Impressions bruxelloises
I went to Brussels for a week, and what did I get?
First, the thing I went there to look for: an apartment, or rather a room in which to stay for five months. I made the decision already after seeing four different rooms during the first two days. Finding an affordable (read: less than €500 with all charges) furnished room for a short-term rental in a city with thousands of trainees coming there every year was not THAT straight-forward. It was still a lot easier than finding a place to stay in Helsinki right now.
Not my house, unfortunately, but an art nouveau house of an architect Victor Horta, now a museum in Ixelles (a part of Brussels where I'll live).
I'll have a smallish room with two little roof windows, facing some gorgeous art nouveau buildings across the street, in a house with five other trainees of various institutions. I'd assume it's around 20 minutes by public transport to the EU Commission buildings, and perhaps 30 minutes by foot, if I'll ever feel like walking in mostly humid and grey Brussels.
Last week, however, was extremely sunny in Belgian standards (so I understood). The week-end could even be described as hot. Since the apartment issue was quickly solved – signed the contract on Wednesday, got the keys on Saturday – I had time to go sightseeing the city. Probably a good thing, considering that from 1 October onwards I'll be working every weekday from 9 to 5 or more. I also managed to open a bank account after answering to a bunch of questions during a rendez-vous I had had to schedule a day earlier. At the bank I also found out that I am a "personne physique" and not a "personne morale" - whatever that means, then, in French legal banking language.
I was planning to go to cinema – there are several independent theatres and small festivals going on almost all the time – but the excellent weather changed my intentions. It was quite enjoyable just to take a tram to another part of the city, have a coffee or lunch somewhere, and read a bit for my hopefully last exam in the university.
A somewhat strange encounter with the locals took place on a Sunday afternoon walk through St Gilles, another very mixed neighbourhood of Brussels. We sat in a brasserie which was recommended in my hip ”map for young people” to be a truly local place. Our order at the bar was taken by the angriest woman ever in restaurant business. She was nagging at the other workers for not being quick enough with the dishes, meaning that she had to pour a certain type of beer in a different beer's glass – veeeery bad, apparently. She was spreading her hands, sighing loudly and either talking to herself or to us, it never was very clear to me. Definitely a different kind of approach to customer service: not as automatized and sterile as in many places. Personal for sure, although perhaps less pleasant for customers!
All in all, Brussels really made a positive impact on me. It is vibrant, full of cultural events, has good food and nice cafés, is neither too small nor too big and is consequently great for walking around. Typically the neighbourhood changes very quickly – after admiring some of the poshest houses and shops, only 50 metres later the environment changes completely and there are blocks of run-down houses and beton flats from the 1960s. The capital of Europe is very eclectic and diverse: there is much more to Brussels than just the EU quartier. Luckily it is also cheaper than Helsinki: after five days in Brussels I was already complaining if a glass of wine happened to cost as much as 3 euros or more...
Different nationalities gathering together in Brussels also bring their own foods with them. During my week I ate a few obligatory baguette-sandwiches and one croque-monsieur, some African dish I had never tried before (maybe from Cameroun or Congo, not sure), Moroccan food, a Portuguese pastry and Lebanese lentil salad. The famous three Belgian dishes - fries, mussles and waffles – have to wait for my return to Brussels on 30 September.
I was lucky to have also free dinners in various places: one at an apartment I went to see (Portuguese vegetable soup and Dr Oetker pizza!), another at a meeting of local teacher-to-be students who are going to do their practice in Helsinki in October, and the third one at a certain Estonian residence in the European quartier. Thank you all very much for feeding a poor student, soon a poor trainee :)
Dinner at the Estonian residence with very ascetic furniture (pillows and mattresses) at the moment. Totally sufficient though - simple things are the best!
First, the thing I went there to look for: an apartment, or rather a room in which to stay for five months. I made the decision already after seeing four different rooms during the first two days. Finding an affordable (read: less than €500 with all charges) furnished room for a short-term rental in a city with thousands of trainees coming there every year was not THAT straight-forward. It was still a lot easier than finding a place to stay in Helsinki right now.
Not my house, unfortunately, but an art nouveau house of an architect Victor Horta, now a museum in Ixelles (a part of Brussels where I'll live).
I'll have a smallish room with two little roof windows, facing some gorgeous art nouveau buildings across the street, in a house with five other trainees of various institutions. I'd assume it's around 20 minutes by public transport to the EU Commission buildings, and perhaps 30 minutes by foot, if I'll ever feel like walking in mostly humid and grey Brussels.
Last week, however, was extremely sunny in Belgian standards (so I understood). The week-end could even be described as hot. Since the apartment issue was quickly solved – signed the contract on Wednesday, got the keys on Saturday – I had time to go sightseeing the city. Probably a good thing, considering that from 1 October onwards I'll be working every weekday from 9 to 5 or more. I also managed to open a bank account after answering to a bunch of questions during a rendez-vous I had had to schedule a day earlier. At the bank I also found out that I am a "personne physique" and not a "personne morale" - whatever that means, then, in French legal banking language.
I was planning to go to cinema – there are several independent theatres and small festivals going on almost all the time – but the excellent weather changed my intentions. It was quite enjoyable just to take a tram to another part of the city, have a coffee or lunch somewhere, and read a bit for my hopefully last exam in the university.
A somewhat strange encounter with the locals took place on a Sunday afternoon walk through St Gilles, another very mixed neighbourhood of Brussels. We sat in a brasserie which was recommended in my hip ”map for young people” to be a truly local place. Our order at the bar was taken by the angriest woman ever in restaurant business. She was nagging at the other workers for not being quick enough with the dishes, meaning that she had to pour a certain type of beer in a different beer's glass – veeeery bad, apparently. She was spreading her hands, sighing loudly and either talking to herself or to us, it never was very clear to me. Definitely a different kind of approach to customer service: not as automatized and sterile as in many places. Personal for sure, although perhaps less pleasant for customers!
All in all, Brussels really made a positive impact on me. It is vibrant, full of cultural events, has good food and nice cafés, is neither too small nor too big and is consequently great for walking around. Typically the neighbourhood changes very quickly – after admiring some of the poshest houses and shops, only 50 metres later the environment changes completely and there are blocks of run-down houses and beton flats from the 1960s. The capital of Europe is very eclectic and diverse: there is much more to Brussels than just the EU quartier. Luckily it is also cheaper than Helsinki: after five days in Brussels I was already complaining if a glass of wine happened to cost as much as 3 euros or more...
Different nationalities gathering together in Brussels also bring their own foods with them. During my week I ate a few obligatory baguette-sandwiches and one croque-monsieur, some African dish I had never tried before (maybe from Cameroun or Congo, not sure), Moroccan food, a Portuguese pastry and Lebanese lentil salad. The famous three Belgian dishes - fries, mussles and waffles – have to wait for my return to Brussels on 30 September.
I was lucky to have also free dinners in various places: one at an apartment I went to see (Portuguese vegetable soup and Dr Oetker pizza!), another at a meeting of local teacher-to-be students who are going to do their practice in Helsinki in October, and the third one at a certain Estonian residence in the European quartier. Thank you all very much for feeding a poor student, soon a poor trainee :)
Dinner at the Estonian residence with very ascetic furniture (pillows and mattresses) at the moment. Totally sufficient though - simple things are the best!
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