Hey

Belgium

With our ordeal well in the past; when we were trapped in a snowy Paris, Eurostar came true to their word and shouted us a free trip to Belgium. Better still, we timed it over the Easter long weekend.

So on Thursday morning, we headed out to Kings Cross (minus passport!), then I returned home to pick it up again!... with that minor hitch behind us, we finally boarded the Eurostar for the first time of our lives bound for Brussels. We'd managed to book this whole thing just 48hours in advance, and had the prospect of a nice hotel room packaged in to the price.

Finally, we sped out of London, through Kent, under the Channel, into France, and then on to Belgium/Brussels. I can't recommend Eurostar enough. You can check in and be on the train within 30minutes, and off at the other end in less than 5minutes... take that air-travel!

We grabbed a cab from the station and dumped our bags at our plush hotel room; not sure if I've stayed in a larger room than this before. We then headed off on a quick-wet walking tour of the grand place, mannekin pis and anything else in between and around, which is fairness to Brussels consists mainly of stuff that expands your waist-line and/or gets you drunk. So with a chocolatey waffle consumed we carried on our musings and eventually wound up grabbing some Thai food for dinner, as you do in Belgium.

Following morning, it was time for a massive trip down memory lane. We took a trip out to my late grand-fathers sisters place, she's one of the last members of the 'grand' generation in my family and it had been a great many years since I last saw her; maybe 18!? The house seemed not to have changed, though of course it had. They welcomed us with a delicious lunch, with wine accompaniment along with my mothers cousin in the mix for company. We chatted and reminisced of a couple of almost long-forgotten family holidays and surprised each other as to how much we remembered.

After, we returned back to Brussels and met up with Em & Jazz, who'd just arrived in town. A pub crawl began, and before we knew it, we were sitting next to a stuffed horse drinking fruit flavoured beer. Wicked fun, unless you managed to fracture your foot falling off a stuffed horse.

Following day, against my hangovers will, we managed to get outta bed, and jump on a train out to Bruges - the land of Chocolate and medi-evil architecture. A healthy lunch paved the way before we gave in to Belgian fries and chocolate... all in all a healthy day; well it was Easter Saturday!

Easter Sunday rolled in and we really hit a new level of relaxation on a city break. We shunned the desire to go see new things and instead, spent a morning in and out of coffee shops, watching the world and it's congregations trot by on what was afterall, a highly special day for many in the religious world. We headed back to London, and made it in less than 2.5hrs door to door... impressive. Brussels is good fun, just don't expect too much from the sights though. 

Oxford Comma

Barrington Tops, Central New South Wales.

This year, Australians (and 'temporary' residents such as I) in New South Wales have been duped. We have lost two public holidays due to them falling on a Saturday, and the government deciding that it would be in the best interest of commerce that businesses open on those extra days. So with no Anzac day off... we couldn't wait to get outta Sydney and take advantage of a rare long weekend in 2009.

Good Friday saw us drive from Sydney North about 4 and a half hours to a National Park called Barrington Tops. The Tops represent the Northern Most region of the Great Dividing Range that rolls from Victoria (North of Melbourne) up past Canberra & Sydney. The Scenery is basically like the Blue Mountains on Steroids. Far more rolling hills and many more valleys to stare down - at least it felt like that anyway.

Rog & Claire had gone on a day ahead of us to beat traffic, and had set up camp at the Devils Hole Campsite. Which was about as far as a Honda Civic would go off road without falling off its axels. From arrival, it was simply a case of keeping warm and fed around an awesome camp fire... where the men on camp would have to go out on fire-wood scavenging missions - not so easy at high damp altitudes.

Cloud cover would often fall in faster than I could toast a marshmallow. You would look up and be staring thru gum trees, and get an image something like the Blair Witch Project. The first night, was cold... even with several glasses of Red Wine and Rogers infamous campfire Stew inside of us.

The following day it was time to see a little more of the place so we hiked the Polblue Swamp trail and checked out some huge Toadstools... or mushrooms - I'm never sure how to tell the difference. Regardless, it was very nice to get back to nature after spending the preceeding months at the city and the beach.

Another night of huddling by the fire, Uno and drinks concluded out camp trip... by this point, nearly everyone present had caught a cold and was ready for an early traffic beating exit. After getting the place packed up on the Sunday morning; Lauren and I took the car back down the mountains stoping to take some shots here n there and appreciate the running water. Running water like I've only ever seen in other continents on this Earth. Nice.

The remainder of Sunday back home, could not have been more relaxing. Sydney seemed empty, all aside from 32 Lindt bunnies Lauren had brought home from work. With a lack of chocolate not an issue... I lounged and tinkered with my photographs until the evening came... and then - oh the sleep of all sleeps after two cold ones at the Devils Hole. I kinda see why the campsite had an intimidating name... though maybe "The Devils Fridge" woulda been more apt.