Fête de l'Iris

It seems I timed my arrival rather well in terms of the launch of a series of Belgian festivities.

My second weekend in Brussels was spent enjoying the offerings of the Fête de l'Iris - also combined with the opening of the European Institutions in a sort of pre-celebration to Europe Day on the 9th.

On Saturday the 5th I therefore made my way through both the open areas of the European Parliament and the Commission, as well as checking out as many of the Member State stalls I could find, snapping up some nice glossy tourist brochures and country-specific nibbles on the way. I also had my first "churro" or "churros"... not quite sure exactly what it was, but the most important thing was that it was yum. I would roughly desribe it as "dough plus sugar".

That night Andrea (my friendly Italian flatmate) and I braved the cold and attended the free concert in the Grand Place where Belgian/Flemish band Hooverphonic were playing. The fact that the music was really enjoyable was a bonus... really, in that magnificent venue, almost anything could have been playing and I still would have been blown away.

Afterwards Andrea introduced me to a few of his friends at a cute little tapas bar (also a first experience for me). For some reason there were dried pigs' legs hanging above our heads... Unfortunately my French wasn't good enough to ask the waitress what the motivation behind that was.

As for Sunday, the beautiful weather we had been experiencing finally started to give way to (apparently) typical Brussels weather but nevertheless I returned to the Grand Place to check out the last day of the festivities - plenty of buskers, bands, interesting stalls/markets and I also had my first crêpe (as you can probably tell by now, I am making the most of my opportunities to sample European food).

And now it's back to work for me for another week...

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