and then ...

and then there was copenhagen. i'm not really going to try to summarize all of copenhagen into one post right now. that'd be silly. i've been writing about copenhagen over on my other blog, so you might want to check that out. i'll definitely come back to talking about copenhagen later though.

so after copenhagen, we went to dranouter, a small village in the municipality of heuvelland in west flanders, belgium. we were there for two weeks. it actually went by relatively quickly.

here's the town center, which was basically just one block, with the church in the middle.





across the street from the church was this butcher shop. this is where i bought my eggs and salami and cheese for breakfast/lunch.



and just around the corner from there was a general store where we bought pastries, bread and some junk food. these two stores would prove invaluable to me over the two weeks.



and here's where we actually lived. it may not look like much, but it's deceptively massive. we stayed upstairs in a semi en-suite, meaning we had a shower and sink in our room, but the toilet was downstairs. our two housemates had full apartments though, with little kitchens and bathrooms. and that was just the upper level.



anyway, here's the backyard. the owner of the house is a gardener by trade, so it was pretty lush with all kinds of plants and flowers, including a cherry tree, a little currant bush, some wild strawberries and a whole bunch of other plants i couldn't name.



he also kept two chickens in the back, who provided us with delicious eggs. if only i had known sooner, i wouldn't have had to buy eggs!



and an old dog, who i called doggie. i tried to take her for a walk into town one day, but she ended up hobbling one-third of the way in.



and that was just the backyard. this was the view from our room, looking just across the street out front.



it was a huge field of pea plants.



and i may have mentioned before how close we were to the border of france, but let me illustrate just how close. the house on the left was ours. the house on the right, just across the street, that's our french neighbor.



and here again, with me standing at the front door. france to the left, belgian pea field to the right. crazy!



and here, this was us on our very first day in town. we hadn't found internet yet, so we had no idea where we were and how close anything was. we chose a direction and walked towards a church in the distance. notice how narrow the road is. because there's not enough traffic to warrant a two-lane road.



on another day, i decided to take a walk around the surrounding area. made some friends along the way, like black beauty and chestnut.





and bob's belgian cousins.



and some lambs. i didn't catch their names, since i don't speak flemish.



there's aj off in the distance, working away. can't spot him? well of course not. our camera didn't come with a telescopic x-ray lens. we aren't that fancy.



some fun flowers.



and a strawberry vending machine?? crazy. and i mean crazy good. these were the best strawberries we've ever tasted. like natural candy, but better.



so good, in fact, that the restaurant served them as-is as a pre-dessert.



ah, yes. i did spend one night at the restaurant as a guest. and got excellent service.



the end.



have an excellent weekend!

eating in heaven-sinki

here's a look at some casual traditional food we had in helsinki. again, i'll let aj cover all the fancy stuff when he's ready.

breakfast ... we picked up some tasty basics from a small local market (juuren puoti) our first day and made our own breakfast. rye bread, butter, cloudberry jam and milk. so good.





and later that week, we also added cheese, squeaky cheese and smoked salmon to the mix. the squeaky cheese is that slice of fried cheese you see, which is actually called leipäjuusto. it's a finnish type of cheese that is curdled and then baked or grilled. it can be eaten cold on its own, but we warmed ours up a bit in a pan and ate it with cloudberry jam. you'll know why it's called squeaky cheese once you chew on some.



we hear that lunch is the main meal in finland. and the most popular lunch item is soup. what, how is a bowl of soup enough for your main meal? because their bowls of soup are massive.



and they come with a surprise ... surprise! tons of veggies on the bottom.



on our last day in helsinki, we went to a spot that is open only for lunch and does only bowls of soup. they have three to choose from, and the seats where constantly being filled.



our two bowls.



my salmon soup was super good.



and again, a surprise at the bottom! there was so much, i couldn't finish it all.



and oh, this soup shop is located in hakaniemen kauppahalli, or hakaniemi market hall, where you'll find butcher stalls, baked goods, prepared foods, fish, etc. here, we have some finnish roast.



and some flintstone bones. people actually buy these, though the butcher slices them up with a bandsaw so they're more manageable. i assume they use them for soup.



we also made a stop at hesburger, finland's largest burger chain. the branding/packaging is fun, but otherwise so not worth it. not at all satisfying. you can skip it.



we had some good meals though. a highlight was the butter at olo. here's my fat pat of butter, which was also super creamy and delicious.



and here's where it came from. our server brought over the mound of butter, scooped out a chunk and smacked it down on my bread plate. the best. more places need to do this.

heaven-sinki

you might have caught snippets of our adventures in helsinki on my other blog, but in case you haven't, it's worth a quick look. i won't repeat any of the stuff over there, here.

we were in helsinki for a whole week and stayed in two different apartments. we would have stayed in just the first one, but the rest of the week was already booked.

here's a peek at our first apartment, which was actually a stand-alone hotel room. we'd highly recommend it for your next helsinki visit.



and here we are, clearly posing for two different pictures.



and our second apartment. very spacious, but not quite as fun.



as we made our way around, we thought it seemed liked a pretty dead town. apparently, everyone and their mother was at stockmann for their crazy days. two times out of the year, they hold sales where you can get something crazy like 5 tubes of toothpaste for $2. i just made that up, but you get the idea.



stockmann is finland's largest department store, and it's said that if you can't find it at stockmann, you probably don't need it.



agreed, they had all kinds of stuff there. including trolli choco banana. i was tempted to buy some, but knew it would pale in comparison to tokyo's finest.



and during crazy days, all their mannequins are covered in huhuu costumes, the window displays are draped with huhuu banners and the store is filled with huhuu balloons. who is huhuu you ask? that's who. and look at who got to meet huhuu.



and just outside on the tram platform, do you see what i see?



let's take a closer look ... a child dressed in a rainbow stripe snowsuit. i want!



and in the same general neighborhood, we come across this. i'd like to be a fly on the wall at one of their joint happy hours.



we also did a bit of traditional sightseeing. my family should recognize this, the helsinki cathedral behind senate square.



and some design sightseeing at marimekko.



and some non-traditional sightseeing, like this public restroom that was converted into a karaoke bar. i bet the acoustics are awesome.



stay tuned tomorrow for some everyday food we had. just wouldn't seem right lumping food with public restrooms.