The Market in the Markt-

Every Wednesday Brugge has a market in the center of town (The Markt) where everyone comes in to town to sell their produce, meat, cheese, or flowers. I look forward to going every week for flowers and produce. Everything is a lot cheaper at the market than at the grocery store. I bought the pansies in the back last week and the daisies the week before. You can also see our tiny patio. We're very lucky to have a patio. A lot of houses do not have patios. This one is just big enough to hold our grill, a small table, and two patio chairs.

This past weekend we went to the Cactus Festival in Minnewater Park, which is about a mile from our house. The Cactus Festival is a 3 day festival where well-known bands play all day, each day. (Kind of like Music Midtown for those Atlantans reading.) We went Friday night to hear the Wailers play. Are you asking yourself who are the Wailers? I was to until I researched them. The Wailers are Bob Marley's old band. They are still touring around and still representing what Bob Marley stood for. We had a great time. Saturday, Gnarls Barkley (an up and coming hiphop artist) was the head-liner. I wanted to go see him but it wasn't worth it since he only has one song I know. Sunday, Erika Badu and David Gray head-lined. We didn't go to that one because they both played late and Scott had to work the next morning.

As I mentioned in a previous post, recycling is huge here. You can imagine the trash that can accumulate from a concert from all of the cups from drinks and such. Well, not to worry Brugge had a solution for trash. For every cup you turn in you could receive 10 euro-cent or if you turned in 16 cups you could get a free drink. Kids often accompany their parents to places in Europe so there were quite a few kids here. All of the kids were running for the empty cups like crazy. I admired the kids that came up and asked you for the empty cup in your hand, however, Scott thought differently. He watched as the kids ran up to people and then went back to their parents to give them the cup. They were basically working to get their parents drinks. I gave one cup to a kid who asked (I actually don't know what he said b/c he spoke in Flemish.) He reminded me of a grown-up version of my nephew, Max. This kid who came up to me couldn't have been over 5. Scott patiently searched the crowd and found the one girl who never asked anyone for a cup. She would spot empty cups from yards away and hussle to go get them. He gave some cups to her. Plus, she used her cups to buy herself something to drink. We turned the rest in and got coins for our cups. Before you think it, no, we really aren't boring it was just really interesting to watch, plus this was before the Wailers started so we were people watching.

Oh, one more interesting thing from the Cactus Festival - the Porta-Potties. Now, these were just for men and it was the most fasinating thing. I tried not to stare, but you couldn't help it. Imagine a porta-pottie without walls that was divided into four sections. Each section had three walls (two on each side and one in the center with the urinal area) The men would find an empty side, step up, and use the bathroom. You couldn't see anything but the back of the guys. Scott used it and highly reccommends it for the US. No lines, no smell, no small,enclosed spaces. I had to pay .30 euro cents to pee in a stall.

We went to tour Brussels on Saturday. Every city in Europe basically had a Centre (Centrum, Grote Markt, etc) Brussels has a very beautiful Center Palace. The pictures attached do not do it justice. We were only able to just walk around but we want to go back to look at the churches and museums. After you've looked at all of the tourist stuff that's pretty much it. Everything else is like every other city - kind-of run down and busy. Of course, I forgot the tour/guide book so we were just guessing where we were going.

Click HERE to see our Brussels pictures. I added comments this time.

Whoo hoo! We have are first trip planned. We'll be taking the train to London in August for the weekend. We're going to see Mamma-Mia at the Prince of Wales theater and site-see the rest of the time. I've seen the show 4 times but Scott has never seen it. It's so great-I always want to go back. It's playing at the FOX in Atlanta in July for anyone who hasn't seen it!

I head back to the U.S on Thursday so my next post will be in a few weeks. We start our language classes when we get back too! Until next time......