Are the mussels fresh?

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So after a harrowing journey to get to Leuven, on Friday I was able to explore it a bit - even having awoken with a cold. Figures, doesn't it? ;).

Luckily for me, Annelies was sick in the morning with a migrane (not so lucky for her), BUT she was better in a couple hours and so we both went into town to explore. I got a first rate tour guide and a great afternoon with my [not-so-old] high school chum.

In the main square of Leuven there are very ornate gothic style buildings - one of which is the town hall. Super extravogant, and when I can upload photos of it, you can see for yourself. We had a tea and coffee on the square, which is served with a mini breakfast pastry and chocolate. Yum!

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We did some window shopping, and then some real shopping where I picked up a new pair of jeans. I realized that having only 1 pair of jeans with me so far wasn't going to cut it. I'd packed light, but realized I could have brought another pair with me. So that means new clothes! Fun.

We wandered around an old convent - actually it's where both nuns and non-married women lived if they didn't/couldn't live with thier family. The university owns the property now and rents it out to international, grad, and other priority students. It's like it's own walled city within Leuven (walls initially intended to keep the women separate or something).

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After a short time resting back at home, we went to the market in Pepijn's smart car - it's a 2 seater that looks a lot like the child of a BMW Z3 and an old Honda CRX. It's sexy and lots of fun, especially with the rag top down.

For dinner, Annelies made us fantastic muscles in a onion, celary, spices stock. A couple of Pepijn and Lizzie's friends came over, and we had a lovely pear salad with walnuts, the muscles, and fries from a local shop. Yum! But by 11 PM I was seriously fading and getting more sick (damn these colds) - so I took my tea and chocolate square and bid everyone good night. Annelies and Pepijn are such wonderful hosts - I'm very lucky to be getting time with them, let alone getting to stay with them!

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This morning, I awoke feeling better, despite the middle of the night sweats and sore throat. With the aid of some Tylenol sinus, I was feeling better. I also finally managed to download and transfer the first 6 chapters of Harry Potter Andrew's been reading and recording. It'll be such a luxury to have his voice on demand during these travels and long time apart. It's so nice having computers and internet, a bath, and laundry available!

Pepijn and Annelies had an errand to run, but brought back some lovely pastries for breakfast, and we had a leasurely breakfast. Annelies and I then took off to Brussels for a mellow trip - the drive is about 1/2 hour from Leuven.

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We did some shops investigation, wandered the sites, saw the pissing boy, rubbed a statue for good luck, had a crepe and some lovely hot sandwiches (thank goodness for real mint leaf tea!), and headed home.

The rest of this evening will be spent looking into hotels and train schedules for the next leg of my journey - Paris. Probably book something for Barcelona as well, while I'm out it. In the latest news regarding Argo, I found out that Boomer (captain of the last semester at sea I did) and C-tal (the head marine biologist teacher) switched over to the Oceanstar (caribbean) voyage for this semester, so I won't be traveling with them. I'm a bit disappointed - but I know the staff of Argo will be fantastic. I figure this is just one more nudge about the lesson I've been faced with many times over the last few months - learning better flexibilty under changing circumstances and paying attention to the silver lining. No getting away from those lessons even when you're half way around the world, eh? All good, but thank goodness for bronze-good luck statues.