Day 10

First business day in Brussels was busy, especially since I spent very little of it in Brussels. We had a meeting scheduled at 10am downtown, but the owner, who's a bit of an eccentric, invited us out to Gent, where our second meeting was scheduled at 1pm. He picked us up at the train station (lovely train ride btw), and we went out to talk over a drink. My colleague had a 10% beer, while I opted for the less potent 8% brew. Luckily, I had ate a heavy breakfast (chocolate croisant, cheese, banana, smoothie, etc.) or I would have been as buzzed as my colleague ;-)

We then happenned into the most friendly taxi driver in all of Gent, who took us on a fun tour of the city (250K pop.) before dropping us late for our second meeting. The gentleman we met was almost as outgoing and energetic as the first guy, but he did give us a lot of information. Our taxi driver then came to bring us back to the train station. We tipped well since he was such a character.

Did some work before supper, then went out the Brussels Grill, where I sampled a 9% beer with my meal. The Belgium make some wonderful beer, and I plan to try a few other brews before I head off Friday morning.

After squeezing in a workout tonight (after hearing about some of your workouts back in Ottawa, I felt guilty), I'm down in the lobby, where the Internet is free, telling you about my day. I'll head back up when this is done, since I have to get ready to head to Frankfurt tomorrow for a meeting. It's a bit of a train ride, but I'm looking forward to relaxing along the way.

I'll level with you and admit that this trip is starting to wear me down. I wake up not knowing where I am, and one meeting is starting to role into the next. Worse is that I'm barely having time to catch my breath, yet alone see the sights in the cities we're passing through. Lastly, I'll admit I'm having a hard time with people at work, who don't seem to realize I can't respond to their queries in a moment's notice (6 hour time difference, limited connectivity, so much prep work and meetings over here)...*sigh*

Ok, no more complaining. I'm off to Germany tomorrow...and that makes me happy. For those of you who don't know, my background is over 50% German, so I look forward to my return to the motherland. If only for a few hours.