At home in Brussels

So we have been here in Belgium two weeks now.  You would think there would be a blog post or two.  No excuses, but we’ve been a bit distracted. 
First there was the matter of finding a place to live.  That was much more of a challenge than I had hoped.  One of the things that is not apparent from the real estate web sites are the legal requirements imposed by Belgian law.  I suppose it should not be surprising but there are a lot of laws which create the environment in which the tenant landlord relationship takes place.  These laws are geared to protect both parties but they also create a bunch of hoops for the landlord to jump through.  Almost none of the dozens we contacted were interested in doing all that jumping for the short time we will be here. 

Even so we did turn up 4 or 5 options.  The first one we looked at almost had MC on a plane home.  It was kind of a dump, but it was available.  The second place was a bit out of the way in a neighborhood that kind of looked a bit rough, and then we saw the third one at Place Flagey.  We wrapped it up on the spot. 

It’s not the Taj Mahal, but it is in a really cool neighborhood – sort of walking distance from school.  With the bus it takes about seven minutes.  By foot about 20 minutes on the way home (downhill), and takes you past the very scenic ‘Etangs d’Ixelles’, our neighborhood park.  Across the street is a bakery.  MC and I take turns in the morning walking over to pick up something for breakfast.  Very European, very nice.  Flagey is also well located relative the center of Brussels.  Trams and busses run from the ‘place’ straight past the palaces, museums and parliaments.  In 15 minutes we can be standing in the Grand Place eating a waffle.  Something we have done more than once.

The ‘place’ itself is also a happening place.  There is something happening there every weekend.  They have markets Saturday and Sunday and the ‘place’ also hosts special events.  The first weekend an alternative transit expo, this week a pet fair.  It is also home to one of the most celebrated Frites stands in the city.  We have just tried it once.  I’ll voice a sacrilege here: they just seemed like fries to me.  Maybe we had the wrong sauce?  There were 20 choices.  Or, was it the 20 minute wait in line?

All in all we have settled in and started to get a feel for school and life in Belgium.  We’ll save that for the next post.