Sarthak was still here on the weekend after arriving the previous Thursday, and Saturday, when the weather was cooler with the sun playing hide and seek, was our big day of exploring the city. I made a hefty salad for an early lunch, and once fuelled up, we set out. Amber was in tour guide mode as we made our way through Abbaye de la Cambre, Jardin du Roi and Étangs d’Ixelles, telling us about how the many public parks in the city came to be. And then admiring, as we always do, the varied architecture around the ponds. Our next destination was Bimbi Books, because where else do you take a children’s book author and illustrator than to the local children’s bookstore? Onwards for coffee and madeleines, a break at Place Fernand Cocq, and because our stomachs were still grumbling, a quick round of gyozas. We stopped at the Les Petit Riens close by, and from there, walked to Parc d’Egmont to meet Peter Pan, the aging hare and Snibbles’s Tree. It was about 6:00 pm, but the joy of long summer days is that you can keep going, and that’s just what we did. Our plan was to end the day at Parc de Bruxelles, but boy, did we get distracted on our stroll over: Poelaert, looking afar at Saint Gilles in one direction and the Atomium on the other; Mont des Arts carillon to hear the clock chime; Alexander Calder’s The Whirling Ear; the thrilling Old England building; and most of all, Square du Petit Sablon, where we got obsessed with the statues representing forty-eight traditional trades of the Middle Ages. The three of us walked around the park, trying to guess each trade and making up stories, guffawing along all the way. The day did eventually end at Parc de Bruxelles with dinner and drinks.
Just like that Sarthak’s trip was over and he had to catch a train back on Sunday evening. The three of us cooked lunch, a chicken shorba we’ve been enjoying lately, and out we went again, this time with his luggage. Unsurprisingly, more parks! Buchholtz and Tenbosch. Gelato and coffee. Before we knew it, we were standing at the train platform waving goodbye. Amber and I came back home, and caught up on video call with his brother and sister-in-law. And because we were too tired, went to Bailli for a hearty pasta dinner.
We still had two days of the weekend left, but we spent most of that time doing our taxes. Well that, and long walks. Work continues to be intense, and I know it will stay that way until mid-September. That knowledge doesn’t make it any easier to live through though. I simultaneously want these weeks to zip by and slow down. Ugh.
I woke up on Friday with a migraine, a pretty bad one. Despite breakfast and my SOS medication, things weren’t much better. A shower didn’t help either. We decided to carry on with our day, albeit slowly, hoping that being outdoors will help. One of the things I had wanted to eat on my birthday weekend was Japanese curry, but since the weather forecast doesn’t look friendly for those days, we decided to partake while the temperatures were cool. I checked off another place on my to-visit list by going to Bazaarologie. The shop didn’t disappoint! We picked up some more art supplies from Schleiper and then headed westwards to spend time in Parc Jacques Brel and Parc Bempt. Parc Jacques Brel is home to the oldest oak tree in Brussels, which was sobering to see. We had more plans for the day, but I kept feeling worse so we cut them short. I spent the rest of Friday in bed, being taken care of and fed by Amber.
Of course, as the week went by, the student protests at Jantar Mantar intensified, and it was tough to concentrate on much else and feel a sense of uselessness sitting this far. I had been cutting down on my social media and screen time the past couple of weeks, and it was really challenging to not doomscroll all day and keep refreshing the news.