Luxembourg – Day 2 – The Jet Laggening

To sleep or not to sleep

I managed to stay up until almost 8:30 p.m. last night, which was a good start. But someone in the house got up to use the restroom at around 1 a.m. and then I was awake. C’est la vie. Fortunately, 1 a.m. is mid-afternoon back home, so Joe and I spent some time chatting, which was nice. After 45 minutes or so, it became evident I wasn’t going back to bed any time soon, so we played some video games together. He called me and just chatted with me while I typed back to him, so as not to wake up anyone else. It’s an old house, very nice, but quite noisy. The wood floors creak. The doors are heavy and make a lot of noise when they open, close, or lock. Finally, at about 3:30 a.m., I was tired enough to try to sleep again. 

And sleep, I did. After some fitful/restless sleep, I managed to be completely in my sleep zone just as my alarm went off. My room includes breakfast, so I had agreed to be at breakfast at 9 a.m. this morning. My alarm went off at 8, as I was expecting to get up, shower, and be dressed by 9 a.m. That did not happen. I dragged myself out of bed at 8:55 and went downstairs in my PJ’s. I had a nice, quiet breakfast of muesli and yogurt, then went back to my room. I am so tired. Like, so tired I am nauseous. So I tried to get some more sleep, even though it’s almost 10 a.m. at this point and that’s a bad idea. But I don’t want to be miserable all day. But instead, I don’t sleep, just lay in bed and stare out at the gray skies for half an hour before getting up and taking a shower. 

Getting started

The bathroom in this house is super cool.  It’s huge, larger than our bedroom at home. There is a large tub on one side and a shower on the other, with a nice sink/mirror station in the middle. It’s cozy and very old-school decor. The floors are black-and-white checkers and the wallpaper is a taupe/beige damask. But… wait a minute. What is this? I love prints and patterns… plaids and stripes and scrolly damasks (though not so much floral patterns). As I am admiring the damask, I notice… it’s not a normal floral pattern.  For some reason, there are monkeys pulling on peacock’s tails. I really hope that someone reads this before scrolling down to see a photo because man, I would love to know what you imagine before seeing the actual thing. Who drew this pattern? How did it ever get mass-produced? Who decided to put it in their house?  It isn’t unattractive, just very, very, silly, and most people who are decorating their house want something very, very serious. Not silly. Anyway, I am yet again amazed at a small thing that exists in the world in a small place I never would have expected. People do the most amazing things. 

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Shopping is stressful

Side note: I got dressed and started putting on my make-up. Last night, I ventured out to Sephora to get some foundation because I couldn’t fly with mine (it is in a spray can), only to find out that they don’t carry that product in their stores here, and I just had to buy normal powder anyway. But… I don’t know if anyone enjoys shopping at Sephora, but I certainly do not. I order from their website 100% of the time. Walking into the store is just a stressful experience of having sales girls trying to help you when you just want to look around and figure things out.  I don’t consider myself very good at make-up in general, so I find these stores incredibly intimidating and it takes me a long time to make up my mind. The situation is compounded by walking into a store and having everyone come try to help you in French. The girl was very sweet and it is her job, so I showed her the photo of what I wanted and she said they didn’t have it. So she showed me the other available options, deftly picking up different colors and testing them on the back of my hand to pick a color for me. She decides which one she thinks is best for me and asks if that’s all. Rrrr, agh. I don’t know.  Let me browse a bit. Maybe there’s something else I want and don’t even know it yet, but also I don’t need you to follow me and test everything on me. Halp. So this morning I’m getting dressed and I put on my make-up and this powder is waaaay too dark on my face. I looked at my online profile and I usually buy shade 20. She picked shade 26 for me. I look like a peachy-orange-y version of myself. And it’s Sunday so I can’t go get a new color until tomorrow. Fruit-face it is. I just don’t want everyone here to think everyone from the US is somehow orange-tinted. 

This is what social anxiety sounds like. This is the voice inside my head that says, ‘just trust the store girl, she knows more about make-up than you, the person who puts make-up on their own face’. The voice that makes staying in an air b’n’b where I’m not renting the entire apartment, but sharing it with the owner a terribly stress-inducing ordeal. Should I lock my bedroom door? Does he hear me every time I go in and out of the house? Did I shower too long? Does he judge what I’m eating for breakfast? It’s a constant flurry of abject certainty that I am most assuredly doing something wrong and don’t know it yet. This is clearly compounded by being in a place where I am not as familiar with the customs, but it’s also a thing that I deal with in my daily life. If I go to a dinner party or hang out with someone I totally want to be friends with, but think they’re way cooler than I am: days if not weeks of analyzing every conversation…. did I say something dumb? Do they hate me now? Or think I’m a jerk? I derive a lot of energy from the constant adrenaline produced by my overactive shame wizard. 

Speaking of Shane Lizard, I have decided that I think Big Mouth is just a sequel to Inside Out, only more crass and about puberty. Which is pretty much what happens at puberty. Life just gets a lot more crass and weird and gross.  It doesn’t go back. I have many thoughts on this, but I fear the overlap of humans who have watched Inside Out and get it is a separate circle from the circle of people who have watched Big Mouth and get it. Like this is a useless venn diagram. 

Random aside about Windows

Before we get to the part of the day where I leave the house and actually visit Luxembourg, let’s talk windows. Europe has window technology that far surpasses our own and I have no idea why we don’t have similar windows. First off, the windows themselves are heavy and easy to use. Handle down, window is closed. Handle parallel to the ground, window is a door. Handle up, window is cracked to let in fresh air. Done. But then, you have the truly magical part: Rolladen. I don’t know what these are called in English because we don’t have them in English. This is the German word. Anyway, windows are built with these Rolladen (clicky link for photos from the outside), and they are usually completely hidden within the wall. Sometimes, in much older houses, they roll up in a little overhang. But….they are like a little garage door that easily rolls down to cover the window. Need to keep a room cool in the summer, roll down the rolladen. Need to sleep in because you stayed out too late? Just roll ’em down. They are slats, so there’s a little gap between them, and they act as a shade when partially rolled down. But when fully rolled down, they compress together, essentially making your black-out curtains tremble in fear of being replaced with something truly awesome. I have said for the last 20 years that if I ever own a house, I will put these in. And I will….if they’re legal. Seems like it might honestly be a bit of a fire escape hazard, honestly.  Anyway, they’re great. Everyone should know they exist, and the U.S. really needs to get with the program.

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Lunch and walking the Garer Quartier on a Sunday

Moving on. I got dressed in my European lady costume, wearing a black dress with gray sweater tights and matching grey sweater and black hat, and ventured out into the world. European ladies bring their A-game when it comes to tights. There are entire stores of just tights and leggings here. Today is Sunday, so I was told not much would be open. And this was very true. Most things are closed, including the majority of restaurants. Only a few grocery stores open on Sundays and they close at 1. I headed out towards the Garer Quartier, which is the area closest to the train station (Gare). This seemed like a better bet than old town for finding something, anything that’s open.

Walking there, I found that this is the more modern part of town. It’s still full of cool European buildings, but the population density is drastically higher, and the general diversity of people is also exponentially increased. There are tons of Asian restaurants, Ramen, sushi, etc., some Indian and Nepalese food, even a Mexican place called Gringos. There are lots of people of all sorts wandering about as the smell of the diesel buses wafts through the air. Yes, this is a European city. Almost all of the signs for stores are in French. Almost everything is closed because it’s Sunday. And since most things are closed, the few small corner brasseries that are open have a bunch of people milling about outside. The exceptions being a small circle of restaurants, where I ended up eating, and a couple of erotic shops, which amusingly had all of their signage in English for some reason, including the amusing portmanteau “sexcess”.

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I walked the circle of restaurants 3 times before finally deciding on one. There were a couple of French options, the Gringos restaurant, a pub, and a sandwich spot. I decided on a sandwich because I have a Luxembourgish lesson this afternoon and don’t need to have a beer with lunch…today. The Charles-Sandwich shop was cute and quiet and I ordered the brunch special: A half sandwich (I had the BBC, bacon, brie, and cranberry sauce), baked beans, a fried egg, cheesecake, and coffee. None of these things are things I would normally serve together as brunch, but I figured why not? They bring out the coffee first, which is, as usual, an espresso with a little spice cookie and cream and sugar. The presentation for coffee is always so fancy and makes the simplest cafe visit seem fancy. The sandwich was very delicious, with perfectly melted brie, and the fried egg was a great compliment to the brie and bacon. I still have a firmly held opinion that baked beans are not even remotely breakfast food, but I kind of let it slide because brunch? It didn’t really go well with the other things, though. For dessert, I had the cheesecake. It was plain cheesecake with no fruit topping, which is fine. The cream cheese filling was nice and tart and creamy, not too sweet. But, this was no ordinary cheesecake. Beneath the white cream cheese filling was what, at first glance, appeared to be a normal graham cracker crust. But upon taking my first bite I surmised that no, this is something so much better. This crust is spicy and buttery…. it is made of speculoos cookies. I have died and am dead now. It was so good, like the best compliment to the tart cheesecake filling. 

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From there, I walked back to my room, about 15 minutes away. It drizzled a bit as I strolled back. There are lots of people out walking their dogs, as it seems Luxembourg is a very dog friendly city. However, there’s also an inordinate amount of dog poop on the sidewalks in this residential area. Seriously, clean up after your dogs…. at the very least, don’t let them poop in the middle of the sidewalk. 

http://charles-sandwiches.lu/
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g190356-d7917271-Reviews-Charles_Sandwiches-Luxembourg_City.html

Study time

I thought I had a Luxembourgish lesson with my teacher, but I had put it on the wrong day on the calendar. So I spent an hour or so studying, writing a bit of Luxembourgish, and then watching some Luxembourgish cartoons. This was terrifying as I could barely understand any of it. Somehow they all sound like Meatwad. The funny voices did not help. 

After an hour of studying, I took a wee nap, only half an hour, somehow awakened to the sound of an Alpenhorn. I really had to cajole myself out of bed, but I did it. I got up and put on my coat and shoes and went out around 7 p.m. in search of dinner. 

Finding dinner in the Grund

I read that there’s a whole bar/nightlife district called the Grund, and there are places that claim to be open today. The cool part of this is that the Grund is, as the name implies (Grund = Ground), on the ground floor, like, down below the main town.  Luxembourg city is an old castle/fortress that sits on top of a mountain. It is surrounded by valleys below. So I’m immediately suspicious as I’m walking the 20 minute walk to the Grund and I’m still in town. I know from my experience in Mongolia that google maps are awesome, but they definitely lack an altitude indicator. So I’m walking, in the dark, in the rain, and I get to where the map pin says I should go, and it’s literally to walk right off a cliff. Nearby I found a walkway, but it was narrow and asphalt and I wasn’t quite sure if it was a pedestrian walkway or if there just might be cars coming up the lane. Then I found an elevator, and took it straight down to the bottom floor.  It was really cool, as this was my first time actually seeing the city from below.  It’s also dark and all the buildings up the hill are kind of lit up, so it’s extra romantic. 

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I found a restaurant that was open and empty and had some delicious looking German food. I had a bowl of käsespätzle with bacon and onions. I was deciding between the farmer’s rösti (bacon, onions, eggs, fried potatoes) and the farmer’s spaetzle. I asked the waitress her recommendation.  I hate being the person who asks their opinion and then decides the opposite, but here was her sales pitch: “How hungry are you?  The rösti is a reasonable size, but the spaetzle has so much cheese.” I’m like… cheese? Like so much cheese? You sold me. So I had spätzle and beer and relaxed in a corner table by the window in this very warm, cozy restaurant on a cold, rainy night. The service was…. surly, but the food was good and the portion was huge. I overheard the waiter telling another lady, as she handed him her almost empty dish and apologized for not finishing it, that “it can be a compliment to the chef, that you liked the food, but the portion wasn’t too big or too small, if you leave just a little bit on the plate”. So I get this guy.  Then I listened to a waitress try to tell a couple that had just sat down that flammekuchen, spaetzle, and rosti were special Luxembourgish foods, local to this region. I am pretty sure a bunch of Germans would disagree. Actually, I know that for sure, because many of the German people I have talked to get awfully catty at the mention of Luxembourg.

http://www.bosso.lu/

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g190356-d1514340-Reviews-Bosso-Luxembourg_City.html

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After dinner, I stopped at the bar at the bottom of the elevator, where I am now, having a Bofferding Christmas beer and writing on my laptop. The bar is called Updown, and it’s right next to the elevator. Literally carved into the rock face, it’s apparently a pretty famous dive bar. It has been a slow, relaxing day, as I suppose all of my Sundays will be. I’ve been convincing myself to slow down and relax a bit. Normally, when traveling, I am go-go-go all the time. But between actually being physically exhausted to the point of pain and knowing I have a whole month to visit all the places in a very small region, and having my test in 3 days, so needing to study, I’ve done a good job of relaxing so far.  I keep telling myself that I’ll push hard once the test is over and once I have gotten past the jet-lag. 

http://updown.lu/
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g190356-d10830466-Reviews-Updown-Luxembourg_City.html

Note: I also changed out the service provider for my blog to WordPress so they’d host a comment section.  So, you know, if you wanna comment, it’s appreciated 🙂