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Published: March 25th 2008
Happy Easter everyone, hope you all over indulged on chocolates!
Well I had an awesome time in Brussels. Wasn’t really expecting much having heard that the city is pretty boring, but ended up really enjoying the place.
Brussels is of course basically the European ‘capital’ being home to the European Parliament (not a very visually interesting building), and, despite what Jeremy Clarkson might say (and if you don’t know who Clarkson is, well watch SBS on Monday nights), the EU is pretty cool in my opinion.
The city itself is not overly interesting, sure there are a few cool buildings but no standouts like Paris or London. Some parts of the city are really nice, there are the usual tourist haunts plus there are the dives (as well as dog poop galore on the sidewalks) but somehow all this manages to blend into a city that has a special charm and I could easily picture myself living here.
The city is also bilingual with streets signs and most people speaking both French and Flemish although it appears the French won over the Dutch as French is the default language which helps me as I can still remember
a few words from high school French (when I wasn’t making my teacher cry or completing exams with my name as ‘Ronald McDonald’ and folding my paper into origami … ).
One of the coolest things and something the locals seem proud of are the city’s comics. The most famous of Belgian cartoons is of course Tintin but just as cool are The Smurfs and I always liked the Lucky Luke cartoons as a kid as well.
Dotted around the city streets are over 30 cartoon murals, some are easy to find (with a guidebook I found many but not all) and some you can just stumble upon - kinda cool I think.
The weather has been pretty crap though, it was drizzling when I arrived, the next day was pretty crazy with blue skies one minute and then it kept swapping between rain, hail, sleet and snow. The skies clearly could not make up their mind (as evidence, the pics I have uploaded were mostly taken on the same day so some show clear blue skies and the rest is just grey sky and snow!).
Went to a cool concert featuring members of ‘The Album
Leaf’ from the USA doing solo performances. As good as the guys were, the venue (La Botanique) totally trumped them being an awesome old botanical gardens (although the gig was downstairs in an equally interesting basement bar).
The gig scene in Brussels is almost as good as Manchester and I could seriously spend almost every night at the Botanique over the next couple of months, not to mention the other music venues around the city. Not sure if this is just a busy period or not but some damn cool bands are touring Brussels soon.
On my way back to my hostel after the gig (incidentally one of the best hostels I’ve stayed at), I walked past a really cool building that was all lit up with various coloured lights that changed patterns, the coolest being a light savers style multi coloured effect.
Being into all things Icelandic (most of you would have heard me crap on about Icelandic band Sigur Ros or the ‘seagull’ band as Maria would call them), I had to check out an exhibition of Icelandic artists. Some definitely interesting but also strange pieces, some paintings, some short films and some random bits
of modern ‘art’ (you know the things that make you question if it really is art!).
Now Belgium is of course famous for a few things most notably its beers and chocolates and to a lesser degree frites and waffles. Of course I tried them all out as much as I could - fatty!!!.
Walking down one street I found a waffle van, just like Mr Whippy but serving waffles - cool!
The frites are served from small shops on the streets and are dished up in cones with little forks. Was familiar with this from my time in Amsterdam and think that this has to be the best way to eat chips - eat your heart out McDonalds!!!
As for the beer, I tried a few local beers at pubs and also went to the 100 year old Cantillon Brewery which is still independent and family run. They also make their beers the traditional way with their Lambic beers taking up to three years to mature!
After the tour there was a chance to taste the beers including a lovely raspberry beer, but my favourite was, of course, one that you can’t buy! The
Faro is a lambic to which caramel and candy sugar is added - it tasted delicious, very sweet, almost syrupy and dam easy to drink (the owner chuckled when I went for my third glass and each time he kept filling my glass up closer to the top!). Although I really wanted more of the Faro, I had to settle on three mixed bottles (all 750ml wine bottle sized beers!).
So only a couple of days in Brussels but I had a great time.
The train back to London was pretty cool - travelling by train means none of the hassle of travelling miles out of the city to the airport, checking in over an hour early, going through the whole baggage check procedures, waiting for the plane, cramped plane seats, landing and going though customs/passport/baggage hassles.
The entire trip from my hostel door to Vaughan’s front door took just under 3 hours, the plane would have taken close to 5 hours - go Eurostar!
Back in London for Easter Sunday, Vaughan and I headed off to Chelsea/Fulham walking past Chelsea stadium whilst the match was on and into the pub to watch the end of
the match (Chelsea beat Arsenal) and then hang around for the Dockers v Pies match and then for the Eagles v Lions match after.
Yes yes I know, a whole afternoon of sport! And probably the first time I’ve seen an AFL footy match in full for around 20 years. Not sure what’s coming over me.
The pub was full of Aussies and mostly Perthites which was a bit freaky, its been a while since I’ve heard local speak in such force. The pub was so Aussie-centric that they actually kicked out the Chelsea fans after the match and were only letting footy fans in after that.
Naturally I was going for Brisbane just because everyone else was going for West Coast but my cheering was to no effect.
Kendal and a friend joined us for the Eagles match so it was great to see her (she’s been travelling heaps, working lots and has really settled in nicely). After the match it was cheap drinks and tacky music including the Eagle’s theme tunes (original and current one - Vaughan and a few others singing along …).
Kendal’s friend (a English girl) was kinda freaked out
by us all singing along to John Farnham’s ‘You’re the Voice’ and Working Class Man (not the Nolsy version!) - very very tragic but heaps of fun!
Now back in Manchester, its work tomorrow (boo) and with March all but over, I’m bracing myself for a busy April and an even busier May. As it is I already have 19 gigs scheduled for April including two trips to London and one to Leeds.
Need to start making plans for Canada as well, been saying that every week for the past few months but have promised myself to get organised this weekend.
Would love to know how everyone is (and random gossip is much welcomed!), add a comment or send me a message.
Pete
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Tamara
non-member comment
Loved the update
Hi Pete, great to see another entry. Your Easter weekend was packed! Brussels sounds like a great place. I think I would go there just for the chocolate - was it really really good? Biggest news for me is that I'm preggers and expecting in October. There is something in the water over here! Take care. Keep the updates coming. Hugs, tam.