Atomium and Mini-Europe September 30, 2008

When talking about Brussels everyone says “See the Grand Place!” and of course I will because it just doesn’t make sense not to, and plus, how could you miss it?  It’s just… right there!  But if you take the metro north, there are sights I didn’t discover in the guide books.  Sights so fantastic that I feel they cannot be missed, and I am surprised that I have not heard more about them:  the Atomium and Mini-Europe.  Brilliant!

The Atomium is this atom-looking structure made of shiny see-through silver.  You can not only take pretty pictures of it as it lights up at night, but you can go in it!  It’s the Eiffel Tower of Brussels! (in fact, they were going to build an upside down Eiffel Tower, initially)  The Atomium was built in 1958 for the World’s Fair (aren’t all massive, decorative structures built for the World’s Fair?), and it was restored in 2004, so it is nice and shiny once again.  To top that off, THIS is the 50th anniversary!  I am expecting wild celebration around the Giant Atom as well as to have it lit up better than ever.  This is the year to see it.  And while I’m there, how could I miss Mini Europe?  It’s right next door.

Mini Europe is a “park”, and I picture a theme-park without rides, really, more than a city park-like setup.  It is a collection of miniatures of 350 of the most attractive and “representative” buildings in all of Europe, at a scale of 1:25.  How on earth, I ask, could someone miss this?  Not only is this a completely marvelous idea, and if you look at the pictures, the buildings are really detailed and neat looking, but it also would be massive savings on seeing all of Europe!  Not that this would happen, but just think: if you saw the buildings of Vienna, and they didn’t really strike your fancy, and you never reeeeally thought you wanted to see Vienna, anyway, then you can check it off your list.  Brilliant!  Certainly this is a device that would help with ranking cities you wanted to see.  Or take closeup photos of things as if you were there.  Fool your friends!  So many, clever uses!!

It may be snowing, or worse, raining while I am there, but rain or shine, I have big plans to witness these two, unsung world marvels.

A Rainy Ski Trip February 21, 2008

I survived skiing this past weekend.  I did not find the “lodge” with the fireplace, and I left my knitting/book in the car about a mile away, anyway. So I skiied. I did not run anyone over. I was only almost-run-over twice.  But it started raining (fairly steadily) on Sunday around 2:30. Which was okay because I was pretty much done by then. And if “pretty much done” wasn’t good enough, the cold rain, leaving me wet and frozen in the snow, sealed the deal. A lot of crazies, Numero Uno among them, continued to ski in the rain. And when we left around 4 or 4:30, there were actually people coming down from the parking lot to start skiing. In the rain! Suckers!!

The most fun parts about this weekend were hanging out with Numero Uno, eating at an Eat’n'Park (a restaurant chain new to me — we both ordered fish’n'chips. And holy crap that Eat’n'Park had some tasty water. Numero Uno and I both commented on it. I do not know what they do to their tap, but yum.), and eating chocolate cake in bed at the Days Inn (we transported the cake from Valentine’s day). Numero Uno accidentily got chocolate icing (in no small quantity) on the pillows. He’s not allowed to eat in bed at home. We wondered what the maids would think. With only a few channels on the tv, we fell asleep watching a lady get lectured on why she shouldn’t own a goat as a house pet. The camera man filmed a close up of the goat’s butt while it pooed all over the rugs. Hilarity.

Skiing, The Third February 15, 2008

If you know me, you know the indoors and cement-city-blocks are way more my thing than the traditional out-of-doors.  This weekend, however, I am for the third time ever, spending my days whooshing down a mountain in Pennsylvania.  I will most likely break a leg (on the green slopes) and have to be rushed to the hospital, so you can find me there on Monday.

The first time I skiied I was 20, and I went with my friend, Lindsay.  She came up to Massachusetts, and we drove to Stowe, VT.  On our drive to Stowe, we stopped at Montpelier, where we tromped through 2 feet of snow in the dark up to the Capitol building.  That?  Was Awesome!  Also, there is apparently no food in Vermont, not even a fast food restaurant, so we did not get anything to eat for the entire drive.  I remember being particularly hungry.  In Stowe, we stayed at a little motel and went to the slopes about a mile away during the day.  The first day we got our rental skis (her first time skiing, too) and decided we should rush immediately to the green slope.  Whoosh!  I think I did a 180 and I know I lost a ski a few times up the hill from where I fell (on my back).  I ran over a small child — he was okay, and when his dad flipped him over (he was face-down in the snow) he was laughing.  Then we took a lesson.

The lesson was practically on flat terrain, but I managed to fall multiple times.  Wielding the long sticks attached to my feet was not particularly easy given my coordination.  But we were taught the “pizza” move, and after the hour lesson, surely we were geniuses, we thought.  So we whooshed down the green slope again.  But this time the “whoosh” took forever because we were going side-to-side.  Forever.  By the end of the day, I was exhausted and never wanted to ski again.  But I couldn’t sit in the lodge, because there was no lodge — just a cold, boring cafeteria.  So I was destined for the ski slopes again the next day.  And a-skiin’ I went!  It was better than the day before, but I was all kinds of sore.  I think it was that afternoon that we toured the Ben and Jerry’s factory, an event which should not be missed.  And the next morning, I believe we skiied again.  Too much skiing, too much falling down.

Two or three years later, I went skiing with my friend, Rich.  Rich came to visit me in Western Mass, and we woke up early on a Saturday to go to a little ski resort about 40 minutes away.  The instant I woke up, I knew I didn’t want to go, after all.  But we got in the car and went.  Rich, a good skiier, gets mad props for staying with me all. day. long. on the green slopes.   I didn’t really fall, but I can’t have been very fun to ski with, either.  Then something went wrong.  We started on a green slope, but we must have taken a wrong turn, because suddenly we were on a blue slope.  And it looked to me like a 90degree drop.  Holy. Crap.  There were trees very close on either side of us.  I kept thinking of Sonny Bono and how I did not want to run into a tree.  So I essentially freaked out and walked down the hill.  I think it was one more green slope that day, and that was it for me.  I haven’t been skiing since.

But this weekend, I will ski because Numero Uno likes to ski.  Lindsay thinks I will be able to take the blue slopes by day three.  I don’t buy it.  More likely I’ll run down three small children, one adult, and a snow mobile.  The snow mobile will land me in the hospital.  But at least I will have an excuse for not skiing in the future.  Get back on the horse and try again?  I never liked that horse in the first place!

Experience Tokyo! February 10, 2008

Sumo.  These guys eat a lot of rice.  They have public tournaments around the country multiple times each year.  Unfortunately there will be no tournaments while we are in the country (boooo!).

Kabuki.  This has become kind of a tourist thing, given that the locals don’t go out to Kabuki every weekend.  But it’s a type of traditional Japanese theater, a theater of the masses, rather than of the kings.  The plays are about history, morality, and love.  Men play women because women were outlawed long ago from performing in the theater.  There are performances in the Ginza district of Toky and they come with English-speaking headsets, to explain what is going on.

Harajuku.  Also the name of Gwen Stefani’s backup dancer group,  this is a place in Tokyo where people dress up like anime characters and the cutesy, all-too-modern, breaking-with-the-norm look that Japanese school-aged kids sometimes take on.  Much like the dog statue (waiting for its dead owner to return home for 15 years) elsewhere in town this seems like a popular meeting place for people to see and be seen.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government office building. On the 45th floor of this buildling (Tochomae subway stop) is a free observation deck with a better view than those you have to pay for, and on the 1st floor is a tourist information booth.

Pachinko.  This gambling game was “invented” by a ball baring company that had over-manufactured barings one year and didn’t know what to do with them.  Brilliant!

Tsukiji Fish Market.  This open air fish market is open every morning starting at something like 3am.  If you get there by 5 or 6, though, you’ll be fine.  It’s closed on Sundays and every other Wednesday (or so).  They have all kinds of fresh fish in their original form, including octopus.  I think this will be REALLY, REALLY fun.  And there are no doubt the most-fresh sushi places around right there at your fingertips.  According to National Geographic: “Tsukiji is a fish market in the sense that the Grand Canyon is a ditch…”  Niiiiiice.

And I haven’t even gotten to the temples, gardens, and shrines yet!