Bruxelles Deux

Brussels is really a lot like France, most people speak le français, the sky is usually gray, and the architecture is usually very classical. Overall, it wasn't a huge change for me from Grenoble, but I think it was quite the change for Jaz and few things are very different. First of all, the sky is unfortunately not clear and blue like in Rome, where Jaz is normally; seriously, I'm a little jealous of her permanent 60 degree weather, blue skies, and beautiful Italian men (even though Latin men are creepers, more of this later). I really hope Jaz still found Northern Europe enjoyable despite continuous overcast; it's something I think I'm used to by now. It can be depressing at first, but Europeans, and especially the French, find ways to make the city beautiful in their own ways.

One of the first notable differences are the massive, businessy building in the heart of Brussels. No other European city that I've been to has the confidence to compete with a New York skyline. Brussels almost gets there. Honestly, it's very exciting to see large buildings, it reminds me that the city is thriving, that it's alive, and financial systems work! Very near to our hostel was a "Finance Tower" which I thoroughly enjoyed looking at if only because the lights of the side of the building sometimes flashed "Finance Tower." Brussels is a lover of finance, business, currencies, international cooperation, and international organizations, and I'm a lover of Brussels.

Last main difference I'll mention is the language thing. Brussels in interesting due to the confusion about what language to speak, one might speak French (most likely), Flemish (second most likely), of as a default, English. It's also an international city so any language can be heard at some point on the streets. It was very exciting to come off the plane to see advertisements in English. Going from a smallish, French city where only French is spoken to somewhere where English is the default language constitutes a huge sigh of relief for any American. But, when I first came out of the train station trying to find my way to the hostel, I asked a woman in French if she knew where the street was, she replied that she only spoke a little French. She didn't speak English so she asked if I spoke Flemish, haha, funny, Flemish, are you kidding me? Needless to say, her directions were interesting.

What I think is super interesting is that Belgium essentially functions in two languages, French and Flemish, which means that the government and businesses use those languages first. Obviously, multinational corporations and international organizations like the European Parliament and Central Bank use English, but for Belgium purposes, French and Flemish are used. Now it's strange enough to function in TWO languages but get this, Belgian political groups are not separated into parties according to political ideology, but fight for seats according to the language they speak! That's nuts! So the French part of town has representative run for the French seats, and the Flemish part of town has reps run for Flemish seats. Ethnic discrimination? Maybe, but who cares, it's Europe, they invented ethnic discrimination.

Tired of writing... Au revoir maintenant!

Picture of the Grand Place. Victor Hugo once said it is the most beautiful square in the world. Clearly, he's never been to the square in front of the Notre-Dame (haha, I crack myself up)