Car-Free Sunday

I headed into town at 10 this morning to make the 10:30 English mass. When I crossed the main avenue outside my apartment there was not a car to be seen. I was shocked by the silence. I thought, "Wow either I'm up incredibly early for a Sunday or people here take Sunday sleep-in really seriously."

I got to the church and to my dismay mass started at 10 o'clock! Oops. So I stood in the back for the last ½ hour. The priest was American from NYC, real nice man. He told me about other cathedrals in town with Spanish and English masses so I'll have to hit those up in the future. But at the end of the service he said "Enjoy your car-free Sunday" –Ah no wonder!!!

Although "Car-Free Day" is more of an environmental experiment, it was truly a family day. It was a day to just stop and smell the roses, and surprisingly, people did (surely in a big US city people would NEED their cars for some reason). TONS of families gathered in the park together for picnics and the ice cream shops were packed since it was rather warm and very sunny. It felt like Pleasantville. Just so beautiful and peaceful, I was loving it. It made me miss my family a lot.

I had lunch at Parc de Bruxelles on a bench by a glorious fountain. There were people riding bike everywhere I looked. Some were on family jogs, others on segways and even roller blades just like good 'ol Ruth Pitts.

After lunch I made my way to Zaabar, a chocolate cooking school, where they had free chocolate tasting! I heard about this a week ago and sharpied it in my planner –wasn't gonna miss it for the world! I walked in and I felt like that episode of "I Love Lucy" when she compulsively eats all the chocolates from the conveyer belt. Well, ladies and gents, that was me!

They had every chocolate combination you could imagine. Even chocolates with spinach, spicy chili, and lavender which I made sure to stay away from. My favorite, of course, were the chocolate covered hazelnuts topped with toffee! Every single chocolate I tried was amazingly delicious EXCEPT for one! It tricked me cause it looked so good I didn't even look at the label. Well, it tasted like I put a handful of my mother's Christmas potpourri in my mouth –really strong spices. I thought about spitting it out but I didn't want to be seen doing that. So I chewed a bit more but I could NOT bare the taste. So I hunched over and spit that shit out! I walked around with it in my fist until I finally found the trashcan that was nowhere to be seen.

When I left Zaabar, I walked one block, turned around and WENT BACK! Haha yes –guilty as charged!!