Chocolate!

The best part about traveling in a fly-by-night manner is that one can change plans at any time. In this spirit, when I arrived last night in Brussels and immediately had the urge to go hide somewhere, I decided that I wouldn't be staying any longer than necessary. I stayed one night, as it was already nearly 8pm, but the next day I left, pausing only to pick up some of the pralines the city is so famed for.

After arriving in Cologne, Germany (a city I immediately and mysteriously adored) however, I found myself regretting my rash action.

Do you know they have a chocolate museum in Cologne? With a drool worthy gift shop?

Well, they do.

Originally all I bought was a chocolate squirrel, produced onsite, as a host gift for the family Dad and I am staying with for a couple days. (All those decency lessons from my mother finally paying off.) But then... I went into the main gift shop...

But you can all wonder at my amazing restraint, for I purchased only 2 items. The first was a bar of chocolate in the bizarre flavour of Pinapple and Paprika (though you should've seen some of the flavours I passed by as being too weird...) The other is a souveneir rivaled only by the collapsing Julius Ceaser toy I got in Stratford. A spice grinder full of chocolate, cardamum, orange peel, and various other things I can only guess at as they're listed in German. It smells divine however. I put some on my pasta tonight, tossed with a bit of olive oil. Delectable. I have a suspicion it might be tasty on buttered toast as well...

It's odd, the cities I'm falling in love with. They are rarely the ones I expect. Loved Seville for instance, but not Madrid. Who knows, maybe I love the little ones because there are no expectations to disappoint.