32 hours

That's how long it took us from the time we left the house in Houston until we arrived to the house in Brazil. 32 Hours!@#! Bube was a saint though. Bube's celebrity has also continued here. I submit my evidence:

1. Bube's cousin, Bruno, is 4 years old and goes to school each day. Bruno's mother, Priscilla, walks Bube to the school each day to pick up Bruno, so all the faculty and students know Bube quite well now. Anyhow, the other day we found out Bruno had gotten into a fight at school! Apparently one of Bruno's classmates, a girl, was telling everyone that Benjamin was her cousin. Bruno became highly defensive. Nao! Ele eh o meu priminho! - No! He's MY cousin!! People are fighting for familial relations with my son. That's quite a compliment.

2. Priscilla also has a framed photo of Bube in their house; one that our friend Stephanie - an awesome photog - took of Bube. A friend of Priscilla's was recently at their house and saw the framed photo. "Man Priscilla, you're lazy.. You don't even remove the pictures that come with your frames?"

"No, that's my nephew. I told you he was beautiful!"

Daddy pride..

Gearing Up for Brazil

We leave in just a couple days for Brazil.. Bube will have his 1st birthday there; mom is clearly excited - so am I.. I think Bube will be too because he'll be mostly naked for 2 months. And for me, I'll begin my 2-month eat-and-sweat-fest where I'll lose at least 5 lbs. Also during our stay, I will have a decision from the Masters program I applied to in California, as classes begin in August. More to come soon..

St. Giles Cafe

Without a doubt, the most difficult thing about leaving Edinburgh was the cafe I visited daily - St. Giles Cafe, just around the corner from the cathedral. From the moment I stepped in the first time, I knew that was my home-away-from-home. The employees there became my local family, who would sit down with me at my table and talk with me extensively, almost every day. I loved it there even more because of the diversity of the employees; to my recollection only 2 employees were actually from Scotland.. The rest were French, Hungarian, Polish, and one even from Colorado!

I would be embarassed to mention how much free stuff I was given there, but I loved coming in, sitting down in my usual chair, and finding an ear-to-ear smile heading my way with my drink that I hadn't even ordered yet. The day I left, I got hugs from everyone, and even one employee who said she was about to cry! I was really surprised myself at how bummed I was the day we left, and only because of this little cafe.

Folks

I was bummed when my folks left at the beginning of April. I was proud of them for venturing out and doing things that not even Ana and I had done on our travels.. Namely, renting a car, driving on the wrong side of the road in a seat on the wrong side of the car using a manual transmission with the wrong hand. They visited the Cotswolds in England, and we all drove around the Scottish Highlands together - something I won't forget (especially Bube going about 9 hours without fussing!).

We left our beautiful apartment on the Royal Mile and moved to my next find, a tiny apartment at the bottom of the Castle hill, in an area called Grassmarket. Here we quite frankly rested from our previous month of sight-seeing. But I present to you some random shots of Edinburgh:

Castleview from our apt

Scottish humour

Bube at the Royal Botanical Gardens

St. Giles Cathedral

Hidden Edinburgh

I know I've said this a million times but I'll say it again - European cities are fantastic places to purposely get lost. And Edinburgh is an exemplar for this category. Ana caught a cold one week so I'd take Bube on walks to let Ana rest. One day in particular Bube and I got really, really lost, and ended up heading toward some bridge. As I began crossing it, I noticed far down below was a storybook village. It looked like some of the houses were made of gingerbread - they may have been edible but I didn't try to eat any of them. It was strange, this village living below Edinburgh? This place looked fake.

A tiny official plaque shone on a building toward one end of the bridge that read "To Dean Village ->", which pointed down a little cobblestone street. So Bube and I ventured down this very steep, cobblestoned road that wiggled through beautiful old houses and buildings, to the bottom where there was a large river, some parts with rushing waters. After checking out some of the buildings, we headed down a small path next to the river. The only noises we heard were water, ducks, and wind rustling through the trees. No car horns, no construction, no hordes of people - and we weren't all that far from our apartment.

I later on asked some locals if they'd ever been to this place, Dean Village. They said they'd never even heard of it! This was truly a hidden gem, easily the most naturally beautiful area of Edinburgh, maybe one of my favorite parts of the city, and only came about by getting completely lost. 

London -> Edinburgh

Bube enjoying the view

Just as I was starting to feel that I could have spent even more time in London - which honestly surprised me - we packed up and took a 5 hour train ride north to Scotland in Edinburgh. I was at the same time excited to get back to what I remember as one of my favorite cities in the world. And once again, the apartment I found on the internet was a goldmine. To say it was 'central' doesn't do it justice. It sits not only on the famous Royal Mile but the building is connected to the Scottish Parliament buildings (in fact, its address is Parliament Square). The property was absolutely immaculate and suprisingly large, which 15 ft ceilings or something.

Even more, the windows in the second bedroom and the living room not only face St. Giles Cathedral (the "mother church" of Presbyterianism and Scotland's principal Church site, which dates to 1124), but you could literally hit the cathedral with a rock from one of the windows. We really lucked out with all of our rentals this trip.

Oddities Continue

St. Giles from the living room

Shortly after arriving, I decided I ought to go to Church, and where better to go than outside our window? As I recently explained, I've applied for a Masters program at a university in California, the program of which is called an MASR - Masters of Arts in Science and Religion. Can you believe that the particular service I decided to attend happened to be a 'special' service - on Science and Religion? I say 'special' in that this was the only day, and even the only time that day in which this service was held. In fact, they had a special procession of scientists (complete in all sorts of royal garb, kilts, top-hats, canes, white gloves, etc) from all over Edinburgh - attend this particular service. Even more, all of the readings during the service came not from scripture, as is customary, but as quotes from scientists, including Carl Sagan and Richard Feynman. The entire Church service, including the sermon, was devoted to science. I have to say, I had goosebumps for quite some time that day.

Bruges

The day Ana's family left for Brazil, we took an extended weekend during our London stay to visit Belgium (country #4 for little Bube!). Belgium was, and still is, one of my favorite countries on earth. As I've said before, people are what make a place memorable, and Belgium is no exception. The people are as beautiful and charming as the towns and cities they live in.

When I initially began apartment-searching for our trip in London, I almost got burned by a scam. I found a small-looking but somewhat affordable apartment on Craigslist, communicated back and forth with them for a few days, and decided to book it as everything seemed very much in order. But just before doing so, I did a couple geeky things and discovered that the e-mails I was receiving from them originated in Nigeria, and that their website had only been up for a couple weeks. Turns out it was indeed a scam, as variations of their website had been reported by others.

So, on the train ride from London to Brussels, I started wondering if what I booked was legit. The pictures online are absolutely stunning, is in just about the most central location you can get, and was surprisingly affordable. The more I thought about it, the more nervous I became. "Good Lord I hope this guy answers his cel phone when we get there.." As soon as we got off the train I tried calling the owner to meet us - no answer. This is not good. We took a cab to the address anyway and hoped for the best. As soon as we arrived however, out came a super-personable Belgian. Whew.

The Belfry Tower, a
block from our apt

When he took us into the apartment, it was even more beautiful than the pictures online. A 2-story "penthouse" with a roof terrace (and grill) and perfect views of the Belfry tower. In fact, this was hands-down the most beautiful place we've ever stayed in abroad. I still can't believe how cheap it was for how pretty and central it was. And the owner, Marc, literally could not have been friendlier.. He had prepared for us more than we even needed; more than we could even think of in fact. Including a baby cot, high chair, a changing pad, even baby books and baby food! And for the adults, a large corked Belgian beer, so much Belgian chocolate that I'm still eating it almost a month later, fresh fruit, and more. The apartment was far more well-stocked than anything I've seen.

I could go on and on, but this has continually been our experience in Belgium. Their hospitality is simply humbling. This was a fantastic experience that I'm so glad my parents got to be a part of. I'd been telling them for so long how great Belgium is, and now they get to experientially agree with me!

Sorry with the freaky image arrangement below. Blogger is being an idiot and I'm too tired to try and fix it.