Birthday In Brussels

The weekend before my final exams was also my 21st birthday, and I'd be celebrating the birthday weekend in Brussels, Belgium with Samson, Dave, Cat, Anne, and Elodie. Back in January when Samson first came to visit me, we both nonchalantly started looking up our favorite musicians to see if they would be touring in Europe while we happened to be there. I asked Samson, "Who are the top 3 jazz musicians you want to see before either you or they die?" When he posed the same question back to me, we realized we both wanted to see one musician really, really badly. The answer: Herbie Hancock. So we went online and typed in his name to see whether he would be touring in Europe anytime before August. Sure enough, and to our huge disbelief, Herbie had a European tour planned with none other than Chick Corea, legendary pianist (who also happens to be Samson's favorite). When we looked at concert dates which would work for both of us, we saw Herbie and Chick had a concert planned for July 5th (my birthday) in Brussels. Completely blown away with the opportunity that fell into our laps, we checked the website everyday until the tickets were sold to the public. I'm pretty sure Samson and I bought the first tickets to the venue, as you'll find out later.

The plan was to always meet up in Brussels just for the concert, but as other plans started to develop, and the idea that the first weekend of July would be the last "academic-free" weekend of our year abroad, Dave, Cat, Anne, and Elodie jumped on board to make it into a weekend trip. I found a camping spot in Brussels so that we could bring our tents and hang out (turned out to be the only campsite in the whole city), and found some cheap bus tickets round trip from Cologne (round trip costs for bus fair came out to about $2.50) to start cutting costs since it was the end of the year and our 'fun money' reserves were hurtin'. We arrived on Friday around noon and spent the rest of the day walking around the city, seeing old sights from our first trip to the city, and getting some classic French fries from Antoine's, the premier fries food stand in the city. Samson and his mom, who flew over from Baton Rouge for a Euro-tour, were arriving in from Rome where they spent the past few days playing tourist there. We agreed prior to meet up at the Starbucks near Grand Place, and as soon as we got wifi we coordinated a time. When we finally made our way from the other side of Brussels to Grand Place to meet up, we exchanged huge hugs and caught each other up on all of our stories since last seeing each other. Dave and I had seen Samson about 8 weeks prior in London when we went to the Flying Lotus concert together, but Cat, Anne, and Elodie hadn't seen him since...March maybe? We spent close to 3 hours on the patio of Starbucks talking and having fun. The barista, though, thought we were being too loud and at one point passively asked us to leave. We headed out to the Delirium Cafe for the night.

On Saturday we all boarded a train headed to Bruges, Belgium. This city was popularized by a movie called "In Bruges" (which I haven't seen but heard it's good), but was also recommended to us by our friend Arne. Arne grew up in Bruges and had nothing but great things to say about it. He even gave us all the tips for the city while we were there and said "If you get lost while there, just call me back in Germany and I'll help you out!" Well, we didn't get lost in the town, but I did take him up on his french fry sauce of choice: joppie sauce. Delicious!

Cobblestone alley in Bruges' center

View from the top of De Halve Maan Brewhouse

While there we toured a brewhouse and saw into the history of beer brewing, one of Belgium's pastimes. At the end of the tour we got a complimentary 8% beer to enjoy in the leather sofas of their lounge. We headed back to Brussels to regroup before heading out for the night.

At midnight, while walking through the cobblestone streets of central Brussels towards Grand Place, the "Happy Birthdays" from Elodie, Cat, and Anne filled the streets. I was officially 21 in Europe! Not that this birthday brought any special privileges that I couldn't already enjoy, it was still nice to be celebrating a birthday with friends, abroad. Funny enough, although 21 remains to be strictly a birthday with American importance (that is, you can now legally drink alcohol), Europeans still celebrate this birthday with as much gusto as their American counterparts. Not because it's special, not because it's divisible by 7 or 3 or some other reason, but because they find it funny the drinking age is so 'late' in the US. In Europe, it's celebrated almost satirically.

I spent the better part of the first four hours of my birthday in central Brussels before retiring to the campsite for some needed sleep. I woke up the next day and met up with Samson and his mom and toured the Atomium, spent two hours at a corner cafe which had a live jazz band playing covers of American jazz standards, and then dinner at a pasta restaurant before heading out to the concert with Samson.

The Atomium

Samson and I were ready for the show of our lifetime; we had front row seats to the concert! Even the act of walking through the small lines to the front, being ushered into the front-most door at the venue..it all just made for a great lead up to the actual performance. When Herbie and Chick stepped out the crowd erupted into applause. They joked with the crowd, took pictures, and then sat down in front of their pianos, which were positioned so that both could look each other in the eyes during the show. There were no charts. There wasn't anything planned prior. No set list. All they did was sit down, start playing off of each other, and let the fun begin. It was an absolutely fantastic show. Thanks parentals for the birthday gift! After the show, Samson and I stuck around to see if we could get pictures with them both. Neither of us had anything better to do that night, or the next morning, so we were content with waiting. Sure enough, after an hour they both came out and took pictures with anybody that had waited til the very end.

With Chick Corea!

With Herbie Hancock!

There aren't many musicians or artists out there that I'd be more excited to see live or get a picture with for that matter. But Chick and Herbie are up there near the top. A great birthday, a great birthday weekend, and a great time all around. Final exams were right around the corner and the 7 day countdown for leaving Bonn was on!