In The Morning I'm Making Waffles!

Sometimes it's interesting to see your city through fresh eyes and sometimes it's just downright depressing. My friend Ian's boyfriend David recently moved to Hamilton from Brussels, Belgium with a year long stop over in Australia. I was excited to visit a few of the Hammer's top highlights with him. Although he was enthusiastic and seemed to enjoy himself I couldn't help but feel underwhelmed as I saw Hamilton through the eyes of an outsider.

Ian and I in Brussels, Belgium last year.

I visited Belgium last year and like most places in Europe it is chalk full of ancient, grand structures and amazing art, not just in galleries but EVERYWHERE! I guess it is just hard for me to imagine why anybody would want to give all of that up for our city with it's only 166 years of existence. He came for love and I hope that he can come to love Hamilton just as it's inhabitants do. We love her for her greatness and for her faults.

We started our little tour of Hamilton with a fruit platter breakfast on top of the Art Gallery of Hamilton. Surprisingly this is a place I had never visited before and our new resident was quick to school me on its origin. Apparently it is called Commonwealth Square and was dedicated in 1987. I thought it was funny that he took the time to read signs that I had never really noticed before.

Plaque dedicated to the Hamiltonians that helped put on the first British Empire Games.

After breakfast we went to go to Whitehern but they were not open yet so we just admired the garden and then headed to the AGH. We will return another day! On the way there he wanted to go see the family courthouse. In Brussels the Palais de Justice is a huge tourist scene so I guess he thought it would be the same here. Once we got through security we quickly realized that this is not somewhere to just go look around. We felt kind of awkward so we just took a quick peek before swiftly departing. Although it is one of the older buildings in Hamilton having opened in 1890 it really was not quite as awe striking as the courthouse in Brussels.

Hamilton's Superior Court of Justice. Formerly the Hamilton Public Library.

Brussels Palais de Justice. BIG!

The marble staircase in the courthouse. Insane.

After escaping family court we ventured on to the AGH and this is where Hamilton really started to not measure up. I really like the Hamilton Art Gallery but I have been to museums and galleries in Europe and well...we ain't got no Monet :P I love that they really celebrate local and national talent but being in that museum with a true European was almost embarrassing. He, of course was really gracious but he did say that it was a strange museum and the set up was completely random, but he also said that he enjoyed it...so GOOOO AGH!!

Kim Adams' Bruegel-Bosch Bus. One of the biggest draws at the AGH.

Museum of the arts in Brussels...ya.

Street art in Brussels. Stuff like this is EVERYWHERE!

We decided that Hess Village is probably the most European-like area of Hamilton and so we went and wandered around there for a little while but it was during the day and so it was hard to show him what it would be like on a bar hopping night. Nonetheless he said it was a pretty area.

Hess.

By then we were famished and decided to go for lunch. Ian and David both lived in Korea for a little while and so they talked me into going for Korean. We went to Cho Sun Ok Korean BBQ on King Street East and it was amazing! Watching them speak Korean with the server made me feel a little bit dumb but it was definitely entertaining.

Such a neat, yummy little restaurant.

I had such a fun time watching David explore some of steeltown for the first time, and although at times I may have felt embarrassed, by the end of the day I came to the realization that even though we are not as old as Europe and we don't have art by the legends, what we lack in those areas we make up for ten fold in culture.

Where else could you visit a heritage building, an art gallery, an entire village dedicated to food and alcohol as well as a total melting pot of delicious cultural cuisines all within a few blocks of each other? No where! Hamilton can be great. You just have to know where to look and what to look for. I look forward to seeing David find his place in Hamilton. Once he's settled in I'm sure he will grow to love it as much as he loved Belgium.

Revenge of the swans

Once upon a blustery day in Brussels, Belgium my friend and I were wandering around a museum. It was The Royal Museum for Central Africa. It wasn't open and we were sad to not have seen the inside. The outside of the museum was a beautiful, big, castle-like mansion. The grounds were vast and beautiful. It looked like a mini Versailles. We walked around out in the rain for hours just soaking in the paths, the trees, the ponds. We didn't even care that it was raining. The beauty of this place overshadowed the dingy weather.

As we were walking we came to a little man made lake. There was all kinds of wildlife hanging around. Birds, ducks and swans. There was like 30 swans. They saw us. They didn't like us. They chased us. They were honking and flapping at us to get out of their territory. We ran! Luckily they quickly ceased chase. They had seen someone else to attack. A little girl and her grandfather with a loaf of bread. The bread made them safe from harm. I filmed the swans in pursuit. Their little tails waddling away. As I stood there watching these regal birds moseying around the grounds of this palatial museum I couldn't help but think that in my home town of Hamilton the closest thing to this would be Dundurn Castle. The comparison made me sad.

In Europe every other building you pass is old and lovely and has a ton of history but in Hamilton one of the oldest buildings only dates back to 1835. Don't get me wrong Dundurn Castle is a very interesting old building, but I would hardly call it a castle. Hamilton can be a great place to live but it is not rich in history.

 Sometimes I wonder why I stay in Hamilton. Actually I wonder that a lot. I wonder how Hamilton can be so terrible and so lacking in culture. I don't miss Hamilton when I'm not here. I miss family, friends, that kind of thing but I do not miss my city. It's very hard to even think about returning to the hammer when seeing that just the outside grounds of this museum in Belgium far surpassed even the nicest museum in all of Hamilton.

The Royal Museum for Central Africa- Brussels, Belgium

Dundurn Castle- Hamilton, Ontario