"A tale of two cities...or more" a Brussels Travel Page by Sjalen

The "Capital of Europe" has many faces which makes it hard to make up you mind about her but there are some real gems. As a former expat in Brussels for more than five years (I left in 2002), I have a sort of love-hate relationship to her. One day it rained and rained and the streets were full of dog fouls and blackened houses, people quarreled over whether to speak French or Flemish in this officially bilingual city and there was nowhere I could take a small child. The next day, I went to work amongst people speaking a minimum of eleven languages between us, spring came earlier than it would in Sweden and up popped some surreal art installation or wonderful jazz evening. Most cities benefit from good weather but no more so than Brussels with its already often dark houses. It is a completely different city in sunshine which you unfortunately do not get enough of.

Brussels itself is only the core of the city, sprawling out in a peculiar fashion here and there on the map, and is surrounded by more than a dozen other municipalities that us foreigners also bundle up as Brussels but which are separate entities to the locals and if you move here you will soon find that you are a citizen of Ixelles, Etterbeek or something rather than Brussels. There is one public transport system and the hospitals are shared but depending on where you live, you have a special garbage collecting system and belong to the cable TV company of the "commune". Some communes are more Flemish speaking and some more French speaking, although today French seems predominant in all these city communes whilst Flemish is the language of the surrounding fringes. Historically, it was not always so, and Brussels is in fact the capital of Flanders which is why you will see a lot of yellow flags with the black Flemish griffin on in the city as you walk past Flemish ministries and other administration.

I find it strange that a city sells itself on internet with the ad "Go to Brussels - it's so close to Paris!" but nevertheless, I shall always look upon Brussels with that special feeling you can only have for the place where your child was born...