wheeeee…i’m so excited…when we booked our flight to japan we weren’t really thinking about what’s going on in Japan we were just trying to make it work with our housing situation. well guess what?!?! we’re going to be there for the japanese f1 race and the tokyo game show!! wheeee!!! i can’t wait to see my first f1 race live! now i just have to find tickets…

just booked tickets to japan for 3 weeks. stoked.