Friday, March 06, 2015

Throwback: Living in Brussels Part 1

(While going through my old blog posts, I realized that some of the most interesting things I've written about are my travel experiences. There are a few places I got to visit before I launched this blog back in 2005 and I thought it would be good if I write about those trips as well.)

I had the great fortune to be assigned to a project in Brussels for three months back in late 2002 to early 2003. During my stay there, I lived in a pretty decent serviced apartment that was a liesurely 30-45 minute walk away from the Grand Place.

I took this photo while walking from the Grand Place to my apartment.

While I had a fully furnished kitchen, I barely used it. There was a Hector Chicken near my place where I would often buy my dinner. The alley where I lived, Rue Jourdan, also had a few good restaurants and I frequented the Chinese restaurant and the Brick-oven pizza place there.

Rue Jourdan at night

It was during this stay in Brussels that I discovered Hoegaarden wheat beer. I would sometimes buy a six-pack and drink the beer over a few days. I would also often buy a box of Leonidas chocolates to enjoy after dinner. I normally told myself that I would have only three pieces but I would somehow keep saying 'one more' to myself until I eventually consumed half the box LOL. Suffice it to say that I gained a bit of weight during my Belgian stay. :) This weight gain triggered me to start running regularly when I got back home.

The living room of my serviced apartment

There was a Catholic church very close to where I lived and I would normally hear mass there at around 6pm on Sundays, even if it was celebrated in French. There are churches in Brussels where masses are celebrated in English but those were not very near where I lived and the masses were held earlier in the day. As such, I stuck with the French version, even if I didn't understand what was being said. It was here that I learned that in other countries, the way that people offer peace to other mass-goers is to shake their hand (in the Philippines, we just nod to each other.

I still remember the day that I arrived. As it was winter, the skies were dark and gray. My relocation agent took me to my apartment and she also drove me from there to the office and back. I didn't need to work that day but I requested her to drive me so that I could figure out the driving directions to work (this, of course, was back when GPS wasn't readily available as it is now). My car (rented from Hertz) was ready upon my arrival. This was the first time I experienced driving in another country.

My car

Despite my relocation agent showing me the way to the office, I got massively lost driving to work the next day. It was still dark when I headed out and the roads and landmarks looked very different so I ended up taking the wrong exit. I drove aimlessly around the city trying to figure out how to get back but by sheer luck, I accidentally found my way to the office. But not after being lost for about 1 1/2 hours! Thankfully, there were no more untoward incidents driving to and from work after that.

I did have a few more memorable driving moments in Brussels. I experienced driving from one country to another for the first time in my life. My Filipino friend Brian visited Belgium and while he was there, we decided to drive to Luxembourg, which was about 2 hours away by car. We had no issues getting there but we got terribly lost in Brussels on our way home. We had to ask for directions many times before eventually finding our way. The same thing happened to me when my mom visited. On her last day, I drove her to the airport and I got massively lost heading back. I later discovered that the reason I kept getting lost was that I was following taking the wrong exit from the expressway. Apparently, when driving back from the airport or the expressway to the Brussels City Center (which is where I lived), the easiest route is to follow the signs to Leuven and not to Brussels.

Me in Luxembourg

I also discovered that during rush hour, traffic can be pretty brutal in Brussels as well, especially in the inner ring. On one particularly strange day, the traffic was backed up and I actually saw about five minor collisions. Wow! Many of my Belgian colleagues told me that they try to avoid driving in Brussels as they themselves have experienced getting a bit lost or being stuck in traffic.

I also experienced driving in snow for the first time. As I headed out the garage to go to work one morning, I saw that it was snowing a lot! Despite driving really carefully, I was still very anxious. The most heart-pounding moment was when light changed at an intersection. I stepped lightly on my brakes so that I would slowly draw to a halt but my car felt like it was slipping. I was so worried that my car would go all the way to the middle of the intersection but thankfully my car stopped in time. That still rates as one of the scariest driving experiences I've had in my life.

A snow-covered car (not mine)

Because of the weather, I did get to experience my first "Winter Wonderland" as the ground was covered under a blanket of snow.


I also experienced my coldest temperature at -13 Celsius, and that hasn't taken into account the windchill factor. To make things worse, during that period of tremendous cold, I had to attend a 3-day training in our production plant. Unfortunately, the training room was in the opposite end of the plant and you had to walk outdoors to get there; you couldn't walk inside the plant. It was about a five minute walk outdoors in below zero temperatures. As if that wasn't enough, the cafeteria was right next to the plant entrance. So everyday, through the frigid weather, we had to walk 5 minutes to the training room at the start of the day, 5 minutes to the cafeteria for lunch break, 5 minutes to the training room again after lunch, then 5 (or more) minutes back to the parking lot to head home. Even my European colleagues were having major difficulties with the cold!



More memorable moments during my stint in Belgium in my next post.

No comments: