Trains, Tea, & Sleep Deprivation

Platform 8 is my destination, tea in hand and eyes watering and red with cold and lack of sleep.
I am in love with London.
Of course I am. There are little tea sandwiches in the station, cursive lilting languages being tossed through the coffee stained air, small children wearing fashionable French clothing. There are scones for snacks and poundage for dinero, no euro, no giving in to those across the channel.
The trees in the parks outnumber the pale bankers in black pinstriped suits and dashing smiles. I have wandered through The City and Shepards Market and South Kensington in fading evening light, crowds with pint glasses raised and emptied through the lively rumble of afterwork banter.

In Belgium (Belgie Belgique) the gray stoned Gothic past permeates even the train stations and I step into the square searching for friendly blue eyes and a confident gait. Cleo! Fair trade coffee in converted open air living rooms, the last five years pouring from our mouths. Piles of organic quinoa and courgette sustain us into the evening as philosophy and love and heartbreak and travel and laughter tumble and bump over forkfuls of vegetables.
I am in love with Antwerp.
I want to learn Flemish and French and Spanish and have a small terrace garden in a row house.

A short 16 hours later I am back at the station searching for Platform 20 into Brussels, then Platform 9 to the airport, Gate A2 to Philadelphia, Gate B7 to West Palm Beach.

What did I do on my vacation? I didn't see many sights, didn't explore every corner of every cathedral.
Instead I talked, I listened.
I connected with discussions of politics and hobbies and of loving work, living.
I danced.
I saw theatre.
I ate chips and drank beer in dark paneled pubs.
I observed.
I spent time with people I love and discovered new friends.

The only thing my vacation lacked was sleeping in. But who can sleep when there are perfect egg benedicts and silky black cofffee at a french cafe around the corner and a whole city to explore?

I'll sleep when I go back to work.