Big City Life

"Big city life, bla bla bla bla bla" - I had this song in my head for the duration of our 4 day trip to Brussels. Unfortunately I only know the first 3 words so it became rather repetitive and slightly tedious too. It was the only thing about the study visit that was repetitive and tedious though, the latter perhaps surprising considering it was a study visit but no, Brussels treated us very well indeed.

It's a strange city. Every other building is decorated with the EU flag; all signs are in both French and Flemish; no-one seems to know which language to speak (or was that just me); from my experience it is more common to drive your car backwards than forwards, perhaps one reason why we saw two crashes before our very eyes in the 4 days we were there; there are lots of strange buildings inspired by China and Japan and even the Scott's Monument in Edinburgh (get in!).


Brussels welcomed us with open arms. Our somewhat scabby hotel - in which the rooms were nearly all complete with TV and shower, but for some unfortunate souls the shower was a fairly see-through box in the corner of the room - had a perfect location. 5 minute walk from Grand Place (the picture-postcard area), a 0 minute walk from some very cool bars and restaurants. Our days were filled with lectures from various EU players - from the institutions themselves to lobby groups - and our nights were left open. On night 1, after our entertaining Stadttour, we ate in a fairly disappointing Egyptian restaurant (food wasn't ace, service was poor and free stuff promised was later denied, although we did get complimentary mint tea) but me and Ragil then stumbled upon an über cool Blues Bar that just happened to be having a live jam session that night. Well that was our entertainment sorted. Brilliant musicians and fab music. Night 2 we ate scrummy Thai and then found a fairly cosy bar and disturbed the locals by being obnoxiously loud and playing silly games (wink murder, etc.). Night 3 was Champions League Final night. Me and Ragil wandered around town looking for a Deutsche Bank and then, after we'd covered most of the city, popped into Quick (local fastfood chain) for a quick cheeseburger and fries before finding an uncomfortably full irish pub and then relocating to a Greek bar. So we watched Arsenal's defeat in Brussels on a tv with Greek commentary. After the game we ate Greek food and then found a nice free jazz bar with some rather good live jazz. After discussions about homosexuality with the homosexual bar owner we were all given his card and left for bed. Day 4 was left for us to explore the city. We headed to the art gallery. Felt extremely cultured then found a rather nice restaurant and ate a 3 course meal with complimentary fizz to continue our sophisticated mood. Then we had a super long bus ride back to Fulda and we passed the time by singing along to Ragil's guitar. Fun for us, not sure about the rest of the bus.

All in all an excellent trip. A perfect combination of fun and learning in a very cool city.