Wally Nes’ Blog

OK, it’s not Japan.

I would invite you to look at the title of this Blog.
Japan, and beyond.

One, of course, has to define beyond. As beyond may well be taken in different ways.
For instance, if one were to say; “We will send this spacecraft to Mars, AND BEYOND (que background music) one might think Jupiter and Pluto were on its itinerary. Mercury would not be expected.
However, if one were to adapt this approach to the earth, taking into account the half wolrd view (that is, considering that the world-surface would be spread out with Holland exactly at its centre and both ends of the world being at 184.53 degrees East.
“Beyond Japan” would consist of sea.

Taking the world as a sphere we would run into trouble beyond a simple blog such as this. One may have to assume a straight line approach, 52.2N 4.5E to 34.4N 135.3E and then extending the line . . .
Taking into account the curvature of the earth.
Encorperating the drift created by the Coreolis forces while traveling along this line
I would end up . . . .
Somewhere.
Fiji maybe. Or French Polynesia.

In any case, MY definition of “beyond japan” matches that of Japanese people. “If it is not Japanese it is a Gaijin”. Or concerning travel, if it is not Japan, it is “beyond Japan”.

Lille, France therefor falls quite nicely in the title of this blog.

Aaaaaanyway, on with the story.

Barely 5 days back from Japan and I was off to Lille.
Something something Big Party something something one of the few times Lille is interresting something something.
As after my landing on monday I moved on tuesday instead of the “next weekend” I had planned I actually had time to go there.
No time to properly prepare the trip though so I went off half-cocked to Lille.

Doing something like this is Japan is exciting.
Doing something like that in Africa could mean trouble.
Doing something like that in Belgium is . . . .

Rather disapointing.
Apart from the missed connection in Antwerp it was all rather mundane. I understood all the announcements. The train system worked on principles I understood and though my PINcard didn’t work on the machines I could clearly express myself to the person behind the counter that sold me the ticket.

Lille had a “La Grande Braderie” which basically means that for 1 weekend the entire centre of the city is chuck full of stalls manned by people trying to sell stuff. Professional dealers mix with jean-mundane that try to sell everything from THE new cleaning revolution to the kid’s hand-me-downs, Canoes to wooden giraffe figurines, Levis to Candy.

At the same time they have a contest at the restaurants to see who can sell the most mussels. Of course, this has to be measured and while this is amusing. The smell can kind of ruin it.
And these piles choke of allready tight streets. People with claustrophobia or other conditions that mean you dislike close spaces and even closer proximity to people (say if you really REALLY can’t stand other people’s Body Odor. I know that can be a big one for me, my god man use some deodorant) something like La Grande Braderie may not be the best place for you.

I could go on about this Braderie but really it was only an excuse to visit Raph at her home town and meet the parents.
Knowing this gets read by her parents I will wisely leave out any comments regarding them

Mostly to annoy them. MUhahahahahaha.

One thing was annoying though.
The bread thing has been mentioned before. Japan has sucky bread.
Really
So I come home to holland and enjoy some proper bread after long being denied this.
Then I go to France

Shit

Now again. I live in a country with inferior bread.

Not as inferior as before. Just . . . . not as good as French bread.

Crap

To wrap the story up I had to go back to Holland in order to make it to school on time on monday and seeing as the French University program didn’t start till September 15th Raph decided to accompany me.

But how that turned out, and what adventures we had while she was here . . . I’ll leave that to the Fair Maiden to describe.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008 at 6:26 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.