A visit from my favourite South African
presented the perfect excuse to finally see Belgium, even if it was mid-semester. Since he didn't want to come to me in
Leipzig/Berlin (gee, why would anyone not want to come to Leipzig?),
I would have to go there. Fine. It's not like I would ever turn down
an invitation to travel somewhere.
My prior knowledge about Belgium was
mostly political in nature (as in the place sounds like a
governmentally challenged mess that makes the Quebecois situation in Canada look trivial, plus...the EU) or food based
(waffles, chocolate truffles and cherry beer) despite almost having moved there for my Masters at the Brussel's Free
University. In light of events that have
since transpired, ie. terrorist lock down, I think I made the right
choice (well, maybe not the Leipzig part - but every cloud has its
silver lining and mine came in the forms of Fraunhofer and Berlin).
The plan: to meet Hannes in his home base of Leuven, one of Europe's
oldest university towns, and from there explore the rest of the
country. While we ran out of time for Antwerp, we did hit Brussels,
Brugges and Ghent as well as of course Leuven. I also managed some time
in Lieges, a very forested city, thanks to perpetual train delays. Once upon a time I loved
the movie “In Brugges” and have wanted to visit ever since.
For a start, it was so nice to see Hannes again. In
life I don't really think there are THAT many people who you expect,
or perhaps want, to always know. It's not that I look at friendships
as disposable - although some certainly are – it's more a case of
when you live the lifestyle I seem to have fallen into, people tend
to come and go. You are friends while you are in one place and then
you move on and life continues elsewhere. My mum says that people are
in you life for a reason, a season or a lifetime, depending on what
their purpose is. I agree. For me then, he is the wisest person I
know and also one of the only paid philosophers (how very bohemian) - in short someone I appreciate very much. The first plan of business upon arrival in Leuven, besides
catching up with my dear friend and admiring the beautiful town (!!) was to
enjoy my favourite cherry beer, something I have missed. My current
favourite: Lindemans Kriek. As a rule I am no fan of beer – in
fact it would be fair to say that I despise it. But cherry beer is
something different entirely. I know how it sounds, I've seen enough
reactions where upon hearing it described there follows face
pulling. But the Belgians do it well – think sour cherry and not
too sweet. Anyway, the next days were filled with travel, good food, philosophers and of course cherry beer. A nice mix, though I
must confess that despite having completed a dual major undergrad
that included philosophy I have never felt like I have all that much to
contribute to a deeply philosophical conversation. While I do have a
tendency to think far too much, I do not spend my time thinking about thinking per se.
So, what was good: Leuven is possibly
the nicest university town I have ever seen – I would rate it as
cuter than Oxford. Very grand yet accessible, with
shades of Harry Potter. I believe it is the world's
oldest Catholic university (or something along those lines). Brugges,
as expected, was also amazing. We wandered the old streets, ate steak
frites, waffles and chocolate truffles,went for a boat ride on the
canals – all the things one is supposed to do. In the main areas it
was completely overrun with tourist hordes (hardly shocking, I know),
but once we escaped the centre deserted canals lined
with the same old style of buildings awaited us, and these were far more fun to explore.
Though the main square is definitely one of the most impressive I
have seen, it alas includes an element of artificiality. For
instance while I don't recall seeing a Hardrock Cafe, it seems like exactly the kind of place that would have one. For us though, I
think Ghent turned out to be the unexpected highlight. Lots of locals
had recommended it as a more worthy destination than Brugges. So it
seemed at least worth a try. At first I was unimpressed, but if you
head a couple of kilometers into town from the train station, it is
in fact incredible. I would go so far as to say I preferred
it to Brugges because it lacked the tourists and in some parts was just
as historically and scenically impressive. It is also lined with canals and quaint old buildings, but
has the feeling of a living, breathing city rather than just a tourist shrine.
Brussels I feel slightly more neutral about. To be honest, I'm not sure if I liked it or not. Usually I feel
quite strongly either way about the places I visit. For instance the Royal Quarter neighbourhood surrounding the palace is really nice, it has a great park (that I totally
fell asleep lying in the middle of for couple of hours ...oops), some nice
coffee shops, boutiques and grand government buildings. The central
area is also not bad, though the Manneken Piss must be one of the most
disappointing attractions anywhere - think shades of Copenhagen's Little Mermaid. It is so small that I passed it a number of times before realizing where it was. On top of that, the real one is
in a museum – the street version is actually a fake. There's a really nice
shopping arcade - Galeries Royales Saint Hubert that along with the
royal Greenhouses in the outer suburb of Laeken (yes, I dragged poor
Hannes all the way out there) is done in the 19th century
architectural style I love – lots of cast iron framework and glazed
glass. Sadly for us the Royal Greenhouses are only open for a couple
of weeks each year and this was not one of them. But honestly, apart
from the main areas, Brussels felt dangerous and a bit on the dirty
side. Especially around the train stations this is not a city where
you feel particularly safe and I know many people who have had the
misfortune to be mugged here. In fact, maybe Brussels doesn't belong
in 'the good'. But the other things that struck me about Belgium were how beautiful
the countryside was - there is something I found near magical about the nature of the light
here, and the people. I think the Belgians, at least the ones
I encountered, are great. Friendly, fun and very gregarious - they are great story tellers, or maybe this was just the various philosophers I met. This glowing generalization however, does not apply to employees of the train service.
So what was bad?: The train system! It
is hands down the absolute WORST I have ever seen. Dirty trains. Always late,
often alarmingly so. Mind you, lateness is a best case scenario
because they often don't show up at all. Which is exactly what
happened to me late one night, leaving me stranded in one of
Brussel's worst neighbourhoods while trying to return home to Germany. No amount
of trying to explain that my train never came made the employees
the least bit interested in helping me – or even giving me advice.
When after changing stations three times I finally found a man willing to
help me, he just pointed out that I was stranded. Even
better, when I finally did get on a train the next day we pulled into
Frankfurt's airport station to find it evacuated due to a bomb threat.
Needless to say, it was an eventful trip back to Leipzig. Even nicer was that this particular week Leipzig had played host to a massive international goth l festival, and when I switched to the tram for the final leg of my journey I had to sit beside a girl with what appeared to be be real, slightly brown stained human teeth sewn onto the front of her t-shirt. But, I look
forward to returning to Belgium next year to explore Antwerp and
revisit the places like Ghent that really struck me.
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