Well I have managed to find a "hotel apartment" (http://www.be-housing.be/En/). Now this has been fun as I am here for just over six months and all of the apartment people want to keep them available for the Eurocrats who don't really care what they pay as long as they get a receipt. The last thing I want is to get thrown out at the end of 5 months and try and find somewhere when every hotel pretty much doubles its price. For those of us on a fixed "away allowance" i.e. flights, food and accommodation are in the allowance and that’s ALL I get regardless of costs, this is slightly less fun.
I was mildly wary as the reviews were very mixed, but the location made the commute to work a lot less painful than the hotel had been. i.e. it is less than a 10 min walk to Gare du Nord station and you ca get anywhere in Brussels (or in fact Europe) fairly easily from there.
Following my usual pattern in a new location, I went walkabout. This s pretty much two fold. First to see any of the local stores, restaurants, bars, cafes etc that I might want to visit and secondly once I have walked somewhere I have a map in my head and cannot get lost.
The first night was a bit comical, and for anyone that does not know, any area that has condom machines bolted to the street walls, probably gets a "bit rowdy" late at night! SO that writes off that quarter (honest boss). The next quarter I found, was funny in a different way. Primarily full of Turkish immigrants, but giving the area a very strange flavour:
Shops - General food stores about the size of a postage stamp and specialising in such things as olives or pickled vegetables
Bars - Again postage stamp size and generally full of large older men with more hair in their moustache's than I have on the whole of my head.
Restaurants - Eat any food you want as long as it is traditional Belgian food (Frites - French Fries) or traditional Turkish food (Kebab - Kebob)
Well after my adventures last night, I decided I would be a bit more professional about it tonight i.e. look at Google maps or my GPS before going walkabout. Guess what, I found the European quarter and am now a happy bunny. This generally being defined as places to eat when I do not want to cook and somewhere to buy chicken (that will not kill me) when I do want to cook.
Oh well one of my co-workers very kindly brought me a bottle of Belgian beer from their local brewery and I'm off to finish it now!
TTFN (first and only time to explain, its from Winnie the Poo and stands for "Ta Ta For Now"
Random thoughts for future weirdness. Drop me a line and I might even write them
Safe placed to buy chicken around the world without dying
GPS phones and why they are useless on foot, but still worth having
European roaming and how to avoid a mortgage to pay them
Windows mobile or Blackberry addiction and how to survive if your management will not pay your mobile data roaming charges.
How much electronics can you put in a backpack without being strip searched at every airport.
Tell me what day it is and I will tell you where I am
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