3/26/05 Antwerp

"The wedding was today. Pick-up time was 2pm back at the hotel, so Megan and I got up early to go check out the daimond district. We got down there around 9. The Hasidic Jews still run the daimond market just like in the movie 'Snatch', which I found quite amusing. It was also saturday, which is their sabbath, so weren't surprised when virtually everything was closed. We tried going to Daimondland, which is a big market, but it never opened. It was supposed to - at 9:30 - but at 10 the doors were still locked, so we said forget it. The unpunctuality of this place is really starting to piss me off.

So we walked over to the daimond museum, which was pretty cool. As it turns out, daimonds can only form at pressures found 80-150 down into the earth under temperatures of 1200 to 1800 celcius. Underground eruptions bring them closer to the surface where they can be mined - over a million years after they begin forming.

Afterwards, we had a hankering for some chocolate, so we bought a box on our way back through the town square. And of course, after eating sweets we needed something salty, so we stopped at a frittur and got some Belgian fries with mayonnaise. As I was buying them, a small parade strolled through the tiny cobblestone streets, marching band and all. Megan ran out and stood on a bench to watch and take pictures. She looked so happy. It is tiny moments like this that remind me how much I lover her.

The fries were amazing. Perfectly blanched and twice-fried with surprisingly little color on them. Hot and crispy with some of the richest mayo I've ever had. The only thing that could have made them better is if the there were truffles in the mayo, but there, in the sun, with Megan and the parade, they were perfect.

We headed back to the hotel around 12:30 toget ready for the wedding. Megan has now blown a fuse with her blow dryer and hair straightener.

There were cabs waiting for the 30 or so of us there were staying in the hotel for the wedding. We took them to a quaint town 10 miles or so outside outside of Antewrp called Lier. The cermony started around 3:30pm and was only abouot a half hour long. The cermony and the reception were at the same place, which was nice, because cocktail hour immediately followed in the back garden. There is something about drinking champagne and eating Belgian chocolate in a beautiful courtyard 10 milies southeast of Antwerp in the small town of Lier that seems to have made this whole trip worth it.

The reception had a buffet starring several items that I thought I'd never see served because of their 'cheeseball' ball factor. Among them were raw tomatoes hollowed out and stuffed with crab. I think the front cover of my main text book from the CCA has them on it, because i remember thinking 'who the hell would ever make that?'. But the clincher was the Pommes Duchesse - one of the first things we learned to make in culinary school. I swore I'd never eat them again, assuming I'd even ever see them made again - and I honored that vow. I wish I had a friend frim school there to share in the humor.

Dancing followed the meal, but went a little too late for my taste. I fell asleep in a chair in a seperate room at about 12:30. Megan came and woke me up around 2:30 to take me home. I guess I had too much champagne."