Vivre à Bruxelles est simplement merveilleux! / In Brussel leven is eenvoudigweg wonderlijk!
Last night snowed in Brussels for the first time this autumn. Actually is the first time it really snowed since I'm here.
Being Portuguese I’m still fascinated about snow!
It is great to see the snow falling, following the wind blow in a multitude of directions, while we are eating some mussels or having a drink at an Irish Pub. It’s nice to see the streets filled with fresh snow and the scenery quickly changing into white.
But this I’ve seen before. What I’m not used to are the downsides of it. It’s not so nice when you're freezing under the snow trying to get a taxi (which are, as usual in Brussels, scarce). Or when you’re going at 20 to 30 Km/h all the way because the roads are covered by snow. Or when the taxi driver has difficulties to advance after each stop, because the wheels are sliding (well, he could be doing this on purpose to get some more Euros in the meter).
A friend was telling me that snow was already foreseen for last night. So why the heck didn’t they put salt in the roads? (The big mystery over where is almost half of my salary going every month remains.) Some moments later, slowly going around an icy Montgomery roundabout, the taxi driver finally complains. Finally! Belgians also acknowledge it…
Of course the authorities had to know about the snow. I hadn’t. Therefore I meet again this morning the downsides of the snow. The clothes I had outside for a couple of days where, lets say, not wet, not frozen, I would say snowy.
And I must tell it was a very strange feeling to see snow on my bedroom’s balcony. I’m used to see it in the movies, I’ve seen it in different cities when visiting, but on my bedroom’s balcony… it’s just weird.
Going out, I can see that after all it pays off to have a concierge in the building. The entrance was already clean. The same didn’t happen with the sidewalks, where the snow was now slipery ice, and with the streets, where it was now dirty brown (where are the salt trucks or the snow-cleaners????).
In front of the shops, people are cleaning the entrance. It’s great that they actually do it because where they didn’t, it turned into ice and people were struggling not to slide. I was not going to buy anything, but if I was, I knew already where not to. The ones with snow in front still!
But it’s great to find this new scenarios. This new city I didn’t see before. It evens helps to notice details that before I couldn’t.
Brussels is beautiful dressed in white.
Have I ever complained about this city? I must have been out of my mind.
Living in Brussels is simply wonderful!
Or like our Galician friends would say:
Vivir en Bruxelas é caralludo!
PS: Being Brussels a bilingual region, I had to put the title in both languages. Just to be fair! After all, I think it's in all this stuff that my taxes get lost, so let's respect it!
Being Portuguese I’m still fascinated about snow!
It is great to see the snow falling, following the wind blow in a multitude of directions, while we are eating some mussels or having a drink at an Irish Pub. It’s nice to see the streets filled with fresh snow and the scenery quickly changing into white.
But this I’ve seen before. What I’m not used to are the downsides of it. It’s not so nice when you're freezing under the snow trying to get a taxi (which are, as usual in Brussels, scarce). Or when you’re going at 20 to 30 Km/h all the way because the roads are covered by snow. Or when the taxi driver has difficulties to advance after each stop, because the wheels are sliding (well, he could be doing this on purpose to get some more Euros in the meter).
A friend was telling me that snow was already foreseen for last night. So why the heck didn’t they put salt in the roads? (The big mystery over where is almost half of my salary going every month remains.) Some moments later, slowly going around an icy Montgomery roundabout, the taxi driver finally complains. Finally! Belgians also acknowledge it…
Of course the authorities had to know about the snow. I hadn’t. Therefore I meet again this morning the downsides of the snow. The clothes I had outside for a couple of days where, lets say, not wet, not frozen, I would say snowy.
And I must tell it was a very strange feeling to see snow on my bedroom’s balcony. I’m used to see it in the movies, I’ve seen it in different cities when visiting, but on my bedroom’s balcony… it’s just weird.
Going out, I can see that after all it pays off to have a concierge in the building. The entrance was already clean. The same didn’t happen with the sidewalks, where the snow was now slipery ice, and with the streets, where it was now dirty brown (where are the salt trucks or the snow-cleaners????).
In front of the shops, people are cleaning the entrance. It’s great that they actually do it because where they didn’t, it turned into ice and people were struggling not to slide. I was not going to buy anything, but if I was, I knew already where not to. The ones with snow in front still!
But it’s great to find this new scenarios. This new city I didn’t see before. It evens helps to notice details that before I couldn’t.Brussels is beautiful dressed in white.
Have I ever complained about this city? I must have been out of my mind.
Living in Brussels is simply wonderful!
Or like our Galician friends would say:
Vivir en Bruxelas é caralludo!
PS: Being Brussels a bilingual region, I had to put the title in both languages. Just to be fair! After all, I think it's in all this stuff that my taxes get lost, so let's respect it!
posted by Pedro at 12:04 PM
1 comments
