Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Au Revoir Brussels..

One good thing about being in Brussels is that I polished up my Francaise, since that is the lingua franca here, and got away more because of my attitude than my proficiency in French. Oh, I am done with the national dish, moule frittes forever. Don't these guys get tired of mussels and french fries? I guess not, but after two meals of the stuff, I am permanently done , since both are over rated. I spent the day wandering around on my own, which was a bit of a bore ... till I ran into a group of neuro surgeons from India. They were so earnest and sweet, as we posed for pictures and chatted about the conference they were attending here. It has been a drippy, wet day. I am not looking forward to a formal dinner tonight. Unless it is at La Brasserie de Bruxelles, across the street from the Jacques Brel Foundation. I used to worship Brel during my distant romantic youth, and listen to his spoken songs especially the one made famous by Neil Diamond which was called If You Go Away. I still cry each time I hear it. Brel was an iconic poet and it was great to run into his large portraits in the pretty square. Especially after a couple of glasses of Sancerre sipped at the most famous people watching cafe called Delirium.
Am I glad to be heading home tomorrow. BTW, it has to be said, our Jet Airways is a far, far better way to fly to Europe and America. It has been an excellent experience all the way. Cannot say the same about the third rate service from MATRIX, the service provider for international cell phones. Two of my chips were expired ones, and the third a dud. I shall demand my money back on my return, for sure. Ciao for now....

5 comments:

Pratik Deshmukh said...

MATRIX sucks. Big time. Its always better to get a local sim and a calling card for India! In response to your earlier blogs, Mexico is BEAutiful and still has its raw charm. So do the people! And nothing like varan bhaat and tup with some loncha on the side. (after traveling the world and living in so many different places nothing can be more comforting, besides maybe vaishalicha dosa in pune!)

raj said...

home and mother earth are the places of physical and emotional equilibrium. you cant stay away from them for long, and if you do the stress is obvious....

Ashwini Sane said...

M'am, like Dorothy said' There is no place like home'. One does tend to miss India after some time. The first thing I did when I landed in India was to go and have 'Paan' and 'Biryani'-no cuisine can beat that! Hope with all your travel experiance you will write a new brilliant novel?

ROHAN KARKHANIS said...

raj thackeray meets narendra modi.. thats the headlines now .. just so u know while u r away.. waiting for a blog on those lines.. cheers,
Rohan,
Leeds, UK

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