Massive crowds and porta loos met my expectations, but I was surprised at the number of families present. Lots of children and a different atmosphere to what I was expecting. In hindsight, a picnic blanket would have been in order.

A few of my favourite parts of the day – the wall of festival posters lined up along a wall – with people selecting their ‘ideal’ year, Elbow’s performance taking me by surprise and our 15+ long conga line to exit the venue!

The Spanish Festival seems like it was forever ago, yet it was only a few months ago that my dear friend Daryl decided to make the trek from Bonn to Brussels for a weekend of catching up and dithering about the chocolate city.

Very quickly, we ran out of things to do.

Some interns suggested going to the Spanish Festival and we took the lengthy train ride out to the Atomium, Belgium’s emblematic silver structure originally built for the 1958 World Fair. I’m quite proud, considering that in all the months I’d spent in Belgium to date, this was my first trip.

The Festival, ended up being a brilliant, sunny day out full of paella and early morning cocktails and *shock* sunshine. Much more sunshine and people that I’d come to expect in Belgium. Excellent food and music coupled with happy, smiling Spaniards.

We capped off an excellent morning with the ultimate downer: Mini Europe. I’d been warned against it, but after going so far out of town it seemed like a good idea. Travellers beware, Mini Europe is expensive, functions poorly and a the iconic buildings of some countries are a little less than iconic.

Tina’s adventures with kaas souffle, are best described by pictures. The short version is that burning kaas souffle causes black smoke to billow out of the kitcken, into the lounge room interrupting whatever distraction caused you to leave the kaas souffle in the first place.

The aftermath

Tina in distress!

A few weeks ago I was invited to a sustainability movie night. None of us had very much information; an invite extended from a friend, to a friend, to some more friends so us at the end of the chain were a bit vague on the whole plan.

When we arrived, we found that to help celebrate EU Green Week, Disney Nature were providing an advanced screening of ‘Pollen’. The close ups and slow motion shots were pretty incredible on the big screen.

I also had my fourth spotting of a famous European, with Commissioner for Environment, Janez Potocnik speaking to open the event.

The free popcorn was a bonus.

I spent the weekend in Picknick in Rotterdam in good company, catching up with some work as I not only miss good coffee, but also Sydney’s teleworking culture. When I went to pay the bill the easiest way to identify our table was: ‘Erm… the bill for the table with the six lattes…’

I love the cafe culture in Rotterdam, so here is a quick introduction to my four homes away from home. And they all have wi-fi…

Bagels and Beans is a chain operating across the Netherlands bringing good bagels, good coffee and general happiness to their patrons. It’s my weekend staple for a bowl of coffee.

Picknick is, well, like going to a very Dutch picnic. Everything is homemade, or sourced directly from a farm, and everything you order comes with something a little bit Dutch. A homemade relish, jam or biscuit just baked that morning. Mmm… Picknick…

Urban Espresso Bar, or UEB is just that. It makes me feel like I’m in a hole-in-the-wall cafe in Sydney. It’s not my favourite place to work from, but it’s excellent for a quick weekend coffee (provided you can find a table).

Lebkov & Sons is conveniently located just near the train station, and I only discovered it recently. Amazing sandwiches, but even better café à emporter for my 7am train rides back to Brussels on a Monday morning.

Come on Brussels, couldn’t you just have one of these?

In the last few days I’ve been thinking about food, and the experiences that people have with food while travelling and my year in Brussels. Aside from being spoiled by the proximity of the Flagey markets and one outstanding meal in Bruges, Brussels hasn’t been outstanding for fresh food, and utterly dismal for coffee.

Perhaps that’s why in my list of awesome Belgian foods, it’s the simple things:

• Chicon au gratin, which is endive grilled, wrapped in ham and baked. It’s taken quite a bit of practice to master my own version, but now I’ve conquered the slightly bitter, salty, creamy dish.
• Brioche, which is basically bread’s more awesome cousin who went on exchange to France and came back with a cakey twist.
• Chevre, or goats cheese, which kept appearing in my refrigerator thanks to my lovely flatmate Tina and her penchant to ‘try a different one each time’.
• Croissants which I’ve come to know all too well…

Overall, the things I learned about competitive table tennis were:

• China breeds some impressive ping pong players
• Who likes short shorts? Table tennis players like short shorts.
• It’s not a major sporting tournament until the Space Jam theme song has blared through the stadium
• Ben and Jerry’s vending machines are the bomb

I’ll let the photos speak for themselves, but basically vineyards, warm weather, wine tasting and being spoiled all round.

One of the markers of Veuve Clicquot's vines

Drinking in public is allowed

Veuve Clicquot's mansion

Mum + wine + vines

Bottles ageing in the chalk caves beneath Reims

Remembering Joan of Arc in Reims

Bruges is a small city in the North of Belgium, existing since around the 12th centry. It’s heyday was from the 12th – 15th century when it operated as a trading city.

To be honest, I went to Bruges with low expectations. So many people raved about how amazing and quaint the city was, and I wasn’t sure if it would live up to the hype. It’s a little town, built on canals, filled with art galleries, churches with holy relics and chocolate stores, but with a few surprises along the way.

Laneways in Bruges

For one, it has unexpectedly excellent shopping, the best food I’ve eaten since I’ve been in Belgium, a marching band and the constant sounds (and smells) of horses. It’s very touristy but I’m not one to complain when I’ve kicked back in the shade with a pot of mussels and a Belgian beer.

Bruges and sunshine!

Before coming to Brussels, I took a four-hour crash course in French. The idea was that at least I could learn how the words sound, get in an assortment of ‘hello’, ‘goodbye’, ‘I would like’ and ‘Help!’ before coming to Belgium. I’m very aware of my poor foreign language skills, and the few times I’ve dabbled with a language have failed. As a result, I didn’t have high expectations of how much French I could learn in the year, and I wanted to ensure I was learning the most relevant phrases.

One exchange with my tutor was as follows:

Tutor: ‘For example, you would say la confiture if you wanted to order jam or marmalade’

Me: ‘But I don’t really like jam. I wouldn’t need to order jam. I’m not going to remember that word.’

Tutor: ‘Well, you can at least say that you wouldn’t like jam: Non confiture sil vous plait.’

Me: (still not sold on the idea of wasting important memory on unimportant and obscure French words begrudgingly) ‘ok. La confiturrrrrr’

For months afterwards, the term ‘la confiture’ has stuck in my head.

It was utterly useless until a few weeks ago, during a breakfast with my Mum who was visiting from Australia. I ordered coffee and croissants and was about to tuck in when Mum asked ‘Do you think I could I get some jam?’

My language ‘aha’ moment of the year.

Croissant avec la confiture