After breakfast with Johan and Hennie, they dropped me of at a little old tram car station in Tervuren. Johan gave me 100 Belgian Francs, so I would make it to the centre of the Belgian capital city Brussels. Stayed at Steven’s apartment for the night, after visiting Studio Brussel and hanging out in the city at night…
An unpretentious mix of grand edifices and modern skyscrapers, Brussels is a modest, confident capital that many visitors find to be an acquired taste.
Since it doubles as the capital of the European Union, it’s packed to the rafters with bureaucrats and Eurocrats who have given the place an air of bustling efficiency without exactly festooning it with fun.
The city is built along a pentagon of boulevards known as the Petit Ring. At its heart is the Grand Place, arguably Europe’s most beautiful central square. Within a twenty-minute walk is much of the city’s accommodation, most of it easily accessible by tram, bus or metro.
After my arrival in the center of the city I used the remaining change to use some minutes on the internet at the EasyEverything.
Later, I took a long walk through the ancient part of the city. It’s pretty amazing to walk through little streets along structures and statues that are centuries old! I also visited Manneke Pis (Pissing Jack), one of the most famous tourist attractions in Brussels. Later this day I even found Jeanneke Pis (yep: the female version, hidden from tourists in a dead end dark alley).
Around 6 o’clock in the evening I arrived at the house of the 23-years-old tech wizard Steven, who almost lives right in the centre of Brussels. Steven works at a small agency called Viking.
“It feels like I already know you, but you don’t know me at all,” is what he said when I entered his apartment.
He told me all about the business he is in (Viking provides customer site management in all fields concerning computers – what equipment to buy, what software to acquire, which network is needed – set up of equipment, installation and customization of software, installation and maintenance of networks, printers, modems, E-mail nets, etcetera.)
The office even had a live webcam, pointed out to the streets of Brussels!
In his free time and during holiday, Steven is secretary of Kompaskamp, which organizes fun summer camping trips for the Belgian youth!
The Gift from the Huisman family was a unique ceramic bottle with olive oil, which a guy like Steven could always use for cooking!
Steven walked me around the city and he told the stories about the old quarter I didn’t know yet. When the sun started to go down he took me to this real Brussels fish restaurant, where we ate the unique mussels from Brussels!
After dinner we caught a cab to visit the radio studio of Studio Brussels, the most popular radiostation in Belgium, where I was invited as a guest on their show called Zipt.
The lead singer of the Dutch band The Tröckener Kecks, Rick de Leeuw, was the most important guest in the show. After the show he asked me if I wanted to go on a picture with him. Haha, of course! It’s like living in a world where everything is turned around…
Hey, I got the audio file of this!
Steven then took me back into town, to a little but very comfy café in the old centre. There I met some of his friends, who all study at the film academy. So that was a lot of talking about films, movies, teachers, and all.
