Salut din Brugge

Hello from Brugge,

This is my second day in the city and I've probably seen 50% of it. Very beautiful, very smalery quiet. The pace of life here is so slow compared to what it is in the US, that it almost looks like time is sitting still.

I am writing from the main conference room, the only place with free internet. Brugge is amazingly beautiful. Being away from Europe for such a long time, I forgot how small these old cities are. It probably only takes 20 minutes to walk from one end of the city to the other. All the streets are cobblestone, all old buildings and the smell of good food is everywhere. The Belgians are a fortunate combination of French and Dutch: good food + good beer = best chocolate and best beer in the world. When we come to Europe together, we definitely have to stop here again. It’s as romantic as Venice, but much cleaner. No poop smell here, just chocolate aromas.

The hotel room is smallest I’ve ever had. 10-20 inch extra room around the two twin beds that are lumped together. The AC in the room doesn’t work, and it’s very humid here, so I am very annoyed after taking a shower, since you can’t really dry. The hotel is the equivalent of a Motel 6, I guess, but let me tell you, the food was a little better. No sugar lathed breakfast here. Oh, there is no AC in the conference hall either, so in a room of 200 people the atmosphere has already become pressing. The conference center is located in a 1100 year old hospital and you have to pay 0.5 Euro if you want to go to the bathroom. Obviously, I have to be cheap and optimize my bathroom visits.

Last night I went to watch the football final with two dutch guys. I’ve had two beers (Brugge Tripel = 9% alcohol) and I can still feel a little hungover. After the game the streets were resounding of “E- SPA– GN, E-SPA-GNA”. I’ve learnt that there is a very strong link between the dutch and Spanish royal houses, and obviously nobody really likes the germans, so the place was a little out of hand.

Denver - Bruges - Romania and back

For the next couple of weeks I will be traveling back to mother Europe. I am presenting a talk at the ALD 2008 conference in Bruges on Wednesday next week. On Thursday I am flying to Romania for a week and a few days until Sunday, July 13th. Whenever I have internet I'll try to post story and picture updates on here. Stay tuned.