The Monk at the Disco

Day two in Brussels. I came to the office to post yesterday's blog entry, did a bit of shopping for basics in the apartment, and then set out to see some sights. After a short metro ride downtown -- the Metro is conveniently only about a five-minute walk from both my apartment and the office, almost immediately between the two -- I found myself in Brussels' city centre.


The outside of my apartment, btw, looks like this. My apartment is the balcony slightly to the left of centre with the white triangular sign on it.

From the city center, I visited Cathedrale des Sts. Michel et Gudule, pictured below. It's a pretty impressive building, as is true of most of the big, old Catholic churches of Europe. It took more than 300 years to build, apparently, and has a reputation as a church in need of renovation, though it was refurbished over a 16-year period that ended in 1999, so it seems to be in pretty good repair now.


From there, I walked in what I thought was the right direction to go to the Museum of Musical Instruments, but apparently I went in completely the wrong direction. After finding my way around a large office complex that obstructed my path, and walking past (though not through) the Botanic Garden, I ventured back toward the city centre and sought out The Belgian Centre of Comic Strip Art. which was pretty neat, though there was a VERY heavy emphasis on the brilliance of Tin Tin that I'm not sure I can get behind.

I then ventured to the Grand Place, where I ate a quick meal in a cafe. I watched some dance exhibition on a stage set up there, but it wasn't very good. There was one woman in the front of the company who was completely out of time with the rest of the dancers, which was a bit comical, but ultimately grew tiresome.


Having grown tired of the crowd and the performance in the Place, I decided to walk down the street to the Mannekin Pis so I could take a picture, since I hadn't had my camera with me the night before. If I was trying to avoid a crowd, this wasn't the way to do it. But here's the photo, anyway.


After that, I walked through Sablon, which is the most French neighborhood of Brussels, or so I'm told. There were lots of nice cafes and bars, but I was feeling like walking, so I ventured toward Musee des Beaux-Arts and on to the Royal Palace. I then walked through Park Bruxelles -- it's the biggest park downtown, though nowhere near the size of Central Park. Think more along the lines of Boston Common or St. Stephen's Green in Dublin. I kept walking at the other end of the park, and eventually realized I wasn't that far from home, so I walked back to the apartment, getting there around 7 in the evening. I made some dinner (grilled cheese... mmmm... I told you I only bought basics!) and then put my feet up and started reading a good new book, David Liss's 'A Conspiracy of Paper'. As of barely 24 hours later, I'm almost halfway through it, so I guess that's as much endorsement as I need to offer.

Around 10 p.m. my friend Barbara called to ask if I wanted to join her and some friends for drinks that night at 11:30. (These Europeans start everything, except their workdays, really late.) I took the metro downtown to meet them, and met a bunch of other people from the WSJ Europe team. Among our group were one American, two Brits, two Belgians, two Spaniards, and, to my surprise, a Canadian woman who grew up about half a mile from where I lived while I was in high school. I went all the way to Europe to meet an almost neighbor....

After spending a long time at that bar (which was so loud that all the yelling to be heard caused Barbara to lose her voice) we went to another bar, which I was promised was "cool." We were forced to line up while a doorman selected people based on their plea -- luckily one of the Belgians took charge and got us in. After entering, we were told there was a cover charge of 10 euros (about $12), but were helpfully told the ticket we were handed was good for one drink at the bar. $12 for a drink -- I felt like I was right at home in New York!

The bar was a crazy Euro disco. I can't say I enjoyed it that much, but it was an experience to see, at least until all the strobe lights started making me feel nauseous. I left around 4:30 in the morning, and after wandering a bit downtown upon realizing I had no money and no idea where there was an ATM, I found both an ATM and a taxi and went home for a good night's sleep.

So ends the story of my second day in Belgium.