Fizzy Water Is Fun To Drink/Happy Thanksgiving

Brussels is made out of chocolate. I have eaten enough varieties in the past 2 days that if someone were to poke me with a needle, the spillage would be brown. Not only chocolate, but sweets in general. I took Olivia shopping today and she bought a jawbreaker the size of a baseball with her 2-piece Euro coin.
For the experience, we went to an Opera Café for Belgium waffles smothered in melted chocolate. Dessert was French fries (the locals are quick to remind you that Belgium’s greatest gift to humanity was this culinary invention -I do not disagree). Our afternoon after nap snack came from a petite box of chocolates Vance delivered from his important meetings, with nothing short of white chocolate love oozing out of the perfectly monogrammed piece de ciel. For dinner, a room serviced Caesar salad, and more dark chocolate. A midnight snack, a Cadbury’s bar that Vance snatched in London and I hid away in my travel bag.
Mineral water tastes like dirt to me so Liv and I took turns swigging, drunk-like from the last Pellegrino in the mini bar. Fizzy water is fun to drink. Then we started a pillow fight. Then we watched the ENTIRE Princess Diaries part 1 in Italian. I had never had the viewing pleasure before. When scenes were particularly intense (as you can imagine) I would whisper to Liv “What are they talking about?” and she would reply “Okay. This scene is about how mad her friend is that she is a princess and is going on a date with the popular boy and her friend is still a big nerd.” Liv thinks, and she said this moons ago, that I look like the aforetomentioned nerdy friend on Princess Diaries. Help me. She was cast because she is on the funny side of funny looking. Help me. So I nailed Liv especially hard again with my pillow just because she shouldn’t think that about me.
It’s too cold to venture outside at night so we took bubble baths, visited the spa and went up to the top floor to hang out on the terrace for a while. It is an incredible view, as our hotel is one of the tallest buildings down town! Brussels is all about European modernity but, it seems, that no one dares build above the church steeples and ominous basilicas. Cathedrals climb up out of all your modern shopping centers and buildings belonging to the EU headquarters. (Why is it though that European churches are always covered in black grime? Just a question I always wonder when I am over here.) The skyline includes a sea of white homes with red roofs, the Dutch influence I suppose. I have a feeling that all these beautiful buildings should mean something to me but they don’t at the moment. I am more interested in chocolate and how I sat next to 2 men at the café today who spoke Dutch to each other and French to the waiter. Having never been able to conquer it myself, I am fascinated by the bilingual.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving at home. While I miss my husband terribly, I am not homesick in anyway. We wanted to go the Brussels Hard Rock Café for our Thanksgiving feast but alas, there is no such a place. Instead we’ll have to settle for chocolate covered French fries. Maybe broccoli dipped in a dark chocolate fondue. And for the sentimental value, a piece of carved chocolate with just a hint of cranberry sauce.
Bon Thanksgiving Mes Amies American!