And now fries: Antwerp, Belgium

Such a strange feeling, sitting here in my hostel room, getting ready for bed, and the room is empty. Might get a decent sleep tonight, woo!

When I arrive in a larger city, I like to visit the most massive, or most popular museums/galleries in cities that I visit. The chance that they have something interesting to see increases, and in the case of Antwerp, I gain entry for a measly 1(one)euro. Something about incentive for younger people to visit said museums. The National Gallery in this instance was quite different from others I've visited. It was almost entirely paintings. Historically, I've always favored sculptures over paintings, so if there was an option, I would just skim the rooms with paintings on my way to the sculptures. Now that I had no other options, I was forced to take a closer look, and that was certainly a good thing. There were a few room sized paintings that were shocking in their scale, with so much info and translation to deal with. It wasn't just the large ones that were inspiring however, there were a handful of smaller 20"X30" visual masterpieces done in styles I've never even seen before. Totally worth the 1EU hahahaa.

Of course. it's not just castles and museums over here (though there are a lot of them to be sure). I got my first taste of Euro-salt-water when I arrived in town. Considering Antwerp is home to the second largest harbor in Europe, this made perfect sense!
Speaking of salt, I discovered a new food yesterday. "Durum" is what they call it. Most of the locals around here refer to this kind of food as a gamble, as you're never sure quite sure what kind of meat is being used. "Durum" is non specific to meat type. All they have is this large rotating pillar of meat that they cut from, and bam! Into my stomach it goes.
I'm not completely sure it was the durum, but last night I had the funkiest dreams ever. There was a dragon, and a boat/space ship, and some psychedelic colours were involved as well. /shrug

Going back in time further, to my first day in Antwerp, I was doing my normal "find cheap food/large fancy buildings" routine, when I ran across one of those human statues. Normally these guys are easy to spot, but not this one. His composition was flawless, and I was about to take a picture of this "statue" when some person in front of me gave him money, and he made some "robot statue comes to life" movements. I was so impressed that I gave him some money as payment for my picture. Not 10 meters from him was an equally convincing human statue, that was just too good to ignore, and he got away with some of my money as well. I guess you could say I was just sick of all the beggars and con-beggars that I felt happy to give to some deserving individuals.

Speaking of these con-begger types, the most common one is where some middle aged woman in what seems to be turkish style clothing, confronts you with a "do you speak english" and hands you a paper that reads of some sob story and pity (if they don't know English, how did they write the note anyway?). After you tell them no, they just stand there and start to pray right in your face, and point to their "starving" child for whom the money is required. They continue to ask for money until you walk away (faster than they can walk I might add). Now I will admit that the FIRST time I had one of these women confront me, I gave her some spare change. I started to get suspicious after the EXACT same thing happened again two minutes later, and then again in 5 minutes. In Berlin, I was hit up for cash by the "single mom of starving child" gig 20 times in a single day. I used to feel half guilty about not giving anything, or being rude to them/cutting them off and leaving, but now I almost find humor in it. Doesn't help their case that the book I just finished reading (Spanish Fly, by Will Ferguson) is all about "the con" and how to convince other people that their money is better kept in your hands, rather than their own wallets. Bad luck for them beggar folks, makes me super suspicious of everyone.

Now for a special quote from Austin Powers' father:
"There's only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures... and the Dutch."

Naw I'm just kidding, the Netherlands locals I've met so far have all been amazing people, but none of them understand the joke. Oh well.

- Kyle - AOL'ing to sleep -