"Belgium - a trip to the surreal" a Belgium Travel Page by Sjalen

"Belgium?! What do you want to move there for?" said all my friends. OK, they knew it was work that took me there and that I probably would not have chosen it as my first destination otherwise but this still typifies the reaction you often get. If people know anything Belgian at all, it is Tintin, the beer and the chocolate. In Sweden, Belgium is also known from TV news where we have seen animals being tortured at the market and various scandals involving pedofiles.

This is why I want to show that there are other sides to this country which in total is smaller than the Swedish province my family comes from! I lived here for more than five years and yes, there are some things I never got used to, such as the supermarket queues because too many check-outs are closed and the staff is chatting whilst the customers look for their purses or argue about a discount voucher - and no shopping on Sundays. This would never work in Sweden or the UK. But there are also things I have adopted in my life now (I never run for a metro - there's always another). I have also become a beer snob and won't drink anything when I am in Sweden but instead pay a little extra for something good.

My main problem (apart from Brussels itself not being by the sea - you will see that most of my daytrips were to West Flanders) was the weather. It rains and rains and rains. I can stand darkness and cold but this constant grey sky makes me sad. I also find the language divide frustrating. Just by having the Flemish TV channels programmed before the French (since I speak English and German better than French and the Flemish subtitle instead of dub programmes) I have made a stand in Belgian society even though this might not at all be true - it just so happens that I moved here speaking almost no French and the Flemish speakers are the ones who speak more English for natural reasons. Thus, another example is my phone account which was also set up in Flemish as I asked for the English speaking customer services. I then got my phonebill in Flemish...Welcome to Belgium!

But again, there are so many nice sides to it too. As a tourist you won't notice this I hope, but the health care is fantastic. None of the queues you get in Scandiavia to see a specialist. Banking is also something they excel at (even if a colleague got a bank account number already in use once). Internet banking in several languages? No problem. Belgium is a country used to everyone popping in for a visit :)

As you can see, it really is black or white. Now that I have moved home, I can sometimes listen to a bit of Jacques Brel and feel nostalgic about the way he sings in both French and Flemish...I also get happy when I see more and more Belgian bars and chocolate shops in Scandinavia! But I cannot import the lovely medieval cities of Flanders of course...