Brussels Stories

Today and tomorrow are a national holiday for Halloweenn and All Saints Day. Halloween is pretty big here, lots of decorations and costumes. But the stores are not filled with candy and no pumpkin carving. Tonight we will see if trick or treating happens, but I doubt it.

Saturday night was daylight savings time here as well, which meant we got to the markets an hour earlier than planned. We made our way to a bike market early to see what we could find. We went expecting a high volume of stolen bicycles and local shops set up. But it was pretty much just individuals with a bike that they were trying to sell. One guy was even trying to get €800 for a Giant TCR. All just a bit too shady for us and very disappointingg. But along side this market was a giant regular market with food and clothes and general junk. Fun place to be, but seems best for buying food.

Markets take over entire streets. This particular market started by this old castle thing. Photo taken morning we were at the market. The dark photo was taken weeks ago.





Remembrance Day, or Armistice Day, is a holiday here and we will be going to Flanders fields by bus. From there we will tour the area for three days. This a trip organized by 2 history professorss at the school. We will get a reader with details about the key battles as well as selections from World War I poetry to read before we go. Seems like it will be very interesting and entertaining. Expect to have allot of pictures after that weekend.

Belgium facts:
Population 10,263,414 (Belgium, 2001)
Population Density 336.2 per sq km.
Population 964,405 (Brussels, Bruxelles, Brussel - Capital, 2001)

Government
Constitutional monarchy. The Kingdom of Belgium was established in 1830. In 1993, Belgium became a federal state comprising three autonomous regions.
Head of State: King Albert II since 1993.
Head of Government: Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt since 1999.

Official languages are Dutch, French and German. Dutch is slightly more widely spoken than French, and German is spoken the least.

Now that I am settled in it is time to figure out the cycling situation in this city. There are bikes everywhere, but where do I find my own? Well that is not obvious but I have a couple leads now (pdf) . I also have a source to learn the road rules too. I knew this would be important because I have to learn how to deal with intersections, STOP signs do not exist here. Though there are street lights at large intersections for some control, most intersections are uncontrolled yields. Even with the chaos, no one wears helmets. I attribute that to excellent driving skills, but cab rides are still scary.

Garbage collection is a mystery we need to work on solving. The bagging system seems straight forward - city provided (at a cost) bags for each type of waste/recycling - but we manageto not do it completely correct; and the pick up system baffles us. They collect waste/recycling on every day but the scheduled days.
Some people have noticed that there was a large strike in Belgium on Friday, thanks for the emails. But this seems to be a common Friday afternoon pastime here. This particular Friday strike hit the news because it went into Saturday AND included the metro. Usually the metro continues running in these general strikes cause, you know, how else do you get to your protest/party?

This made we wonder about productivity. Paper work/bureaucracy is slow; you would think they still use quill, ink and blotter down at city hall. But according to a 1998 German study, Belgians are the most productive workers in the wealthy world. I would like to know what the Germans consider working though, these people are drinking beer in cafes during their 10am breaks. Belgian's beer of choice during these 10am breaks seems to be Jupiler, equivalent to Black Label in Canada.

View from our balcony. If Maes was a beer I liked, our apartment location would be golden.












Went to a movie last night and found out that all movies are subtitled with both French and Flemish. Makes for a lot of writing on the screen.

We arrived in Brussels 1 month ago today and in our new apartment 1 week ago today. Happily I can say we go places now without maps, or backpacks, or Hawaiian shirts, so we sufficiently blend in. Our apartment is in the center of a bunch of fun places, but away from those places so it is very quiet but mere blocks from fun.
Today in 1958 cartoonist Peyo introduced the world to Les Schtroumpfs. Recently Unicef released a commercial using the Smurfs that has bothered a few people.
The continuing good weather has allowed us to varnish all our Ikea furniture on the terrace. But approaching wet weather has forced us to bring it all in, leaving a nice burning smell in our apartment. Other home improvement projects occurring around here are the conversion of a large set of shelves left here for us into a closet. Only possible with the power drilled we borrowed from friends.


Wildlife in our jungle.







Thanks to Ikea..... almost a full set of bike tools....

After a week of searching for an apartment, we selected a place close to the EU centre (by the Berlaymont building). Its small and quiet, but located close to a few very neat areas of the city. It has a balcony off the living over the street, 13 foot ceilings, windows from floor to ceiling and a loft in the bedroom and a large terrace out into the back courtyard about 50% the size of the rest of the apartment. It is finally available today after 2 weeks of having to wait for it to free up. The guy we are taking over the apartment from has decided not to move his stuff out till the end of the month, so all we have had to buy is bed sheets and towels. This gives us 10 days to get everything else we need, which is great 'cause Ikea is closed today.

Everything is closed on Sundays, this even includes gas stations. Though we end up stumbling upon giant markets, flea markets, in random large parking lots. Sunday is very much a family day. Though the city seems shut down, everywhere is very busy with people walking and cycling. Its as though the city turns in to a park 1 day a week.

Some transit lines are also unavailable on Sundays, which has left us a bit stranded at the hostel on the weekends the last 3 weeks. During the rest of the week, the buses are unreliable, the schedule posted on the bus stops is actually a guide; +/- 20 min.

The government lottery is sold only on the weekends by girl guide and cub scout type groups. These kids hang around the streets all morning with yellow lottery jackets on hawking the lotto. Girl guide and cub scout type groups seem very popular, there is always a troop of kids around.

Today Norm and his mom and aunt came to Brussels from Gelsenkirkchen Germany for a visit. These are a few of the thigs we saw.
Atomium - a giant chrome molecule. Currently under construction.









Spot the (3) construction workers.....









Brussels 1935 Expo grounds












Another of the Expo buildings.









Norm and I in Grand Place (photo by Norm Barmeier)

During the fog that hung out in Brussels for 4 days. (Nighttime photo)








Across from our hostel (which at this point we expect to leave on Sunday!) is the Foret de Soignes. Kinda like Assinaboine Park is to Winnipeg, without the grassy monoculture . This forest is full of trails and a few lakes and some wierd midevil stuff. There is also this 1740s in and mill system (behind the guy with the awkward grin).













.....Foret de Soigne includes this very old wall.....








.....and another inn and stable attraction.

Today in 1830; Belgian Revolution: A provisional government in Brussels declared the creation of the independent and neutral state of Belgium, in revolt against the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

- Friday, September 29, we thought we found an apartment. It was nice, in a nice area, the right price, and freshly refurbished. We decided to relax for the weekend, check things out at Ikea, and mentally prepared to move in Tuesday and be set to go.
- Monday October 3rd, Maja's birthday, we arrived at the bank to deal with the contracts etc. and we discover something. We are dealing with an English landlord in London. Ok. Representing a company in Hong Kong. Its been done before. And our money is to be transferred into a bank in Latvia. Woah.
- So we take a step back. Each of these developments on their own seems fine, put them together and the risk is way to high for us. He is not doing anything legally wrong, but he obviously avoiding a few taxes. So the bad news is we have to start over again in finding an apartment.
- So we are still stuck in the hostel, though we have laid claim to an apartment available October 16, we are still trying to keep our eye open for something available sooner. We have to find a balance between getting out of the hostel and on with our lives, and getting work done. Today we discovered that though we have no user name access for computers at the school, we can sign in as "guest". Sweet.

Part of the standard process of securing an apartment in Belgium is the set up of a joint account with the landlord consisting of 3 months rent. The renter deposits 3 months worth of rent into this account which can be accessed by both the tenant and the landlord. During the occupancy the account is locked to both parties and is unlocked once the tenant and landlord are satisfied the contract is complete (the landlord takes what is needed to fix the apartment). This account behaves as a savings account, accruing a small interest. Locking away this huge sum of money with the British/Hong Kong/ Latvia deal kinda spooked us.
On top of this sum of money, the first months rent needs to be paid, and furnishings bought.

One of the main tourist centers. Close to Grande Place (Grote Markt). Kind of the entrance to the old city has a museum, and statues, and is very busy all the time. Also in the background is One of Europe's oldest "malls," the glass-roofed Galeries Royales St-Hubert.












Heh Heh


















Maja's school, the VUB. Has a couple schools on these grounds, each on a separate level of the hilly terrain. The grounds are the nicest I have ever seen at a school, very forested. The buildings are another story, very institutional, and quite ugly, depressing and poorly designed .










Again by Grand Place. A bar called the Drug Opera. We dare not enter.


















Ahhh Ikea. Trusty Ikea. This was on our scoping mission after we picked out an apartment. Yes we have selected an apartment.... now to get approved etc. Will write more on this later, as our new apartment deserves an update on its own. With pics of one of the balconies etc.