My biggest problem with writing in this news page is a lack of time. So here is a light-speed update about our visit to Brussels:
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Moose and I spent the last two weeks in Brussels getting a visa stamped in her passport so that she is allowed back into the UK. The UK are breaking EU law by forcing her to have this stamp, but we're not the ones who are going to sue the UK government. Instead we comply with this ridiculous bureaucracy at great expense to ourselves.
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This is our joint third visit to Belgium, and probably my own fourth or fifth.
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I was working, but we got to hang out with my Dad a lot in the evenings and on the weekends. He has lived in and out of Brussels on-and-off over the last few years and took us to some awesome places and to see some awesome things. There's no better way to see a city than with someone with insider knowledge of it. It was really cool to see him again and discuss politics etc.
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Brussels is the unsung hero of European travel destinations. All of the Belgian stereotypes are true: you can have waffles, awesome chocolates, and lot of different types of great beers. The people are nice, the food is wonderful, the monuments are grander and more subtle than other places, there is an abundance of live jazz, and there are way less tourists than other destinations.
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Here is a list of things you could do/see if you ever go to Brussels:
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Go and see the 'Africa centre' which is a Belgian guilt-trip about plundering the congo. Most European ex-collonialist states can't boast such a magnificent guilt trip. Walk the grounds and hopefully the nearby forest too.
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One evening visit L'Archduc which is a small pub near St. Catherine. Have a drink and strike up some conversations. Always cool people here. Miles Davis played Jazz there in the 1930's and the decor is an amazing collision of Art Deco and 21st Century lighting. The wait staff are sufficiently surly.
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Go to a comic shop.
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Go to a giant Carrefour like the one near Herman Debroux station, and have a look at the hard-back comics section.
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Eat a cheap waffle from a subway station (you should pay less than 2 euro)
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See some live jazz. There is a ridiculous amount of live jazz playing on most nights in this city (also in Antwerp, actually). Unlike London, where jazz is played in expensive venues, here it's the real stuff in dodgy little crowded, smoky clubs. You can find out what and where on the internet.
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Walk past the king's house and the park across the road. Note the refreshing lack of security of any kind.
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Visit the Law Courts of Brussels. This incredible and heavy building always makes me think of the mega-architecture in the Iain M. Banks novel Feersum Endjinn. They made such a huge and magnificent building, but they're still dead. Make sure you admire the view over Brussels nearby and think about their souls drifting on the wind, or maybe your own soul one day embedded in a techno crypt-matrix.
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We didn't do it this time, but the Atomium is worth a look. You can also see it in the distance from the the Law Courts of Brussels though, which just about as good as seeing it up close.
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Eat as many and varied chocolates as you can. Your desire for variety in chocolates will not be satiated. Don't buy the expensive chocolates from the specialist shops, buy the cheap ones at the supermarket.
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Go to the Sablon and walk down, then up the hill. Let your mouth water at the expensive chocolates. Look in the Mercedes centre. Soon there won't be any cars, and we should admire their doomed beauty them while we still can.
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Go to the Grote Markt and look at the nice buildings and around the corner the Manneken Pis, but don't buy anything there.
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Catch the 44 tram out into the midst of the forest and then walk south west through the forest towards the Rouge Cloitre. Have a coffee there, and some lunch if you feel like it. Don't walk out the other side as the illusion of a lovely place in the middle of the woods will be ruined. Go back the way you came.
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If you're coming from London, catch the train, don't fly. The train is really nice. Flying is a big hassle.
Wow, that was nowhere near c enough.