Shopping in Brussels used to be a very frustrating experience for me: I spent hours in crowded streets and chain stores without finding anything. Something was missing: the small, cool boutiques. Maybe I just didn’t know where to find them?
I thought I’d share some personal observations and impressions about living in Brussels. But first, let me make myself clear that I’m only talking about the city and people of Brussels, not Belgium as a whole. I believe Brussels is like Paris in that it’s like a small country within a country. It seems to be quite different than the rest of Belgium.
Before visiting Berlin for the first time in 2005, I didn’t really know what to expect. Even if I had heard only positive stories about it, I thought it would be a tiring city full of ugly buildings and traffic noise (I don’t really know where this impression came from; probably my ignorance). I’m so glad I was wrong – Berlin is such a nice and creative city.