Brussels with Arthur and a flying visit to Luxembourg

random street in Brussels

Friday evening I arrived at Brussels to stay with Arthur, another Belgian AFS exchange student who was in Wellington in 2010. He lives kind of central in Brussels, in another awesome tall narrow house. His parents both did AFS to the USA, so they speak good english but with American accents, sometimes I forgot what country I was in talking to them! After dinner we headed into town, firstly to the amazing Grand Plaza, surrounded by tall and ornate buildings, even after Madrid I was really awed, this sqaure is more impressive and by night with all of the lights it was beautiful. We walked past Manneken Pis, the little statue of a boy taking a leak, and went to Delirium, the bar with the Guiness World Record for most beers on sale, 2004 when they last counted.

Former Belgian palace

We didn't drink much but we were both exhausted so we slept until midday on Saturday before dragging ourselves out of bed to look around Brussels. Brussels is actually not flat, there is a higher section on a hill so we started there, unfortunately the weather was terrible so the view wasnt great. We walked around a lot looking at the different monuments, churches and parks in Brussels, it really is a nice city, one of my favourites so far. The buildings here are really amazing, all old, tall and made of elaborately carved stone. We found somewhere that does asian meals where you chose your meat, veges and sauce and they cook it up for you, cool because I am going crazy for good asian and indian food here, so we had a really late lunch and then headed back home.

Mohawk time!

We were heading for a pink-themed birthday party that night and Arthur was quite keen to sport a bright pink mohawk, so I happily took scissors in hand and hacked his hair off before his extended family came around for dinner, they all took this quite calmly really! Dinner was amazing, I forget what the dish we had as a main was called but it was traditional and I really liked it, and Arthurs mum made pavlova for dessert! I was also really impressed at everyones level of english, even his grandparents spoke really well, makes you realise how terrible we are in NZ at learning other languages.

awesome!

Perhaps I should give a bit of info on Belgium here, the country has three official languages, French, Flemish (dutch) and German, although the German-speaking population is really small. Geographically, the top half of Belgium (Flanders) speaks Flemish and the bottom (Wallonia) speaks French, and Brussels is like a french-speaking island in the Flanders part. In Brussels, you really need to speak both French and Flemish to work, and english as well now that Belgium is one of the centres of the European Parliament and so many other international institutions. The language and cultural differences make the political system really complex, I bring it up whenever I can but I still haven't gotten my head around it all, governance is seperated into things done federally, things done by community (based on language) and things done by region. Constitutionally, there needs to be the same number of Flemish and French ministers, so they have to work together, but the last election was in June last year and they are still waiting on a government to be formed as there are so many disagreements between the two sides, I think one of the main points is the Flemish side now wanting to control their own social security instead of doing it federally, as at the moment the Flemish side is richer and feels like they are subsidizing the French side too heavily. Yesterday they broke the record (formerly held by Iraq) for the longest wait for a government to be formed. In the meantime, nothing is getting done and everyone is really pissed off about it, and it isnt helping unity between the two sides. It all fascinates me, I do feel that cultures in NZ are a lot more unified and understanding of each other in, but then I keep trying to picture NZ with the same kind of cultural/geographical divide, like if one island was english speaking and the other maori-speaking.

Boulevard in Brussels

So anyway, after dinner we spray-painted Arthurs hair and headed off to this birthday party. Ive already described the drinking culture here in Belgium, and this night was no different. The good side is that drunk people are a lot more willing to give speaking english a go than sober people, so I had a lot of people to talk too! Arthur's hair went down really well. We spent the night there and helped clean up in the morning (ie Arthur cleaned and I lay on the couch recuperating), as this girl lives outside of Belgium it was quite a cool trek back through some smaller villages. We arrived in time for lunch with Arthur's parents before I collapsed into bed, reappearing only in time for dinner again! We ate a kind of food that is typically eaten when you are skiing and its really cold, pretty much meat, potatoes and heaps of cheese mixed together, like two big rounds of it. Im beginning to realise we really dont do cheese well in NZ! I spent the rest of the evening sorting stuff out and repacking. I have far, far too much stuff, and I am already sick of unpacking and repacking every couple of days. Each time I try to work out what to ditch, but I really dont have much clothing so I can never bring myself to part with anything!

shield of Luxembourg

Monday morning we were up early and I was off to Luxembourg! This is another country that fascinates me, as its so tiny but still so rich and the culture is a mish-mash of many influences, the Romans, Spanish, French, Germans and Dutch all ruled there at one point. They speak French for administration and business, German at school and in the media, and Luxembourgish (a mixture of German, French with a little english thrown in) to each other in the street and at home.

I think Luxembourg is often missed by tourists, but I would really recommend this country, its amazing. I only visited the capital, but I would love to come back with a car and drive around the countryside to see the villages and castles. I arrived around lunchtime, checked into the hostel and then joined a tour for the afternoon. Unlike most of Europe its really hilly, and Luxembourg city is based on hills and valleys, with huge bridges linking different parts of it. The fortress here used to be one of the most fortified in Europe and a lot of it remains, like old walls and towers from the 900s, scattered around moats and streams and monk's gardens. A lot of the old roads and buildings remain as well, really this city was probably the most beautiful I've seen and my words don't do it justice, if you're on Facebook you can check out my photos instead here.

The tour took about three hours, we saw a lot of the city. The government buildings were really cool as they are so small compared to everywhere else! The Swiss President was in town, we saw him walk past, and then the Luxembourgish prime minister walked past and said hello to the tour guide, it was quite funny. There were only five of us on the tour, three older people and a young guy who turned out to be from Australia, so we spent most of the time talking and went to get food together afterwards. I still haven't met any kiwis anywhere, maybe in Paris I will, but I am tripping over aussies everywhere! And most people here assume I am from America, when I correct them and say NZ the responses are often things like, "ah, Australia" or "yes, the Netherlands".

I walked around some more, Luxembourg is a great city for strolling around as its surrounded by parks, and then as it started to rain I headed back to the hostel for dinner. I had planned to go out again to photograph the views by night and try to meet some locals, but I was quite sick with a cold and it kept raining, so I just did my laundry and went to bed early instead!

In the morning I was off really early to get back to Brussels in time to leave with Tim for the coast, but I really enjoyed my brief look around here, I really could live in this city, its so beautiful and the people are so friendly, and there are so many foreigners here for the European Parliament, making it quite interesting.