Brussels, in Total

So, being that I haven't had internet access readily available here in Brussels, I've had to limit my posting. But as I end my time here, I decided to take some time to sit down in the local McDonalds to catch everybody up on what I've been doing here.

Bureaucracy, or Eurocracy, as they call it
The reason I came to Brussels was to check out the European Commission Central Library and look at European policy in relation to sports. So I spent some time digging through volumes and volumes of memos, advisory reports, and policy briefs. It was all really interesting, and it is cool to see how other countries political systems work. It was kind of nice to be back in the library setting, though I think it's weird coming a quarter of the way around the world just to sit in a library, and I think I got more out of my time in England and Scotland.
It took me forever to get access to this library. Honestly it wasn't even completely ironed out before I left for Britain (sorry, Foundation), but after three or four months of emails it all worked out. I had to talk to five or six different people, all to be told that I just had to being my passport and sign up for a day to visit the library. It was kind of cool getting a special pass to the library. It made me feel like I was conducting some cool research. Which I guess I am.
There are some really interesting papers that I'm sure would help me a lot, but they're in French or German, so they're just not usable. That's unfortunate, but whatever, I have enough EU literature to last the rest of my train rides, and a list of sports policy books to pick up if I want to (which, I honestly might).
Getting into the library was another even all together. I had to go through two security checkpoints, both of which searched my bag and patted me down. The funny thing, though, is that they didn't search me on the way out. I guess they're not too worried about people stealing their random papers.
After experiencing it firsthand and digging through their work, my overall opinion about the European Union is that it creates a lot of jobs that don't seem to do anything. There are a lot of policy memos, but they never actually do anything. They're really good at pointing out problems and advising others on how to figure them out. I guess that's what happens when you have so many countries, each with their own issues and cultures and languages, trying to work together.
On this note as well, the European Union buildings are hideous. It looks like they were trying to go for a modern thing, but they just look like weird blue-green buildings. Plus, they're not in the nicest part of Brussels, which makes them stand out in their ugliness even more as they tower over tiny, run-down buildings.

Antwerp
The truth about Brussels is that there's maybe a day worth of stuff to do here, so by day four I was getting a little stir crazy, especially as I had seen most beds in my hostel turn over two or three times already. Lucky for me, I had to go somewhere else to do research.
On Tuesday I journeyed up to Antwerp, a city in the north of Belgium. The reason I traveled up there was to meet with a sports economist who I spent a few hours with talking about competitive inequality and why Belgian teams will never be good at football (not just the national team, but their club teams, too). It was a good time.
Antwerp is a really cool city. It's not as big and busy as Brussels, and it's right on the Rhine river, which makes for some cool scenery. It has a giant square with a really cool statue and some nifty architecture. When I download the pictures you can all see how cool it is. The University of Antwerp, where I met professor Kesenne is also really pretty. It's this tiny Gothic compound in the middle of the city and has an awesome little park in the middle. I don't think I'd ever want to go there (mainly because the people speak Flemmish, which I don't actually believe is a language). They do have a pretty rocking sports economics program, if that's what you're into (though maybe that's what I'm into, still not quite sure)

Bruges
The next day, instead of hanging around Brussels for another day (which would have been really hard), I decided to take a train up to Bruges for the day. Bruges is a quaint little city that hasn't really developed since the 14th century, and, consequentially, it is the most visited city in Belgium, and an insane amount of tourists go there annually, which is great because everybody speaks English. It has canals and old renaissance and Gothic architecture, and people call it the "Venice of the North." It has a belfry that towers over the rest of the city, which you have to climb more than 350 stairs to get to the top of. It was a really cool view and definitely worth the climb. One thing that Bruges is really known for is its fry cartes, which tend to pop up around every turn. Belgian fries ("frites") aren't really any different from American French Fries, except that the Belgians are a little more liberal with what you can put on them. I had mine with samurai sauce (a spicy, asian food-esque sauce) and soufleesauce (a meat-based sauce that was way better than it sounds).
Some of the highlights of things to see in Bruges: One church has what it claims to be Jesus' blood; another has one of the only Michaelangelo statues outside of Italy; windmills; canals; and lots of cheap pancakes and fries.
One of my favorite things takes a little looking around to figure out. So, horse-drawn carriages are huge in Bruges, obviously since it's a big tourist place. But there was never any horse poop in the street. Bruge has an awesome solution for that. The horses have bags attached to their rear ends so they poop right into them. I thought my dad would appreciate that.
The pace of life in Bruge is also really slow. While the weather wasn't particularly nice, it was a really relaxing day of just kind of ambling around and taking it easy. Good thinking time.

Other Tourists
People only stay in Brussels for a night or two, so at seven nights I've become a kind of long-term resident, so I've noticed some similarities about the other people coming though. Brussels is kind of the stop-over place from Britain to Amsterdam, so everybody coming through here is either on their way or just coming from the biggest party place in the world, so I've gotten to hear all sorts of crazy stories. (My favorite being the guys from Virginia who took mushrooms and wandered through the Van Gogh museum, which is open late on the weekends for that exact purpose). But all they want to do is get out and party, which has made them quite interesting.
Almost everybody staying in my hostel is from America or Japan, oddly. A couple days ago a few Glaswegians (from Glasgow) came through, so I had fun relating to them. Also, a lot of other people are on their way to Switzerland and Austria just like me, which is just getting me more excited about that.
Most people are traveling in pairs or groups, too, which I think is a good cool. While it's nice to have some independent time, it is always nice to have someone to talk to as you're wandering around the city - especially when you're lost and in not the nicest area.

I didn't hate Brussels, though it may sound as if I did. Its just a weird place. It had weird architecture, weird people, weird languages, etc. Its the kind of place I find myself making snide comments about, but I've had a good time while I've been here, especially during the nights. I like that it's home to the Smurfs (though I'm unfortunately missing Smurf-fest tomorrow). It has amazing food, especially the waffles and fries. It has also provided some much-needed down time as I get ready for the real crazy part of this trip.
I also didn't hate Glasgow - it was probably my favorite stop so far. Apparently it sounded as if i did, which is just not true. Galswegians, along with traveling Australians, have been my favorite people. Canadians come in a close third.

So the next few days are going to be a little hectic, and I'll be in like, 6 different cities in the next 2 weeks, some of them twice. I'm also getting ready to watch a lot of soccer and talk to a lot of people about soccer, which I'm excited about. I've been told there's a lot of energy in the air already, so it's going to be a crazy few days coming up. I don't know how often I can update this thing, but I will try to do my best.