Brussels Is Not Beautiful

It is a sad fact. The first time I was in Brussels I got a bad impression of the place, but somebody told me that it was just normal, that you have to visit it many times in order to like it. Well, now I have visited it quite many times and I still find it unpleasant. This week, the Commission kindly offered me a bus tour around the city, and I thought that I would finally see all those nice things I somehow had missed on previous visits. But no. Brussels seemed even more ugly than before. The thing is that everything in the city seems dirty and a bit dodgy.

The purpose of my visit was the European Youth Week, organized every 18 months by the Commission. The political substance was not really impressive. If the Commission really wants to bring people closer to "the EU", and to make people feel more European, civil society has to be taken seriously. This means involving NGO's in the decision-making processes to a greater extent, which this youth week does not do.
Anyway, I met many wonderful people and had a good time. Stimulating discussions about life, death, talking cats and forza italia politicians. And I must say that life is good because of the unexpected things that can occur when you don't expect them...at least not in Brussels, the least exiting city I know in Europe(apart from Frankfurt, of course)