28/4 - Athens Airport, 29/4 - Brussels, Queen's Day in Utrecht
At the Athens Airport, the PA system kept playing self-congratulatory messages about their 5th anniversary: "it's good to celebrate but better to know that you're happy and safe", or something like that. At the rate they were playing it (every few minutes), I was neither happy nor safe, being tempted to end my misery by running onto the runway. When they weren't playing the announcement, they piped in annoying music at an overly loud volume or tried to con us into visiting the airport shopping centre. All this would've been tolerable, but the chairs in the departure hall all had handrests between them, and weren't inclined at a suitable angle like those in KLIA's transit area, making it impossible for me to catch a few hours' sleep (the real sleeping area, with seats without handrests, was in an area no one would wander into unless he had already checked in).
The sign for the female toilet in Athens airport was interesting - a male figure wearing a hoop skirt (as opposed to a dress) trimmed at a length 1/4 down its thigh.
For some reason, the woman at the checkin counter at first claimed I needed a visa for Brussels, making me panic unnecessarily (!@#$). She then, after tagging my backpacks, made me send them in at the "out of gauge" counter. I suspect the straps would've choked their baggage system. So much for having a 5 year old airport.
On the flight to Brussels, the announcer spoke Dutch using English pronunciation and with a French accent. Best.
It was 3 degrees when I landed at ~6:30 in Brussels. Later, as I was leaving Brussels at ~9:40 it was 6 degrees. Considering that it was April 29th - wth.
The customs exemptions for people coming from outside the EU or special tax territories is interesting. These people can bring in 50g of perfume, 250ml of "toilet water" (wth. I had to check the French translation to find that they meant "eaux de toilette", of course. I don't know why perfume and eaux de toilette were considered separately) and limited amounts of coffee and tea (?1). What was even more interesting than that was that those under the age of 15 were not allowed to bring in coffee/tea. Forget marijuana - caffeine is the new dangerous "soft" drug!
At Brussels Central railway station, I discovered that left luggage cost €3,30 per piece per day, so especially since I had 2 pieces of luggage in addition to my small backpack, I was reinforced in my desire to leave the city once viewing the Manneken Pis.
Town hall
Buildings in the Grand Place, according to Hugo, "La plus belle place du monde"
In the Grand Place, there was a guy with a tripod and SLR who set the timer and took a picture of himself with the statue. I thought those into photography would consider themselves past such shots.
Flower seller in the Grand Place who was blocking my view and shots of the town hall (gah).
The art museum was set to open at 10am, but I didn't care to wait for more than an hour.
Manneken Pis's Costumes. Nelson Mandela?!
Manneken Pis pissing
Manneken Pis
Manneken Pis fountain
There were 2 chocolate shops near the Manneken Pis with signs in Chinese. One was open and was manned (though not owned) by Chinese salesgirls, and its Chinese signs claimed that it offered the best prices and had free samples. One salesgirl asked if I could speak Chinese. I demurred with a "not very well" and she graciously continued speaking in English.
At 9am, I was looking for breakfast, only to find that few places were opened. One shop recommended by my guidebook was closed (I could see waffles inside but the door was locked) and I couldn't find another. The rest were too far to go to with ~20kg on my body, so I went to another place which said they opened at 11. Finally I did find a place and had a small Belgian waffle. Forgetting my Golden Rule of Chocolate (never order it outside since it likely won't be sweet enough) I had a waffle with chocolate sauce. Luckily, it wasn't too bitter, and the icing sugar on top was great. It was both chewy and crispy at the same time - most places do waffles too crispy, too dry and hard. Even the waffle itself was flavourful - I could taste the butter in it.
Bartok. I have no idea why he is there.
Brussels Cathedral. Can anyone say "Notre Dame envy" (I'm not the only one to think so, too)?
An information panel outside Brussels Central train station lauded the art deco design of the station, then ended by saying it was simple and functional. Translation: the architecture of the station sucks.
As my train was coming out of Brussels Noord, I noticed a structure consisting of 4 huge metal balls connected with poles in what seemed to be a tetrahedronal shape (and there was some more stuff below which I couldn't see). Furthermore, the structure was as tall as the cathedral. Uhh.
On the train, I didn't notice as much orange as I'd been led to expect - not even peaking out from below jackets. A few people wore silly orange hats, and there were funky orange feather boas, but otherwise it was quite subdued; maybe 1 in 10 train passengers had something orange on them. Maybe the funkiest people weren't travelling by train. I did notice flags flying as the train steamed through the country, though.
Orange boat. I was very amused by this - people in a boat cruising down an Utrecht canal with orange balloons and flaglets.
Some roads were closed, so my bus was diverted down what I called the scenic route. On the normal route I saw a horse pulling a trolley car - something you don't normally see.
Flag. I find the orange strip (which isn't normally there) interesting.
Even the buses got into the act.
Revelry
Revelry. More than half the songs were in English though.
All through the city, people were selling their junk on the street.
Unwisely, I tried to press my way through a crowd choking one street instead of bypassing it by going down another. When one song came on, everyone started waving their arms (with beer in their hands) and jumping around:
More revelry in the place where I squeezed through. I like the bit at the end.
Some people were dressed in cow outfits. Uhh.
Half drunk middle aged women garbed in orange outside the Hemingway cafe playing and singing
Maybe 1/7 people throughout the city were garbed in orange.
Even the dog was celebrating
I saw one of those free urinals in the square in Neude. Damn, I wonder if I can persuade the Dutch government to scatter them throughout the country and finance them with taxes.
Orange 'Crown'
Oddly enough, apart from crowns like this (or those made of paper) I couldn't see any reference to the Queen. Oh well. At least the window prostitutes in Utrecht, respecting the sanctity of the occasion, were all on vacation, unlike the ones in Brussels on Easter sunday. Tsk.