A Video Preview of Brussels

Having taken nearly 100 photographs trying to capture the beautiful architecture of the historic center of Brussels, Belgium, I decided to shoot a little video instead. (Well, not so much "instead" - more like "in addition to" - because 6-8 of those photographs will be up on this here blog sometime next week. I'm thinking Wednesday. Get excited!) 

It's short and doesn't have any lovely accordion music to accompany it (as all videos of the ancient cities of Europe should), but we'll just have to make do. 

After all, I want you to see it like I see it. Always looking upwards, with a sort of breathless wonder.

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Paris, France.

This is mostly a list so I can show off. Haha, I'm just kidding! (No, I'm not.) (Yes I am.) Anyway, I really like making lists and have been known from time to time to add things to my list that I've already done just so I can cross them off. Judge me, I don't care. (Yes I do; be my friend!)

Either way, it's still a good excuse to show you some pretty pictures. Everyone likes pretty pictures, especially on a Friday morning, I think - gives you a little inspiration for the weekend. (Because, you know, you could always hop on a Galapagos cruise or something, right? Right.)

Okay kids, let's do this thing. I give you, in alphabetical order, an awesome list of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites I have visited so far in my short 23 26 year old life. (Ugh, am I getting old? This chamomile tea and Gap "bikini underwear" {a.k.a. granny panties} I'm wearing point to yes.) Without any further ado, on with the lazy super-cool person's blog post:


Austria: 

• Historic Centre of the City of Salzburg

Belgium:

• Belfries of Belgium 
• Flemish Béguinages
• Historic Centre of Brugge

Czech Republic:

• Historic Centre of Prague

Prague, Czech Republic.

France:

• Cathedral of Notre-Dame
• Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace, Episcopal Ensemble and Avignon Bridge
• Paris, Banks of the Seine
• Pont du Gard (Roman Aqueduct)
• Roman Theatre and its Surroundings and the "Triumphal Arch" of Orange

Germany:

• Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and the Ancient Beech Forests of Germany 

Italy:

• Venice and its Lagoon

Luxembourg:

• City of Luxembourg: its Old Quarters and Fortifications

Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Netherlands:

• Defense Line of Amsterdam
• Seventeenth-century canal ring area of Amsterdam inside the Singelgracht
• The Wadden Sea 

Spain:

• Works of Antoni Gaudí 

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland:

• Tower of London
• Westminster Palace, Westminster Abbey and Saint Margaret's Church

United States of America:

• Statue of Liberty - give me that freedom, baby. Sweet, sweet freedom. 

London, England. 

That's it. 

Dan and I are headed off to Den Haag (The Hague) for the weekend - he's playing a house concert there. As for me, I just go wherever there's free food. What are YOUR plans for the weekend?

Happy Friday!

The Peter Paul Rubens House - You Can Go There!

The above statue should give you an indication of how excited you should be when you go in to the Peter Paul Rubens House in Antwerp, Belgium. SO EXCITED! Three exclamation points excited!!! No, I'm just kidding. It doesn't exactly have the same thrill as, say, getting on Riddler's Revenge and screaming your head off while throwing cotton candy into the faces of the people behind you. (Not throwing "up" cotton candy, mind you, just throwing it - we have to keep some level of decorum here.)

See, the thing about the Rubens House is that it's a quiet kind of fun. Let's see what kinds of things are there to enjoy: Art? Check. History? Check. Flowers? Check. All right! Let's do this thang.

Rubens purchased the building in 1610 and extended the house according to his own design. The statues that surround the courtyard and garden are inspired by the Italian Renaissance, and the artistic embellishments give the impression of an Italian palazzo.

His stay in Italy from 1600-1608 "inspired the artist not only as regards his painting oeuvre, but also in his ideas of architecture. This is clearly visible in the facade of the studio, which was largely executed by Rubens in trompe l'oeil and conceived in a classical, humanist tradition. With the restoration, these painted representations were carried out in bas-relief."

(Translation: Rubens liked spaghetti and ate a lot of it for eight years. Using finger paints, he made a picture of his dream house in all his favorite colors. Lucky for him, he was rich so that he could hire people to make his dreams come true and now you can see his pictures and even touch them if the security guard isn't looking.) 

From the second half of the eighteenth century, the Rubens House was subjected to various renovations and was somewhat forgotten.

In the course of the 19th century, the idea once again re-emerged of turning the house into a monument. When the city of Antwerp was able to acquire the house in 1937, a thorough restoration was necessary. In 1946, Rubens’s former residence was opened as a museum. The porch and the garden pavilion are now the only authentic remains of the seventeenth-century complex.*

(Translation: I straight up stole those exact words from the website for the museum because I am a lazy, lazy blogger. But honestly, isn't that what copy/paste is for? Ask yourself. Tell yourself.) 

Happy Hump Day Wednesday! 

(I hate it when people say "hump day.") 

*All words in quotations and/or marked by an asterisk were taken from the official visitor website for the Rubens House; clickity click here if you want to see it for yourself on the interwebs. (See? I might be lazy, but at least I'm not a plagiarizer.)

The Beautiful Begijnhof of Bruges, Belgium (Or, Yay for Alliteration!)

Does the above picture just make you want to don a penguin suit, clasp your hands, and sing "How do you solve a problem like Marieee-ahhh?" Well, it should. Those are nuns, see? In fact, they're extra-super-special nuns because they live in a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and that gives them super-special superhero powers of X-ray vision. In fact, they can see all of your sins in high def Blu-ray! 

I'm just kidding. No I'm not. Yes I am! No, no, I'm really not. Okay, yes I am. Hahaha! Oh, who am I kidding? (Myself.) Hahaha! 

No, but for realz, this is a really pretty place - see the cobblestone? That's all it really takes. Plus, there are no drunks pissing in alleys anywhere (I'm talking to you, London!); that helps. No, this is called a begijnhof - say it with me now: BEG-in-hoff. 

That's a little Dutch for yeh. See, women who lived in begijnhofs, like, I don't know, five hundred years ago (maybe?) were the ladies who didn't want to get married to any of the dudes in their town (probably because they weren't ballers), and they didn't want to get hitched to the Big Guy either, a.k.a. GOD.  

This is not the same as the first photo. Didn't you ever read Highlights for Children? The hidden pictures? Sigh.

So, since they weren't married to Gary the Cobbler or Billy the Goat Herder or Jesus the Carpenter or whoever, these plucky gals had to to figure out a way to make some dolla' dolla' bills, y'all! With their can-do attitudes and their nimble lady fingers, they made lace - lots of it. In fact, in addition to beer and waffles, lace is one of Belgium's biggest commodities, and to this day accounts for 32% of Belgium's exports worldwide.*

*No, it doesn't. Well, maybe it does, but I have no idea because I just made that up. See how easy it is to be an expert?!

That's a sign in three different languages! And it's pointing to the wall! And it's probably the most boring picture ever! Moo like a cow if you agree.

See how much fun we're having?! You could have this much fun if you were us! No, it's easy to have fun: you can just go to the begijnhof and take stealth pictures of nuns' feet. Plus, it's free! And free is the right price for everything, but most especially if you're cheap, which I am. 

Okay, bye!

*Disclaimer: The begijnhof we visited was a truly lovely, serene place and the quiet there deserves to be respected. Also, even though I'm not religious, I totally have some friends who are, and I'm cool with them and they're cool with me and everyone is cool with sweet little nuns, right? Right. 

Gee Baby, Ain't I Been Good to You?

Gosh, I don't know where to start because there is so much to love about this video. Is it the fact that a bunch of senior citizens took out their instruments and decided to have an impromptu performance on a street corner? Is it the little boy who is instinctively, lovingly guarding his younger sister at around 0:53 - as they both look on in delight? Is it the elderly woman, clad all in green, carefully doing the soft shoe with an invisible partner? Or is it just because I love that old ragtime sound? But . . . maybe it's that this is Paris, and an afternoon here can take on the haze and beauty of all your favorite dreams. Le sigh.

Belgian Food (Or, How to Gain Ten Pounds in Ten Days)

We've all heard about the miracle that is Belgian chocolate, yeah?  And we all can agree that Belgian beers, especially Belgian Trappist beers, are the most flavorful, most full-bodied, and yes, the most alcoholic beers you can find just about anywhere in the world? (To wit: the Westmalle Tripel I had was 9.5% alcohol - and there were others that went as high as 13%!) Belgian waffles, too, have become famous the world round: stacked high with strawberries, ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, sprinkled with M&Ms, and crowned with a cherry - we can now find such delights in shopping malls and food courts, and, if you live in New York, from the (in)famous food truck, Wafels & Dinges. 

But what about the lowly potato? So often we have seen them accompanying our dinner plates as an afterthought, mashed, boiled, baked, roasted, simmered in stews, scalloped in casseroles, and, of course, fried in the French style. The truth, though (at least, as I've heard it from Belgians), is that French fries are not actually French - they're Belgian. Apparently, after the Second World War, American soldiers were enjoying a plate of fried potatoes in Belgium, and upon hearing French being spoken, thought they were in France. (Never mind that in this story, the Americans are apparently incapable of using a map - but I'll let that little detail slide.) They brought these crunchy delights back to the States, and called them - you guessed it - French fries. The rest is fast food history.

Belgian fries have one special detail that sets them apart: instead of one long dip in the fryer, they are fried once, left to cool, and then fried again upon ordering. This makes them especially crisp, which is the perfect counterpart to their heft and size. Fries here are a meal unto themselves, and the truth is that my pants were definitely a bit tighter after our time in this country! Here, Dan and our awesome Couchsurfing host (and new friend) Ben enjoy the first bites of the classic Belgian waffle.

I would be remiss to not include a photo of the waffles we enjoyed: this one was during a delightful afternoon in Bruges. Now, if only I could share a bite with you across the interwebs . . .

On Being Homesick: Signs & Symptoms

International train travel has always smacked of romance and mystery to me, and yet, as I look at my datebook (which is bursting to the brim with used travel tickets, upcoming show dates, the names and addresses of future Couchsurfing hosts, directions hither and thither, to and fro, blah blah blah, etcetera), mostly I just feel exhausted. In the past month, Dan and I have been from Amsterdam to Haarlem, Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, Bruges, Paris, and then back to Amsterdam and on to The Hague. That's eight cities and three countries in less than thirty days. 

One part of me is supremely proud of this: not only for stepping outside of our comfort zone and traveling the world, but also for actually having some success with it. I mean, have you seen the music schedule lately? After some canal-side bench-sitting calculations, we realized that this month is our very first profitable month as artists. (No, we don't make nearly as much money as we did in New York, yet somehow, traveling the world is less expensive that keeping an apartment in NYC. Pick your jaw up.)

And yet - I catch myself daydreaming sometimes about the simplest things - things usually inhibited by our near-constant travel - things like drinking tea out of proper china cups on a rainy day, things like spending 24 hours in pajamas and not feeling guilty about it, things like not having to explain what I do for a living and sounding like a complete dimwit ("Oh, I, uh, travel and uh, write about it. On, uh, my blog and uh, other blogs? And sites? Sort of?"), things like maybe having this cavity filled once and for all. (I've been trying to Jedi mind-trick it into submission - and possibly into even healing itself - but I swear to Jehovah, this motherlicker is brutal. BRUTAL.)

And yet - even as I write this, I think of myself: what a whiny baby brat. How can you even dare to complain about waking up at 10 o'clock most mornings (except for those two weeks in Groningen) and fashioning your day as you see fit? How can you moan about finally doing what you've always said you would? Why are you even bothering to publicly rant about these things as if this is Livejournal circa 2002? (Which - ew.)

The truth, though, is that sometimes you hit this wall and the only thing you can do is keep banging your head against it until you've knocked some sense back into yourself. So don't be surprised to find yours truly one day, sitting on top of a pile of bricks with a huge welt on my forehead and a smile across my face. Healing, it's a process.

P.S. If you're wondering where that middle photo was taken (you know, the one with the gorgeous castle?) that is in the historic center of Prague. Go there, quick as you can.

The Centenary Clock (Or, Zimmer Tower)

Zimmer Tower at night.

Dan and I spent five days couchsurfing in Lier, a small town outside of Antwerp. While not nearly as famous as Bruges or Brussels, it is well-known throughout Belgium for a great nightlife, its gorgeous Gothic architecture, and . . . a clock. The Centenary Clock was created by a man named Louis Zimmer, who spent five years carefully crafting its thirteen dials by hand. He dedicated it to Lier in 1930, and its delicate mechanisms impressed even Albert Einstein. (Imagine: in his series of "Wonder Clocks" - twelve clocks with 57 dials - one of the hands completes a revolution only once every 25,800 years! He chose this number  because it corresponds with the change of rotation of the earth's axis.)

It took me a while to hunt down what each of the thirteen dials stand for (as Dan likes to remind me, I can geek out on just about anything - isn't it fun to push your glasses up and do a few hours of research?! Plus, daydreaming about these gorgeous mountain walking holidays didn't help matters much!), so I thought it might be interesting for people visiting Lier. Here they are in clockwise order (duh):

1. The Lunar Cycle
The hand on the lunar cycle dial revolves every 19 years. On the outer circle the hand points to the number of the current year in the lunar cycle.

2. The Equation of Time
This shows the difference in minutes between the actual time and the mean solar time.

3. The Zodiac
This dial shows the astrological sign of the moment, derived from the scientific zodiac.

4. The Solar Cycle
On the inner circle the hand shows which solar cycle year in the Julian calendar we are in. The outer circle uses a letter (A=1, B=2, etc.) to show the day on which the first Sunday of this year falls.

5. The Week
This hand marks the seven days of the week, as represented by ancient Greco-Roman gods and their symbols. For example, Jupiter - the god of thunder and lightning - is associated with Thursday.

Another famous clock in Lier: the top of Saint Gummarus.

6. The Terrestrial Globe
Shows where in the world it is day or night.

7. The Months
Each month of the year is associated with a different illustration. This shows what the months are called in folklore: July is hay month, Augusts is harvest month, and so on (FYI: November is animal slaughter month - eek!).

8. The Date
Um, the date shows the day of the month. But you knew that, right?

9. The Seasons
The four seasons are shown by a symbol: spring is depicted by a youth picking flowers, summer by a mower, autumn by a child holding a cornucopia filled with fruits, and winter by an old woman reading by the fireside.

10. The Tides
As self-explanatory as The Date - the water's either high or low, folks.

11. The Age of the Moon
This dial shows how many days have passed since the previous new moon.

12. The Phase of the Moon
This one shows the position of the moon in the sky.

13. The Time
It's always ticking . . .

From Prague to Paris: Weekend Video

Have you heard about La Blogothèque and their "concerts a emporter"? (That's "takeaway show" for my Anglophone friends - and myself.) Dan and I first heard about this concept from our Australian couchsurfing hosts in London: basically, they're a couple of French guys who know when popular musicians will be playing a show in Paris. They covertly find out where the band will be staying or hanging out after the show, then ask them to play a concert in a more intimate setting. 

For example, Bon Iver played "Skinny Love" to about twenty people sitting cross-legged on an apartment floor. Vampire Weekend played "The Kids Don't Stand A Chance" alone in a parking lot in the 10th arrondissement. Beirut (i.e. Zach Condon) walked down Rue Jacquard and into a packed café, singing "The Penalty" and playing his ukulele.

But that has nothing to do with the video I'm posting here, now. Or does it? All will be revealed in due time. All in due time.

Hope you enjoyed - that song will be part of Dan's new album From Prague to Paris, which incidentally, will be recorded in Berlin next month.

And if you're a particularly avid reader of this blog (I'm talking to you Mom), you might recall the scene and setting of this video from this post. Still in love with that record collection.

Bastille Day!

Bastille Day in Paris was delightful! We had initially planned to go to the Louvre for the afternoon (it's free on July 14th and the first Sunday of every month), but it seems everyone in Paris had the same idea - the line of people waiting to get in was less of a line and more of a giant horde, swollen and massed together. Mm, no thank you.

Instead we walked through the amusement park next to the Jardin des Tuileries, ate delicious l'eau de glace (ice pops!), took an afternoon nap, drank some rosé, then headed back out for le feu d'artifice (fireworks!) at the Eiffel Tower. The fireworks were quite the spectacle - this year's theme was "From Broadway to Paris," and the showtunes complemented the display perfectly. Though I did wonder why they would end the show with firecrackers bursting to the sounds of Rita Moreno singing "I like to be in America . . ." Olé?! 

Also, thanks to everyone who participated in the Free Music Giveaway! Anya, Mike C., and Fraser - send an email to me at jackulick{at}gmail.com and I'll send you your new music ASAP! Hooray!

The 7 Links Project

A few days ago, Erik Smith (a fellow travel blogger) nominated me to share seven blog posts as part of The 7 Links Project. The project was started by Tripbase but is open to bloggers from all sectors, since the goal is to unite people "to share lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts that deserve to see the light of day again."

I thought it was a great idea, but felt a little shy about it since I've only been blogging since March - I don't have nearly as many posts as some of the folks that have also been nominated, which makes it a little hard to choose. The rules say not to overthink this, though, so here they are: my seven links!

My Most Beautiful Post: I spent an inordinate amount of time choosing and processing the photographs for Un Jour de Provence - but I think it paid off, because I can look at those photos now and immediately transport myself back to the gloriously sunny afternoons of Aix-en-Provence, where the only important thing is whether the bottle of rosé is chilled or not. 

My Most Popular Post: This was the easiest one to choose. My post on Essential Tips for Traveling as a Couple was retweeted (Twitter lingo for "shared") by Lonely Planet - which led to several thousand pageviews each day for nearly a week! The title is pretty self-explanatory, but the advice I share in that post was hard-won. I still get tons of hits to my blog thanks to that one little post.

My Most Controversial Post: My post on The Red Light District of Amsterdam didn't seem controversial at first, since the comments it received were generally in accord with what I had written. I was surprised, though, that after a few days, a lot of Dutch people were writing to me on Facebook and Twitter with contradicting information - the debate was over whether prostitution is technically legal or merely tolerated (and I had first written that it was the latter). 

One of our Dutch Couchsurfing hosts (and all around cool guy) wrote to me that he "Always hated it when Dutch people say we tolerate stuff when it's just plain legal - seems we have a tendency to do that. One thing you got right in the post, is that it's important to keep an eye on marijuana and prostitution as a benchmark for how tolerant and liberal we are as a country, which is why I would always fiercely defend both, even though I have never visited a prostitute or smoke weed." I haven't done the appropriate research to say what's right, but he strikes me as a very informed guy, so I tend to believe now that prostitution is technically, on-the-books legal in The Netherlands.  

My Most Helpful Post: Helpful? I don't know about that. I think "helpful" is more useful on DIY or tech blogs, don't you think? There's not a heck of a lot of "how-to" in terms of travel - and I personally like to steer clear of "how to pack your suitcase" type posts. I did, however, write a post on how to make jam, and it even has a clever title (!). It's called Jam Session: A Recipe.

Post Whose Success Surprised Me: This was another one that was retweeted, this time by L'Occitane - the famous Provençal beauty brand. They found it weeks after it had already been published, and while it didn't incite a bunch of comments, lots of people viewed it. Châteauneuf-du-Pape: A Wine Tasting includes instructions on how to properly taste wine - and why the French do it so well!

Post I Feel Didn't Get The Attention It Deserved: I tried to channel Hemingway on this one, who believed that "All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know." That technique resulted in this essay which describes a bizarre evening in London, which also happened to be my birthday: Very Strange Man: An Encounter.

Post That I Am Most Proud Of: My post on Why I'm Glad I Didn't Pack Cargo Pants still reigns as my favorite - not only because it's still the most commented-on of all my posts, but because it reminds me of the underlying and unexpected joys of following the path in life that calls you. 

Phew! And now that I'm finished, I'm nominating Justine Abigail to publish her seven links!

Ghent: A Small City in Big Pictures

The pictures in today's post, you may notice, are Big. Bigger than usual. Here's why: Ghent, a small city in Belgium, is so crammed with intimate and extraordinary details that it seemed unfair to keep them hidden in medium-sized photographs. From the cobblestones to the castles, here is Ghent: A Small City in Big Pictures.

Something about the bright colors and the ball lamps and the lime green door with wrought iron scroll-work just screams New Orleans, doesn't it? It doesn't happen often that something in Europe will remind me of something back in the U.S. - in fact, it's usually just the opposite - but when I realized that this restaurant calls itself "The Place for Ribs"and displays a menu that consisted solely of meat yet made even this vegetarian drool a bit, that's when I knew: these folks belong deep, far down in the Bayou.

 Like Venice and Amsterdam, Ghent is easily traversed by boat through its many canals. Being on a much smaller scale than either of those two cities (population = 240,000) also makes Ghent infinitely walkable - we covered almost the entire city in just a few hours.

Is this photo of myself posing at the canals gratuitous, unnecessary and unwarranted? Yes, it is most likely so. But don't we all, as humans, get excited when someone is able to capture a photo of ourselves looking, well, nice? Maybe this is a uniquely female thing, but I know it's real, and I'm not afraid to fess up.

Oh! Oh yeah! I'm pretty excited about this photo. It was taken from the top of Gravensteen Castle, which is very medieval-fortress, and if I can get way nerdy on you for just a minute, reminded me of Helm's Deep - a castle the people of Rohan flee to in Lord of the Rings. But here's the other thing that excites me about this photo: doesn't it look like the houses and the trees and the boat are in miniature? Like it's a tiny model city?

This photo has the same effect as the one above: it's completely real, not processed or Photoshopped at all, and yet it looks like someone spent hours carefully applying paper and glue, crafting the lovely city of her imagination. I realized I'd accidentally stumbled upon a photography technique called Tilt-Shift, which has become quite popular lately due to the work of photographer Ben Thomas and his Cityshrinker series.

Another view from the top of Gravensteen Castle, overlooking a small square filled with bars and cafés. In the background you can see St. Bavo's Cathedral (or Sint-Baafskathedraal), the Belfry, and the Mammelokker. The Mammelokker is well-known thanks to the story of Cimon, a prisoner who was kept there and had been sentenced to death by starvation. Cimon's daughter had recently given birth, and so she would visit him daily and kept him alive by breastfeeding. He ultimately survived and regained his freedom.

The Gravensteen Castle was originally built in the early twelfth century, by Count Philip of Alsace. The name Gravensteen actually means "castle of the count" in Dutch. It's quite impressive that the structure has survived centuries of use, having been at one time a prison, a courthouse, and even a factory. Now it stands as a popular tourist attraction in the heart of the city, thanks also to a museum of torture devices housed inside.

The historic center of Ghent is beautiful, filled with incredible architecture all clashing in color and style. Locals and visitors alike sit and people-watch by the canals, where little boats giving city tours slowly roll by. It's a wonderful way to spend an afternoon, especially after the bustle of bigger cities like Brussels and Antwerp.

Free Music Giveaway!

In the spirit of Christmas (only 168 days away) and to honor our five-month travel-versary, Dan and I thought it would be fun to offer readers of this blog a music giveaway! We (yes, that's both of us - I'll be singing on a few songs, too!) will be recording a new album in Berlin next month, with an anticipated release date of September 1st.

Since we're so stinkin' excited about it, we'd like to send not one, not two, but THREE readers a free MP3 download of five original songs! 

It's really simple: to enter, leave a comment below by Thursday, July 14th and we'll announce the winner on Friday! 

Here's "Slow Train Coming" just to whet your whistle - which maybe, just maybe, will be included on the free download! (Okay, yes, it will most definitely be there.)

Songs included on the download are from Dan's previous three albums: Briar St. Sessions, Random Thoughts & Incomplete Sentences, and You Linger Your Little Hour and Are Gone. 

Winners will be chosen by numbering each comment in chronological order (i.e. first comment = #1, second comment = #2, and so on) and then by choosing three of those numbers out of a hat. Be sure to check back on Friday, July 15th to see if you've won! Anonymous comments cannot be considered.

A Hipstamatic Prelude to Ghent, Belgium

It's come to the point where I drag my fancy D-SLR camera everywhere we go. Actually, scratch that: it's not nearly that fancy as far as "fancy cameras" go (being that it's a Panasonic DMC-G2 with a 52mm Lumix lens, and not, say, this behemoth), but my qualifications for levels of fancy have changed in the last five months of constant travel, especially considering that nearly everything I wear has a minimum of 2-3 holes in it, and we generally sleep in the homes of strangers. (Lest you think us beggars or merely insane, let me remind you that I am spreading the good word of The Couchsurfing Project.)

So, while I have plenty of photographs of Ghent and the incredible Gravensteen castle that we visited there, I wanted to share these with you instead, at least for now: pictures taken using the Hipstamatic application on my iPhone. Aside from the gloriously "hip" fun of creating vintage photographs using high technology, I just really like how moodily evocative they are, how they play with light and force their own composition, how just by looking at them, you might suspect a man in a fedora and a lady in silk stockings to peer around the corner, motion to you with a curled finger, and invite you for a walk along the canals and a nightcap at their favorite cocktail bar. I wish, I wish, I wish.

How Antwerp Got Its Name (Or, Simply, Hands)

God, sometimes I want to share these historical things with you - facts, statistics, stories, blah blah - but many (most?) people think history is so, so BORING that it makes me stop for a second and think, Ugh, I don't know about this. Do people really care how the city of Antwerp got its name or the conflicting stories behind it? Is that even remotely interesting to the average reader of this or any travel blog? Wouldn't you rather be reading how I drank snake's blood or ate a live squirrel - or something? An extravagant tale of my own savage tendencies that, hey, really POPS and makes you turn to your colleagues at the local watering hole and say, That Jessica (shakes head) - that girl is crazy!

It could be like that. We could do some story-swapping. We could trade tales of unfettered adventure, free from moral restraint, laughing, slapping backs, getting a little soused. We could do that. 

But not today. Today I am going to ask a simple question and offer you a simple answer. That question is: Why are there statues of hands everywhere in Antwerp? That answer is: Because "Antwerpen" in Dutch means to throw a hand, like, literally. Now, this begs the question of why anyone would want to name their city after a dismembered limb. If you were to ask that, I would have to ask you: are you familiar with the story of David and Goliath? Probably. Maybe not. Here it is, just in case:

David was a normal-sized man who fought and won against the giant Goliath.

In Belgium, they have added a unique (don't you hate that word? Brutally overused to the point of meaninglessness. Just like what idiotic chocolate companies did to "decadent." Sigh.) twist to the ending: David cuts off Goliath's hand and throws it into the river, the Scheldt actually, which is a pretty long river considering it flows through at least three countries: Belgium, of course, but also the Netherlands and France. 

If you consult Wikipedia (which you shouldn't, because it is absolutely RIFE with mistakes and inaccuracies), but if you were to ignore my advice, they would tell you that the giant was Antigoon and the man was Brabo, but isn't it so much easier to remember the stories that we all grew up with? Like the girl who wears a yellow ribbon around her neck and her friends are always asking her why, why do you wear that yellow ribbon around your neck because she wears - has been wearing - it for years, and even after she's married, she ignores her husband's requests to untie the ribbon and her children's too, and then finally, when she's a very old woman sleeping in her bed, her husband creeps up quietly and slowly unties the ribbon and then her head just falls off. 

Gay Pride Day - in Antwerp, Belgium!

The Gay Pride Parade in New York is probably - no, no, it's definitely "definitely" - my favorite parade in the city, the country, the world, anywhere, of all time. The colors, the costumes, the rainbows, the semi-nudity, the "Dykes on Bikes" and the prettiest drag queens you've ever seen - why, they make my heart swell until it feels about ready to burst with happiness and glitter. 

So can you imagine how thrilled I was to read that New York State had passed a law allowing gay men and women to marry - each other?! Only two days before the parade?! Callo, callay, glorious day! 

It was pretty exciting, then, to arrive in Antwerp last Sunday and see rainbow flags pinned everywhere: flapping from the sides of buildings, strung up on bicycles, stickers in store windows, and even on police cars. The crowd that had gathered wasn't even close to the masses of heaving bodies that populate the NYC Pride Parade, but the atmosphere was congenial and everyone seemed in good humor. 

The great market square had a stage set, upon which a sequined and feathered drag queen twirled, singing her sparkly little heart out:

 Huge congratulations to my Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered friends in New York City and everywhere!

Just had to take a moment to say that, even though I'm a week behind the times. Also, I want to thank everyone for sticking with me this week - I've been without regular internet access (because seriously, Belgium doesn't have Wifi ANYWHERE - free or otherwise), so I know the posting has been sort of haphazard in the past few days. I promise to be back on a more regular schedule in the upcoming month.