The Good the Bad and the Ugly: Some things that I particularly like or dislike about Brussels

I’ll start of with the positive.

1. Brussels is very near many other GREAT European cities, so on the weekends I’m trying to see as many as I can. Thus far I have: The Hague, Amsterdam (x2) and Ghent. However, I hope to visit Hamburg, Delft and Cologne very soon as well.

2. Brussels pumps good music through speakers in their metro. Now this music isn’t very quiet background noise, it is very audible. In addition, at night, the music becomes a calming classical tune in hopes of preventing violent crimes.

3. As it rains at least once a day (for the most part), so I no longer mind wearing my hair back as it would get messy /wet if I wore it down.

4. My French school (Peter’s School) and my French teacher Francoise are so great. Peter’s School is literally across the street from my house (no excuse not to go!) and it is in this old corner town house that has scaffolding on the outside. It’s tiny (I’m one of four people in my class) and really personable, even if the class rooms are a little bit run down. Not to mention Francoise (pronounced Fran-swas, because she’s female) is the cutest teacher ever. She must be in her mid to late 60’s and literally makes my 1.5 hr class fly by. I LOVE IT.

5. Street markets are a big deal here, and there’s a great one on my street every Thursday. You can buy anything from socks to used bras, to cheese to produce. It’s kind of like a mixed bag. But the venders are very friendly, and the neighborhood is adorable.

6. Gaufres, or waffles (see I’m learning French!) that are sold on the street all over the city helped me survive the walk to work today (there was a general strike, so all public transportation shut down). They are warm and sugary and amazing. The best I’ve had yet are in the Schuman metro, the vendor takes them right out of the waffle machine and into your hands (no reheating there!).

7. Frites. Street fries here are great, even if you don’t eat them walking down the street you can’t help but smell the yummy fried potato-ness. I found out the difference between Belgian frites and French fries is the size. Frites are thick and French fries are cut as thin narrow strips.

8. La Maison du Peuple (pronounced- P-uh-pb…I think) is a great bar around the corner from my work, with a great happy hour (1/2 off cocktails) and delicious and reasonably priced food!

9. Fruit flavoured beer, such as Kriek. You either love it or you hate it, but I think they are delicious. I like them all but right now I’m on a peach kick. (I know, very girl-y).


OK so things that aren’t so great about Brussels


1. The weather! It makes London look like a tropical island (maybe not really, but it’s pretty depressing)

2. The two language thing is pretty confusing, if you happen to sit down at a Flemish restaurant (be it an Irish pub or a pizza joint) and you try to speak French, many time the server will ask you to speak in English as they “prefer” it. The confusion mainly stems from the fact that Brussels is French speaking pocket in the Flemish Brabant region of Belgium. So the two communities, who usually remain separated, are forced to live together in Brussels. Although, the word for pharmacy in Dutch is Apoteek, and I think that’s a great word. However as a down side, when you watch a movie in the theatre, there are subtitles in TWO languages at the bottom of the screen, talk about distracting.

3. It’s grey. While in Amsterdam, Emma and I noticed how pretty the city was aesthetically, we realized that the reason Brussels seems so depressing most of the time is because the buildings tend to be grey or dull. There are some really cute areas of the city where this is completely false, but as a gross generalization, Brussels is just not that pretty.

4. The Belgian Bureaucracy, mainly that everything takes FOREVER. For more on that, please see my previous entry.

5. Did you know that there was no active Belgian government for a while last year. Me neither, even after living here for a month, that’s how lame this country is.


Not to be a downer, but just thought I would share some of my knowledge of this city. There are some great things (Note: the Atonium and mini Europe are missing from this, that is because when I was supposed to go a couple weekends ago, I slept in…all day. I therefore only got some pictures of the Atonium from the outside, but I AM going to go, so more to follow on that).