Dr. Nicole Basaraba

Assistant Professor in Digital Humanities, TCD

Nicole Basaraba

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21 Things I Miss About Brussels, Belgium

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Brussels Capital Region Iris
Brussels Capital Region Iris

Now that I’ve moved back to my home country in Canada, there are several things I miss about living in Brussels. I came up with a list of 21 things. I stopped because I probably could have kept going for a while. The funny thing is that some of the items on this list were things about Brussels that I couldn’t wait to get away from.

Things I miss about Brussels:

  1. Carrying a freshly-baked baguette under my arm
  2. Strangers yelling “Excuse moi madame”
  3. Dodging huge potholes and bags of garbage on the cobblestoned sidewalks
  4. Taking the Metro
  5. The women’s voice in the Metro saying the next stop in three languages
  6. The misty rain
  7. The Arcade du Cinquantenaire
    Arc de Triomphe
    Arc de Triomphe

    du Cinquantenaire

  8. Speaking in broken french
  9. After-work drinks on the patio with (~15) of my office colleagues at one table
  10. The cold rudeness of service staff
  11. Grand Place

    Hotel de Ville, Brussels Grand Place
    Hotel de Ville, Brussels Grand Place
  12. Frits (fries) in a cone
  13. Australian Ice Cream
  14. Leige Waffles
  15. Cote d’Or Chocolate
  16. Tiny coffees
  17. Manneken Pis

    Manneken Pis
    Manneken Pis
  18. Working in an office building that is in an old mansion
  19. Place Lux
  20. Random worker strikes and other news that’s so odd that it doesn’t sound real/true
  21. Markets, especially Christmas markets

When I look at photos from Belgium, I feel nostalgic so I have a feeling that it won’t be too long before I’m booking a vacation to Europe.

Did you come back from living abroad and miss “random” things about the country/culture? Were there things that you were surprised you missed?

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2 thoughts on “21 Things I Miss About Brussels, Belgium

  1. #1 – Baguettes! 100% with you on that one. Nothing beats a baguette from the corner bakery, and I can’t think of a simpler way to “feel European.”

    I think the reason the baguette isn’t quite the same in the Americas is because we don’t do the other thing I miss about Granada (where I studied) – walk places. Corner bakeries only make sense in urban areas with a lot of foot traffic, and there are a lot less places in the US (although I can’t speak for Canada) where walking is the primary mode of transportation.

  2. I miss shopping at Delhaize, I totally miss the bread, the cheese and the architecture of the buildings. These are the things i miss so far, but I am sure many more things will come up, as I just move out from Belgium only four months ago.

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