The place to dicuss local topics and to meet others in your area.

IS there anyone from Belgium here?? I used to live there...I miss it.

I'm from Belgium :cool:

Hope to see some more...

This thread looks old but hey...
I'm from Belgium :beer:

JazzCat, where abouts in Belgium are you?

Hi Schoske, I'm from a small town close to Brussels. If I would say the name I'd get laught at :D

No you wouldn't!
I used to live in Tervuren, about 20 mins from either Leuven or Brussels.

Not been very active here and sorry I'm so laaaaaate replying to this thread... but as my nickname implies, yup, Belgian here (Flemish), living in Brussels.

I'm from Belgium! :)

Hello!
How's life in Belgium treating you?

Hello!
How's life in Belgium treating you?

Not so good, actually... Not enough vegan products, not enough health stores... This is gonna be a hard fight! Any advice? :sheep:

My local supermarket was really good in regards to vegetarian products..not sure about vegan ones though..they did have vegan ice cream though! I found most stuff was clearly marked though.
Where abouts are you in Belgium?

Check out http://www.happycow.net/europe/belgium/brussels/index.html
Their lists are normally pretty acurate although there is no listing for Leuven and I remember there were certainly plenty of cafes that did veggie/vegan food (not sure about health food shops though).

The Dolma restaurant is delicious, they have a buffet-type formula so vegans can pick what is suitable for them. I like it because it is child-friendly, I have a very picky child but she does usually find something she likes in the buffet.

As for vegan/vegetarian products, I have no problem with this on a daily basis. I do cook a lot myself, from scratch, and I don't use many "convenience" products or even replacements. I use Delhaize and Colruyt for organic/vegetarian products (they sell tofu, seitan, all the basics) and I find the chain of Bioshop-shops very good. Check here to find the shop nearest to you: http://www.bioshop.be/winkels.html.

Hi there,
Does anyone here know of a good club that books musicians in Brussels or Antwerp? My husband (he plays banjo) is trying to book a tour over there there, but isn't having much luck with finding places. Are there any clubs that any of you go to frequently that have music? If you can think of any, would you let me know? Thanks, much appreciated.

Dag allemaal/salut tout le monde!

I know someone reads this thread once every three months at best, but what the heck, I'm Belgian and I live in Brussels (Elsene/Ixelles to be precise)!

Same here, I check this thread about once a month. Are you Belgian or just living there ? I was born and bred here, lived in Ixelles for 12 years (near the Bd. Général Jacques and avenue de la Couronne) and now live in Auderghem. I now live a quiet family life but I went out a lot when I was single (up to 6 years ago).

Wow, missbelgium we were close neighbors for years! I currently live avenue Emile de Beco, only metres away from Blvd. Général Jacques, what street did you live in? I'm also going to move pretty soon though, I bought an appartment in Uccle.

I was born in Greece and grew up travelling all over the world (but mostly in North America), both my parents are Belgian and I've lived in Brussels for the last 17 years.

Au fait j'imagine que tu es francophone, mais je comme c'est un forum publique je continue d'écrire en anglais....

Hahaha. No I am Flemish actually. I used to live first at rue Fritz Toussaint 16 (6 years), then at rue Henri Marichal 38 (also 6 years). I used to get my newspaper av. de Beco every morning !

Congrats on the apartment. I worked in Uccle for 8 years but always thought public transportation sucked down there. Where we are now (Auderghem) we have the metro at a few hundred metres and a bus also at a hundred metres. Very practical.

We're thinking of possibly moving out of town though as I seem to have health problems which may be partly due to pollution. Although in this crowded little country, pollution is everywhere of course !

Hey guys.. haven't posted here for AGES.
Finally went back to old Belgique to visit some friends the other week.
It was great!!! A little strange as some things were different, but it still felt like home. I ate way too much good food and ended up buying an Axel Red CD, and some Belga ciggs. (bad, I know). I also managed to get beschuit back!
I still hope to move back eventually, but for the time being, thank god for the Eurostar!!

Hahaha. No I am Flemish actually. I used to live first at rue Fritz Toussaint 16 (6 years), then at rue Henri Marichal 38 (also 6 years). I used to get my newspaper av. de Beco every morning !

Congrats on the apartment. I worked in Uccle for 8 years but always thought public transportation sucked down there. Where we are now (Auderghem) we have the metro at a few hundred metres and a bus also at a hundred metres. Very practical.

We're thinking of possibly moving out of town though as I seem to have health problems which may be partly due to pollution. Although in this crowded little country, pollution is everywhere of course !

Sorry to hear about your health. Public transportation sucks in Uccle, which is both is greatest flaw and one of its key assets: metro stops are strongly correlated with high criminality, which is one of the reasons why there is so little crime in Uccle. My car radio has been stolen three times in Ixelles, but that kind of stuff hardly ever happens in Uccle.

And since I have a car, I basically don't care that public transportation is lousy. Is your husband French-speaking? Because usually Flemish people don't like living in Brussels, although there are always exceptions...

Ah, Euroguy... Again, I have to disappoint you (sort of)... my husband (though we are not legally wed) is DUTCH, he is from Amsterdam ! You know... Eurocapital & all that !

I don't know about metro and crime. We have the metro stop at a few hundred metres and our street is virtually crime free (touching wood & crossing fingers). Our front door (on the street) even blew open one night while we were sleeping, I discovered this in the morning and nothing was gone at all... The hairstyling salon around the corner has been held up twice in the past 3 years but I guess this happenes everywhere, metro or not... Then again, my aged mum was mugged in the street (also near a metro station) a year ago by... well... you know... Arab kids, and they could not have got there except by metro (my parents live in Woluwe St Pierre, not exactly a maghreb neighbourhood). (Errr... I don't want to sound racist but this is simply how it is, anyone living in this city will understand so I trust you do, too).

I grew up in Brussels and I actually live a 10 minute walk away from my parent's house and this is simply my town, Flemish or not. The Flemish side of the city is becoming less and less apparent though, except maybe around the Bourse ? Oh, by the way, I lived in the rue Antoine Dansaert for 8 years, just before it became so fashionable.

Arab kids, and they could not have got there except by metro (my parents live in Woluwe St Pierre, not exactly a maghreb neighbourhood). (Errr... I don't want to sound racist but this is simply how it is, anyone living in this city will understand so I trust you do, too).

Yeah I know what you mean. I'm not racist either (not by a long shot) and I know a lot of great Moroccan people, but it is true that it's mostly Moroccans that stop Brussels from being the safe place it could be. My brother was also mugged by Moroccans, again near a metro station. And I'm sure you've heard about the kid who was killed for his MP3 player a few days ago, that was near a metro (and a train) station.

Anyway I must sound like a paranoid security freak, I don't even remember why we started talking about this, it wasn't an important factor in my moving to Uccle. Basically I like the neighbourhood and I found a nice (and not too expensive!) appartment there, but I feel like I could live almost anywhere in Brussels (maybe not Anderlecht...).

Anderlecht has OK parts (our pediatrician lives there in a very posh villa, near the Anderlecht football stadium), but Molenbeek is really bad actually. Uccle is great for the "village" feeling though. I understand your being enthusiastic about it. Watermael Boitsfort has that too (we live quite near this part and use the swimming pool there, as Auderghem does not have a pool).

I like the easygoing mentality of Brussels though, you can speak with almost anyone on the street and I love to meet "real" Bruxellois, who like me grew up here and saw the city change over the years, and speak French and Flemish all in one sentence. Like at the hospital where my daughter was born (Saint Pierre, near the Porte de Hal) some of the older nurses were of authentic Brussels stock. Or in certain quaint shops. Where I work (the Belgian parliament) there are people like that, too. We have really funny conversations sometimes, with Flemish sayings literally translated in French etc ("on est chemin" for "we zijn weg").

How did you come to be a vegetarian/vegan ? I was raised lacto-ovo-veggie by my parents and kept the faith. I am now raising my daughter the same way, and my sister does the same with her two sons. The deal with my partner is "no meat/fish in the house" (except for catfood). He is still an omnivore but his animal consumption takes place outdoors and has, because of that, greatly diminished... I can live with that.

Actually, I became vegetarian last week! It has more to do with environmental & health reasons, but I feel good about sparing some animals from cruelty & the slaughterhouse by not eating meat.

BTW, do you know any good vegetarian restaurants in Brussels? I love going to the restaurant, but I reckon it will be tougher now. :) I went by one near Place Flagey the other day (I don't remember what it was called), I think I'm going to give it a try some day unless you have a better suggestion?

La Porte des Indes (455 Louizalaan) certainly used to be great, with plent of vegetarian choices.