The road to Seoul - Step 1: the move

After almost seven years in the land of chocolate and beer, and the so-called "home of the French fries" (I read it on a billboard outside Zaventem airport and will never forget it), I'm leaving to the land of kimchi. Yes, because Geneva was not far enough for weekend commuting.

South Korea is completely unknown to me, except for kimchi (obviously!), Kim Ki-duk and Psy (I'm not proud of this one). I will visit for the first time next week and write down my impressions.

Step one: the move started today and will take two days. We will send 150Kg by air and the rest in a container, by boat. Today is packing day. Pilão, our mascot, is already boxed up. Here he is, just seconds of going in the box:

We are only allowed to take a bottle of wine per person, otherwise they will make us pay 68% dutty - kind of restrictive to say the least. So we decided to take 1,5 liter bottle of Brunello de Montalcino (Banfi) 2004. I hope it will survive the sea trip and I will enjoy it with a nice vegan bulgogi.

1st damage done: one light bulb glass cover, which will be hard to replace. I find hard to imagine that they will manage to do everything in two days. They are only two!!

Dinner tonight will be in one of our favorite restaurants in Brussels - the traditional Chinese "Beijingya", close to St. Catherine. It's cheap and authentic, serving very reasonable portions. With this we start scrapping items in our bucket list. Still to do one last time:

• eat mussels in "Le Pré Salé", 
• spice up in "Toukol" Ethiopian restaurant, 
• drink mulled wine and eat empanadas in the Christmas market, 
• buy chocolates for the family in St Hubert galleries, 
• have breakfast in "Pain Quotidien", 
• watch a movie in Actor's Studio, 
• buy beer & pumpkin bread in Charli, 
• go window-shopping in rue Dansaert, 
• have a stroll in Parc d'Egmont. 

One almost down. 9 to go!

Trier: you'll be in my heart

Tonight, when walking back to the hotel, I cried... You've been good to me, and I now know I'll miss you. See you soon.

Porta Nigra, Trier

Daisy the Duck and lobster

At first sight Daisy might not have anything to do with lobster but it was the name we picked at Key Fisheries (Key Marathon, Florida Keys) to be shouted through the restaurant's megaphone once our order was ready. You see, it's easier to shout a well-known comic book character than boring or unpronounceable surnames. A-Z-I-N-H-E-I-R-A, say what? The restaurant itself is at the harbour, so some customers anchor their boats just beside it and come to make an order. We tried the Reuben Lobster - it was heavy in our stomachs - full of carbs (wrapped in big slices of bread) and fat (with cheese dripping from it and fries as side-dish) - but heaven in our hearts. That's the way an American meal at the waterfront should feel like, a marathon-size feast. We dragged ourselves back to our Dodge and drove south. We engaged in a monologue with the cutest bambies in sidewalks at Key Deer. We continued our tarmac adventure and finally reached Key West to discover its hidden treasure: Key Lime Pie! Where were you all this time?  Will we ever meet again?

Key Deer, Florida Keys

Lunchboxes and the Emirates

We were positively surprised by the Seychellois. They don't dress tastelessly, which is amazing given the scarce garment shops in the islands. Especially on Sunday morning, it's a treat to see older ladies coming from the church with pristine white and pink dresses, adorned with hats that remind the Roaring 20's. They live in not-so-shabby houses, are well nurtured - they can make a mean octopus curry taste wonderfully in a Styrofoam lunchbox - and actually travel. The daughter of the owner of the guesthouse where we were staying in La Digue actually told us that, since her brother worked in Abu Dabi, she went there already twice. Though she didn't like it, nor she liked Dubai or Singapore. Thailand was her thing, which made us wonder (with all respect for Thai people, food and landscapes): why is the grass always greener on the other side of the fence, even if paradise is on this side?

Victoria Market

Customs and fast food

Just when we thought that rent-a-car companies would never do us a favour, except to make our wallets lighter, we find ourselves blessed with a beam of anglo-hispanic cortesy.
Not only were we given the possibility of leaving our rental in a different country, but we also managed to cross the border on foot, deliver the car keys at the airport counter and board the plane to the City. Particularly interesting to see this in a piece of land where apes are in higher numbers than human inhabitants!
Essential element in the puzzle was the muffin we had to buy to be able to leave the car at the parking lot of a globally known fast-food joint. And that ended up in the bin of the no man's zone between the two countries.
Thank God for cheap food, and online check-in!

Do you want a brew?

Chang and Brahma

In many ways Thailand is like Brazil. If you want to get from A to B, you can be sure to arrive there, but just forget about the means and the sequence - there's no possible trace of logic to help you there.
Our ferry ticket says 12h but we actually leave after 2pm, because we need to wait for them to pass lugagge and people from one boat to the other in open water. And then if the sea gets rough, just duck and pray... and be aware of any chairs flying across the upper deck.

Then the airport transfers. Most of them stop for months during the rainy season but the proud drivers still think a new blasting sound system and flashy moving disco-like lights are a pretty good investment to entertain tourists or, more likely themselves. There's no communication possible - most of them say "yes" and nod to pretty much anything you ask. And we worried for a second thinking where the hell would they put all the luggage when the van was already full of people - just until the driver climbed to the top and started laying down suitcases and rucksacks, tied up with one and only thin rope - we didn't loose any of them though.

We left Ko Lanta with some other tourists - our destination was Krabi airport. We started in a pick-up truck. Then when one of us was already riding on the back (cause there were no other seats left) we changed to a van. On pep talk basis we asked the girl in front of us where she was going and she replied "Bangkok". And we said: "Oh! You're also going to Krabi airport then!?", to which she replied: "No!". We stopped the conversation there for the sake of our souls. In the end we were the only people to get out at Krabi airport - the others continued to God-knows-where. Our flight to Bangkok took more than one hour. We don't know how long it took her, but we believe she saw the light of the next day in the capital.

Ko Lanta, Thailand

Late lunch on my way to Munich

Today, for the first time I had a business trip cancelled while in route.
Due to the heavy snowfall in Bucharest, the flight MUC-OTP was cancelled and I decided to fly back home instead of waiting for the next morning.

Total travel time: ~4h (LH2287 at 12:50 and LH2290 at 15:20)
How to go: Lufthansa assures 8 daily flights to Munich from Brussels and return
When to go: during heavy snowfall in Bucharest
Average ground temperature in February: -5ºC
Menu (in both flights): Styrian Pumpkin Salad with Tuna Strip;
Goat's Milk Cream Cheese Tartar on Parsley Pesto;
Bean Salad made of Five Different Beans aromatized with Cumin, Savory, Dried Dice Tomatoes and Red Chilli,
and Balsamic and Pear Jelly Cubes.