6.9.06

Belgium

I took an Intercity train from Muenchen for Brussels to meet Nuno. He now works at the European Commission. He is involved in some work to improve agricultural policy standards in the countries which intend to enter European Unions, such as Cyprus and Rumania.
When I had called him from Isaac’s apartment a few days ago, he had been traveling to Cyprus to attend a business meeting. As he was scheduled to be back on the same day after my arrival, we had planed meet a cafeteria in front of the cinema close to his new apartment in Brussels.
After the train entered Belgium, the landscape and buildings completely changed, beautiful rural scenery and neat German houses were gone, a frock of dark gloomy brick buildings appeared. The trained stopped for several minutes in a southern Belgian town. This is the first Belgian town that I have seen and my impression was not so wonderful. The city looked like an abandoned ghost town. As it was an early evening, streets were deserted. Before arriving Brussels, I was already regretting to leave Germany.
The train arrived in Brussels before dark. I took subway to the meeting point.
Belgium is located between France and Holland. Official languages are therefore French and one of Dutch languages. However, the majority of places where tourists go there is no problem to communicate in English.
In the first few hours of my stay in Brussels, I was amazed how cosmopolitan Brussels is. There are a lot of African immigrants who speak French. I also saw many Spanish in a subway station. Young Spanish girls were talking aloud: “Venga!!!!…….Vamos!!!”
While slipping coffee at a cafeteria, I also overheard conversations in different languages. The table to my right was occupied with young African couples who were speaking a beautiful French language. In the next table, a native English speaker was chatting in his language with someone with a slight German accent. On my left, African men were talking aloud in English with his broken accent. Although I haven’t seen them yet, there were a lot of Portuguese immigrants as well.
The clock has already ticked eleven p.m. long ago, the Portuguese migrating bird from Massama has not appeared yet. I wondered if I misunderstood his instruction in the email where to meet. But soon I realized it is not unusual for him to be late.
“Well, he knows that I do not feel unease to be left in a foreign city. And it was likely that the flight from Cyprus can delay. ”
After the half past eleven or so, I saw Nuno walking toward the cafeteria and looking for an unusual species of the Japanese fish in the ponds of Belgian cafeterias. I waved my arm.
“About one hour ago, I and a Spanish colleague passed the cafeteria in a cab trying to find you but we couldn’t. So, I went home first to leave my luggage ” he explained.



We took a bus to his new apartment. The building is similar to the one which we used to see in Newcastle, a brick building. At the time I visited him there, his apartment had not redecorated inside. There seems to be a lot of work for Nuno and Lu after starting to live together. The wallpaper was torn and the shower hose was broken. His cosmetics items were randomly placed on the shelves.
“I just moved in this apartment before going to Cyprus.”, he said.
As he explained many things were not properly placed. However, in the living room, all his books were put aside in the bookshelf. It seems to show that things related to his work and study is in order. There were two Chinese textbooks which he bought in Shanghai. It looks untouched. I found Sydney Sheldon’s paperback too and took it from there.
“ Lu likes Sydney Sheldon” Nuno explained with a slight hint of his disapproval in the voice.
“Ah, ok.” I gave him a short response. When I started to study English in Australia about twelve years ago, my host mother gave some of Sheldon’s books for my reading practices. I was fascinated his storytelling. So, in next few years I read half of his books in English. Therefore, I did not give Nuno any negative comment on reading them.





“ So, Nuno, you said you have Portuguese cable TV.” I asked him.
“Yes, I have asked a man to set it up but I have not paid him yet.”
According to Nuno, he is not sure how to pay him because the man left after he set it up. Probably, he will drop by Nuno’s apartment a few weeks later to collect money. I suppose, in a Portuguese immigrant community, some work seems to be done in a casual manner by trust and little contract.
I heard that from the 1960s, a number of Portuguese immigrated to France, Belgium and Luxemburg to find work there. Many of them were engaged in hard blue color labour such as construction and steeling. In the middle of the 1980s, the entry of ECC motivated some Portuguese people to move to those countries where they can possibly earn higher income. For example, there are about 50,000 Portuguese living in a small country of Luxemburg.
Like in Luxemburg, there are some Portuguese communities in Brussels. There is one near Nuno’s apartment. We went there to have some coffee and talk about football
“Nuno, I was quite disappointed. Germany beat Portugal with 3-1. In Munich, that night was a nightmare. And they almost got to the final! IF, if there was no penalty for France.” I started.
“But Yasu. We, Portuguese have never been to be so successful in the World Cup for 40 years. I am quite content. ”, he said.
“Ok, that is true.” I was discouraged to continue an argument.
“What I don’t understand is the English. You know, they don’t realize that they play horrible football.” Nuno tried to lead our conversation to a positive part. In the round Eight in the tournament, Portugal has beaten England miraculously and English fans were in disbelief. He continued an episode of meeting an English man in the European Commission. The man seemed to be narrow-minded and had an “incredible” theory like: such a small and poor country never beats big and rich England. In this event, we were happy to show that he was wrong.

Next day, Nuno took me to a Belgian restaurant to taste mussel. Mussel is the best-known dish in Brussels. The most traditional mussel recipe is one in green sauce. The mystery is why it becomes Brussels’ specialty because the majority of mussels are imported from Holland.
The restaurant we went is specialized in mussel. The method of cooking is very simple: It is cooked in white wine. A large saucepan is used to simmer mussel. The pan is as large as one to feed a big dog!



Although the method is plain and simple, there are a variety of flavors to choose from: one with white wine, tomato, blue cheese and even curry. The atmosphere was good and a waitress is friendly. So, I enjoyed the dinner. But to be honest, the dish itself was not so impressive. Maybe it is because I still remember the taste of mussel in a tomato sauce that I had in Italy.
Several years ago, I visited Mihoko, a friend of mine who married with an Italian lawyer. They bought a kilo of mussels at fishmongers near the beach. We almost finished them all in that night.
Well, it can be wrong to compare Belgian cooking with Italian….Actually, I can say that Belgian cuisine is not so distinctive compared to ones like French, Italian or Spanish.
According to Nuno, there is very few PDOs (Protected Designation of Origin) in this country. Only a ham and butter.
“How impressive…”


Nuno is cooking Chorizo (Portuguese sausage)


Nuno is acting like Zidane!

So far, I gave only negative comments about Belgium. But there are, of course, some good aspects: For example, services in shops and restaurants are in high standard. When you go to shops, they salute with a friendly manner and addressed you with Mr. or Miss. When I bought a pair of trousers, a shop assistant had it made ready by next morning.
Belgian cooking is not so impressive but it is not such a bad place for sweet teeth. The most popular ones are waffle and chocolate. A box of assorted chocolates is a perfect souvenir.

In my last day, Nuno recommended me joining a bus tour. The most interesting spot was Peeing boy statue and fountain. To describe, the shameless kid is usually completely naked and pissing to the fountain in front of the public. He has a rather naughty to embarrass national guests from overseas by wearing their national flags. (Nuno, please exhibit some pictures if you have).

The tour bus took us around major tourists’ spots such as historical buildings, monuments, and museum. When the bus went past the European Commissions, Nuno said “Yasu, when you come to Brussels again, I will arrange a visit to the European Commissions. Sorry but this time, I was busy…”
“Yeah, ok. Promise me to meet Mr. Barrozo. ”





A stinky French cheese which was melt and spread its smell all over the fridge at Nuno's....

Kick off to Germany


World Cup has Kicked off in Germany (shoes by Hugo Boss)




Dear my friends and readers of our blog,
I enjoy writing my experience in foreign countries and cultures. It has been more than twelve years since I first traveled abroad. So far I have visited eighteen countries in four regions: Asia, Europe, North America and Oceania. Now I must accept the fact that I am becoming old and my memory is fading. By this reason, I decided to put my experience in writing to record enjoyable time that I spent with friends and people who I met during trips. This is actually my third edition in this blog and I traveled to Germany and Belgium for the first time.

Prologue:
I remember it was in April: I received an email from Isaac, a friend from Barcelona who I had met in Newcastle. In his message, he said he was going to Germany from the following month. According to his message, he received apprenticeship from a Swiss firm, Roche and he will stay there at least for one year. Before receiving it, I had been thinking of taking another Spanish course somewhere in Spain and had planed to visit him during my stay.
“I should put off Spanish study this time. Maybe, it is a good idea to watch the World Cup with him in Germany! No, it is an excellent idea. ” I said to myself and I imagined Luis Figo* raising the golden trophy at the Berlin stadium.

*The Portuguese legend who received FIFA’s best footballer award in 2001 and he has been my hero for six year.

Day 1
At 5:40, I was ready to leave my apartment. In fifteen minutes, I had to catch a bus to the airport and the nearest bus stop is a few minutes away from my apartment. I still could not turn off the TV. The TV was showing the quarterfinal: Portugal vs. France. Portugal’s hope was diminishing. France was winning in the score of 1-0 with a controversial penalty. In this hour streets were almost dead. Almost of Japanese people returned to their normal life after Japan had lost in the group stage. My next-door neighbors were only ones who suffered from some insomnia by hearing occasional cheers and shouts from the next door.
Portugal got a chance of free kick. The kicker was a Portugal’s new star, Cristiano Ronaldo. He produced a massive drive shoot toward Fabian Baltes and the ball made a sharp drop in front of the French goalkeeper who was astonished and fumbled. Figo dashed toward the ball to strike it with a header. But the ball flew over the bar. I switched off the TV. Slowly I drugged out my luggage and locked the front door.
“Whatever happens, I can see my beloved squad in Germany…” I headed for the airport.

I arrived in Munich at 17:30 in the local time, after spending over twenty hours for transport. According to his last email, Isaac asked his supervisor to give him an early leave to meet me at the airport.
“Hi Yasu, over here!” Isaac waved his hand.
We exchanged hugs. We have not seen for over four years and now he let his hair grow and has long curly hair. Isaac was a post-graduate student in biochemistry when I was at Newcastle. He continued his PhD studies and has just finished his course in last summer. He was born in Barcelona but his family originated from Andalusia. Like many other Andalusians, his family also moved from Andalucia. I would say he is more Catalan than an Andalucian. He supports FC Barcelona and does not seem to have much interests in neither flamenco nor bull fighting.
Last October, he moved to Seville, the capital of Andalucia and worked in a small fertilizer company. He worked there several months before coming to Munich. According to him, his boss has good personality and the job was not bad. But his boss is not very talented in managing a business. Creditors often call his boss to repay debts and when a secretary was not around (maybe hiding), Isaac was the one who had to pick up the phone.

From the airport we took a train to Penzburg, a small town located in the southwest of Munich. It was already seven but it had no sign of sunset. In summer, the sun sets after 9 pm in Europe.
It is my first time to visit Germany but the view from the train to Penzburg looked familiar: It looks quite similar to Switzerland but of course without mountains.
After one hour and half, we arrived in Penzburg. As Isaac described, it is a small town. People in Penzburg go to a main street for drinking and have fun. There are several bars and restaurants on the street. That is it.
“After the quarter final against Germany, Italians drove up and down the street by car with their national flag. ” Isaac said.
He lives in an apartment located a 15-minute from the train station. His apartment is spacious. He lives with another colleague from Poland. We had a chat before my eyes refused to stay open. Unlike my younger days, it took me almost a week to get over jet lag.

Day 2
In my second day, I stayed in bed till a little late. I slept very well. In Germany, houses are not equipped with air conditioning because both temperature and humidity was not high.

Before starting to write about my holidays in Germany. I want to introduce a little bit about people and customs of this country.
Generally speaking, Germans are more health conscious than other Europeans. You may find a lot of people doing some sport and exercises in their free time. If you travel by car in Germany, you will come across many cyclists. In each side of roads, there are bicycle lanes where pedestrians are prohibited to walk. Trains have bicycle carriage. Like in Switzerland, many people take a train with bicycles to the countryside where they enjoy their leisure.
The other aspect is that Germans have a strong awareness to protect nature. Local communities and governments are keen to enforce regulations and systems to protect their environments. Coming to Germany, some foreigners take time to get accustomed to some rules of German life. For example, you may be used to putting all waste into a rubbish bin. However, in Germany, many apartments and houses have compost where they throw food disposals such as peels, bones and some rotten food. Glass is separated in color. Brown glass and green glass go into different bins. Paper is also collected separately. Some keen environmentally friendly consumers separate household dust into even smaller categories: papers, plastics, aluminum, steel, cloth and so on. Many shoppers bring a shopping bag or used plastic bag to a supermarket. When you take out some sandwiches and drink, you are charged for extra, for example one Euro per bottle. If you bring it back to a shop, you will get it back. The government introduced this system to reduce waste and make people aware how important for them to contribute their environment.
Organic food is quite popular here too. If you go to a supermarket, you will find a wide range of organic products from fresh vegetable and fruit to meat and cheese. There are also some grocery stores or market stalls where they sell only organic products.
In Japan, you cannot get any organic meat. There is also a small range of organic fruit and vegetables. And organic products are only found in a department store targeted to higher income segments. But in Germany, you will find them in any supermarkets.




Today, I decided to cook some dinner. As some of you know, I love grocery shopping and cooking (even though my cooking sometimes turns into a horrible disaster).

I went through an entrance door and then I first found vegetables and fruits section. In the shelves, there is a good range of organic products: onions, potatoes, kiwis, apples and so on. I picked onions and kiwis and go to a cheese section. I was surprised to a variety of foreign cheeses: They have not only Italian and French cheeses but also Spanish ones such as Manchego, Queso Samorano, Valdeon (in Picture).


Penzburg is a small town in the southwest of Munich. I previously thought that Germans are more conservative in food. At least, they may not hesitate to take some foreign cheese and ham.
I prepared some rice soup and pork with soy sauce. Around 5:30, Isaac came home and told me that he asked several friends to come over for dinner. So, I had to prepare more rice and Isaac made some Spanish omelets. At aournd 9:00, friends started to arrive. We had a fun and the party was successful.




"Mosquitos attracted to Isaac's yellow T-shirt. They chased him all around Regensburg..."

Day 3
Today is Saturday. We planned to go to Regensburg, a city located in the north of Munich. In the morning, we had Spanish breakfast with café con leche (milk coffee), toast, jamon (cured ham), chorizo (spiced salami sausage) and cheese. And freshly squeezed orange juice.





When we realized, we were about to be late to catch a train. Unfortunately, train connection from Penzburg is not so good. If we miss it,rain, we have to wait about one hour or more. It takes 15 minutes to the station on foot. There was only ten minutes or so. So, we had to run. Gasping my breath, I followed Isaac to the station and we arrived there in ten minutes. Luckily, we made a mistake about the time when the train leaves. We actually had enough time to catch it. We took off the shirts as we felt hot with an early exercise and try to catch our breath.










We bought tickets and got on a train in time. Regensburg is a pretty city with a Gothic cathedral and Roman ruins. After visiting a few historical sites, we found a small fair on the opposite side of the river. Some people dressed in costume of old days. There are a lot of food and playing stalls in the fair. There were many German families who brought children to spend a quiet weekend.
We ordered grilled sausage and drinks at the fair. German sausages are different from region to region. Here in Regensburg and Nuernberg, grilled brown sausage is famous.
In Munich, a famous one is a white boiled sausage. People peel off skin before they eat. People have a different taste. I personally favor this grilled brown sausage over boring PALE boiled sausage from Munich. A common habit of eating sausage in Germany is that it is served with mustard and ketchup. I preferred to pour a little bit of sweet mustard. It was delicious. On the other day, I saw a man pumping out ketchup all over his sausage and chips. I glanced at him with a disgust….

We left Regensburg for Munich after five. We were going to meet Isaac’s friends at the English garden in the city center.
Isaac hang up his mobile and said, “Gloria and David will be there to keep a table for us. ”
The English Garden is one of the places where you can watch football matches in an open air during the World Cup. A huge screen was installed on the stage. In summer, German people come to drink beer here.
When we arrived in Munch Bahnholf, we took the subway to the English Garden. By the time when we got there, the beer hall was almost full: full of German supporters.
“Gee, I am in an enemy territory. ” I wondered and I tried to find some Portuguese there but no success.




On July 8, Germany meets Portugal in Stuttgart for the third place match. I had thought that Germans were very discouraged with the last minute loss in the semi-finals but the audience in the English Garden was in a festive mood. Many people brought the national flags. When the replay of previous matches started to be shown, Germans began to chant:
“Deutchland, Deutchland! ” they waved the flags.
The match started. We were sitting in the fifth or sixth row in the middle of the garden. In addition, in front of the screen, there are enthusiastic German supporters with flags in hand. We did not have a good view of the game.
Scolari did not put Figo in the starting lineup. Ricardo Carvalho, the best Portuguese central defender could not play in this game because of suspension. Instead, the coach had to put a horrible one for the replacement: Ricardo Costa who conceded four or five goals against Iraq in the Olympic games in 2004. I had a bad feeling about this game.
In the beginning, the match seemed to be played evenly as German supporters were still anxious. As I could not have a good view of it, I sometimes had to guess what was going on the pitch by just watching the reaction of German supports.
They were very excited and screamed time to time. All of sudden, they were exploded with a joy. It was a nightmare for me. Schweinstaigar scored.
“Deutchland, Deutchland! ” the crowd in front of us stood up and started to chant and sing.
Soon the second goal was made. After all, Germans were playing in their home ground. Portugal had not recovered from the loss of the semi-final. I was almost the only one who could not speak and watch the game in horror.
“Yasu, it is not over. ” Isaac and other friends at the table tried to cheer me up.
The game was over. The score was 3-1: Portugal lost. In the last ten minutes, Scolari put Figo and Nuno Gomez. They created a goal to avoid a humiliating defeat.
Isaac and his friends suggested us to got out to see Germans’ celebration. We took the subway to the other part of the city. We walked down the main road to the square. Many Germans walked down the street chanting and singing, “We are the champion”. Interestingly there were not so many cars and horns. Two years ago, after semi-final of Euro 2004, beating Holland, Portuguese went to the street with cars in the center of Lisbon. Full of cars. Here in Munchen, I just saw a man with the national flag on his bag went past us, pedaling a bicycle toward the square! Germans seemed to be very happy with the result of their World Cup.
While David was taking us back to Penzburg, I was knocking my head up and down with sleep. I had not fully recovered with a jet lag yet.







Day 4
Our plan for Sunday is to visit Neuschwainstain Castle. It is said this castle is a model of the Disney castle and there are a great number of visitors every year. Interestingly, the castle itself does not possess a historical importance. The castle is very beautiful but as the name suggests, it is quite new building in the German history. It was built in the end of 19th century by Ludwig II. He spend a lot of money to build this castle. But he ended his life with a mysterious death. His body was found at the lake nearby and the cause of death was unknown.
We took trains and bus to visit the castle. We saw it on the hill surrounded by wood.



“There was nothing but wood before the castle became famous in tourism” I wondered. Now there is a small town nearby with some holiday houses and hotels.
I joined a tour alone as Isaac visited once before. As he said, the castle is well worth to visit because of its beauty but the inside museum is not very interesting to visit twice. The part of the castle was decorated by Ludwig II but the majority of rooms remains untouched because of his early death.
After the tour, we went further up the hill to overlook the castle. The view from there was splendid.










After the visit, we headed for Munich to watch the Worldcup final. When we got to the central station in Munich, the match was about to begin. When we caught a Metro, a referee whistled to kick off. The metro’s electronic signal board which usually show the next stop, started to show “France 1-0 Italy.” Zidan succeeded in the penalty kick. Before the Metro reached our destination, there was a drama. The board showed “Italy 1-1 France”. There was a cheer inside the Metro.
When we got there, Gloria and David had kept seats for us again. There were two French girls. They were not in a comfortable position. The rest of us favored Italy: There were three Spanish and a fanatic Portuguese supporter whose teams were defeated by French.
Today’s main casts were Zinedine Zidane and Marco Materazzi in both good and bad ways. The screen showed Marco Mafiozino arguing with Zidane. All of sudden, Zidane made a massive header not toward a goal net this time but onto the naughty Italian defender. Zidane knocked him out in front of the worldwide audience.
The match was ended when Italians snatched victory in a penalty shoot-out. The night was noisier than yesterday with the minority of Italians driving cars with their national flag around the city of Munich.



Day 4 & 5
On Monday and Tuesday, I spent days on shopping in Munich. In the evening, Isaac cooked some Spanish meal for us.
A pack of meat was laid on the kitchen table.
“What is it?” Stan asked Isaac with curiosity. Stan is Isaac’s flat mate. He’s from Poland . They started scholarship at the company in the same month.
“It’s rabbit.” Isaac answered. The skin and fur was neatly removed. So, there was no obvious clue for him to guess it.
“So, where did you get this guy?” I asked Isaac.
“I brought him from Spain.” He answered with laugh.
“Rabbit is my favorite meat.” Isaac continued
“I cooked rabbit for my girlfriend. She likes it but hates eating head. So, I cut the head into half trying not to look noticeable for her and placed it into her plate. She was angry when I told her that she had just had the head. ”
I laughed.
“Yasu, it’s a pity. You can not stay longer.” Isaac said.




“Yes, true. You should stay another week. I do recommend to go to Austria.” Stan said
I was glad. We had some rabbit and wine for dinner. It was nice and I noted down the recipe to try it when I go back to Japan.

My visit to Germany was short. I missed visiting a lot of places around Penzburg. “Germany is a place where to spend a relaxing holiday. German people respect nature and environment. And they also enjoy the nature in life.”






"One thing I did not like in Germany. People have to pay to use a toilet. This toilet is the worst one. Ripping off travellers at the central station!"

3.9.06

Great Georgian food!

Russian (advanced) engineering