Here is my initial brain-storm of places I’d like to visit while I’m here for the next 5 and a half months. Obviously, I may have to strike some from the list if time isn’t permitting. What am I forgetting? Let’s talk about it in the comments section.
I’ve been using the Google Translator this morning, and I am extremely impressed. It let’s you plug in statements in English, and it spits back the translation in almost any language you would want. But even more useful is the ability to translate entire websites. For example, today I’m looking for sport leagues/clubs to join in Brussels and I’m using quefaire.be (translated “What to do” — the “.be” is like “.com” for Belgian sites). The whole site is in French, and I could have wasted hours trying to figure out what a lot of it was saying. Instead, through the beauty of modern Google technology, I just plug the URL into the google translator, and voila — quefair.be in English.
Before (the standard site):
After (the site translated into English):
Over the last couple days I’ve been working with a relocation company to find an apartment for my stay in Brussels (I’m still in the tragically located hotel). I think I’m close to securing the the one place that really interested me out of the 8 that I saw. It’s in the Sablon area of Brussels, right next to the Grand Place. I don’t want to jinx it by posting pictures yet, but look for an update early this week.
I finally made it to Brussels, Belgium yesterday morning at 8 AM. It seems like a long time coming since I knew I was going to be moving here (look for a future post regarding that whole process - and why it took so long).
Day 1
The first day was pretty uneventful really. I made my first crucial mistake — booking the wrong hotel. Apparently there are at least three “Crown Plazas” in the Belgium area…something I didn’t think about when booking. So when I told a taxi to “take me to the Crown Plaza”, I ended up at the wrong one, and had to pay another taxi to take me to the right one. To make matters worse, the “right one” is way out by the Brussels air port which will make my daily commute about 40 minutes of train and metro, when it could have been a two minute walk. Hopefully the hotel can work out a switch in the next couple days. I’ll only be in a hotel for two weeks anyway while I find an apartment.
Even though it’s the wrong hotel, it’s still pretty cool. Check out this video of the elevator ride:
Otherwise on day one, I walked around trying to stay awake from the jet lag. I fell asleep on the bus and a stranger woke me up around 3 PM — awesome.
Then I realized that I was kidding myself when I thought I could function two days without a snap-shot camera, so I bought a new one. But this is the reason, I didn’t have any pictures from day 1. I didn’t feel like lugging around my big camera. We’ll bring that out on special occasions.
Day 2
Ok so day 2 was much more interesting. Probably because I wasn’t sleep walking all day.
My first objective was to find my work building. It was at this point that I stumbled across the 3rd Crown Plaza… right next to the office. So my commute for the next two weeks is 50 minutes of trains and metros when it could have been a two minute walk. Anyway… Check out how close the office is to the European Union Parliament Building:
Right next to work is the Parc du Cinquantenaire. Here are some pics:
There are two museums connected to the big arch in the pictures. I went into one to get some details and heard about a special deal they are about to run next month called The Nocturnes. Apparently they open up all of the major museums of Brussels every Thursday night and only charge 1 Euro for admission (Steal!). Now my Thursday nights will be almost as culturally enriching as they were in college (ahem..). Seriously though, this works out nicely because I plan to travel most weekends and wouldn’t have had much time to see the museums.
I had lunch at Cafe Metropole, and had the Croquettes de Crevettes. A very very good meal. I will be back, and order the same thing, for sure.
I thought this soccer/basketball area was pretty cool. It was in the Parc du Cinquantenaire:
I saw multiple men’s suit advertisements depicting rage (a sign of the culture?):
I found a great English language book store and ended up buying a few. I want to learn a bit about Belgian beer, so I was faced with two top choices:
I chose Tim Webb’s book, because what the hell does Michael Jackson know about Belgian Beer?
I gave some serious thought to buying a “learn French” book, but the cover was just too rediculous
At one point, I even stumbled upon a movie set:
After all of this I was pretty tired, so I hopped back on a train to begin the 50 minute commute back to my hotel in the sticks.
I’ve decided that I want to choose a new name for this blog, so that I can reserve blakesamic.com for something a little more professional. I’m having trouble thinking of a name, so I’m looking for your help! If you can think of something good, just respond with a comment on this post.
This blog will focus on what I’m doing, and offer my thoughts on business, technology, and the world. Maybe that will help you come up with a sweet name…
