Over ten years ago, in the summer of 2013, I found myself as a finalist in a video competition, scoring a free trip to Brussels for the European Parliament Youth Forum Festival. Fresh out of my second university year, this marked my first solo travel adventure. I can’t say that I fell in love with the city, but I could definetly see my self living there. I really had a nice time! That’s my peculiar way of assessing a city and most of them don’t pass. Like Paris, I wouldn’t live in Paris.
Luckily, my festival commitments were brief, leaving me with ample free time over my four-day stay. Given my introverted nature, mingling in the festival was uncomfortable, especially with everyone engaged in their own events. I don’t remember everything of this trip in detail, but what I’m trying to do here, is to describe a feeling.
On the first day I meet with other finalists and we went all together to see the Magritte Museum. The general rule there was that if you’re under 27 years old, you get the student discount. So we got in with 2€ instead of 8€. Again this was 2013, but still it was very cheap compared to other cities, like Vienna for example. I really enjoyed the exhibit. I had seen some of René Magritte’s works before in prints and postcards, but never knew the artist behind them.
I was the last to exit the museum and everybody had been waiting me for about 15 minutes. This was the moment when the group had some tensions and decided to split. I went another way with 2 other fellow finalists and went sightseeing. Lucky for us it didn’t rain. After the walk we went in the forum to present our works and the winner was announced. I could say that it was a well deserved win, a nicely made stop motion, that unfortunately was not mine. However, compering my competition entry to the one who won, I can say I was pretty lucky even to win this trip.
Another day, I remember walking in the main square and drinking a beer in a bar that was in a very nice corner of Grand-Place. That’s where I discovered the peculiar one-hour limit per drink order. Tried the famous Brussels waffles in a street shop near by and I didn’t like it one bit. while exploring Old Town, of course I went looking for ‘Manneken Pis’. My father had a statue of him when I was growing up, and I was very curious to see the real deal.
One early evening I was with an Albanian friend that lived there and we bought 2 Bonobo Concert tickets outside the concert hall while it was about to start. I never heard of the artist before, but he had a great band & songs. Best decision ever to embrace my rare spontaneity. After the concert we headed to the after party, in a close by bar. There was another band playing: two saxophones and a drum, with covered faces! They played international hits songs of the moment, only with those 3 instruments in a brilliant way. The night unfolded with good beer, a discount courtesy of our concert tickets, and an unexpectedly dizzying delight.
I remember taking the metro all the way to the Atomium building. It really felt like a remote area. The building was nice, but I didn’t get in. Some other time, I was in the Museum of Musical Instruments. There were some very strangely shaped instruments and you could hear how they sounded with headphones that the museum provided.
From painting and design to sculptures and music, the journey culminated in the Seventh Art. I went to Cinematek and is the only destination I truly believe it’s a must in Brussels. Cinematek is a lot of things, except being the Royal Film Archive of Belgium, but what I experienced was a modest free museum of film & camera objects in the entrance. Once I explored the museum, and took an exaggerated amount of fotos, the screening of an old silent Black & White movie was about to start. I bought the ticket and discovered that it was accompanied by a live piano music. It was so great! Unfortunately the movie was French with German subtitles. It was one of the times I really made use of my little French & Italian knowledge.
On the last day I visited the Fashion & Lace Museum. I was very passionate about textile and sewing during that time and this visit was a must for me. They had a great collection from the 60s & the 70s. It was a time-travel through fashion. The lace exhibition was smaller, however very interesting as well. I left inspired from that magical place and grateful for the post-modern time I’m living.
Brussels now feels like a collection of surprising moments and fond memories and I hope I saved the essence of them in this piece.
