Brussels

Please excuse my absence, but I've been out doing things that are worthy of blogging about.

The weekend before last, I went to Belgium with my DePaul group. I visited Belgium briefly four years ago, and I was not impressed with Brussels. So, I was not too excited about returning again. Now, I’m not going to pretend that I wouldn’t rather have gone to Morocco, but my opinion of Brussels definitely improved. I think a lot of it had to do with the perspective I have from living in Paris. It was a nice change of scenery, and of people. I love the Parisians, don’t get me wrong. But, sometimes feeling like such an outsider can be so exhausting. I realize that I’m not Belgian and therefore am an outsider in Brussels as well. But, in Paris, I might as well be from Mars. In Brussels, I was welcomed as an American tourist, come to stimulate the economy and spend my money. And that is, of course, what I did.

We arrived on Friday night, and ate dinner as a group at the hotel. Afterwards, a big group of us went to a bar in the “trendy” part of the city. The bar was called “Delirium” because it is the home of a type of Belgian beer by the same name. They had over 2004 different types of beer. I tried the Delirium Nocturnum. It was a dark beer (there’s probably a more intelligent sounding name for “dark”… but I’m not pretending to be a beer connoisseur). I liked it, but I couldn’t finish it all. So, I drank about half, gave the rest to my friend. Flavored beer is also really big in Europe, and it’s more my speed. I have seen raspberry, strawberry, passion fruit, cherry and even coconut and chocolate flavors of beer.

The next two days we toured Brussels. There was definitely more to see than I thought. Brussels has some great Art Nouveau style architecture. There is a square in the center of the city that is a nice hodge-podge of different styles of architecture. The most important thing about Brussels is that it is the capital of Europe. There are major offices of the European Union stationed there, and sometime in the next 10 years the legislative body of the EU will most likely move there as well. Belgium itself still has a king. He apparently rides motorcycles and has mistresses, but the people love him. Belgium has a history full of what can best be described as nation-wide inside jokes. One of the prides of Brussels is a statue called Mannequin Pis. Basically, it’s a little boy peeing and they dress him up for different holidays. When we saw him, he was dressed up in an orange suit for the Gay Pride Parade and he was peeing beer. They also have random statues around the city representing characters from a play that is a time-honored tradition in Belgium. Basically, it’s a spoof on Romeo and Juliet, but the difference between the two families is their favorite soccer team. Only adding to the random hilarity that is Brussels, is the way they go about making city improvements. Basically, they decide they want to build something and then go to other countries and say they will name the square, statue, museum after whoever pays for it. Spain usually takes them up on this offer.

One side of the square with random archtiecture

Another sort of funny feature of Brussels is the comic book museum. The French love their comic books (Band Desinee in French). You are just as likely to see a 30 year old woman reading a comic book on the Metro as you are to see a 12 year old boy. The best comic books come from Belgium. There was a great exhibit on the making of comic books. They compared the creative process to the creative process of making a film. I couldn’t help but think what a fun job that would be. It’s times like this that I really wish I was more creative. Overall, the museum was a lot of fun. It probably would have been even better if I had grown up with the characters displayed. There was, however, a big Smurf exhibit. The only Belgian comic that I really know is Tintin. I read a Tintin book in French class. The Tintin books are a series of historical adventures taking place in different countries across the world. They feature a boy, his dog and his grumpy sidekick. Because in the Francophone world comic books aren’t just for kids, these books are written for the enjoyment of adults as well.

Being silly at the comic book museum

In between seeing all of these historical or educational sights, I ate. I ate a lot. I ate mussels, because Brussels is known for their mussels. I’m not exactly sure why. It’s not by the ocean. The only reason I can think of is because mussels rhymes with Brussels. I also ate they typical Belgian waffles and chocolate. So much chocolate.

I will admit it, I underestimated Brussels. But when we left, I was ready to get back to Paris. Some of my friends said that they would love to live in Brussels. Brussels definitely has its selling points, but I just don’t think I could call a city with a statue of a little boy peeing beer home.