Every time you say you don't believe in fairies, a fairy dies.

Damage update, since it wasn't clear from my last post, the injuries from the escalator are minimal. Just some bruises and scrapes, but nothing to get excited about. I have, however, been enjoying Mary's skype status which went from "wear a helmet when you are on the escalator" to "things not to throw down an escalator" coupled with a photo of me. Aww mommy, you're so funny.

Oh my gods, back to important things, amazing day in Brussels. Nina and I slept in, managed to finagle our way into another night at the same hostel, I picked up Eva at the airport and we did the mandatory tourist stuff (like visiting the rather unimpressive Manneken Pis [who was dressed like a Cypriot for reasons unknown] and the park off the royal palace), and headed off to EP-Land (a Ninaism referring to the area of Brussels used by the European Union Parliament that inspired the Barry-like blag-post-title).

Two quick things about the park: it's probably my favorite part of Brussels, there is a small resto inside that sells hot wine and hors d'oeuvres alongside a stand that sells waffles. Nina came to the conclusion early on that Brussels is all about the food (i.e. Moules frites, waffles, fries[or chips, whatever] and mayo, BEER...) and I must concur. The waffle that we had in the park was a three syllable a-ma-zing. The Belgians sure know how to make a waffle, and they melt sugar inside them. (Sara, I think they basically put half the batter on the waffle iron, sprinkle some sugar in the middle and then put the other half of the batter so that the sugar is sandwiched in the center) It ends up having this caramel-taste/flavor and does not require any toppings or syrup. De-lish-yus.

Exploring EP-Land was actually a bit of an accident. We were failing pretty fantastically at being tour guides for Eva, who was having her first day in Brussels, so we just decided to head over to the bars in that area after having some lovely hot wine and waffle in the park. What we didn't know is that they were having a FREE European-Food-Fest in front of the parliamentary building. This just goes to show that you can't plan free dinner and drinks, but you can certainly take advantage of an opportunity when it pops up.

I think we really have Poland to thank for most of our food. The Poland stand had a wide assortment of food, including a meat dish (which we thing was onions caramelized and spiced and then meat (perhaps cow? I have issues identifying meat) added and cooked slowly until it was falling apart and then a bit of vinegar), several cheeses, bread, beer and some honey vodka. The honey vodka was delicious. Maggie, you lived in Poland, why didn't you tell me about the honey vodka? I complained about your lack of data-sharing to the ladies at the stand and their response (read: excuse for you) was "well there are so many kind of vodka in Poland, perhaps she never tasted this one." I'm not buying it. Explain yourself please. (Just kidding, I adore you. But if you could explain why this topic never came up that would be awesome...)

The other tables were great as well, there was lots and lots of wine in France (we helped ourselves liberally), liqueur from Estonia made with herbs that reminded me a bit of Chartreuse except for the fact that it was red not green, strange fig-chocolate-cake and amazing caraway seed/sea-salt bread-sticks from the Czech Republic, some more wine from Austria, wine and lamb and salad from Greece. I know what you're thinking now. We were a bit too stuck on the French tent so we missed the food at Italy. Also apparently the UK wasn't making an appearance, I was rather hoping to get a taste of pub lunch.

At any rate, Eva went to bed after our adventures and Nina and I closed down the night at a little restaurant down the street that we may turn into "our" place this Brussels trip. It's good to have a place. I also posit that the uncertainty (since, you know, we didn't plan accommodation this trip. whoops. don't freak out parental units! it's gone swimmingly since the escalator incident.) and incredible amount of fun we're having in Brussels is great preparation for the uncertainty and incredible fun that will be happening in Cameroon in two days. Super. Pumped.

Seeing as it's 6:19 in the morning, I may try to go back to sleep.

xxM