As you might know, I’m Canadian. You knew that, right?
So while I’ve been living in the UK for nearing onto 8 years (minus a few months pottering back and forth to finish University in Canada), it still blows my little mind that I can get from London to Paris in just over 2 hours, or fly to Barcelona in even less.
While my travel schedule doesn’t rival the travel calendars of most of my esteemed industry colleagues, it makes me smile that in the course of a month, my Canadian passport will be stamped with Belgian, French and Spanish stamps.
In Bruges (with a detour via Brussels)
Last weekend was the Bruges trip; a hectic two-day trip to Brussels, where we visited the Cantillon brewery home to Lambic, Gueuze, Faro and Kriek beers. I was lucky enough to try an elder blossom lambic, which was rather unusual and flowery but worth a try. We then moved on to Bruges for the evening, wandering the streets and trying more Belgian beers from Edric’s 100 Belgian Beers to Try Before You Die
Next, Barcelona
In just under two weeks, I’ll be popping over to sunny (I hope) Barcelona for a spot of brainstorming with a brilliant client’s team. If I’m lucky, I’ll have a few hours to pop by Las Ramblas and soak in some Spanish vibes (and Spanish wine).
Last stop, Paris
My last stop before Christmas will be Paris, for the LeWeb ’09 conference, where they’ve kindly invited me as official blogger. I’m looking forward to seeing old friends, meeting new faces and seeing new startups and entrepreneurs get passionate about the web.
For those who aren’t familiar with Le Web, it’s a yearly conference with over 1800 attendees with themes relating to the web, technology, but with a broad appeal that will tickle the curiosity of non-geeks as well. Some of the speakers this year include Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, productivity geek Tim Ferriss, TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington (who will undoubtedly get into mudslinging as he does every year), an unusually sober Paul Carr and Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan. A rather varied bunch then!
If you’re also attending, drop me a line or leave a comment, as I’d love to meet some new people!
[As a complete aside, titling this post “On the road again” caused me to start singing Richard Séguin’s “L’Ange Vagabond”, which contains the lyrics “On the road again”. I ended up downloading the album from iTunes – gobsmacked iTunes UK has a French-Canadian album from 1993 in its catalogue! Time for a trip down memory lane…]
Soooo jealous that you can hop between Paris, London and Barcelona! We love it here in Asheville, NC (most beautiful) but it is so far to cool cities like Chicago, Boston and San Francisco, let alone Europe. We might have to start going to these industry happenings, although they seem somewhat like a hangover from the corporate world. Spend money to get near money. I get enough of Techcrunch online to suite me, thank you much.
Love love love Barcelona – if you need a recommendation for a Tapas bar let me know. If you have time though pop into the food Market off the Ramblas – it’s amazing. Or if you have a few hours and the weather is fine, put on a big jumper and hop on the tourist bus from the Playa De Catalunya – fantastic way to see some of the best the City has to offer.
Have fun
PCB x
My first time at Le Web this year, really looking forward to it. Did you go last year?
Craig
Tabarouette, ton tour de faire la globetrotteuse on dirait! Alors, y’a tu fait soleil à Barcelone pendant ton séjour? T’as eu la chance de déambuler dans les rues de Bruxelles un peu?
besitos!
Catou
Its my first time to LeWeb as PayPal have asked me to showcase my http://www.tcbooker.com website on their stand. It uses their new Adaptive Payments API which they have just released and only a handful of websites have implemented, which is why they asked me to go.
If you have time during the event it would be great to say hi and show you how it works.
Cheers,
Dave