Abba Forever

Cumulative Miles Traveled: 21,856
Current Location: Brussels, Belgium
Current Mood: ça va bien

***

Sometimes I have to sit back and realize how incredibly lucky and happy I am in my life right now. When something good (vacation, travel, an excellent croissant aux amande, a great date) is short-lived it's easier for me to appreciate in the moment because the knowledge that it will soon be over is intrinsic in the experience. But when that same something good becomes prolonged, I have a tendency to take it for granted because I'm not thinking about how it will all be over soon. Which is kind of how it has been with this whole trip. I've been so detached from real life traveling that I can't remember life any other way - I take it for granted that not everyone gets to do this (especially because I've met so many other travelers, mostly European and Aussie, that are also traveling the world that it seems like traveling the world is just something all people do).

But as I reflect on this past week in the French and Italian Rivieras and Brussels with l'Homme I can't help but think: life is so good in so many ways right now - I am so incredibly lucky.

At the same time I miss my normal life. The thought of going home to SF, still (and forevermore) my favorite city in the world, to my own home and being able to see friends, family and l'Homme whenever I want sounds .....wonderful, normal, un-vagabondish. It's a wonderful mix of loving and living in the moment but also gaining appreciation for my normal life and looking forward to returning to it.

La vie est tres bonne!

***

The week in review:

L'homme and I covered a lot of ground during his visit. Our first date after his arrival in Antibes was on the French riviera, our second date was on the Italian riviera and we spent the last couple days in Brussels brushing up on the European art form of cafe-ing (sitting at an outdoor cafe for hours chatting and people-watching).

I don't know what I was expecting from Brussels, but it is very different from what I thought it would be like. It's basically what you would get if you took Washington D.C., changed the language to French (technically Brussels is Flemish and French but almost everyone seems to speak French primarily), then filled half the city with Congolese, Moroccans, Turks and people from other African and Middle Eastern countries. I've never seen so many black people in one city other than Atlanta and maybe Washington D.C. Brussels is tiny - within our first few hours we basically covered most of the tourist sites. We ate the typical local dishes - moules frites, waffles, beer, waterzooi (a really rich chicken cream soup) and stoemp (Belgian mashed potatoes, which are mixed with vegetables). My conclusion in a nutshell: I could never eat just Belgian food for more than two days.

Brussels' saving grace - we happened to be in the city during La Fête de l'Iris, a weekend-long free festival which basically turned the entire city into one big carnival with free concerts in the evenings. And Sunday night the main act was a band called Abba Mania...you can guess what their music was. OMG, it was absolutely brilliant - Abba revived! L'Homme made fun of me for knowing all the songs and loving such cheesy music but really....who doesn't love Abba?

Backtracking to Cinque Terre in the Italian riviera - it was absolutely stunningly gorgeous and no words or pictures can do it justice - you just have to go see it for yourself. Each of the five fishing villages is unique and utterly picturesque and filled with romantic nooks and crannies. My favorite town was the one we stayed in - Vernazza, the second town on the trail. We hiked the trail connecting all five towns - the best part of the hike (and hardest) is the trail between Monterroso and Vernazza. The coffee in Italy is absolutely perfect...I couldn't get enough of it. What a perfect culinary world we would live in if you could have Italian coffee with French almond croissants every morning, Vietnamese banh coun or bun for lunch, Basque pintxos with cava for a snack, Japanese or Thai food for dinner and Italian gelato for dessert every day...

All in all just a perfect week...which makes me wonder - how are any future dates going to ever live up to the last couple months - a magical weekend in Antigua, hiking the gorgeous Cinque Terre followed by dinner overlooking sunset on the ocean, breakfast over the most perfect lattes in Italy, breakfast with the most perfect almond croissants in France, fun train rides, getting lost in the cobblestoned streets of the French riviera...