Me llegó este artículo por email y como estoy 100% de acuerdo lo comparto con ustedes... es cierto que Bruselas no tiene el charm que Paris, New York, Tokyo o Londres...
Como quien lo escribe, también caí aquí por accidente y quien sabe si como dice el artículo de aquí saldré con los pies por delante, pero es que la ciudad tiene su encanto escondido...tal vez en sus árboles en sus casitas de 4 pisos que te hacen matenerte en forma y en un no sé que de ese ambiente internacional...
Otra victima de esta lenta seducción...voila...
The Guardian, Wednesday August 29, 2007
Gareth Harding
Living in Brussels is like living in a golden cage - you feel trapped
and you dream of escaping almost every day. But you never do because you
know life will be more difficult, more complicated and more expensive on
the outside.
I should know. In 1993 I came to the Belgian capital to do a five-month
traineeship at the European commission. Fourteen years later and I´m
still here, complaining about the squally weather, lousy service and
infuriating officialdom, making plans to move to Britain, the United
States or the south of France but secretly suspecting that the most
likely way I´ll leave Brussels is in a coffin.
I am not alone. Virtually any expat you speak to has a similar story to
tell about outstaying his or her welcome. In fact, playwright Alecky
Blythe fashioned a whole drama around the everyday twittering of
Brussels´ expats in 2005. Unsurprisingly, the title was `I Only Came
Here for Six Months´.
When you tell new arrivals you have been in Brussels for 14 years, as I
have, they nod sympathetically - as if you told them your pet cat has
died. Their brows furrow and they ask: 'How did that happen?'
'By accident', is my usual reply. Few people fantasise about
living in
Brussels, as they do about living in Prague, Paris, Rome or Barcelona.
If an expat moves to the self-styled capital of Europe it is probably
because he has got a job in Nato or one of the EU institutions, has a
diplomatic posting here, has been sent by his company or, less commonly,
has found the love of his life here. It is probably not because he has
been pining to live in Brussels all his life and finds the city
romantic, the Belgian people welcoming and the countryside that
surrounds the city stunning.
Most foreigners arrive with low expectations and some are not
disappointed. American travel writer Bill Bryson once described the city
as a 'seriously ugly place, full of wet litter, boulevards like
freeways
and muddy building sites', and many people still associate the
Belgian
capital with rain, sprouts, bloated bureaucracy and barmy laws. This is,
after all, a city whose two most iconic monuments are of a sackload of
suspended balls and a small boy peeing.
Expats who have been in Brussels a long time often feel embarrassed
about how long they have been in town - especially when talking to
plucky newcomers. For a while I even started lying about how long I´d
been here to avoid people thinking I was a loser who had nowhere better
to go.
So if the tax rates are stratospheric, the customer service shoddy and
the city unspectacular, why do over-educated, multilingual high-flyers
invariably end up staying longer in Brussels than they planned to?
The first reason is that there is a huge difference between visiting a
city and living there. I like going to Paris or London for the weekend -
both less than 2.5 hours away from Brussels - but I wouldn´t want to
live in either city with two young kids and a moderate salary.
For a start I couldn´t afford to. The average rent for a one bedroom, 60
square metre flat in a smart district of Brussels is about €900,
according to Mercer Human Resources Consulting. That is half the average
price in Paris and less than a third the cost of renting in London or
New York. Brussels is also one of the cheapest capitals to buy property
in the EU. According to ERA Real Estate´s 2006 market survey of European
house prices, the average 100 square metre dwelling in Brussels was
€217,462, compared to €297,462 in Paris and €360,427 in London.
Faced with the choice of trading in their four storey
turn-of-the-century townhouses with gardens for a two bedroom flat in
the suburbs of Paris or London, is it any wonder many Brussels´ expats
decide to stay put?
Then there is transport. To travel one stop on the tube in London costs
£4 (about €6.) In Brussels, you can go anywhere in the city by tram,
train, bus or metro for a quarter of the cost - and a fraction of the
time. The rest of the country is cheap and easy to visit too. Belgian
railways charge you less for travelling on weekends and public holidays
than on weekdays - the polar opposite of Britain. There are also huge
reductions for families, students, pensioners and youngsters.
A creeping intoxication
Time and time again, quality of life is the reason expats, especially
those with families, give for staying in Brussels. The hospitals are so
efficient - waiting lists are almost unheard of here - that thousands of
Brits and Dutch drop in each year to have operations they would have to
wait years for at home. A Brussels friend broke his collarbone playing
rugby in Kent and, when told he would have to wait five to six hours to
have it seen to, jumped on the Eurostar at Ashford and two hours later
was being treated by a doctor. The schools are also excellent, with
almost all kids in Brussels brought up bi- or tri-lingual.
Belgians take their food very seriously and this is reflected in the
quality. Per head, the country has more Michelin stars than any other,
but that doesn´t mean you have to take out a second mortgage to eat
well. Around the corner from my house, a relatively upscale restaurant
serves a three-course set lunch for €15. Each dish is a masterpiece.
Finally, there is the beer. Between 400 and 600 ales are brewed in
Belgium - Stella Artois, Leffe and Chimay are the best known
internationally - and an average cafe will have at least 20 on the menu.
In contrast to some neighbouring countries, there are no restrictions on
opening hours and drunken brawls are rare.
Visitors who come to Brussels for a few days are often disappointed. The
magnificent Grand Place aside, there are few must-see sights. Instead
the city´s real charms - surrealist cafes, Moroccan markets, giant beech
forests, comic-strip murals, Congolese eateries and cinemas showing only
silent films - are either tucked away down side streets or marooned in
the sprawling suburbs.
It´s easy to fall in love with cities like Sydney, San Francisco or Rio
de Janeiro. Their attractions are obvious: they ooze seduction and
self-confidence. Brussels is more of a slow-burner. It is a city that
makes little effort to entice or ensnare you, but when it gets you in
its grip it is hard to break free.
El Rey(de Bélgica) dice: Usted me permite que yo venga a escucharlo... yo mismo hay días en que....
