Wednesday, May 31, 2006
It's actually June 2nd... after a couple of very interesting (but cold - oh so cold!) days in Brussels, I'm off to... er... Antwerp or Amsterdam tomorrow. If I decide to give hitchiking a go, you can't quite tell, can you?
It's a good sign that I haven't been able to keep my travelogues entirely up to date - it means that I'm having too much fun!
I will update this page in good time, right now I'm rather thirsty ;-)
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Let's start with a piece of trivia for the uninitiated: Belgium is officially divided into a southern French speaking part, Wallonia / Wallonie, and a northern Flemish (Dutch) speaking part, Flanders / Vlaanderen. Brussels is in the middle, a little island in Flanders, being officially bilingual. What is described by the term "Flanders" has changed a lot through the ages, it could refer to areas both in Belgium, The Netherlands and France. The main train station in Lille, France, for example, is called "Lille Flandres"...
When I arrived in Brussels I went straight to the Van Gogh Centre hostel - a bed + breakfast for 13 euros is a pretty good deal! Met the very friendly Dutch guy Pieter Pauw (what a great name!) and we had an interesting discussion on life, the universe and everything over a few beers (Jupiler - 1 euro per bottle!).
Pieter was exhibiting at the "Green Week" at the European Parliament the day after; a big conference on biodiversity / the environment. Having no particular plans on what to do in Brussels, I thought to myself "what is Brussels if not the 'capital of Europe'?". Just going with the coincidences of life seems to make a lot of sense, and so I told Pieter I that would see him the day after if I could somehow blag my way into the Parliament! Here's Pieter in our room:
In the pissing cold rain I did find the conference the day after. I turned up with the camera (kitted out with the biggest mic and the camera light to make it look as impressive as possible) on the monopod and pretended to be a freelance journalist. Apart from virtually having to get undressed to get through security, the plan worked without a hitch! I suddenly found myself in the middle of a multilingual debate in a big conference room, and, well, I started filming...
My camera didn't look quite so impressive next to the big TV-cameras, but I was nevertheless taken seriously by the people I spoke to. At one point I was actually "hunted down" by people eager to speak to the press! I interviewed them and several others about biodiversity, before turning the conversations towards what I wanted to talk about. As it turned out, this transition was quite smooth; a generally held view was that the diversity or differences between species is the foundation of all life - take away one link and the whole chain falls apart (a bit like Nietzsche's "God is dead!"). And if there's one thing I am trying to say with my documentary, it's that differences are to be cherished...
This is the Dutch stand (with the slogan "Geodiversity = Biodiversity")...
...and yes, my very self and my access card, pretending to be hugely important and having lots of mindblowing things to say about biodiversity (at this point I'd unfortunately run out of batteries for the camera light...):
I even had a close encounter with the European Commissioner of the Environment, or some similar title:
In the evening I succeeded in finding the best place in Brussels for live jazz! Music Village, just behind the Bourse / stock exchange. Drums / bass / piano / violin was an interesting combination, especially as the violinist was very influenced by classical. At times I thought I was listening to a "jazz concerto for violin", tres cool. The drummer and bassist may contribute to the GMC...
The next day was spent discovering the surprisingly beautiful Brussels. It doesn't really compare in beauty or buzz to other European cities, but as I didn't have any expectations, I was positively surprised! This works for any aspect of life, really...
Got a leather necklace for my mouth harp at a market...
...recorded a street musician, Steve, for the GMC...
Notice the iAudio mp3-player in my right hand, and the gobsmackingly brilliant Edirol R1 portable recorder in my left.
...went to the museum of musical instruments...
It's a glasarmonika, stupid!
...and probably the biggest museum of art with lots of Rubens, yawn. Magritte was the most interesting find for me...
Rubens: Abreast of Jesus
My last night in Brussels was spent drinking cheap wine into the early hours with a couple of French girls (who were there to meet the Dalai Lama), a French guy and a Canadian.
The day after, Saturday June 3rd, I decided to save money and gain experiences by hitchhiking to Amsterdam or wherever... I will write more about this in my next travelogue, but I can easily sum it up by saying that hitchhiking, in those areas of the world where it's actually possible, is definitely the most rewarding way of travelling!!
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