Day Eight - Ghent and "Modern Family"

Today we took a day trip to Gent on the train. Took the tram near the downtown area and walked to Simon Says for breakfast. Simon Says is a cute, affordable coffee shop.

We had a plate of pastries, orange juice, and coffee. I swear, the croissant was as good as the amazing one I had at the fancy, expensive Gerard Mulot bakery in Paris. Impressive.

Coffee + o.j. + pastries for two = 12 Euros. Reservations recommended.

We walked around downtown Ghent on a beautiful, sunny day. Definitely worth a day trip. There was much debate online on which city you should stay at, Bruges or Ghent, and which one you should day trip to. I'm glad we stayed in Bruges. It's so compact and there are a million places to eat. Ghent was a little larger and rougher around the edges.

In the town square

Lots of cathedrals that look like this in Ghent

Sitting by the river

We went through the Gravensteen Castle. It's amazing how castles are romanticized. They're all so cold and dark and scary. This one had a lot of torture stuff on display. I'm not really into the torture stuff, makes me queasy. Of course, Hubs was all over it.

After all the torture, it was time for lunch. We ate lunch at a restaurant in the Groot Vleeshuis (Great Butcher's Hall), Groentenmarkt 7. It's a great place to visit if you like food. Vendor's are selling meats and cheeses, hams hang from the ceiling, and tables are scattered throughout.

Hubs had the Gentse Waterzooie, Ghent's specialty, a curried chicken stew with carrots, leeks, and potatoes. Very rich and delicious. I had my fair share of it.

For variety, I ordered the lunch plate: an assortment of hams and cheeses, a salad, and chicken broth soup. All good.

We took the #4 Tram back to the train station and headed back to Bruges. Time to get our drink at 't Brugs Beertje. If you go to Bruges, you must go here, hundreds of beers and solid food. We went early, got a table, and spent the entire night there.

Kind of like "Cheers" but in Belgium

We needed some food to go along with the beer. Cheese plate:

And, of course, Pate:

Oerbier was my favorite beer of the night, and I had a few great ones:

The label is so cute!

It was the perfect evening. Amazing beer and delicious snacks. This was the Belgium I had dreamed of and it had all come true. And then it got better.

So, our waiter was a little crabby, I guess you could say. We had beer bottles and glasses on our small table, and then the two plates of food came and instead of trying to make room, he thrust the empty neighboring table into ours. As we continued to eat and drink, the place started filling up and I felt guilty for taking the extra table. We consolidated our food onto one plate and were able to free the other table. A guy my age nodded and smiled at me, I smiled back, he and his wife sat down at the table. I went on yammering about all my writing ideas. When I'm tipsy, I'm very inspired. I started talking about my pilot and the Modern Family spec I need to write. I went to use the bathroom and when I came back, the couple next door turned to us. "We were eavesdropping and we heard you say Modern Family and we just wanted to say that we're huge fans of the show."

I immediately liked Jenny and Whit. Hubs and I are huge eavesdroppers and my first thought was, how were we not eavesdropping on the Americans next to us? I didn't even pick up that they spoke English! Whit said he thought for sure I wasn't American because I moved the table. American travellers always assume other Americans are a-holes.

Whit and Jenny had just survived a hellish plane ride from Philly. The story involved a medical emergency, being halfway over the Atlantic, realizing that the emergency was a pregnant woman being deported who may or may not have been in labor, a long time figuring out what to do, and then turning around and going back to Philly. And then they got to start over again. So they were extremely grateful for the beers in front of them.

We talked all night. They were so smart and funny and in love. It was a joy to hang out with them. I think that's what travelling is all about, really. Meeting unexpected people, arriving at unexpected places, and having a different experience than you thought you would. Being at the right place at the right time. And that night we were.

After we'd been home for a few weeks, I asked Hubs what his favorite thing about the trip was, and he said this night. I might have to agree.

Game of Thrones

Okay, I'm officially caught up on Game of Thrones. I was really excited about this show when it premiered. The promos were beautiful. I'm all for any medieval show that doesn't revolve around Merlin-type magic. I thought the first episode was a little meh, but the second episode got better, and the third episode was a little better still, and then it pretty much tapered off.

There are a couple major problems with the show that violate basic screenwriting rules taught in every beginner screenwriting class in America, which is why I find these problems so irritating. I'm going to try and keep spoiler-free. I'll list some plot points, but not give away any twists and turns. And there are 800 characters on this show and I can't remember any of their names, so there won't be any of those either.

Basic Screenwriting Knowledge Violation #1: Show, don't tell.

This is the most exposition heavy show I've ever seen. We're in this beautiful world, and all everyone does is stand around and talk. It is freakin' boring. The whole show starts with the inciting incident of someone noteworthy being killed. But the person is already dead, and everyone just stands around talking about how the person is dead and who killed him. And they somehow all figure out who did it (still don't know how they got from A to B on that one) and then they tell the guy who did it they know he did it and he admits to it, and nothing comes of it. Um, then why couldn't we have just seen that person kill the guy as the first scene of the show? The whole thing would've been a lot less confusing. We would've known the killer was a bad guy right off the bat, and we wouldn't have been wondering who the guy was who got offed that everyone kept talking about for three episodes.

On a recent episode, a major character was attacked by a boar during a hunting expedition. Sounds interesting, right? But GoT would choose the least compelling way to have a boar attack. The seqence went something like this:

Character announces he's going hunting. Character's friends race back yelling that Character was attacked by a boar. Character lies in bed and tells how the boar attacked him and how he still killed the boar.

Wow, that was exciting, wasn't it? So much more exciting than seeing Character kill the attacking boar. The show could've used a little CGI boar, all I'm saying.

GoT clearly knows its exposition is boring because it's now trying to hide it instead of just getting rid of it. For example, during a particularly graphic sex scene, someone just happens to be talking about his past love throughout the entire scene. Awkward. And, hello, no one is listening because we're distracted by the, um, showing and don't care so much about the telling when there's naked people going at it. On GoT people also like to have deep conversations while bathing. And in two scenes in last week's episode, dead animals were being butchered during conversations to make it seem like something was happening. Yeah, we weren't fooled. It was still all just talk, talk, talking. Thanks for thinking that I'm dumb, GoT. Speaking of dumb people...

Basic Screenwriting Knowledge Violation #2: Characters make stupid decisions for no reason.

Ned Stark, the lead character, doesn't seem like a stupid guy, but he makes dumb decisions all the time. And it makes no sense! I don't even need to go into this because BuzzFeed has done the work for me and it's very funny (contains Spoilers): Introducing: Stupid Ned Stark.

GoT, please cut down on the exposition, and make Ned Stark a little brighter. And try to put Peter Dinklage in every scene. He's so, so good, easily the best part of the show.

Gettysburg & an Idiot

In observance of Memorial Day, Hubs and I watched the much advertised Gettysburg documentary by the History Channel. I don't know what I was expecting, maybe I thought it would be more like the promos with expensive-looking slow-mo reenactments and Kate Bush covers. Hubs summed it up perfectly when he said, well, they did a good job of making the promos look like it wasn't some regular History Channel show.

That's exactly what it was, a regular History Channel show with maybe a little more money to throw around and the Scott bros. names tacked on. I guess I thought there would be more in depth explanation of the strategy. They didn't bring anything new or special to the table. Unless you count the historian who got way too excited about all the damage that the different cannonballs inflicted on the soldiers. The whole thing really made me miss Shelby Foote and want to go out and buy Ken Burns' Civil War.

I'm also curious to see Gettysburg with Jeff Daniels. I sort of watched it in high school. My American History teacher decided to show my class the movie instead of teaching us that chapter. But he had a short attention span and whenever the generals would meet in the tent to strategize he would exclaim, Too much talk! And then fast forward to the battle scenes. Not very educational.

This was the same American History teacher that would leave the room for ten minute stretches and return with bloodshot eyes. The same teacher that played Birth of a Nation and rewound the part where the little sister jumps off a cliff to avoid being raped by a black man over and over and over again. You know, because it was hilarious. And yes, he was right, it kind of was funny the first and second times. The next five times, not so much. The same teacher who realized a week before the A.P. test (yes, this was an A.P. class) that we were still in the 60's, and "covered" the 70's, 80's, and 90's in one week. Yeah, didn't do so well on that test.

In another example of piss poor American history, Sarah Palin made the news this week when she rewrote the journey of Paul Revere and his famous ride through Boston during her am-I-or-aren't-I-running-(of course I am)-bus tour. Fine, who cares, right? She's dumb, really bad at answering softball questions, and too easy to make fun of, so not worth my time. However, it is infuriating how when being interviewed by Fox News, her own mothership, she was asked about the Paul Revere screwup and still claimed that everything she said was accurate. Okay, when you are given the chance to right your wrongs and you stick by your incorrect version of the Paul Revere story as the truth, you only prove one thing, and that is that you are crazy. Cray-cray please pack it up and go home. And home will never be the White House.

So in honor of Paul Revere, and belated Memorial Day, here is Stephen Colbert's reenactment of the revised ride of Paul Revere. Quite funny.

Day Seven - Paris to Bruges

We got up at 6am to finish packing and spend a little more time in Paris. We hadn't been to the Eiffel Tower since the evening of our arrival, so it seemed appropriate to visit early in the morning of our departure.

If you aren't going to go up the Eiffel Tower, visit early in the morning. No one is there. We even beat the hords of crazy vendors.

The Eiffel Tower empty, a beautiful sight.

The quiet, early Saturday morning Parisian streets are most romantic, and it was really the best possible way to cap off our incredible visit to this wonderful city. Goodbye, Paris.

We took a train out of Gare de Nord to Bruges, arriving at 2:30pm. We settled in at the Etap Hotel, conveniently located right next to the train station. What a bargain of a hotel. It's clean, quiet, and cheap, cheap, cheap. The fifteen minute walk to the center of town is worth the money you save. Plus, it's a pretty walk.

I fell in love with Bruges while watching the movie, In Bruges. This might be my favorite movie that came out in the last five years. The actors are so well cast (Colin Farrell definitely earned that Golden Globe), great screenplay, the story is commercial, yet the movie has a smart, arthouse vibe. The film is dark and lovely, just how I like my movies.

However, in the movie, in the beautiful town square, there was no bumper car ride that blared effin' Katy Perry all damned day. I thought it might just be for the weekend, but no, it was still there on Monday. So we didn't spend too much time in the square.

The stupid carnival crap is on the right. But the Bellfry is lovely, no?

We wandered around the quaint streets to De Republiek. Large bar, low lighting, filled with an eclectic mix of people, most of them young. I had spaghetti bolognese, which was huge and I think I ate all of it. Loaded with parmesan.

Hubs had the house pasta which was with shrimp and a tangy sweet and sour sauce. Really unique.

2 pasta dishes + 4 beers = 36 Euros

But, we're in Belgium now, so it's all about the beer. I love beer. No, let me rephrase. I love good beer. And it's all good in Belgium. Every beer has its own glass. And its not like there's 5 kinds of beer. There are hundreds. I find it all very impressive. Best beer of the night was Achel Bruin. And okay, I guess they don't have a glass for every beer, becuase they cheated and served it with an Orval glass.

A couple beers, a little buzz. Little snack? Sure, why not? Back to the Bellfry to the two competing  Belgian fry stands. These are from the stand on the right.

We found so many good ways to end our days in Europe.

Deadlines Passed

I'm taking a break from my vacation posts for a writing update.

June 1 was the deadline for the Warner Bros. Writers' Workshop and the Austin Film Festival. I was trying to write a second comedy spec for WB so I would have a choice of what to submit. Didn't happen. So I sent in my "It's Always Sunny" spec. I submitted different drama specs to WB twice before without any success, so I'm going to see if I can get anywhere on the comedy route.

For Austin, I was originally planning on submitting the same three screenplays I sent to Nicholl. But I still want to do some revising and get more notes on two of those three scripts, so I decided to save the money and didn't enter any of them. But I did whip my hour-long pilot, "Feedback," into shape, and I'm kind of loving it. I haven't entered that anywhere yet, so Austin gets it first. Hope they like it.

The year is almost halfway over, can't believe it. I absolutely need to write a second comedy spec this month. Then the second half of the year I want to devote to writing new screenplays.

Day Six - Paris - Louvre and Ice Cream

We got up early and went to the Louvre. No lines, no waiting, credit card machines that actually accepted our credit cards. Ah, all is good.

So, in case you didn't know, the Mona Lisa is small. Way too small for a painting that you must remain fifteen feet away from and is covered in a thick layer of bullet proof glass. You can't see any of the paint detail, and you might as well just look at it in a book. My two cents.

This is what the Mona Lisa really looks like.

If you only go to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa you are a fool and will be disappointed. Luckily, the Louvre is huge (we were there for almost four hours and didn't even come close to seeing everything). Yeah, there's the Venus de Milo, which is much larger than I thought it would be, and a bunch of other famous works of art. But my favorite part of the Louvre were the apartments of Napoleon III.

Everyone who's been to Paris has talked to me about the Louvre, but no one seems to have seen these apartments. I guess I'm one of the lucky few. The Louvre used to be a palace. A few of the rooms were left with their original furnishings, the apartments of Napoleon III. If you go to the Louvre, these are a MUST SEE. Oh my. Okay, we'd been to Versailles. I thought that was opulence at its finest. But, no. Napoleon's apartments are trimmed with gold, dripping with enormous chandeliers, and filled with plush furniture.

It looked like a movie set.

This is what I always dreamed a palace would look like, and my fantasies were confirmed.

Took the subway to the Latin Quarter and ate lunch at Les Racines, 22 Rue Monsieur Le Prince. We started out with chicken liver terrine, which had great texture and wasn't too livery.

Hubs and I both had Duck L'Orange. I mean, we're in Paris! The duck was so moist and tender, falling off the bone, and the sauce wasn't too sweet, perfect.

Shared a delicious creme caramel (French flan) for dessert.

This place was a great deal, family run. The owners were very friendly. Highly recommended.
1 Entree + 2 Plats +1 Dessert + 2 glasses of wine = 33 Euros

We walked around a more upscale part of the Latin Quarter for awhile. I had the best croissant of my life at Gerard Mulot. It was so buttery it tasted cheesy. I don't know how that's possible.

We shared four macaroons from Pierre Herme. My favorite was the violet one. These are the only macaroons I've ever liked, and I've traipsed down to the fancy macaroon shop in Beverly Hills. They don't compare to Pierre's.

Window shopping, I found my jewelry souvenir. I bought a beautiful necklace at Metal Pointu's. They have modern, slightly-tough-but-still-elegant pieces.

Then over to Isle Saint Louis for more snacking. I was set on trying Berthillon ice cream, since I read everywhere during my research that it was the best ice cream in Paris. I had salted caramel.

Hubs had coffee. One scoop wasn't enough.

Was it better than Mashti Malone's? Nah.

Along the river a bride and groom were having photos taken. Brought back some fond wedding memories.

After munching all afternoon, we knew we needed to eat dinner at some point, but we weren't hungry, so we stopped at a fromagerie and picked up some cheese to take home. We picked 2 soft cow's milk cheeses and 1 hard goat cheese. 3 cheeses + a baguette = 13 Euros.

Perfect dinner for our last night in Paris.

Day Five - Paris - Gargoyles and Jim Morrison

The wait in the line to climb up Notre Dame is worth it. Plus, the climb up isn't nearly as bad as Il Duomo in Florence and the gargoyles are pretty darn cool. And lovely views of Paris to go with them.

We stayed at the top a long time. We lost our minds and went a little photo crazy.

After Notre Dame, we went to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery. What a beautiful, peaceful, sad place. I think I could've spent an entire day wandering around here, getting lost, stumbling upon the most amazing graves.

I'm not a huge Doors fan, but I don't think you can go to Pere Lachaise without going to Jim Morrison's grave, and boy am I glad we did. Clearly, the cemetery did not revere Mr. Morrison so much that they gave him any prime real estate; his grave is awkwardly crammed directly behind a large crypt. Of course, over the years that crypt has basically been ruined by people trying to climb over and around it to catch a glimpse of Jim Morrison's grave, which is unfortunate. But the crypt has not been removed and still makes it a little inconvenient for all the tourists.

Jim Morrison's grave

A tree out in front of the grave has become the more accessible memorial.

Oscar Wilde's bizarre Egyptian-winged-man grave with all the lipstick kisses was another highlight. Gertrude Stein had a disappointingly modest grave. I was hoping her final resting place would feel more, well, Gertrude Stein-y.

After spending way too much time at the train station buying tickets to Bruges, we rushed over to Musee D'Orsay which was open late that night. The old converted train station was an amazing art museum. I liked just sitting and resting my tired feet in the center of the building and looking up and around.

The museum holds beautiful Van Gogh's. One of his haunting self portraits was my favorite. There were also Degas and his ballerinas, Renoirs, and Monets. This museum is a must see if you are an art fan in Paris.