Sunday june the 5, 2005.

Main impression:
Return to Brussels.

Odor:
A subject that I didn't talk yet but since I return to Belgium it's now or never. In Belgium cigarettes and smokers are king and masters. I find that some anti-tobaco laws and the attitude of some nonsmokers (or ex-smokers in the most extremes cases) are exagereted and go over comon sense norms but in Belgium I found a place where it seems that there is absolutely no norm and control. Personally I believe that my liberty stop where my nieghbourg start. In Belgium nonsmokers liberty limit itself to the right of stoping breathing!

In general I'm tolerant towards smokers, the only moment where I don't support smoke is when I'm eating. I find that some restaurants laugh ar us in proposing non-smokers only few places in a lost corner that is separated from smokers only by a No smoking card on the table or that the best places are always in the smokers section. When I try to taste a good beer, excessive smoke also disturb me, how can you concentrate on the aromas and flavors of a beer when all that goes throug your nose is cigarette smoke that you could cut with a knife. I don't know if total ban on smoking in bars is the solution but the oposite neither. At least bars and restaurants must assure a minimum air quality that would waranty that our clothes won't smell like ashtray when we get back home and that we could discover the aromas and flavors of what is in our glass or on our plate.

Color:
The effect of light in the glass roof of the Waterloo International Station.

Flavor:
The only cup of thea that I took in England was in the Waterloo station's Pub, it was served with a cloud of milk (I never take milk or sugar in tea, in coffee I only add some if the coffee isn't good or in capucino or "café au lait") and I must say it was not the transanding experience that people where telling me it would. I must say it wasn't the best place to take a good cup of thea.

Note : My friend made a pot of Darjeling First Flush when I gave it to him and then I didn't got disappointed, it was worth the price I paid, seeing my friend smile also.

Sound:
The very particular noise that you hear in the Eurostar, the wagons are isulated but there always a noise in the back that bring back memories of my youth when I took the train between Gatineau and Montreal.

Texture/sentation:
There is always a bit of sadness when you leave a place, even if I just stayed three and a half days I get a pinch in the heart while I take my last cask ale, not that it's so good, the station decor may be part of it's lack of taste, but also it's my last in England before I don't know how many years.

Day summary:
Not much to say today, after a last (finally) breakfast at the hotel I go to the Waterloo International Station where I got few hours free so I take a lunch at the station pub, I take my last Cask Ale in England, a Young (je ne suis plus certain) and I still have a bit of free time to wander around before the Eurostar leave.

I find myself in a first class wagon, I check my ticket but all is ok. So I can bask in the luxury of wider and more confortable seats.

During a uneventfull passage I continue to get back lost time in my journal. I won't touch it again until my last day in Belgium while I wait for the plane and the last entry in the journal will be about the friday pub-crawl. Yes, all you read since that date was writen at the time that I was putting the web pages onlines (original french veresion) almost two months after I got back, explaning some memory mistake.