Brussels: 7.31.10

Hmm...those last few posts were utterly useless!

As you have heard, we have left Helsinki behind in favor of Brussels, a decision I am very pleased with (not because I disliked Finland, mind you, but because I adore Belgium!). I didn't think I would ever manage to convince Jon to see Brussels, since the only compelling argument I could think of for going was "But it's pretty! Really pretty!" and I'm fairly certain that's not exactly what most men look for when determining which cities they would like to spend time in. But he reminded me that Belgium has:

A) Chocolate
B) Beer
C) Waffles

...and the rest, as they say, is history. In a rather epic turn of events, we spent our travel day having breakfast in Helsinki, lunch in Stockholm, and dinner in Brussels. I think that sums up my life (or my ideal life, anyway) nicely. :)

My final opinion of Helsinki is that it is a pretty city, and one that I would definitely return to, but not a location that I would live in for an extended period of time. I'm not sure it suits me for a long-term stay. It impressed me visually, as I said, but food was expensive and not terribly good. I didn't get much of a chance to interact with the people, so I wasn't able to get a feel for how friendly they are. Then again, I suppose it's always possible that I didn't interact with them because they weren't friendly and were avoiding me! I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt, though! My only regret where Finland is concerned is not spending more time exploring Helsinki during the day. Work, as per usual, got in the way and I had to spend much of my time glued to my laptop. Maybe one day I'll go on a vacation that's just a vacation, and I can journal and blog until my fingers fall off! We did at least manage to go on a few nice walks through the Helsinki streets, and have a picnic of Chinese food in the park by the lake that was outside of our hotel. Fighting off the bugs was good practice for the upcoming annual family camping trip. :)

The other highlights of Helsinki were the foreign-themed bars - our first night was spent in an Australian-themed bar, as I mentioned, and we whiled away the hours of our second night in Prague- and Dublin-themed establishments - and the gay club we stumbled upon on the last night. I wish we'd discovered it earlier! It was described to us as "straight friendly," and in fact it was so straight friendly that practically everyone there was straight! Jon even managed to win money at the blackjack table they had despite claims that "Straight guys never win!" All in all, a lovely evening and the perfect end to our time in Helsinki.

Shoulder Watch: The Mysterious Shoulder Pain was significantly less aggravated than I was expecting it to be after our flights to Belgium. Perhaps things are looking up!