Belgium

So last week I went with my friend, Giorgiana to visit another good friend, Laura, in Belgium. Laura is studying there for half a year, just like us in Poland, so we thought that this would be a good opportunity to see another country and, of course, our lovely friend with the promise that she would return the favor and come to see us, maybe in December. What did I like in Belgium and what do I think about it after visiting it? Well, I think I should start with the beginning.

“Ryanair”, we all know the company. We bought tickets from them because they were cheaper, only 2 zloty and after the online check in, the final price was around 250 zloty. You should know that although it says on the site that the ticket is only X sum, after you do the check in they add extra taxes, so the final price is going to be bigger. But, nonetheless it was a pretty good deal, 250 for going and returning.

The problem?

The death predictions that Giorgiana started to have after reading on a lot of web sites about the problems that the company had. About the fact that they were sued many times during the last and still, current year. Actually, if I remember correctly they were sued in August and September for making emergency landings caused by technical problems. Not such a good thing, and that made Giorgiana’s mind go wild. She used to laugh and say, “Well, if we come back then we will…”. This was the first time that we used “Ryanair” and as you can see, due to the fact that I am writing we did not die:))). The flights were quite ok, except for the guy (hostess) who woke me up more than once on our way back:)).

I do not scare easily, but I must confess that my emotions were high when the plane took off. I had in my head all the negative “foresights” of Giorgiana:)), but after we were airborne this serenity took over me. I started to look at the clouds, they were so white and beautiful, I wondered were God was since I could see his clouds, but not him...

A sea of sparkling white all over, so like usually, my imagination ran away picturing all sort of things. I saw little girls holding in their hands red balloons as they were jumping from a cloud to the other. They were flying, everything was possible, so I said if we crush and die, at least I can play with rest of the girls that I conjured in my head.

We landed on the “Charleroi Airport” and we felt really good, everything went fine. We got on a bus and headed to the “Charleroi Train Station”, here we bought a 50 euros ticket of ten travels in order to be able to ride on the train and metros. So, the first thing I found out about Belgium is that they have big prices, for everything and I mean everything. There’re average salary as I found out from my friend is around 3800 - 4000 euros, so that’s why they have big market prices.

At the train station we had to wait for Laura to come and pick us up. From this point on my true story starts.

Belgium is a country from the West part of Europe. It is most famous for the connections that it has with the European Union, it is the land that hosts many of the UE institutions, but as I found out it isn’t big in space and it has more or less than 11 million inhabitants, being smaller in this department than my birth country, Romania.

Belgium is divided in three so called districts, Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels Capital Region. This was the second thing that I found out because while we were waiting for the train, the voice that announces the arrivals and departures spoke in three languages, two of which I recognized as being French and German and another that I did not know, but it resembled German, respectively Dutch.

The thing that caught my attention after leaving the train station was the architecture so different from Poland. The rooftop of every building had something special and every bloc of cement was carved in a different way, using a lot of symbols. Similar to Poland, in Belgium you can find a lot of castles, churches and statues. What I did not like was the mess on the streets, many of the places I saw in Belgium were quite dirty.

I must add that here, I visited three cities, the most important ones, I think. They are Liege – the French speaking area, Brussels – where they speak all three languages, and last, but definitely not least, Brugge – where they also speak the three languages. I will talk in separate posts about all these places, so you can make a complete and true picture of what is good to see and do in Belgium.

Before ending, you should know that one of the most delicious things that I ate in Belgium was a sort of cookie with chocolate, called “Goufre” aka a kind of waffle. The Belgians have over 500 different types of beer. Did I add that if you are a regular you can buy “magic herbs” in the clubs? :)) But of course you have to be over 18, be well connected with this market and also have the necessary money, to actually buy. From the fun point of view, Belgium is quite the place to be as you can see... More on the cultural / architectural points of view, soon.

(Pictures made by my dear friend, Giorgiana Astefanei)