Lots* of people have been asking me if the blog will continue now that our nine month adventure in Nairobi has come to a wrap. The short answer is “yes” even though the domain name and blog name is very specific to a duration of time (which is over) in a certain place (which I’m not in). I think I’ll keep the names as they are now, for consistency for all my tens of ten fans and for the obvious branding opportunities that come with name recognition. “An undetermined amount of time in whichever place I’m in” isn’t as catchy as Nine months in Nairobi. Also, I’ve enjoyed writing and selfishly want to keep doing it, so I will. Besides, isn’t this whole thing called “life” just one big adventure, whether you’re in Nairobi or not? #illtakesomehamwiththatcheesysentence

Kenyan Airways introduced a direct flight from Nairobi to New York about a week before we left Kenya. When we booked our flights more than 9 months out, that was not an option, so we picked a flight with a layover in a city we’ve both never been to: Brussels. We didn’t know too much about Belgium or the city of Brussels, but the pictures online looked beautiful, and we’ve heard of Belgian beer and Belgian chocolate and Belgian waffles, so we rightly assumed we could at least eat and drink our way through the 4 night layover. I had a bunch of hotels dot com points from my days as the travel logistics planner for my frisbee teams, so we stayed at a super fancy old timey hotel from the late 1800s for free! 

We arrived on a Thursday morning, but it was a holiday, so the streets were empty as we drove from the airport to the hotel in the city center in the fanciest taxi I’ve ever been in. All the cars on the roads are relatively new Mercedes and BMWs and VWs because Germany is right next door, so import taxes must be cheaper than the US and Asia. If the affordable option for a vehicle is a luxury car then fine twist my arm. Plus Germans know their automobile engineering.

We get to the hotel at 9am, many hours before check in, but since it’s a fancy place they can’t let their guests (especially guests with 9 months worth of luggage) wait around. They had a room ready for us, so we go upstairs and poor Bill gets sick. Maybe it was the airplane food meat, which I didn’t eat and gave to him. We were hoping it would pass, so we could enjoy all the deliciousness that awaited us. After sleeping it off, with a handful of trips to the bathroom, Bill felt a lot better! I also didn’t mind the long nap, since you can never really sleep on an airplane, and we flew overnight missing out on a good night’s sleep. Around 3pm we start mobilizing by Yelp-ing and Trip Advisoring the best things to do and see. We found a few tours we were interested in, and some of them were free, including the city center tour starting in an hour or so. We head to Grand Place and find our tour guide with the big orange umbrella. She was a quirky young lady who taught us about and showed us a lot of the city center. It was a great first evening as we made mental notes of things we needed to eat and drink and see as per her recommendations. We saw the crown jewel statue of Belgium, a 2 foot tall naked boy peeing. #theirtrevi Mannequin Pis was always surrounded by tourists taking pictures and selfies admiring the silly little boy. Belgium as an independent country is relatively new (founded 1830) but has a very storied history within Europe – often at the unfortunate geographic center of battles and bombings – and has many French, German and Flemish influences. In fact, French, Dutch, and German are the official languages of the country and most people also know English. Because of this lack of national sense of self, Belgians unite around Man Pis as a symbol of their resilience, sense of humor, and identity. The statue, dated to the early 1600s, served as a public source of drinking water and has survived many attacks, battles, bombings – like the 1695 bombardment by the French – and many thefts, like that by the French in the 1740s. The story goes that the Belgian people were so upset and threatened bloodshed that Louis XV knighted Man Pis and returned him safely. Now any French soldier must salute to him if they are in the statue’s presence. It’s all a poetic echo to the survival of the Belgian people. Don’t feel bad for not knowing your Belgian history, I didn’t know any of this until I got there.

After the tour, Bill and I grabbed some classic Belgian fries and the most delicious Belgian waffles before heading back to the hotel to change into dry clothes. Our beer tour that night had been canceled due to the rain, but we had one schedule for tomorrow anyway. Instead we went out for dinner and drinks across the street from Man Pis and had delicious beers. I’m not a fan of drinks that are carbonated, so I generally don’t enjoy the mouth sensation of beer, which is unfortunate because I enjoy the taste if it’s a good beer. Nitros and stouts are usually my beers of choice. I asked the waiter which beer he would recommend with the least carbonation and it didn’t disappoint!

The next day we had a chocolate tasting and beer tasting tour in the late afternoon, so our morning was open for exploring. We had a delicious breakfast (prices were quite a shock after living in Kenya: €15 for avocado toast?!!) before a self-guided walking audio tour Bill downloaded. Before we started our tour, Bill led me to see Zinneke Pis (correctly called Het Zinneke), Peeing Dog, which is part of the trio of self-proclaimed less-than-impressive peeing statues. After seeing Mannequin Pis and learning there were two more peeing statues, I knew I couldn’t leave the country without seeing all of them. After our chocolate tasting and beer tasting walking tour, we find Jeanneke Pis, little girl peeing, outside of the Delirium Tremens bar and the trio is complete!!! (Three exclamation points for three peeing statues.) The chocolate tasting tour was INCREDIBLE. It was a bit of history, plus we got to walk to parts of the city we hadn’t yet been to. And we got to go to 4 different chocolatiers and try a handful of samples at each. Then it was time for beer tasting pourtion (get it?!) of the tour, and that was equally awesome! We learned that there are hundreds of beers in Belgium and each one has its own chalice/glass thing. If you go to a bar, and they serve a beer, that beer will come in it’s own glass, with a label and a cool design. That’s a lot of glasses a bar needs to have. There are also Trappist beers, which means brewed in a monastery by monks. We were able to try the most rare kind of all, something #12, which is not sold in stores and can only be bought at the monastery. As you now already know, I am not a beer drinker because of the carbonation and not the taste, but every beer that I had (or tried of Bill’s) was delicious. I wish I liked carbonation, so I could enjoy beer like the big kids, but I guess my waistline is happy I don’t. 

The following day was our last full day in Belgium, and we decided to do a walking tour day trip to Bruges, leaving Brussels at 9am. We had recently seen the movie In Bruges and therefore had heard of the town. It was a beautiful and quaint port city, except for the fact that it was overrun with tourists. The crowds seriously rival that of Times Square. The train ride was about 45 minutes to Bruges, then we had a tour of the adorable city which ended around 1. Bill and I ate lunch – I had the most delicious burger I’ve ever eaten, and I eat a lot of burgers – and then we ran back to the train, so we could make it on time to the chocolate making workshop we signed up for in Brussels at 4pm. The chocolate making workshop was AWESOME. The Belgian style chocolate is called Praline, which is basically a chocolate casing filled with a soft delicious filling, usually a ganache. We got a tray with 24 molds into which we poured chocolate. Then we froze it while we made the ganache filling. Then we filled the molds and covered it back up with chocolate, and froze it again. While we waited for them to freeze to be ready to take home, we made hot chocolate. Oh my gosh was it freakin delicious. We left the workshop with a combined total of 48 pieces of chocolate! We ate some but also brought some home to my parents and sister, and it was gone faster than the professionally-made chocolate we bought in a shop. I also brought back some beer for my parents. I got them beer from a Bruges brewery that has its beer running in pipes underneath the city which I thought was cool. My parents decided they need to go to Belgium because that beer was so delicious. I also realize this blog post uses the word “delicious” about 10 times, but I’m just saying the truth and don’t have a thesaurus.

One long airplane ride and 4 airplane movies later, we land at JFK and man did it feel great to be home. Back at my parents house, there was a lot going on. My grandma had come to town from Hungary, and there were 6 of us living in a tiny New England style house, where Bill has to duck his head when he goes up and down the stairs. Bill worked from home during the days while I went out with my mom and grandma to do a bunch of wedding stuff. Bill and I finally saw our venue, as we only saw pictures and videos of it from Kenya, and we are super excited! It is a beautiful spot, and it will be a great place to get married on New Year’s Eve! Also, in great news, the New York Fall decided to wait for us. The foliage was BEAUTIFUL. Fall in NY is maybe the most beautiful in the world, and it has been years since I have been there for it. Thanks New York, for keeping your colors for us! However, the first full day when we went to the city, it poured rain! We went to meet up with my dad for lunch at Pio Pio and man was it not worth it. I loved hanging out with my dad, but not walking in the downpour. And Pio Pio has really gone downhill. It used to be $9 for the half chicken lunch special. Now it is $12.50 for a quarter chicken, and when I ask for no beans they just gave me no beans instead of doubling up on the rice. And the salad doesn’t come with avocado anymore. The green sauce is still killer, but I don’t know if I will be seeking out Pio Pio anymore. It was more of a nostalgic lunch from my long ago days of living in the city and eating lunch with my dad than it was a good lunch.

Our two weeks in New York flew by. I found a beautiful wedding dress with sequins on it so it will be sparkly for New Year’s Eve, we played some board games, we did a lot of wedding planning stuff, we had lots of family dinners at home, watched jeopardy, we hung out with friends, we walked in snow storms, we paid for and ate raw cookie dough at a cookie dough shop, we had brunch, we went out to family dinner in Harlem at an Ethiopian restaurant that was super good and super fun, and just enjoyed drinking that tap water. We got to Chicago two days ago and have already gone to a museum, gone on an architectural tour, and hung out with my really awesome and adorable future nephews and niece! We are in Chicago to celebrate Thanksgiving, and while I am not thankful for the Pilgrims’ treatment of the Native Americans (you know, stealing their land, killing them, etc.), I am thankful that Bill’s family and my family will all be together.

*very, very few**

** ok, fine a couple