After 12 days in Germany, it was time for me to head somewhere new. I had no plan after Berlin until a few days before when I was checking out cheap flights to wherever I could go without changing planes. I saw one pop up on Easy Jet (low cost European airline) to Brussels, Belgium so I thought, why not?!
Brussels Airport is pretty massive and I’ve flown through it a couple of times in the past. This was the first time I’ve actually passed all the way through to the baggage claim, but I have to say, it’s a pretty impressive, ultra-modern airport complete with free Wi-Fi (something the big ones often cheap out on). You can take a train into the main station of Brussels for only a few Euro which takes about 15 minutes.
On my way into town, An 18 year old Belgian kid chatted me up on the train and gave me a little insight into the city. If you didn’t know, Belgium, located in western Europe in between France and the Netherlands actually has 3 official languages, Dutch, French and German.
Basically, the northern half of the country speaks Flemish which is pretty close to Dutch, the southern half speaks French, and a few small areas in the east speak German (the parts on the German border). Brussels is surrounded by the Flemish speaking area of Belgium, but being the capital city, you hear just as much French as Flemish. The Flemish native speakers often speak French, but the French native speakers often speak little Flemish, so it’s pretty common for a Flemish person to respond to French native speaker in English just to keep things Kosher (can you imagine this sort of thing happening in your own country?!).
Besides being a nationally “international” city, Brussels is in fact very diverse which came as kind of a shock coming from Germany where it was much more homogenous. The Belgians got around during the colonial era, and you‘ll see many people from the former colonies, notably The Congo and Rwanda. Belgium is also the capital of Europe (ahemm a continent) so you’ll find the headquarters for the European Union as well as NATO in Brussels.
The vibe you feel coming out of the main station is, business. I arrived on a Monday evening and things were pretty desolate, but if you walk west down the hill, you'll arrive at the old historic center which is full of very impressive architecture, countless restaurants, cafes, etc so don’t fret.
If you only have 1 or 2 days in Brussels, I'd highly recommend taking the Sandeman’s Free Walking Tour of Brussels (just Google “free walking tour Brussels”) to get a nice overview of the city. It really is free and you basically just tip on what you think the tour was worth at the end. I had a great guide who made things interesting, so when that is the case, I usually give about 10 Euro for a 3 hour tour.
