The Land of Beer, Chocolate and Rock Music - Heaven on Earth

Could such a place even exist? It does; and it is called Belgium. Belgium is known mostly for its excellent beer and chocolate, and so obviously this was almost like a pilgramage for me as these are two of my favourite consumer goods. But this was not the main reason I came to Belgium. The main reason was to attend what has been voted the best rock concert in the world for the past two years running; Rock Werchter. This year´s lineup seemed like it would carry that title for a third year, and so I decided that this concert was a definite must. This is a long entry; but I experienced a lot and I think you should know about it!

I arrived in the tiny village of Binkom (near the town of Leuven) where I was warmly welcomed by Tom (one of my good friends from exchange in Turku), his mum (Marleen), dad (Mark) and brother (Mathias). I had a very enjoyable stay with the Nijs family in Binkom, and they were all extremely kind to me. I enjoyed a couple of very good meals courtesy of Marleen, who one day treated us to authentic Belgian fries. You all actually know what they are; they are called "french fries". But being French the French stole the name... so now remember that french fries are actually Belgian. Mark was also very kind, and a couple of times picked us from Leuven when it was too late to get the bus, and I was grateful for his efforts. Unfortunately Tom still had one major exam to do, so for the few days I had before Werchter I went for a bit of sightseeing with Mathias around Belgium. But first...

Rock Werchter

They do not call this the world´s best festival for no reason. This 4-day concert easily has to be the best concert that I have attended, or ever will attend in my whole life. Over the 4 days I was treated to some of the biggest bands in the world; not only of today, but of yesterday; and I also experienced some unbelievable live sets. The most memorable was that of Sigur Rous, whose own distinctive and beautiful style of music combined with their mind-blowing light and effects show left me astionded. Robert Plant (the lead singer of Led Zeppelin) was the artist I wanted to see most. He did not disappoint as he looked and performed as good as he would have in 1969 when Led Zep first burst out onto the music scene. He performed a stunning blues/rock version of "Whole Lotta Love", which incorporated a medley of one of his other solo songs before coming back to the climatic end of the song. I was also very impressed with Muse, whose talented and energetic frontman made the whole show extremely enjoyable. They also gave out a great rendition of the famous jazz song, "Feeling Good" that really pumped up the audience. The Eels also put on an excellent show, as they transformed their entire easy-listening catalogue of songs into a hard rocking performance. Other bands that very, very good include The Who, Placebo, Tool, Ben Harper and Depeche Mode. Red Hot Chili Peppers were quite good as well, but you would expect something special from them being one of the biggest bands in the world, yet something lacked. Still, Flea belted out an awestriking slap bass solo. Lesser known artists that impressed me include the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Kooks and Donovan Frankfurter (if you've ever heard of them... they're all quite good so look out!).

As with every concert there are ups and downs, and the downs here included Kanye West (who simply butchered versions of The Beatle´s "Eleanor Rigby" and The Verbs "Bitter Sweet Symphony"), Live and this incomptent fool called Manu Chao, who played what seemed like the exactly same song repeatedly for about 40min. I'm not joking or exaggerating. His entire song catalogue had this style; a bouncy reggae beat with the verses, then suddenly it would erupt into a samba/rock/jive beat which got everyone dancing, after which it would then calm down to the aforementioned reggae beat; and the cycle would start over. But not only did this cycle repeat itself WITHIN a song, but ALL the songs repeated this exact same layout. So effectively his whole set consisted of this reggae-then-rock beat. At first it was good, but after realising that the 3rd song was the exact same thing, I realised that this guy was just a clown. It must must be what electronic music is like. Oh, yes they also had a dance act; 2 Many DJ's... but you must have had your head hit with shovel at birth to even think of going to see shallow, talent-less, repetitive and un-original dance music; especially when you're at a rock concert, and especially when you're at a rock concert as heavenly as Rock Werchter.

And to give you an idea of JUST how many famous bands come to this concert, I did not even have time (I repeat; did not have TIME) to see the Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand, the Black Eyed Peas and Sean Paul. I would lastly like to mention that the One and Only Wolfmother went off as per usual... they were simply unbelievable (again) and the Belgian crowd went wild with their thundering riffs, addictive beats and exciting live show.

For our accomdation, we spent 3 of the 4 nights camping on a ground with the 50 000 other people who where camping for the 4 days. It was totally insane, you just could not sleep. So many people would just stay up drinking and making a racket. Near us were a group of about 10 Dutch guys who did not even seem to go to the concert, but instead just drank the entire time, and well into the night they would scream out stuff using a loudspeaker... which was annoying to say the least. The concert grounds and the campsite were like rubbish tips by the end of the concert. With 80 000 people attending each day, you can imagine just how much rubbish gets thrown onto the floor. It comes to a point where you cannot take a single step without stepping on litter. This Werchter was also the hottest ever, with temperatures constantly over 30 degrees... so there was a lot of sweat. The dirtiness infiltrated not only the environment but also me, as I went without a shower in this heat, dirt and sweat for 3 days... I was a mess.

Beer

Before I go on I would just like say a few words of this Heaven we call Belgium. I think they forgot to mention in the Book of Genesis that in the week after the Creation God himself came down to Belgium to pour forth the most lavishingly tantalising beers the world has ever seen. After tasting the best beers in the world here, I cannot help but feel like a beer connoisseur. The beer culture here for a start is not similar to most countries, here beer is not drunk to necessarily get drunk (like in some countries... generally) but can be a precious treat to be adorned and treasured. Each beer is different. Each beer has its own flavour. Each beer has its own characteristics. Each beer has its own history. I made sure to taste as many different beers as possible... as a connoisseur :P. Amongst many others I had a Belle Vue Kriek (a red coloured cherry beer!), the smooth, velvet tasting Chimay Bleu, the intriguingly served Kwak, the tintillating Westmalle Triple (the best blonde beer in Belgium), the excellent Leffe Bruin, the Westmalle Double, Duvel, and of course the Belgian staples of Stella Artois and Hoegaarden. I can assure that all of those beers are incomparably better than your Little Creatures Pale Ale. Unlike the beer here, chocolate is quite expensive so I did not have the opporturnity to devour as much chocolate as I actually could have... though not to say I didn't eat a lot of chocolate. But anyway, I was unfortunately unable to taste here the White Unicorn of all beer, the famous Westvleteren... the best beer in the world. That is not a typo. You heard me right, this holy amber is universally thought by many beer experts to be THE best. The Holy Grail. The Golden Fleece. The Lost Ark. The Faberge Egg. Whatever you would like to call it, Westvleteren is it. And trust me, I know it is the best. I was lucky to have it while with Tom was in Finland with me (I have photographic evidence to prove this for those who dispute this claim). But after hearing how incredibly difficult it is to buy this so-very-rare beer, I would have felt so very guilty if Mark had given me one, and believe me it took all the composure and suffocating of my desires to decline his kind offer. Maybe I regret it now :P But I can assure, tasting this beer is an experience in itself... in my opinion words simply cannot describe how incredible Westvleteren is.

Leuven

Leuven is also another very beautiful city, and is the major town that is near Binkom. It has one of the most beautiful city halls I have ever seen, as it is so intricately decorated all over the building. Tom, Mathias, Christian and myself also dedicated a day to visit the Stella Artois brewery, which is in Leuven. The tour was quite interesting and we got to see how this world-famous beer is made. It's a pretty complicated process! After the tour everyone got a free, complementary beer. Being the cheap students that we are, we took advantage of the situation and got 4 free beers... great times. On another day in Leuven we took had "some" drinks in the 40 pub square, which as you may imagine is a square that has about 40 pubs in it (I don't know it's real name :P). Leuven is a student town so this square is a perfect environment for students, who can simply pick and choose one of these great places to hang out. It's really lively and the atmosphere is pretty wicked.

Brussels, Antwerp and Brugge

Belgium is incredibly tiny country with a massive population density. Apparently it is smaller than Tasmania, yet somehow holds about 8 million people. And so everything is so close by that; coming from Australia the whole place seems crazy. It takes only 3 hours to go from one side of the country to the other! You go out of a town for 5min and then you´re right inside another town; it is really weird. Saying that, we got a 25min train to get into the heart of the country´s capital where Mathias and I spent the day. The sightseeing was really rushed as we only did have one day, but it seemed like quite a nice city. It is a bit of a shame we couldn´t spend much more time there. The town square is one of most impressive I´ve seen, and is dominated by the elegantly decorated and detailed town hall. I had heard about a bar near the town square where they apparently have over 2000 beers, but unfortunately we did not have enough time.

Antwerp did not really offer much at all. Mathias and I arrived at the main train station, and we had to walk from there to the town centre. We underestimated just how far apart they were, and it ended up taking us about 45min to walk there. Around the train station are many diamond shops, so it was quite nice to see all the intricate jewellery designs (Antwerp is the diamond centre of the world; 95% of the world´s diamonds are cut here). The centre did not really offer much except a very large, dominating cathedral, and another impressive town hall. So then we headed back to Leuven in time for the Australia v Italy match. I will leave it at that.

Brugge was a city that was near the coast on the other side of the country. Being Belgium, this was a 1.5 hr train ride. By this time Tom had finished his exams, so this time just Tom, me and Christian came (Christian, another friend from exchange who also came for the concert). Brugge is an incredibly beautiful city, and again I was very disappointed that everything was so rushed. The city is kind of like Venice as it has some canals running through the Old Town, making it quite cool. The city is also clearly dominated by two very tall and imposing cathedrals, and we spent a bit of time walking through one of them. We also visited one church near the town square that has a shrine where Jesus´blood is apparently held inside. The town is very well preserved and we spent a bit of time just walking around and taking in the medieval vibe of the town´s architecture. The town square is also very impressive and has many nice buildings lining its large circumference.

Beglium; what an awesome place. I had an incredibly awesome time here. Rock Werchter, Beer and hanging out with Tom, Christian and the Nijs Family was very enjoyable and I loved every minute being with them. Rock Werchter was just unbelieveable; an experience that stretched my mind musically. Things like this just do not happen in Australia, and the Big Day Out just seems like a busker´s performance in Freo in comparison to Rock Werchter. I really believe that I will never ever see a concert like this again unless I come back here another time, which I will definitely strive to do. I saw the best artists from yesterday, today and tomorrow. If you love music and have an open mind, this is the place for you.

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