Brussels Summer Festival

 Today I planned to attend the Medieval Festival in Bouillon. Unfortunatly the area is not exactly a tourist spot and therefore does not seem to have a train station. Rathering than*stewing* on my bad luck I decided to make the most of the day by enjoying some the events happening in Brussels city center. For all of the month of August the Royal Palace is open to visitors with free admission. I took the oppurtunity to walk through the gilded halls of the monarchy. The opening also features exhibtions on Asian music and an interactive science display. My two favourite parts were a ceiling covered in irredescent beetle wings and a collection of cards send to the King by youngsetrs. One well meaning child had drawn the Queen in a mini-skirt and high heels next to the Belgian flag!

I also took some time to enjoy the music at the Brussels Summer Festival. It's amazing to hear native dutch speakers sing so fluently in English.. with distinctly American accents!

A bientot,
Niamh

Last weekend in Ireland

Myself and a friend outside the Toy Soldier Factory

This weekend I went home for the last time before my ex-boyfriend jets off to his new life in the US. We had a wonderful weekend of baking, catching up with friends and playing with his cats. We also had the oppurtunity to have a rivate tour of a Toy Solidier Factory in Macroom which was really fun. We were able to see how the moulds are made as well as the filled and packaged.

My Smitten Kitchen Cookbook also arrived at my home in Ireland which meant some serious baking;)

A bientot,
Niamh

Croatian Summer

I spent my the remainder of my summer holidays for this year in Dubrovnik, Croatia with two of my college friends. We spent our time dining in the old city, kayaking, diving off rocks and checking out the calisthenically honed locals. Dubrovnik's recent history is quite a troubled one with the war of 1991/2 leaving visible shrapnell marks in the otherwise polished pavements. Despite this violent history, the pride of the Croatian people for their freedom resounds throughout the town.

Pertarch outside Old Town

St Blade Cathedral and Onofrio Fountain

 We also went on a day trip to Montenegro where we visited Kotor and Budva.

Montenegro

Entrance to Kotor

Petrarch in Montenegro

On the final night, after my friends had returned to Ireland, I attended the penultimate concert of Rufus Wainright's 2013 World Tour. It was held in the picturesque Bokar fortress which looks like something out of a fairy tale.. minus the dragon. Such a wonderful way to end a brilliant trip in Croatia!

A bientot,
Niamh x

Geocaching- Jan Palach

Today I went geocaching, a fun treasure quest which anyone with a GPS can do. Through the Geocaching Website I located a cache in the Woluwe area and headed off on my bike in search of adventure.

The version I selected was the Jan Palach cache which had an added bonus of a little history lesson. In August 1968, the Soviet Union together with other troops of the Warsaw Pact invaded Czechoslovakia to crush the liberalising reforms. A group of Czech students made a suicide pact intending to sacrifice themselves in protest of this invasion. Jan Palach was the first to set himself on fire in Wenceslav Square in Prague on 16 January 1969. The coordinates of the cache were revealed using information on the Plaque at the base of the statue.

Jan Palach Statue

Google Map Location and where I searched

Possible cache location

Unfortunatly my phone malfunctioned and I ended up not finding the treasure afterall. However, it was still really fun solving the code and then stomping through the woods!

A bientot,
Niamh

Maastricht

Today I took the train to Maastricht in the Netherlands. It is known as a city of history, culture, local folklore and education and has the highest amoount of national heritage sites in the Netherlands after Amsterdam. In true Dutch tradition it also has alot of bicycles and commercialism! Check out some photos of the day below.

A bientot,
Niamh

Boredom, Beaches and Near Death Experiences

Last Sunday was a fairly eventful one! I trotted into Brussels wishing to make the most of the wonderful Belgian sunshine. My first stop was the new Morandi Exhibition at the Bozar. Although the exhibition was a little dull- apparently he had quite a thing for vaes, shells and pastels- I was lucky enough to hear some of On Kawara "One Million Years" project being taped. One Million Years is an ongoing epic work conceived by on Kawara in 1969, documenting the passage and marking of time. Public readings of One Million Years, with a man and a woman taking turns reading Past and Future dates together, have been taken place in cities across the world, ever since the first reading in 1993 at Dia Center for the Arts in New York. Each new reading continues in a numerical order from the previous session, until all the years are read.

My next stop was to a local Linux Programming Group and then an English language book shop. After that I met my friend at the artifical beach in Brussels. Although the beach is a sprinkling of sand on the river canal it is strikingly similar to the actual Belgian coast where all people do is eat, drink and relax!

My next stop was not quite as pleasent. I ended up choking on a piece of plastic from inside a milk carton, despite express warnings from my mother not to do so! My neighbour had to ring me to hospital and I was kept in overnight. It is not a process I plan on repeating any time soon..

.. In perspective, life is too short to spend an afternoon looking at painting of vases so live it to the full. And drink from a glass instead of the carton.

A bientot,
Niamh 

Martin Parr Exhibition and Antiques Shopping

Today I visited the Martin Parr retrospective in the Galerie Paris Beijing in St Giles, Brussels. Martin Parr is a British documentary photographer and professional cynic! His work focuses on the hilarity of working class holidays, the stereotypical pratices of tourists and every other aspect of provincial and suburban life in Britian one could laugh at! I love his sense of humour and rate the exhibition highly. It will be open until the end of July and admission is free.

After the exhibition I went furniture shopping in Sablon and rediscovered my favourite antiques shop in Brussels. The best part of this store is the vintage signs- I was quite tempted to buy a "Celtique Cigarettes" Sign with an illustration of a Viking smoking!

Later I walked through the streets of Brussels and saw among other things people dancing in morph suits and an episode of Agatha Christies' Poirot being filmed in the Gallerie Royales! Two seperate events, of course!

A bientot,
Niamh x