Dateline: Luxembourg
I went to Brussel with the intention of wandering around, and exploring the commuter trains to make maximal use of my waning eurail pass. Impressions: Bruxelles is mostly "extract of Paris" with about 10% "extract of amsterdam" (the quaint part, not the seedy part – historically Catholic Belgium seems less interested in seedy parts than historically Protestant Nederland), with the standard overlay of euromodernity. Perhaps a subset of Paris – altho in geopolitical terms, more like a superset, these days. Uh; right.
I can't remember the eighties group that did the disco-euro-club standard "what is love… baby don't hurt me" – but anyone who watched "Saturday Night Live" during the 90s knows it's Europe's national (err, super-national) anthem: who can forget those two cherman guys, Dieter and ? (I forgot his name), making banal pseudo-cult-crit comments, saying ja ja ja and tilting their heads robotically in time to that disco rhythm? Why do I bring this up? Because that song was playing loudly over the PA systems in two different train stations I was in today – it really must be the EU anthem.
I walked around for a while, admired some of the not-too-bad postwar architecture; then on a whim took the train to luxembourg. Not terribly intriguing… if nederland is europe's new jersey, and france is europe's texas, then luxembourg is europe's delaware. Easier to travel thru than to.
What compelled me to visit luxembourg? The first research paper I ever wrote, for a 7th grade geography class, was on luxembourg. I think I picked it off the map thinking such a small country would mean I could write a nice, short paper. But, so… it's always represented disappointing complexity and geopolitical absurdity.
And the city reminds me of… somewhere in kentucky, maybe. But linguistically schizoid. Nice place. Tomorrow I return to amsterdam, and fly to LA thursday. What's next in life – any ideas?