‘In the city of great expectations - is it time to settle for what you can get?’
That was said about New York and one should not even dare to compare Brussels to NYC.
Still, it is definitely getting better here for me. It is a new season – a very good one. Finally, there is the good mix – the mix of places and people.
After fabulous reunions with my friends met in Morocco I was left alone by them as they all headed to their countries all over Europe and Northern Africa. Luckily I still have Verena – my friend met in Morocco who was there for 2 months of the summer 2007 and then left back home. Our friendship continued in Madrid (where she did her Erasmus semester) and in Rabat again (where she visited me last May). Then, luckily and totally by chance, we both got jobs / internships in Brussels as of September 2008. She was (and still is) my most important contact of Brussels. We both went through the same process of the initial disappointment of our lives in the capital of Europe and further exploration of the city and its people which resulted in some more exciting life-styles.
Wednesday, 19 Nov - we went to a newly found supposedly hot spot of Brussels – Red line – a lounge bar that hosted the Kitchen of Soul party. Promoted as ‘1 event and 5 discoveries’ (live concert, exhibition, tribute to genius of music, gastronomy, travel in the past) it didn’t actually enable me to discover most of them. Maybe I left too early because of disappointment and was not patient enough to wait longer. Luckily, I was accompanied by right people and thus not bored there. You can have fun anywhere even if the atmosphere is not encouraging. I guess this was the rule of Rabat – although it’s a nice place to live if you don’t know the right people you might be bored really quickly. As you might guess it was not the case for me.
Thursday, 20 Nov. Back in Havana – happy hour and you can drink for two but pay for one. My stomach and liver would strongly disagree. Of course they had nothing to say (actually they were pretty annoyed but it was only on the day after). Havana – a mix of right people in the right place. Something I really need on Thursday night (everyday?). I met Verena and Ronny (who is the most fabulous and classy straight guy I had ever met) and danced with some random gals. And I also had a nice conversation with this Kenyan woman working for the Kenyan embassy in Belgium (did I mention I have a soft spot for diplomats?). Crazy party during the week.
I left around 11.30 PM and before heading for metro and while being a bit dizzy I sat on the concrete fence near Palais de Justice just near the elevator. You can have a nice view of Brussels from this place and so I enjoyed it and thought about the city while having a conversation with it. It is another average and undervalued city (and I understand why it’s undervalued) where I ended up living. It is not very big and said to be boring. Despite that I discovered a lot and now I am living a fabulous life here. How did that happen? I guess I got the answer some months ago from my friend Stephanie (whom I will visit in Aix-en Provence near Marseille this weekend) but during my first days in Brussels I thought she had been wrong. She was not. She told me once that whenever she had gone abroad she had always hanged out with the same kind of people. ‘This is the law of attraction, my dear’ she said ‘even if you don’t believe in it; we always attract the same kind of people as we are always ourselves no matter where in the world we are thrown to’. Now, I think I have finally attracted the same species of people here.
Thursday, 27 Nov – the aforementioned theory just got confirmed. I went to Mirano - a club placed in an old theatre, located there since no one remembers when and being one of the most hard-to-get places of the whole Brussels. A few days before I called Verena and told her we were going to Mirano. When I showed up at the door, gave my name and went through a thrilling and seemingly never-ending moment of waiting for Kamil W. to be found on the list, I entered let inside by a cliché couple – a handsome and big, I-go-to-the-gym-everyday guy with almost no neck and cute blond after him. I immediately found Verena at the bar with her two friends (one was the glass of wine and the other was her work mate). There was a band playing on the stage but it just reminded me of concerts and my fear of crowds so we just stayed at the bar. After the concert, we decided to explore Mirano and walk around through the different floors and staircases to see what people were up to. Minute by minute, hour by hour, we would bump into all the people that you should know in Brussels and I was lucky to know from before. Why to know them? Because, they are smart, cute, intelligent and funny party animals – the most fab mix I always look for. Why did we bump into them? Because we are the same, we have connection and we go to the same places. At the beginning the music was not as good as in Havana but the party was great anyway.
Friday, 28 Nov – after a surprisingly not boring dinner with my work mates on the late evening of Friday, I immediately headed home, changed and went to the centre where around midnight I met some of my friends. After leaving our favourite PP café because of some crazy people spilling beers on each other and breaking glasses while dancing, we decided that we were not going to start hating PP. It has a great design, atmosphere and every Sunday evening there is a cool guy playing piano. That was just a bad night and some assholes around. So Magda and I went ‘chez Richard’ à la Place du Grand Sablon. It turned out to be a spot with amazing world hits of 70s and 80s and some great French music – the latter not known to me at all but totally awesome. The average age of the people was surely more than 40. Yet, all those people were having great fun. I guess I wasn’t as crazy as them while dancing. I immediately admitted to Magda I would like to look like them in my 40s or 50s – forty, fifty and fabulous. Another important notice to mention – most of them was Belgians. Few expats involved. It kind of felt really good to plunge into the ‘local’ environment and take a break from expats’ community. Definitely, it is a place to be revisited and a party to be repeated.
Saturday, 29 Nov – again 70s and 80s party (I guess my friend was right when she referred to me as a person with no presence but just with the past and the future). It was held in Autoworld museum in the hearth of the Parc du Cinquantenaire / Jubelpark. It’s the park with the huge and impressive gate built in 1905 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the independence of Belgium. There is a tunnel just under the park and part of it is exposed but fenced from the park by a high hedge. There are two holes cut off the hedge and when you look down you can see the four lanes of the underground highway and the cars passing. You can be in the park and enjoy the nature but still feel you are in a city – sounds like a perfect mix for me. As I have already mentioned the party took place in the Autoworld which is an automobile museum in the fancy warehouse on the right wing of the building (that also includes the gate) within the park. The warehouse is massive, having a high glass and steel roof. The space is filled with some old cars and you can look at them through a huge window while being in the Autoworld club and enjoying a glass of gin avec tonic. Upon leaving the party you go through the gate, pass the exposed tunnel, the park and just admire the picturesque views of the melanges between the nature and the human-constructed facilities. A perfect come-back home from a great party.
So I guess I re-established the kind of life I had in Morocco. I attracted great people and found fabulous places. I am wondering what more I could expect. Or maybe don’t expect anything and just live it the way it is.
And the most important conclusion - I know I will have a fabulous life in more places of the world than I can even think of. Because it's not only about the places - this is mostly about me.
Life is a party, isn’t it?
